Habakkuk's questions to God — and the answer: 'The just shall live by his faith.'
Key themes: faith, doubt, theodicy, justice, the righteous live by faith.
| Author | Habakkuk the prophet |
|---|---|
| Date Written | c. 610–605 BC |
| Original Audience | Judah on the eve of Babylonian invasion |
Habakkuk is one of the most unusual prophetic books — written as a dialogue between the prophet and God. Habakkuk opens with a complaint: 'How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?' God's answer — that he is raising up Babylon to judge Judah — only deepens the prophet's confusion: 'How can you use a nation more wicked than Judah to punish us?' God's second answer contains the verse that changed church history: 'The righteous person will live by his faithfulness' (2:4) — quoted three times in the New Testament (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38) and the foundation of Martin Luther's Reformation theology. The book ends with one of the most majestic declarations of faith in all of Scripture (3:17-19): even if every harvest fails, every flock perishes, every economic system collapses — 'yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.'
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