Life’s harsh enigmas render belief in a benevolent deity difficult. Theodicy is the attempt to defend divine justice in the face of aberrant phenomena that appear to indicate the deity’s indifference or hostility toward virtuous people.

The prophet’s name means “to embrace” or “to caress.”

Habakkuk was a person of great faith and great courage who dared take the theological teaching of his day and test it against the experiences of his own personal life and of the nation.

Whereas his colleagues served primarily as messengers from God to the people, Habakkuk took the concerns that troubled him and his fellow citizens to God.”

Such action shows he was “an honest doubter, contemplative and speculative by nature … [with] moral and ethical sensitivity … [who] searched for truth … maintained profound reverence for God … with a deep personal faith.”

He refused to have simply a faith of the fathers that he received without reflection.

Only when he had wrestled in conversation with God and created a faith understanding of his own did he present a message to the public.

Finally, God revealed the message itself. “It is short but comprehensive.” In the day of turmoil and destruction, the righteous person shall live by his faithfulness to God. The answer dealt with Habakkuk’s frustrations and fears.

Thus it is a type of behavior characterized by genuineness, reliability, and conscientiousness.

make distinct, plain, of letters on tablets Hb 2:2

i.e. so that one may run past and (still) read; or, so that one may read swiftly; on stones

Though God’s ways are sometimes mysterious, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4) while awaiting salvation.

Impatience is the normal human response to God’s promise to answer his people. God warned the prophet to wait on the prophecy

The prophet’s humanity demanded that God provide a warning about impatience, one even more important to people living in the exhausting pace of modern society. Whether in prayer or prophecy, contemporary worshipers demand that God act according to the dizzying schedule of those pressed for time. God reminded the prophet of the certainty of the message but without the promise of meeting Habakkuk’s time schedule.

The one whose life is puffed up in pride and arrogance will die; the righteous, in contrast, by his faithfulness will live.

“Wherever human beings rely on something of this earth—whether it be intellectual achievement or wealth or military might or aesthetic ability and appreciation or pride of birth and status or even the ability to cope and solve problems and master the complexities of modern life—wherever confidence is placed in human prowess and not in God for the achievement of a satisfying and secure manner of living, there true life cannot be had.”

To look for salvation in a world dominated by persecution requires faithfulness.

To be righteous means to meet the demands of a relationship. Righteousness toward God involves a strong ethical dimension—it is to meet the demands of God toward him and toward others.