Habakkuk Analysis

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln. Once you give a man power, it all goes downhill from there. In The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there is one group of boys on an island. The boys elect one chief, Ralph, but another bigun thinks he’s a better chief. So the other boy, Jack, leaves and forms a new tribe with most of the boys. After a little bit of time, the groups begin to fight resulting in a couple of tragic deaths. Why would people follow a corrupt leader like Jack? They follow them because they feel like the new leader can help them better than the old one; they think that the leader or ruler can provide for them and it doesn’t matter who that leader is, they will follow them because there’s no one else to follow.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln. Once you give a man power, it all goes downhill from there. In The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there is one group of boys on an island. The boys elect one chief, Ralph, but another bigun thinks he’s a better chief. So the other boy, Jack, leaves and forms a new tribe with most of the boys. After a little bit of time, the groups start to fight resulting in a couple of deaths. Why would people follow a corrupt leader like Jack? They follow them because they feel like the new leader can help them better than the old one, they think that the leader can provide for them and it doesn’t matter who that leader is, they will follow them because there’s no one else to follow.

False riches, consisting of money, houses and lands, acquired by selfish means at cost to others

“An obsession with possessions enslaves us to the demon of worry. Jesus invites us to change our priorities, focus on the kingdom, and share with the needy” (Kraybill, 2011, p.101). A man’s wealth will be measured by the love, kindness and empathy he has for the poor and the hungry in Gods kingdom. For this matter Jesus wants the wealthy to humble themselves and receive their blessing by offering opportunities to the poor instead of being greedy and celebrating their own wealth.

We need to follow the Lord’s rules. If we against the Lord’s rule like Ahab, we would be punished by God (2 King

Greedy people are some of the most disoriented people on Earth. These snobby people may have a lot of “treasures” here, but when they die, most likely not. Keeping all of your items and possessions to yourself is weak. God should come first overall of the meaningless things you “own.” He put you here on Earth, to love Him, not put idols before Him. Greed is very selfish because you could give

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (NIV Bible 1 Timothy 6:10)

Money— sweeter than honey but oh so destructive. It facilitates a man’s life, while a lack of it imprisons him in the streets of penury. It raises his social status, while an absence of it leaves him unnoticed. It gives him an aura of superiority and importance among others, while a deficiency of it makes him worthless in society’s eyes. Considering these two roads, most do not take more than a second to decide to chase riches.

Money brings the inequality of possessions, also called “the haves and the have not’s.” We may all be equal in the eyes of God, but here on earth some eyes grow green with envy. Children come home from daycare complaining that Little Jimmy’s truck was bigger than his, husbands and fathers are forever eying the Jones; new corvette, and entire wars have erupted over the “you have it and I’m gonna get it” mentality. Inequality of possessions is not bad though many passages in the Bible teach that even in heaven there are different degrees of rewards. Even God’s spiritual gifts are not given equally to each of us, but this does not mean He loves one person more than the other. It is what we do with

Desperate to escape the despotic government, many people from Judah turned to false gods and idolatry.6 Pleading to God for rescue from such an immoral, faithless place, Habakkuk learned that the situation of Judah would be rectified in time.7 God said that He had prepared a chastising rod and that Babylon would be the avenging instrument of the just Judeans.8 After the Babylonians expelled Jehoiakim from the throne, God emancipated the Judeans and relieved the heinous social situation. In the end, Habakkuk knew that the just Israelite would not perish from the calamities of the Babylonian attacks;9 he knew that righteousness and faith would prevail. Instead of rectifying the situation at once, the Chaldean empire took control and continued to treat the Judeans harshly. Furthermore, Habakkuk became angry and questioned God again. Nevertheless, he heeded to the previous words of God and kept his faith. Before humanity lost faithfulness, Habakkuk needed to spread this message throughout the empire to save the Judeans. Habakkuk had to extend the word of God to all oppressed people, so he wrote in a style the Israelites could grasp.

Greed is briefly depicted throughout the entire story but more so in Canto VII. Here the men see two groups of angry, shouting souls boiling alive in gold and others who would clash huge rolling weights against each other with their chests. They are divided into the Prodigal and the Miserly. Their greedy nature with material goods is what landed them there in the first place. The Prodigal souls are the ones that spent

The author perpetuates his Christian viewpoint that it is not Godly to strive towards riches, or to obtain an abundance of material possessions on earth, but more important to seek the rewards in Heaven (Lines 27-28). Additionally, the Bible teaches, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). His perception is that every man should be being Christ-like by heading Jesus’ warning, “You, my

Submission to authority is the dictionary definition of what obedience is. We live out this definition to a point in reality. In todays world people would be willing to do literally anything in order to gain the attention and gratitude of those who are in an position of authority. This concept is proven in "The Follower Problem” by David Brooks, “Disobedience as a Physiological and Moral Problem” by Erich Fromm, “Group Minds” by Doris Lessings and “The Milgram Experiment.” In society human beings will change to blend themselves in with those around them.

The metaphor suggests that church people do not own anything, instead they are managers of God?s property. They are supposed to figure how much of a return God has a right to expect from the property entrusted to them.?[footnoteRef:14] Herein lays the acid test of money. When the parable of the Dishonest Manager is compared to the parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32), a wealthy father may entrust his son with a small amount of responsibility before he comes of age. The son?s faithfulness in a little shows that he will also be faithful over everything that will ultimately be entrusted to him later (verse 10). [14: James R. Adams,?From Literal to Literary: The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors, 2nd ed. (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2008),

which is false. Humans could be obedient if they trust their ruler and love him.