Note: Scripture quoted below is in the English Standard Version.

• Introduction (/thesis)
• Most of the prophets who have a book named after themselves in the Bible primarily relate God's message to his people.  In this respect, the book of Habakkuk differs from much of the prophetic literature and conforms more to Job: Habakkuk deals with the tension between what God's word appears to promise (both for the righteous and the wicked) and what is immediately apparent in the day of Habakkuk.  Again in similarity to Job, Habakkuk dialogues with God, a dialogue that, because it is between an faithful man and God, results in a fundamentally changed man.  Today's faithful believer faces similar, if not identical, tensions to Habakkuk's, and, because of this, Habakkuk's book is extremely relevant.  Reading, understanding, and responding to Habakkuk's message appropriately is a process through which Christians can be comforted in this present age of tension.
• Historical Context
• The events leading up to Habakkuk's book are those recorded in the second half of Second Kings, likely before the end of the reign of Josiah (II Kings, 21:26-23:27) when the southern kingdom, Judah experienced a revival [4].  This would place the writing of Habakkuk probably sometime before 609 BC, likely between 650 and 627 BC [5].  Approximately one hundred years prior to the writing of Habakkuk, Israel had been exiled by the Assyrians.  One might have expected Judah to see the example that the Yahweh had made of the kingdom of Israel and turned from their wicked ways immediately.  Instead, the revival (II Kings 23) had to wait until a righteous king, Josiah, ruled Judah.  The ruler following Josiah (after his death at the hands of Pharaoh Neco (II Kings 23:29)), Jehoahaz, again returned to the evil of the kings preceding Josiah.  In fact, all four kings after Josiah until the end of Second Kings "did evil in the eyes of [Yahweh]": Jehoahaz (23:32), Jehoiakim (23:37), Jehoiachin (24:9), and Zedekiah (24:19).
• fulfillment of prophesy
• Habakkuk had seen the wickedness that had pervaded Judah prior to Josiah's 31-year reign and, since wickedness does not abate immediately at the onset of the reign of a righteous king, the wickedness that must have simmered during Josiah's time.  It is likely, although not related in scripture, that Habakkuk witnessed the fulfillment of his own prophesy; the first second and third invasions by the Babylonians (called Chaldeans in Habakkuk) occurred in 597, 587, and 582 BC, respectively.  The Babylonians rapid rise to power from virtual unknowns to rulers of five kingdoms (Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt) in 20 years and their subsequent decline after less than 150 years [1].
• The Structure of Habakkuk
• Following the introductory statement, "The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw," Habakkuk is formed into five main sections. 
• First, Habakkuk issues his complaint in the form of thee questions and three statements to Yahweh regarding the state of wickedness in which Judah is (1:2-4). 
• