SUMMARY
The Book of Habakkuk ends with a call to faith, even in the midst of trouble.
ANALYSIS
The Book of Habakkuk ends with a ringing call to faith. While waiting for God’s deliverance from the enemy (3:16), the prophet will trust in God’s faithfulness. And he will do so even (or especially) in dire circumstances, when the natural world itself fails to show forth God’s providence. “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food . . . . yet I will rejoice in the LORD.” Why does the prophet have such faith? Because “GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.”
This book, which begins with lament, ends with praise, which is the movement of most of the lament psalms and of the PsalterThe psalter is a volume containing the book of Psalms (see Psalm). In the early Middle Ages psalters were popular and contained - in addition to the psalms - calendars, litanies of saints, and other devotional texts. More itself, from lament to praise. But as with many lament psalms, the praise arises out of the prophet’s faith that God has heard and will respond, even before that deliverance is experienced on the ground. Habakkuk thereby demonstrates the kind of faith in the LORD that the later writer of Hebrews describes: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Habakkuk himself is one of the righteousA righteous person is one who is ethical and faithful to God's covenant. Righteousness in the Old Testament is an attitude of God; in the New Testament it is a gift of God through grace. In the New Testament righteousness is a relationship with God... More who “live by their faith” (2:4).
