what is the story of Habakkuk about?

Answer 1

Habakkuk was a prophet and prophets were not only inspired preachers of divine messages to the people of God; they also shared the Lord’s burden for His broken world and His deep concern for His wayward people. In this respect, Habakkuk closely resembles Jeremiah. But even more than with Jeremiah, Habakkuk’s dialogue with God and his persistent prayers (2:1, 2; 3:2, 16) take the place of prophetic preaching as the heart of the message.
Habakkuk, a man with a burning passion for the honor of God (1:12; 3:3), experienced a profound spiritual crisis because of the Lord’s seeming indifference to appalling spiritual conditions among His people (1:2–4). The absence of covenant life and obedience was dangerous to the people of God, but even more it was a rejection of the covenant Lord and an insult to Him. Because only divine intervention could change this deadly situation, Habakkuk was persistent in his appeal to the heavenly Judge, even when it seemed to be in vain (1:2). In response, the Lord revealed that the Chaldeans now appearing on the scene of history (1:6) would be His instruments of judgment. This cure seemed even worse than the disease and only added to the prophet’s distress (1:12–17). How could the holy God, who cannot tolerate wrong (1:13), use such wicked people to fulfill His purposes? Does God really distinguish between good and evil in His sovereignty over history?
Convinced that the events of history were not determined by blind fate but by the righteous and holy God of Israel, Habakkuk expectantly waited on the Lord until he received an answer to his painful questions (2:1). The Lord’s reply came in the vision introduced in 2:2, 3, which provides a true perspective on history and gives the divine promise about its outcome. This answer does not resolve all the painful questions, but it does teach God’s people the way of covenant life in the here and now (2:3, 4). That way is to persevere in hope, waiting with confidence for the fulfillment of the Lord’s unfailing promise. Although God’s ways may be inscrutable, His purposes are consistent. They culminate in real life for the faithful, but woe and death for the self-sufficient and arrogant (2:4). The Lord’s presence in His temple affirms His Lordship over history and assures us that in the end, His legitimate claim to the whole world will be universally acknowledged (2:14, 20; Is. 45:21–25; 1 Cor. 15:24–28).
The revelation of the Lord’s sovereignty over history transforms Habakkuk’s complaint into a hymn of joy (3:2–20). Instead of passively waiting for divine intervention, he now prayed positively that the Lord would act in accord with the deeds and qualities He displayed in the Exodus and at Sinai. Anticipating the future, Habakkuk in his prayer celebrates the Lord’s coming (3:3–7), his judgment against nature and the nations (3:8–12), and His triumph over all opposition (3:13–15). From this perspective of faith, even the threat of severe calamity could not dampen Habakkuk’s overwhelming joy in expectation of the coming salvation, a salvation guaranteed by the Lord’s faithfulness to Himself and to His revelation (3:17–19).
Paul uses Hab. 2:4 as a foundational text for his proclamation of the gospel (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; cf. Heb. 10:35–39). Like Habakkuk (ch. 1), Paul knew that sin is incompatible with God’s holiness and that the fatal tension between these opposites could only be resolved by divine intervention. The prophetic word to Habakkuk (ch. 2) reveals in principle the way God would deal with the incompatibility of sin and holiness. The Cross of Christ and the final Judgment are fulfillments of this revelation. Like Habakkuk, Paul also affirmed that true life was only possible in a relationship of total dependence on the Lord. Such dependence, based on the faithfulness of our God, transforms our existence in this world, filling our lives with joy in the certainty of God’s faithfulness to His promises (2:3; 3:17–19).
For this reason, Habakkuk can be called a forefather of the Reformation. The key concepts of his preaching, as taken over by Paul, deeply influenced Luther and Calvin, and eventually became watchwords of the Reformation. Only the perspective of faith, or persevering and obedient trust in God, provides for meaningful existence in the world during the present period, between the “already” of initial fulfillment of God’s promises and the “not yet” of their final realization.

Outline of Habakkuk
I. Superscription (1:1)
II. First Complaint: Departure from Covenant Life by God’s People (1:2–4)
III. First Response: The Lord Sends the Babylonians (1:5–11)
IV. Second Complaint: Why the Wicked Babylonians? (1:12–17)
V. Second Response: Life for the Faithful but Woe for the Wicked (ch. 2)
A. The Crucial Distinction Revealed (2:1–5)
B. From Woe to Worship (2:6–20)
VI. The Prayer of the Prophet (ch. 3)
A. Superscription; Invocation (3:1, 2)
B. Divine Self-Revelation (3:3–15)
C. Faith’s Expectation and Jubilation (3:16–19)

Answer 2

Never mind Habakuk. He is not important to me.
jtm