Misused verses: Habukkuk 1:5

Habakkuk 1:5 is a verse that is often misused by churches to stir their respective congregation towards a “church vision”, or as a promise how God is promising them that their respective congregations will experience great and magnificient things in the near future. This is not what Habukkuk 1:5 says.

Habakkuk 1:5 (ESV)
““Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.”

The verse is not a positive verse at all. Read the context: It is speaking about God sending the Chaldeans to kill and conquer them.

Habakkuk 1:5-11 (ESV)
“Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told.
For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
    that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
    to seize dwellings not their own.
They are dreaded and fearsome;
    their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    more fierce than the evening wolves;
    their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
    they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
They all come for violence,
    all their faces forward.
    They gather captives like sand.
At kings they scoff,
    and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
    for they pile up earth and take it.
Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
    guilty men, whose own might is their god!”