Habakkuk's book is not a sermon to the people. It is a conversation with God. He looks at violence and injustice in Judah and asks how long God will let it go on. God answers that he is raising up the Babylonians, which only makes Habakkuk's question harder.
So he climbs his watchtower to see what God will say. The answer is that the righteous shall live by faith. His book ends with a song: even if the fig tree does not blossom and the fields yield nothing, he will rejoice in the God of his salvation.
“
yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Name means
Embrace
Home
Judah
Role
Prophet in Judah shortly before Babylon's invasion
Read in
Habakkuk's story
On the watchtower
Beginning
How long?
He cries out about violence and injustice in Judah.
Low point
A harder answer
God says he is raising up Babylon to judge Judah.
Low point
Why them?
He protests: how can God use people more wicked than Judah?
Turning point
The watchtower
He waits, and God answers: the righteous shall live by his faith.
Ending
Yet I will rejoice
Even with nothing in the fields, he will rejoice in God.
Starts as a prophet asking how long. Ends as a man who rejoices with empty fields.
Where Habakkuk lived and went
Only places Scripture records. Softer, dotted pins are traditional or uncertain sites. Tap a pin for the passage.
HomeMinistryKey momentTraditional or uncertainPinch or use + to zoom. Tap a cluster to spread it out.
Scripture does not say where Habakkuk lived.
How Habakkuk is wired
The Loyalist
Enneagram 6, Investigator wing
To find solid ground and know he can trust God when everything shakes.
This one is debated. Here's why we land here.
At their best, toward 9 Under stress, toward 3
Why we think so
1
He questions authority. He asks God hard questions and wants answers. ()
2
He scans for danger. He sees violence and destruction everywhere he looks. ()
3
He chooses trust. In the end he anchors himself in God's faithfulness. ()
The 5 wing shows in his watching and waiting to understand before he speaks again. ()
The Peacemaker. At his best his fear turns into steady, quiet joy. ()
The Achiever. Under strain he trembles in body and spirit. ()
The case for 1
His outrage at injustice could fit a Reformer, but his questions read more like a search for security than a demand for order.
Other lenses
Big Five. Read from what is recorded in Kings and the prophets.
ReservedOutgoing
SteadyReactive
ChallengingAccommodating
SpontaneousDisciplined
TraditionalCurious
DISC style: Questioning, honest, steadfast
Strengths & struggles
What's good in Habakkuk
Honest with God (). Willing to wait (). Joy that does not depend on outcomes ().
Where Habakkuk struggles
His questions edge toward accusing God of looking on idly ().
The ChaldeansThe Babylonian army God said he would raise up ().
Family of Faith
See where Habakkuk fits
AbrahamJesus
c. 640–590 BC (debated). Connected to Jesus through Jeremiah → Jeconiah → Shealtiel → Zerubbabel → Abiud → Eliakim → Azor → Zadok → Achim → Eliud → Eleazar → Matthan → Jacob → Joseph of Nazareth.
Habakkuk heard that the righteous shall live by faith. Paul built the gospel on that line.
Paul quotes to explain how anyone is made right with God: not by works, but by faith in Christ (; ). Habakkuk's song of joy in empty fields is the song of people who trust God's Son even when they cannot see the outcome.
Questions to sit with
1
What question are you afraid to ask God out loud?
2
What would it look like for you to rejoice even if the fields stay empty?
Study Habakkuk with your group
Ready-to-lead group studies with discussion questions and a leader's note are on the way.
