Habakkuk

Though the Fig Tree Shall Not Blossom

Most prophets speak for God to the people. Habakkuk speaks to God about the people, and then about God Himself. His book is a conversation, and it opens with a complaint: how long? Why do You let this go on? Habakkuk asks the questions many believers are afraid to say out loud, and God does not rebuke him for asking. He answers. By the last chapter, the man who began by arguing is standing in an empty field, with a bare fig tree and an empty barn, singing. Nothing around him has changed yet. He has.

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Authorship & Setting

“The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see”(1:1). Nothing is said of his family, hometown, or king. The closing line of the book, “To the chief singer on my stringed instruments” (3:19), suggests he may have had a place in the temple’s music, but that is as far as the text goes. His name may come from a root meaning “to embrace,” and many have seen in it a man who wrestled with God and held on.

The date is set by the Chaldeans. God says, “lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation”(1:6), as something about to happen and hard to believe. The Babylonians (Chaldeans) broke Assyria’s power in 612 BC with the fall of Nineveh, crushed Egypt at Carchemish in 605 BC, and first came against Jerusalem that same period, taking captives including Daniel. Habakkuk most likely prophesied shortly before or during those years, late in the seventh century BC, likely in the reign of Jehoiakim, when Judah had turned away from the reforms of Josiah and injustice filled the land.

The book is built as a dialogue: Habakkuk’s first complaint (1:2–4), God’s answer (1:5–11), a second complaint (1:12–2:1), God’s second answer with five woes on the proud (2:2–20), and finally Habakkuk’s prayer, set to music (chapter 3).

Key Figures

• Habakkuk — a prophet honest enough to take his questions straight to God, and faithful enough to wait for the answer.
• The wicked in Judah — those who compass about the righteous and twist judgment, so that the law is slacked (1:4).
• The Chaldeans — the Babylonians, “terrible and dreadful” (1:7), whose horses are swifter than leopards and who worship their own strength (1:11).
• The just man — the one who “shall live by his faith” (2:4), set in contrast to the proud man whose soul is lifted up.
• The LORD — the Holy One who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil” (1:13), who is in His holy temple while the earth keeps silence (2:20).

Hebrew Word Study

חֲבַקּוּק — Chavaqquq

The name is usually connected to chavaq, “to embrace” or “clasp.” Whether or not that is the origin, it fits the man. Habakkuk does not let go of God when he does not understand Him. He brings his confusion into God’s presence and clings on until he receives an answer. That is not unbelief. That is what wrestling faith looks like.

חָזוֹן — chazon

“Vision,” a revelation received from God. “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (2:2–3). God’s word has an appointed time. It may seem slow to us. It is never late.

אֱמוּנָה — emunah

“Faithfulness,” steadiness, firmness. It comes from the same root as amen. The word describes Moses’ hands held steadyuntil the sun went down (Exodus 17:12). In “the just shall live by his faith” (2:4), emunah is not a single moment of believing. It is trust that holds steady over time, a life anchored in God and stayed on Him while waiting for the vision to come to pass.

יֶשַׁע — yesha

“Salvation” or deliverance, the root of the name Yeshua. Habakkuk’s prayer uses it at its climax: “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed” (3:13). The word for anointed is mashiach, Messiah. And the book’s last joy rests on it: “I will joy in the God of my salvation” (3:18).

Eight-Movement Narrative Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

How Long, O LORD? (1:1–4)

“O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!” (1:2). Habakkuk looks at Judah and sees violence, strife, and contention. “The law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth” (1:4). He does not complain behind God’s back. He brings it to Him directly. That is the first lesson of the book.

MOVEMENT TWO

A Work You Would Not Believe (1:5–11)

God answers, but not the way Habakkuk expected. “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you” (1:5). He is raising up the Chaldeans, a fierce and swift nation, to judge Judah. Their horses are swifter than leopards and fiercer than evening wolves (1:8). They mock kings and heap up dirt to take every stronghold. And they make their own might their god (1:11).

MOVEMENT THREE

Purer Eyes Than to Behold Evil (1:12–17)

Now Habakkuk has a harder question. “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?” (1:13). How can a holy God use people worse than Judah to punish Judah? The Chaldeans treat men like fish, drag them in their net, then burn incense to the net (1:14–16). Habakkuk asks whether they will be allowed to go on emptying it forever.

