Habakkuk
The series closes where Habakkuk himself closes, rejoicing in the Lord regardless of circumstance, the difference between preaching that merely informs and preaching that actually transforms. Every one of the elect participates in God’s saving acts the same way Habakkuk does here, Old Testament events and New Testament events cut from the same cloth. Habakkuk’s own early unbelief, oddly, makes him kin to figures throughout the New Testament who struggled the same way before faith took hold.
Bad preaching treats a text like Habakkuk 3 as too obscure to bother with; good preaching, the kind Paul models even with the Old Testament’s most arcane passages, finds Christ in it anyway. Verse 13 in particular repays that kind of close attention. God’s own work in Habakkuk moves him from selfish anger to real faith, not by argument but by transformation.
Habakkuk rejoices in the book’s closing verses despite total agricultural and economic collapse around him, a transformation only God could accomplish in him. That same transformation runs from Old Testament to New, the same God at work in both. ‘He makes my feet like hind’s feet’ in verse 19 is Christ’s own gift, sure footing given for desolate ground.
Habakkuk’s prayer reviews God’s mighty acts across the Exodus and Judges, the same history rehearsed to steady his own trembling heart. He trembles genuinely at God’s coming, no false composure here, and then surrenders to it completely. Christ’s own surrender, on our behalf, is what makes that kind of trembling surrender safe for us as well.
Habakkuk’s prayer is built almost entirely out of Scripture’s own language, a model for what our prayers should be made of as well. Cornelius Van Til’s own prayer life reportedly followed this same pattern, saturated in biblical language rather than improvised sentiment. Real prayer participates in God’s saving acts, reaches beyond ourselves to others, and keeps the end in view.
Chapter 3 has its own clear outline, and set against chapter 1 it marks real movement: the same questions that once went unanswered now find satisfaction. Christ’s own quiet response to the Father’s will, without complaint, supplies the pattern Habakkuk is finally learning. Satisfaction, it turns out, comes from trust, not from having every question resolved.
The Chaldeans’ advance is, in a real sense, God’s own coming, judgment arriving in the form of an invading army. Habakkuk’s prayer here carries the same shape as the Lord’s own prayer, God’s name and kingdom set above personal concerns. Real prayer, on this model, rehearses God’s mighty acts rather than only listing requests.
The history of salvation, God’s own unfolding acts, takes real priority here over Habakkuk’s personal spiritual renewal, though both are happening at once. Habakkuk diminishes himself throughout this prayer, turning attention away from his own experience toward God’s action. That same self-diminishment anticipates Christ’s own relentless focus on the Father rather than himself.
Chapter 3 marks a real change in Habakkuk, not just a shift in tone but a transformation God himself brings about. Up to this point he has represented a kind of Judaism trapped in false righteousness; now he is shown what saving faith actually looks like. His prayer widens to include all tribes, not only his own people’s concerns.
Habakkuk 2 breaks into a clear outline, each woe aimed at a different form of the same underlying pride. God’s judgment on ‘the proud man’ in verse 4 is not aimed only at Babylon; Habakkuk himself shares in that same wickedness. Only the perfection of Christ can silence the self-righteousness this passage exposes in everyone.