Outline of the book of Habakkuk

Mercy as the lens for interpreting the Torah

"In both of these passages, Hos 6.6, with its emphasis on mercy, is put forward as a hermeneutical lens through which the Torah is to be interpreted: the Pharisees go astray in their understanding of the Law because they fail to realize that its central aim is mercy. Alongside these passages should be placed the beatitude, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy’(Matt 5.7), and Jesus’pronouncement that ‘the weightier matters of the Law’are ‘justice and mercy and faith’(Matt 23.23). In such passages the quality of mercy is not set in opposition to the Law; rather, Matthew’s Jesus discerns within scripture itself the hermeneutical principle –expressed epigrammatically in Hos 6.6 –that all the commandments are to be interpreted in such a way as to engender and promote the practice of mercy among God’s people. Thus, the story of Israel is carried forward through a particular construal of Torah within a community called to embody the mercy of God."
~~ Cambridge companion to the Gospel 

Dunamahee: The Power of I Can (Anointing)

VENGEANCE OF GOD

"Vengeance in the Old Testament is a juridical term involving the righting of wrongs that have been done. Earlier, Nineveh experienced God’s grace because they had repented. Now they will experience his vengeance. The outpouring of God’s wrath has been delayed, not because he does not care or because he was helpless to act, but because he is patient and slow to anger. The fact that Nineveh is not specifically mentioned in chapter 1, yet seems clearly to be in view, indicates that she serves as an example of the way God deals with his enemies in general. He will not leave the guilty unpunished. This is quoted from Exodus 34: 7 and forms the necessary counterpoint to God’s grace as described in Exodus 34: 6. The nation or individual who rejects God’s forgiving grace will of necessity experience the outpouring of his wrath. God will have the last word. A Jonah may be impatient with God for sparing a Nineveh for a time, but God’s people may rest confidently in his determination and power to deal with sinners in his own time and way. The awesome and irresistible power of God is displayed in nature (1: 3b–6). If the most powerful forces of nature are at God’s disposal to be used as his instrument of judgment, and if no area of creation is immune to the fierceness of God’s wrath, how will any person or kingdom be able to withstand God’s judgment?"
~~ Commentary on Nahum, Baker's Illustrated Commentary of the Bible .