MOVEMENT FOUR

The Watchtower (2:1–3)

“I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me” (2:1). Habakkuk has asked his question. Now he waits, like a sentry on the wall, expecting an answer. God tells him to write the vision plainly, so a runner can read it and carry it. It has an appointed time. “Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (2:3).

MOVEMENT FIVE

The Just Shall Live by His Faith (2:4–5)

Here is the heart of the book, and one of the pillars of the whole Bible. “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith” (2:4). Two kinds of people stand side by side. The proud man is puffed up and never satisfied, gathering nations like a drunk who is never full (2:5). The just man lives by steady trust in God. The first will fall. The second will live.

MOVEMENT SIX

Five Woes (2:6–20)

The victims of the proud take up a taunt song with five woes. Woe to him that heaps up what is not his (2:6). Woe to him that covets evil gain to set his nest on high (2:9). Woe to him that builds a town with blood (2:12). Woe to him that gives his neighbour drink to expose his shame (2:15). Woe to him that says to the wood, Awake (2:19). In the middle, the promise: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (2:14). And at the end, the idols fall silent before the living God: “But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him” (2:20).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Revive Thy Work (3:1–15)

Habakkuk’s complaint becomes a prayer. “O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2). Then he sees God come in power, as at Sinai and the Red Sea: His glory covers the heavens, the mountains tremble, the sun and moon stand still (3:3–11). And the purpose of all that power is named: “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed” (3:13).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Yet I Will Rejoice (3:16–19)

Habakkuk trembles. His lips quiver and his legs shake. He chooses to wait quietly for the day of trouble (3:16). Then comes one of the great declarations of faith in all of Scripture: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places” (3:17–19).

Christ Typology

The just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted three times in the New Testament (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). Paul used it to show that righteousness before God comes by faith, not by the works of the law. Christ is the One in whom we believe, and His righteousness is counted to those who trust Him. Some fifteen centuries after Paul, this verse helped open Martin Luther’s eyes to justification by faith, and it lit the fire of the Reformation.

He that shall come will not tarry. The writer of Hebrews takes Habakkuk 2:3 and reads it of Christ’s return: “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry”(Hebrews 10:37). The vision Habakkuk waited for points to a Person. The appointed time is set, and the King is coming.

Salvation with Thine Anointed. In Habakkuk’s vision, God goes forth “for salvation with thine anointed” (3:13), with His Mashiach. The Messiah is the instrument of God’s saving power. When God finally went forth for the salvation of His people, He came in the person of Jesus, the Anointed One, to crush the head of the wicked house (3:13) at the cross and the empty tomb.

A work you would not believe. Paul quoted Habakkuk 1:5 at the end of a sermon in Pisidian Antioch, warning his hearers not to scoff at the gospel: “I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13:41). The most unbelievable work God ever did was not the rise of Babylon. It was the death and resurrection of His Son.

The earth filled with His glory. Habakkuk 2:14 promises the whole earth covered with the knowledge of God’s glory. Paul says where that glory is seen: “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The knowledge that will cover the earth is the knowledge of Him.

Personal Application

Habakkuk gives you permission to be honest with God. He asked “how long?” and “why?” and was not struck down for it. The difference between Habakkuk’s questions and plain grumbling is where he took them: to God, and then up the watchtower to wait for His answer. If you have questions you have been carrying around, carry them to Him instead. Say them plainly, and then stay put long enough to listen.

Learn to live by emunah. Faith is not only the moment you first believed. It is steady trust while the vision tarries, while the injustice is still in the headlines, and while the prayer still has not been answered. The proud man never has enough. The just man has God, and lives.

And make Habakkuk 3:17–18 your own before you need it. Anyone who has worked land knows what a failed crop, a bare tree, and an empty pen mean. Habakkuk was not describing a bad mood. He was describing losing everything that feeds a family. He did not say he would rejoice because things were sure to turn around. He said “yet.” Even if none of it comes back, the LORD is still his strength and his salvation. Joy that depends on the harvest will fail when the harvest does. Joy in the God of your salvation will carry you over the high places.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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