The best books arouse our emotions, take us through experiences of laughter, joy, sorrow, and hope. Habakkuk is one of those books. It began with the prophet’s agony over the evil he sees in Judah, travels through his shock and horror that God would use the wicked Babylonians to discipline His people, crescendos in the prophet’s description of God’s awesome power, and concludes here on a note of incredible hope and trust in the God of all the universe.

In verse 16 the prophet acknowledges his fear at God’s coming judgment and his determination to await the fate coming for the Babylonians: “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us” (v. 16). The next two verses express the prophet’s great faith in one of the most well known sentences in the Old Testament: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (vv. 17–18). Having expressed his resolve to rejoice in God no matter what comes next, Habakkuk then expresses his faith in the God who steadies him: “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (v. 19).

God revealed Himself to Habakkuk in this short book, and today God reveals Himself to us through His Son Jesus and through His written Word. Let us likewise rejoice in God our Savior and take refuge in Him.

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