Habakkuk
Study Oneby Eric Miller
The context
Kenya’s Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC) is an urban evangelical congregation characterized by diversity of nationalities (40 countries represented in the congregation), ethnicities and generations. Founded in 1958 by a small group of Africans, Asians and Europeans, the church has always sought to serve a multi-ethnic population. While widely perceived as a middle- to upper-class congregation, membership ranges from farmers, students and refugees to business owners, professionals and missionaries to people at the highest level of national politics.
NBC’s emphasis on Scripture extends beyond the Sunday services to nearly 80 Home Group Fellowships meeting weekly around the Word. The editorial team which produced these weekly studies is headed by Ugandan Noah Nsubuga, and includes long term Kenyan resident Briton Lynette Walters, Kenyan Nelius Kareri, InterVarsity Link missionary Rev. Eric Miller among others.
The study
As the editorial team began working on January’s studies, they began reading the book of Habakkuk. They immediately realized that this Old Testament book strikes a chord with what many were feeling in Kenya as they faced the current crisis. (Eric Miller has a long history with Habakkuk, having led manuscript study in the book in many countries and contexts. Miller also spearheaded InterVarsity’s 2100 Productions development of the 26-projector multi-image travelling presentation, Habakkuk, in the late 1970s and early 80s.)
As they produced the study, Nsubuga quickly realized that the book’s usefulness extended far beyond the Kenyan context. He asked the team to develop that broader emphasis. So the study which follows, they feel, will be useful in many contexts where people are dealing with issues of institutional and societal sin and evil.
An inductive study relies heavily on observing and interpreting the text in context, before moving to specific applications. While useful for personal study, gathering as a group brings a richness as participants glean from each other’s interaction with the text and their own life experiences.
Preamble
The Old Testament book titled “The Oracle that Habakkuk the Prophet saw,” which we refer to as “Habakkuk,” appears to have been written before the cities of Palestine were overrun by the Chaldeans (Babylonians), but during a time of extreme moral decay among the people of God.
In addition to being rich in the audio and visual imagery suggested by the title, it is written as poetry. Hebrew poetic style usually uses a parallel structure, where couplets or short series of phrases are used to repeat the same idea in a different way, to set things in juxtaposition or contrast.
This book addresses God’s approach to dealing with issues of sin – individual and corporate, injustice, violence and exploitation, God’s governance of the nations and the root causes of chaos. The book takes the form of a dialogue as Habakkuk confronts God and in turn is confronted by God’s response.
As we begin our study of this profound book, may God, in some measure, reveal something of what He is doing in our midst at this present moment in our history.
Study One: Habakkuk confronts God
Read aloud: Habakkuk 1:1-4
1. What is Habakkuk’s basic complaint against God?
2. What did Habakkuk see going on that caused him so much distress?
3. What part of his complaint do you identify with, in the situation in which you now find yourself?
Read aloud: God’s response to Habakkuk’s criticism, Habakkuk 1:5-11
4. What was unexpected in the Lord’s response?
5. What kind of people was God raising up to address the problems?
6. On what do they base their concept of justice and dignity?
7. What was the ‘god’ that the Babylonians relied on?
8. If you were Habakkuk, would you be satisfied with God’s answer?
9. Are there similar kinds of people God might use today?
10. What possible prayer might God be answering through the trouble we see around us today?
Memory Verse:
“Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”
Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)
Continue to Study Two, Study Three, Study Four
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