Lloyd Jones wrote/preached this in the middle of the 20th century at the time of the rise of communism and with the immediate history of two world wars and a Great Depression behind him. It seemed that history was getting worse and God had abandoned the church. In these circumstances he turned to the prophet Habakkuk for answers.

His conclusion is that Britain like Judah was overcome with godlessness, arrogance and pride. Likewise the church had for a century denied the supernatural and miraculous, questioned the deity to Christ, and exalted philosophy over biblical revelation. Neither the church or nation had repented and now God was chastising his people. The lesson from Habakkuk is to humble ourselves before God and accept his purifying judgements.

There’s a lot to like about the book. The second chapter on “The Prophets Perplexity” was my favorite. Here Loyd Jones exposits Hab 1:12-17 and provides a model for how to trust God in troubling times:
1) Stop and think (before you express your reactions).
2) Restate basic principles (about what you know to be true about God).
3) Apply the principles to the problem.
4) If still in doubt, commit the problem to God in faith.
He then goes on to exposit Habakkuk’s restatement of the basic principles of who God is: eternal, self existent, holy, almighty and faithful. He then applies these to the problem of history.

There are a couple of issues I had with the book:
1) Lloyd Jones rarely exposits the text in his chapters. He takes a more theological reading of the book. This is not a commentary but rather a series of sermons that start at Habakkuk and rebound outwards in many directions.
2) Lloyd Jones sees a developement in Habakkuk’s prayers from questioning and complaining to God at the beginning, to accepting and not questioning at the end of the book. He views the later as the Christian way and says a couple of times that it is wrong to question and complain to God (see p56). I do not believe this is consistent with the book nor the Psalms of lament. God is teaching us that it is appropriate to come to him with questions and to complain not to yourself or to others, but to him. Israel’s grumbling in the wilderness was directed to each other about God. The lament Psalms and Habakkuk’s prayer are directed to God and him alone. By giving us the book of Habakkuk, God invites us to do the same.

All in all it’s an enjoyable read. Lloyd Jones drives theological truth from scripture home into the hearts and minds of the people of his day showing how God is still at work in history in a direct and real way purifying his church and calling the nation to repentance. When troubled times hit, God is not absent, rather he is the cause and his purpose is to call people to repentance and faith. It is a fair example of preaching to the situations of your day from the Bible. I say fair because I believe he does not spend enough time teaching the text in context before moving to our situation today. ( )

「聖經最終的主題乃是關乎整個世界的情況與命運。」作者進而指出：「若不認識聖經的世界觀，就毋怪乎世界的情形令我們沮喪。」 今人對「歷史問題」的不安，常使許多人質問：神是否已經遺棄了我們？ 祂真是歷史的主嗎？對於這些困擾，究 竟神如何回答？基督徒對歷史的態度又 該如何？作者在本書中以對哈巴谷書的研究，來為我們解答了這些問題。

Un petit livre qui nous parle de la suprématie de Dieu sur l'histoire humaine. ( )