Habakkuk: the righteous will live by faith
Habakkuk 1–3; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38
Habakkuk asked why God tolerated Judah's evil, and then why he would use the even more wicked Babylonians to punish them; God answered that the righteous will live by faith.
Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:4 (World English Bible)
The book moves from complaint to trust. It ends with one of the Bible's great statements of faith: even if the fig tree doesn't blossom and the fields yield no food, “yet I will rejoice in Yahweh.” Paul built his teaching on justification by faith on Habakkuk 2:4.
Places
Dating notes
Ussher places Habakkuk about 609 BC, as Babylon was rising. The date is an estimate.