An Unthinkable Answer, Habakkuk 1:5-11 | January 11th, 2026

Lets stand together in honor of God’s Word as we read Habakkuk 1:5-11

5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. 10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

If you look at the first word in verse 5 it may say, “Look” or “Behold” which is interesting because Habakkuk was asking in verse 3, “Don’t you see what’s happening? Why do I have to look at all the things going on in my nation? Why are you “idly looking at wrong”? And God says, that He is at work and its unbelievable! We oftentimes think that we are the main actors in the great play of eternity, but we’re actually just extras. There’s a massive story that God is unfolding in redemptive history and you’re not the main character. God is. This should bring you comfort because this means that history doesn’t rest on your shoulders, it’s on His!

But why does Babylon even exist? Look at these verses with me:

21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

The rise of Babylon is not simply a product of Assyrian weakness or the Babylonian strategy. It’s the work of God.

The Shocking Announcement

Verse 5 says “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded….”

God calls Habakkuk to look beyond his immediate situation. Habakkuk couldn’t see the forest for the trees. The wonder, astounding, unbelievable work was that God was raising up judgment against Judah through a foreign nation. Habakkuk expected God to purge the wicked from Judah. Instead, God was going to discipline the entire nation! This means righteous Daniel, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The wicked along with the righteous experienced the exile just as Deuteronomy 28 warned that rebellion to the covenant would bring judgment from afar.

But what makes this work so amazing? Three things make this unbelievable: (1) Who God uses (2) How fast judgment comes (3) Who suffers under it.

Well firstly, Babylon rose from a regional power to the ancient world’s superpower in less than 20 years. That is so exponentially rapid, its nearly unthinkable! Secondly, the coming judgment was going to be intense. Like a dam breaking and a wall of water descending through a valley, so would the Babylonians descend on Judah with a destruction so fierce and terrible that it could only be described as dead and fear. But the enabling power of this judgment was not the Babylonian culture, wicked demons, or a strong leader. It was God Himself orchestrating and arranging every little detail.

You see, God’s own covenant people, His chosen people, would suffer. The righteous along with the unrighteous. In our minds, we may think this is unjust but remember that it is the Jewish people that forsook the covenant and laws. They made a covenant as one people and were judged as one people. This doesn’t mean every individual was equally guilty, but it does mean no one was untouched by the consequences of national rebellion.

Paul held to this principle and points to this passage in Acts 13:41 and applies it as a warning to those who would refuse the Gospel. Paul understood that the principles of the Lord span all of history!

If you have been out to Ha Ha Tonka and been to the castle, one of the most beautiful things to do is go to the overlook and see Lake of the Ozarks. But there’s actually a better place to get a great view of the Lake. If you go toward Bridal Cave, there is a fire tower that you can climb up that is 100 feet tall with an 80 foot viewing deck where you can see Lake of the Ozarks in much more of its beauty.

Habakkuk is being called up the tower of the Lord, not to escape reality, but to see reality more clearly. From a ground level, all he sees is chaos. From God’s vantage point, he can see design. It’s the same way when we gain a heavenly perspective on our world. Up close it feels like fraud, violence, protests, anger, hate, betrayal, prejudice, and plotting are everywhere and from our perspective it is. Those things are real and those that participate are guilty. I’m not minimizing that. But if we step back with the Lord, we will see God working in incredible and wonderful ways! Sometimes He even works through situations and people, and we may not fully understand it. We must get a higher view of God’s purpose but that only happens when we look beyond ourselves and gain a Gospel-driven point of view. It’s not about us, it’s about Him and His Kingdom! Look at

The Use of the Wicked

God says, “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans….” Here God pulls back the curtain and shows Habakkuk exactly who He intends to use. The Chaldeans were a dynasty that was ruling Babylon during this time. You see, Nabopolassar achieved independence from the Assyrians in 626 BC and allied themselves with the Medes to destroy the Capital city of Nineveh in 612 BC. Seven years later, they defeated Egypt at Carchemish to become the superpower in the world. You see, to Judah the Babylonian Empire seemed like a brutal thunderstorm that cropped up suddenly. But God tells Habakkuk to look because they are His instruments of judgment.

They were quick like leopards, ferocious and hungry like wolves in the night, eagles that would swoop down snatch away. The were characterized by violence, taking captives, and being unstoppable!

The city walls were easily overcome because they would build earthworks and create ramps up a wall out of dirt. Or dug tunnels under defenses. They built ladders for infantry and made wooden seige engines. These tactics were effective and as such, laughed when they saw fortified cities. Even Jerusalem that was formidable was scorned and overcome! They didn’t keep any rules of war, they made their own rules.

But notice that God totally uses the wicked for His own purposes. Proverbs 16:4

4 The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—

God uses the wicked for His own purpose but He governs their actions without ever sharing in their guilt. He is sovereign over their deeds, but never sinful in His ways. He raises them up and brings them down. From nations to individuals, all things are in the hands of the King of the Universe.

