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Recently, I have read through most of the minor prophets. Today as I finished the three chapters that make up Habakkuk, it struck me that this prophet reminds me of Job. Here is the opening of Habakkuk:

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?”

As you read this little book, you soon realize that Habakkuk is struggling to understand God’s justice. While Habakkuk is aware that Israel has failed to follow God and that there are consequences for disobedience, the prophet is struggling to understand how God would choose Babylon to bring down his justice. And so, the prophet is determined to wait and watch for God’s answers to his difficult questions.

God’s answers may be what we are looking for, but usually we have some pretty tight restrictions we attempt to place on God to make sure he delivers the answers we would prefer. God tells Habakkuk to write down what God reveals to him. As the prophet does, his struggle with God’s plan continues.

In the book of Job, we certainly see Job struggle with his own questions about the whats and the whys of his situation. For many chapters God is silent, but Job’s friends seem eager to answer for God. About a third of the way through the book, Job makes a bold statement full of faith:

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.” (13:15)

We see a similar pattern in Psalm 13 where David questions God in verse 1: “How long O, Lord? Will you forget me forever?” And by the last two verses of this short and pain-filled chapter, David comes to this resolve:

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

Sounds like Job.

When we get to the end of Habakkuk, we see this clear and direct affirmation that even if the prophet doesn’t understand God’s methods and plans, even if they mean barrenness and lack of resources, Habakkuk declares that he will rejoice in the Lord, take joy in God, and believe that God will enable him to be strengthened and endure whatever lies ahead and one day stand above it all.

Job, David, Habakkuk, and others you will remember as well, all end up where you and I would do well to be as well. Jesus said that in this world we will have many troubles. Some of our own doing and some simply because the world is broken and waits for God’s final renewal and restoration. It is often hard, but time and time again we hear from our spiritual forefathers that God keeps his promises and will give us the strength to endure all the way until his full plan for our lives is complete and we sit at the great wedding feast in eternity.

Father, thank you for the hard yet beautiful words of the prophet Habakkuk. We close praying his same declaration today:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.”

Increase our faith to live out your promises. In Jesus’ name, amen.