Scholars are not all in agreement about when the book of Habakkuk was written. At face value it is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God about the destruction coming from the Chaldean – that is, the Babylonian – army: Habakkuk raising his complaint (Habakkuk 1:2-4), God explaining that the Babylonians are coming (1:5-11), and Habakkuk suggesting that the idol-worshiping Babylonians are not a good tool for the God of righteousness to use (1:12-17) – that would suggest a time just before the Exile, contemporary with Jeremiah. But some scholars, noting that the book provides for us neither the name of Habakkuk’s father nor the town of his birth, suggest that the book comes from a later period, after the Exile, and that “the Chaldeans” had become for Habakkuk a term, like “the barbarians” or “the philistines,” used to refer to any wicked idolatrous nation that oppresses the people round about it.

Habakkuk begins with a plaintive call to God for relief in the midst of great distress. “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble?” (1:2-3). We’ve all been there, wailing to the Lord for help in the midst of hard times, and the hard times just keep on coming.

Habakkuk felt frustration, but he also had a strong sense of expectancy. “I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint” (2:1). And God responded, telling Habakkuk that when he had seen the vision he should write it down – and write it big enough so that a courier running by could read it (2:2).

Yet though the answer was coming in a vision, big enough to share with everyone, the fulfillment of that vision might not be right away. “If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay” (2:3). Yet doesn’t that ‘seeming to tarry’ and ‘wait for it’ mean that it does indeed delay? Yes, we need to trust that ‘it will surely come:’ but our experience often turns out to be that although the text says ‘it will not delay,’ the fulfillment of the promise isn’t here yet, and we still feel the anxiety of waiting. So Habakkuk waits. And his prayer of trust declares, “Though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation” (3:17-18).

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Teach us to trust in you, O Lord. We are not good at patience; we feel anxious as we wait; and so often your answer does indeed seem to tarry. Grant us assurance in you: that we may rejoice in you, that we may exult in the salvation that you have established for us, O God.

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