Its reminiscent of the blitzkrieg of Nazi Germany. After World War I, Germany was ruined in 1918 they were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles which crushed Germany. As a direct result, hyperinflation destroyed savings and money became worthless which allowed for Adolf Hitler to rise to power in 1933. He consolidated power and in just 6 years he reworked Germany into a massive war machine. Using meth on his soldiers, they expanded Germany’s power and at its height, by 1942 Germany appeared to be unstoppable. Thanks to America in the West and Russia to the East, Germany was defeated and and in less that 3 years, Germany was defeated.

God raises up the wicked for purposes and brings their downfall for His glory. This story in history is repeated because God receives glory to Himself when proud tyrants and wicked me fall. But God also receives glory in His righteous discipline.

Doesn’t Hebrews 12:7-11 say

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

So God teaches us that His discipline is good for us and we should not despise it.

But also, notice

The Self-Righteous Deception

Verse 11 says “Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!” The Babylonians thought, this is because of their doing. It’s because of their work, their strength. But God doesn’t hold these wicked men guiltless for their evil acts. Remember that they are acting according to their will and nature. They are morally responsible for their actions but it is God that raises up nations.

You see like a wind sweeps by, eventually winds go away. Empires feel permanent when you’re living under them but to God, they pass like a gust that barely leaves a trace. Just as Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome all rose and fell as Empires, all empires eventually fall. Your success will be temporary. God wants Habakkuk to know that He will use the Chaldeans, but they’re still going to face judgment. Evil rises for “a little while”. You see a nation cannot survive in the long term when it is defined by greed, cruelty, lawlessness, arrogance, violence, and blasphemy.

But this passage shows us that God ordains plenty of things to happen without endorsing their evil motives. Joseph’s brothers intended evil, but God used it for good. Genesis 50:20

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Isaiah says the same thing about Assyria before God used the Babylonians to overthrow them and this same pattern is being set up for Babylon. You see God finishes with verse 11 to help Habakkuk see that Babylon is used and they are guilty.

Their might is their god. They boast in their own strength. This is the basic sin of every nation that forgets the Lord. Psalm 33:16-17

16 The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Remember what happened to Nebuchadnezzar? Daniel 4:29-32

29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”

This should give Christians great confidence that in spite of the proud and arrogant in our culture, there is a God that is still Master over everyone and that trials are God’s means of waking up a sleepy church to pray, be holy, and share the Gospel! Not every hardship is a direct judgment but every hardship is a summons to repentance, prayer, and faith. If external pressures are to drive us to do anything, let them drive you to God’s throne! Don’t be tempted to trust in human might. Everything changes: politics, the economy, our military, the culture. All those things change and the church doesn’t win the culture war by moaning about the darkness but by shining the light of Jesus Christ! I challenge you, to embrace a Christian worldview that confesses that Christ alone is our refuge, and God alone is the final Judge over every guilty empire and person.

So what do we learn from all this?

Well, Habakkuk learned that God’s silence was only apparent. The Lord was moving history forward, judging sin righteously, and preparing deliverance through Jesus Christ. The prophet’s journey will eventually bring him to say, “The Lord God is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s” which means sure and secure. Knowing this doctrine of sovereignty equips Christians to persevere through unbelievable days.

So where are you?

If you’re an unbeliever, listen closely. Just as judgment fell upon God’s people and they were swept away in God’s wrath, His judgment rests upon you. You are under a sentence of condemnation but God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved! You can run to Christ who bore God’s wrath! His wrath is on you and He invites you to come to Him and be saved from judgment! Christ bore the very wrath Habakkuk trembles at so that sinners like us could be spared.

If you’re a believer, wait patiently on the Lord in prayer and holiness. Seek to gain a bigger perspective, a higher one. If you’re tempted to despair at the circumstances of our world, look beyond the borders of the US and see what God is up to! Pray for persecuted believes, learn about mission work, see the testimonies of God at work and remember what Jesus said in John 16:33

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Head: God wants you to know that He is actively sovereign over nations and history.

Even when His methods of judgment shock us.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “The sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night, giving perfect peace.” God is in control even when things seem out of control. God’s response to Habakkuk teaches him just that. So rest on the Lord. Lean on Him. Believe that in a world that seems so out of control that God is in control.

Heart: God wants you to believe that His justice is perfect and His providence trustworthy.

These things should lead you to repent of doubting Him and rest in Christ. Those wicked men who trust in their strength will receive a rude awakening at judgment. The Lord does not relent in His wrath on rebellious creatures that commit blasphemies against Him. Treason is not tolerated by God. So surrender to Him and trust in His good plan.

Hand: God wants you to respond to turmoil with patient, tower-watching faith.

Reject things like the fear of man and confidence in your own strength, and lean on the Lord in prayer.