Habakkuk

What This Book Is

A prophet who complains to God about injustice, receives an answer worse than the problem, complains again, and ends up singing anyway.

Overview

Most prophetic books are God speaking to people. Habakkuk is a prophet speaking to God, and the book is structured as a dialogue.

He opens with a complaint that many readers will recognise. How long shall I cry for help and you will not hear. Violence, injustice, a paralysed legal system, and God apparently doing nothing.

God answers, and the answer is worse than the question. He is raising up the Babylonians, a bitter and hasty nation, to do the correcting. Habakkuk's second complaint follows immediately: how can a holy God use a nation more wicked than the one being punished. He then says he will stand at his watchpost and wait to see what God will say to his complaint, which is a remarkable posture, defiant and expectant at once.

The answer comes: write the vision, make it plain, it awaits its appointed time. And in the middle of it, the line Paul would build much of Romans and Galatians on: the righteous will live by his faith.

A series of woes follows against exploitation, violence, and idolatry, and then the book turns into a psalm. Habakkuk recites what God has done in the past, and finishes with one of the great statements of faith in Scripture: though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, though the flock is cut off and there is no herd, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

Nothing has been fixed. He sings anyway.

Structure

• Chapter 1: Two complaintsWhy does injustice go unanswered, and why use a worse nation to fix it.
• Chapter 2: The answerWrite the vision, wait for it, and the righteous will live by faith.
• Chapter 2:6-20: The woesJudgment on greed, violence, and idols.
• Chapter 3: The songA psalm of God's power, ending in joy without any change in circumstances.

Themes

Why It Matters

Habakkuk legitimises argument as a form of faith. He never stops addressing God, even at his angriest, and the book treats that as faithful rather than rebellious. Its central line about the righteous living by faith becomes load bearing for Paul and later for the Reformation. The closing song is the model for trusting God when circumstances have not improved and may be about to get worse.

How to Read It

• Bring your own hard question to chapter 1 and notice the prophet is not rebuked for asking.
• Read 2:4, then read Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11.
• Read the final three verses aloud when things have not been resolved.
• Notice the posture in 2:1: waiting at the watchpost, expecting an answer.

Key Verse

Did You Know?

• Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted three times in the New Testament, in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.
• Chapter 3 carries musical notation, suggesting it was sung in worship.
• The book is unusual among the prophets for being addressed mostly to God rather than to people.

Where to Start Reading