During the days before Babylon’s first invasion of Judah in 605 social injustices plagued Jerusalem and the nation. Habakkuk is writing most likely around 609-606 BC, which would be 28-30 years
into Jeremiah’s ministry in Jerusalem. Habakkuk questions God’s ways in Habakkuk 1:3-4,
especially his apparent tolerance for corruption, fraud and oppression in his Holy City Jerusalem. Habakkuk is not questioning his faith or the existence of God, instead he is confirming the fact
that he believes God has the ability to act and that God’s nature does not tolerate sin. Habakkuk’s question instead reveals a lack of understanding of how God is going to act and how he is going
to punish sin in order to correct his people.

There are ten key words or descriptive phrases that Habakkuk uses to describe the social injustice
in the streets, businesses and homes of Judea before Babylon began to control Judah in 605 BC:

1. Injustice – is awen which describes perverted justice
2. Wrongdoing - is amal and refers to social oppression.
3. Destruction – is the word sod and is the unreasonable oppression of weaker members in a society
4. Violence – one of the most often used words to describe a corrupt society facing
   imminent destruction from the Lord is the word hamas (used 6x in Habakkuk).
   Hamas means “violence” and refers to people in a society harming or abusing
   others in their society for their own advantage.
5. Strife – comes from rib which is anger
6. Conflict – is the translation of the word madon that communicates the idea of two men
   with opposite opinions endlessly fighting and arguing with each other (think politics and irrational conflict between two political parties trying to govern a land)
7. The law is paralyzed – Judea had violated the Mosaic Law, yet no punishment had come
   as prescribed by the Law of Moses. So, the power and threat of the Law, both religiously
   and legally, had been “paralyzed.” People and priest ignored justice and did not fear the consequences of the Law of Moses
8. Justice never prevails – since there was no fear of doing wrong, no one ever tried to do the
   just thing. Doing the right thing for the right reason never prevailed when a decision was
   made.
9. Wicked hem in the righteous – All were law breakers and operated with unjust motives, so
   all of them together as one united corrupt society surrounded those who tried to do right
   and either forced them into sin or neutralized their position and their voice.
10. Justice is perverted – This is a simple summary of the culture in Judah in the years
    609-606. Because of sin and the perversion of truth and the inability to fairly evaluate
    issues then justice was always distorted and handed out with twisted applications.

Habakkuk asks God “Why do you make me look at this?” and “Why do you tolerate this in Judah?" God’s reply startles and shocks Habakkuk even more that his culture's perverted behavior. God
says he will punish the Israelite people in Judah with the Babylonians who are themselves guilty
men, whose trust their own strength and call upon their own ability, organization and military
strength as if they were their own gods!

Habakkuk is disillusioned by two things concerning God’s management:

1. the corruption of his own people and their culture that God has not responded to with
   correction or punishment
2. the fact that when God finally does agree to act in judgment on the people of Judah that Habakkuk is complaining about, God will do so by bringing in a people who are far more ungodly than Judah to do his work of punishing Judah

"One hundred religious persons knit into a unity
by careful organizations do
not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The
first requisite is life, always." –A.W. Tozer