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The CU Catecast with Fr. Ryan Humphries
Continuing the series of introductions to each book of the Bible, Fr. Ryan presents the The Book of Habakkuk
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of 12 and so we have about a month to go
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and we are going to be done with the Old
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Testament now like many of the other
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Minor Prophets we know very little about
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the author of this book he was certainly
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associated with the temple in some way
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shape or form in a formal way and in a
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behind the scenes kind of way which is
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interesting maybe he was a priest or
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maybe he was a hired caretaker maybe he
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was a maintenance guy his career maybe
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kept him in close contact with somebody
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like that he could have even been a
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money changer or some kind of security
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guard or Peacekeeper we don't know but
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he was some in some way behind the
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scenes with the temple and how the
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different parts of the temple worked
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like the other Minor Prophets as well
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his book is very short it's very focused
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and in habaku's case the theme is very
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simple the Babylonians stink I mean
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they're terrible we hate the Babylonians
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boo Babylonians it's basically a you
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know very much a the Babylonians are bad
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folks and that makes the book fairly
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easy to date thankfully to somewhere
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right around 600 BC which is right
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around the time that the Babylonians
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attacked Jerusalem
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now the book comes in three parts and it
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does not take long to read I mean you
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can do it in about nine minutes it comes
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in three parts the first chapter is a
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dialogue with God in which habakkuk
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complains and he asks about Justice and
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Injustice Lord how do I understand
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what's going on and the mess of the
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world then in chapter two we have the
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big thing that the book is habakkuk book
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is known for the five woes for the
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Babylonian Invaders and so we have woe
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to him who heaps up what is not his own
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woe to him who gets evil gain for his
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house woe to him who builds a town with
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blood woe to him who makes his neighbors
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drink of the cup of his wrath and woe to
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him who says to a wooden Idol awake very
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very much the centerpiece of the entire
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book of habakkuk are these woes now
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after that brutal Commendation chapter 3
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is basically a Psalm which prophesies
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God's victory in the end and so this is
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a pattern that we've seen over and over
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and over again all the way back to the
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judges it's a very established pattern
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there's an evil befalling Israel We
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complain about it to God and then God
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Rifts on that theme that while evil will
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have its hour God will have his day and
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then there's a song or a poem to wrap it
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up and maybe we find out that the the
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woe and the evil has come because the
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Israelites screwed up and maybe we don't
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that's the only kind of change up in the
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pattern
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now as I said that's pretty much the
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whole story I do want to take one brief
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aside though which I think is kind of
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helpful to understand and that raises a
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little bit of an interesting problem
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that some people tend to be concerned
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about with scripture scholarship and
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that is the parallel between the Jews
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and the ancient Greeks and even our
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modern world when it comes to the role
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of a pattern or a formula now whatever
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we may say human beings like a pattern
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we like a formula we like things
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happening the exact same way over and
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over again we blather on about new and
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improved but New Coke was awful what do
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we what do we want to watch at Christmas
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time we want to watch god-awful Hallmark
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movies and as much as I've claimed to
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hate Hallmark movies as if I go to my
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parents house and my mom is watching one
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two hours later there I am watching that
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same thing in the credits roll and they
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move the credits to one side and they
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start the exact same movie with a
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different actor and a different actress
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and it just it goes on and on and it'll
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be you know 11 45 at night and I'm
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watching the same useless no you know
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it's just it's what it we like patterns
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we like rhythms the single most
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important movie franchise right now is
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the MCU it's all the same movie one
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after the other after the other with
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just different actors and actresses and
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so we like formulas we like patterns and
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when these these kinds of ideas or these
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kinds of poems break from the pattern
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they tend not to be remembered and so we
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have a lot of profits and in fact we
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have a lot of the Old Testament that
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looks like the same pattern over and
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over again and part of that is the
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reality of the way that teachers do
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teachers teach using patterns but part
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of it too is simply the reality that
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this is the way that we like to
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Chronicle our history we like to have
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patterns we like to have things that we
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can use that we can absorb relatively
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quickly and the comparison
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is all over the ancient world and you
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have some anti-christian folks who would
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go out of their way to say well look all
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of these Minor Prophets they're nothing
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more than just riffs and imitations of
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the lyric poetry of someone like pandar
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in the Greek tradition or whatever where
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there these aren't really prophecies
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from God this is just the way the Jews
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understood the drama in which they lived
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and it's important to realize there is a
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certain kernel of reality to that in
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that this is the way the Jews understood
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the reality of their world but that
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doesn't imply it's not real prophecy God
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made us God understands our needs many
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modern people struggle with the idea
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that God would work or speak to us using
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language we can understand which feels
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like an odd thing to question if I only
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speak French then it would make sense to
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me that if the Holy Spirit or Saint
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Michael were to show up and speak to me
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he would speak French you know I mean if
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if the Lord appears in my my house this
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evening and it gives me some instruction
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he's not going to be speaking Dutch you
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know he's not going to be speaking
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Angelic language that I can't comprehend
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because God has to speak to me in a way
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I can comprehend I'm The Limited one not
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him and so when we think about scripture
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the way it is we have to remember that
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we are the limited ones not God and so
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God is going to speak to us in a way
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that we can comprehend and absorb not in
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a way that is you know perfect for him
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but that we don't have any hope of
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getting a sense to and so it is I think
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worth just kind of being aware that
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these patterns and these rhythms are not
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random nor do they do anything to make
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us question the the prophetic nature of
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the Old Testament it's simply to say
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this is the way that they the the Jews
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understood and this is the way that God
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spoke to them now the only other thing I
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would add
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is back to hobok for one last thing he
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shows up in the New Testament as a
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relatively important part of Saint
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Paul's Theology of faith Paul sort of
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kind of quotes him in Galatians and
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Romans and that same sort of kind of
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quote is repeated by whoever wrote the
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book of Hebrews chapter 10 and I have to
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say sorta kinda because the quotation
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isn't obvious to amateurs like me or to
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amateurs like you it's one of those
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things where the tone of voice indicates
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this is obviously coming from habakkuk
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and we might go how in the world do you
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do that until you think about how
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someone might quote John Wayne and say
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howdy partner and we would go that's
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obviously John Wayne and yet somebody
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from the Netherlands would go that how
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do you know that plenty of people say
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howdy partner and we would go no no we
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understand the language we understand
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the cues and that's kind of what's
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happening so Paul quotes habakkuk rather
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extensively in the middle of very
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important arguments but it's not always
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easy for us to understand and see that's
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exactly where that comes and in fact a
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lot of times when you're reading the
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Bible and you look at the footnote and
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it says as C dot f that's what they're
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getting at this is referencing something
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else but you kind of need to know what's
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going on and you need to understand the
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way that co-ine Greek Works in order to
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comprehend that so that's all I have to
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say about habakkuki is a very very
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simple Prophet Babylon stinks and
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Chapter two The Big Five woes are what
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you want to kind of pay attention to and
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that's the whole story we will come back
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next time we are making our way now to
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the last four books of the or the last
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three books of the Old Testament and
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when we finish those three books I am
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going to do a whole talk on a kind of
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review of the Old Testament and then I'm
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going to do a whole talk on the timeline
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now that we've already looked at the Old
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Testament from the beginning through to
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the end of the New Testament just so we
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have a sense of where we're going and so
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we'll be probably January before we
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start the New Testament but that will
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come when it comes we'll cross that
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bridge when we get to it I've been
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Father Ryan Humphries this has been the
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CU catechist and hope you have a great
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afternoon