The book of Habakkuk is an intensely personal testimony played out against a highly political backdrop. Writing as his land was being invaded and his fellow Israelites were plundered by the Chaldeans, Habakkuk questions God’s actions with a passion equal to Job’s. Habakkuk wonders, how can a God who is just and compassionate allow his people to be slaughtered? In trying to punish the Israelites and right the wrongs of his people, why did God choose the savage, infinitely more wicked Chaldeans as his instrument?
The puzzles Habakkuk contemplates will stir the hearts and minds of anyone who has ever wrestled with the existence of evil. Francis I. Andersen, a well-known authority on the Minor Prophets and acclaimed Hebrew studies pioneer, examines Habakkuk both as a work of sophisticated theological inquiry and as an artistic creation. The result is a book that illuminates the nuances of the text and brings to life the culture and values of the ancient Israelites through a compelling portrait of one the Bible’s most fascinating and elusive prophets.
