Habakkuk 1:2-4: The Prophet’s Complaint
Wednesday, January 13, 2026
How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen!
Prophets are not a happy people. They see and foresee. They remember and they know. They remind us and for the most part we do not listen.
Prophets are about waiting, listening and witnessing. They hear, they taste, and they feel. They bring God’s word to us and for the most part we do not want to hear.
Prophets are blessed. They have an intimate relationship with God. God trusts them with God’s word. Prophets know that they have no choice but to speak the word they hear for if they do not, they perish eternally.
Prophets are among us today just as vibrantly and as importantly as they were when Israel suffered through her separation and exile. We cannot exist without them although many times we think we might like to silence them.
What part of my life do I live as a prophet? Do I speak what God wants me to speak or is it my ego which speaks?
Do I shun the prophet within me? Do I shun the prophet I see in the face of a friend?
Unless I want to live by a code of perverted justice, I must let the prophets around me speak to me and I must listen.
Unless I want to live a life with no fire, I must listen to the prophet within.
Habakkuk’s Canticle at the end of Chapter 3 tells us how to live in right relationship with God, and we might use these words as a daily prayer.
For though the fig tree blossom not nor fruit be on the vines, thought the yield of the olive fail and the terraces produce no nourishment, though the flocks disperse from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet will I rejoice in the Lord and exult in my saving God. God, my strength, God makes my feet swift as those of hinds and enables me to go sit upon the heights.
Amen.
A re-post from January 22, 2012.
Image from: https://saintpaulsicons.com/product/prophet-habbakuk-p101/
For more on the prophet Habakkuk, go to: https://obitel-minsk.org/en/habakkuk-the-divinely-eloquent-prophet
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