Look among the nations, and see;
Habakkuk 1:5
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
After Habakkuk’s inquiry about why God allows evil to thrive in the world, the Lord responds. He tells the prophet to “look” and “see”, using the same two words used in verse 3. He will see something unbelievable in the days to come.
All the commands and “yous” in this verse are plural: “look”, “see”, “wonder”, “be astounded”, “your”, and “you”. God isn’t just addressing Habakkuk. This message is for anyone who will listen.
Unbelievable!
God tells them to “wonder and be astounded,” which are different forms of the same word. The root, תמהּ (tamah), means “be astonished, be amazed; freeze with fear, be horrified; stare,” and only shows up a handful of times. It is first used to describe the reactions of Joseph’s brothers when he sat them in birth order (Genesis 43:33). While exclaiming the dismay of the day of the Lord, Isaiah says, “They will look aghast (tamah) at one another” (Isaiah 13:8). The teacher in Ecclesiastes says not to be amazed at injustice (Ecclesiastes 5:8).
What are they supposed to be amazed at? The Hebrew doesn’t have “I am” in it (“I am” is in the next verse, though). It more literally translates to “For working a work in your days” or “For a work [is] working in your days”. The gist remains the same: something unbelievable is in the works, which is about to be revealed.
I think back to about a year ago as the pandemic was beginning to spread across the globe. I didn’t believe it would close our nation. That was something happening somewhere else, or so I thought. Even after everything closed, I didn’t expect it to last this long. As much as we think we understand and control this world, unfathomable events come along to shake that illusion. God is the one who is in control, not us.
Look, Scoffers!
When the apostle Paul visited a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, he was invited to speak. After a summary of their history and explaining how Messiah had come, he ended with a warning by quoting our verse from Habakkuk in Acts 13:41. However, rather than saying “Look among the nations”, he replaces it with “Look, you scoffers”. That is rather different. Why did he change it?
When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek a couple of centuries before Paul (what we call the Septuagint, or LXX for short), they translated this verse as Paul quotes. When dealing with a Greek-speaking audience, Paul would have utilized the Septuagint, the standard Greek translation of his day. Typically, when the New Testament quotes the Old, it follows the Septuagint (since the New Testament is written in Greek).
The Greek word καταφρονέω (kataphroneō) is a compound word from “down” and “think”, in other words, “to look down on, to think poorly of”. The word used in Habakkuk is the noun form of that, i.e. one who looks down. It also appears in Habakkuk 2:5, translating a different Hebrew word. The verb appears in a handful of other verses, instructing people to not despise or look down on others (ex. Matthew 18:10, 1 Corinthians 11:22, 1 Timothy 4:12). On the other hand, Jesus despised the shame of the cross (Hebrews 12:2).
To Ponder…
Have you ever asked God a question and gotten an answer? It probably wasn’t an audible voice, but maybe it came in another form. What was that like? Did you embrace it or reject it?
Do you believe God is still at work, even if you don’t understand it?
May the Lord give us discerning hearts to discern truth from lies and to obediently follow him.