Old Testament · Prophecy · book 35 of 66 · 2 min read
The book of Habakkuk
The only prophetic book that is a conversation rather than a proclamation — the prophet complains, God answers, and the answer makes it worse before it makes it better.
“Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like deer's feet, and enables me to go in high places.”
At a glance
- Chapters
- 3
- Author
- Habakkuk
- Written
- Late seventh century BC
- Written for
- Anyone whose question is why God does nothing
- Themes
- complaint, waiting, faith, rejoicing anyway
What it is about
Habakkuk opens with a complaint: how long must I call for help and you not listen. The answer he receives is that God is raising up the Babylonians, which is not a comfort — it is worse than the problem.
So he complains again, more sharply: how can a holy God use a nation more wicked than the one being punished. And then he does something unusual. He says he will stand at his watchpost and wait to see what will be said to him.
The third chapter is a psalm, and its ending is one of the most remarkable statements in the Old Testament: though the fig tree does not blossom and there are no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice. Nothing has been resolved. The posture has changed.
Where to start
Chapter 1 through to the end. It is three short chapters and the argument only works read as a whole.
The chapters worth knowing
- Habakkuk 1 — The complaint and the answer that makes it worse — God is raising up the Babylonians.
- Habakkuk 2 — Standing at the watchpost, and the line about the righteous living by faith.
- Habakkuk 3 — The closing psalm — though the fig tree does not blossom, yet I will rejoice.
What people get wrong about it
That it ends with the problem solved. The final chapter explicitly imagines total agricultural failure and commits to rejoicing anyway — the situation is not fixed, and the book says so.
Questions
What is the book of Habakkuk about?
A prophet arguing with God about why injustice goes unanswered, and being given an answer he finds harder than the question. It ends in commitment rather than resolution.
What does the just shall live by faith mean?
Habakkuk 2:4, quoted three times in the New Testament. In its original setting it contrasts the proud, who are unsteady, with the righteous, who survive the coming upheaval by faithfulness.