Old Testament · Minor Prophets · World English Bible
Habakkuk
"LORD, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy."
— Habakkuk 3:2 
The Reading LensEvery verse pulled to the top of a book is chosen by three questions: Where is God’s heart here? Who is He protecting? Who is being saved by the action? It marks the place where those answers come into clearest focus — a “look at this, in this book.”
About the Prophet
Habakkuk is unlike the other prophets: instead of carrying God’s word to the people, he carries the people’s anguish to God. He asks the hardest question — why does God tolerate violence and injustice? — and recoils at the answer, that God will use the even crueler Babylonians as the instrument of judgment.
Out of that struggle comes one of the most consequential lines in Scripture: “the righteous will live by his faith” — a sentence Paul builds whole letters on. The book is a record of a believer arguing his way through doubt to trust.
It ends in a soaring prayer: though the fig tree does not blossom and the stalls stand empty, “yet I will rejoice in the LORD.” Faith not because the harvest came, but when it didn’t.
3 Chapters
The Prophet’s Complaint
“How long, LORD?” Habakkuk protests God’s apparent silence toward violence — and is staggered when God answers that Babylon is the rod of judgment.
The Righteous Live by Faith
God answers: the proud are not upright, but “the righteous will live by his faith.” Five woes fall on the violent and greedy, for “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD.”
The Prophet’s Prayer
The Heart of ItA psalm of awe at God’s power and a vow of trust: though the harvest fails and the flock is cut off, “yet I will rejoice in the LORD.” In wrath, God remembers mercy.
“In wrath, you remember mercy.” — v.2