Habakkuk shows that leaders must first be good listeners. In the first four verses, the prophet cries out to God for answers to his questions. He begs God to respond to injustice and violence. He knew that God is ultimate justice and could not understand why God had not yet intervened.
When God finally answered, he gave Habakkuk a deeply unsatisfying answer. He decided to use the Babylonians to punish the people of Judah. He wanted to use an even more unjust nation to correct the injustice of the people of Judah. That made no sense to Habakkuk.
So the prophet kept listening. He wrestled with God. But he also knew that he was earning the right to be heard precisely by listening. When leaders listen, they earn far more than just the right to be heard:
- They gain insight into people
- They build a connection with the speaker
- They earn the right to be heard
- They become relevant
- They understand how to reach the speaker's heart
- They identify with the speaker and their message
- They gain authority
- They learn something new
When you speak as a leader, you don't learn anything new. But when you listen to God or to others, you gain more insight and understanding.
Habakkuk 1:1-11
The Prophet's Complaint of Injustice
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
God's Judgment by the Chaldeans
5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.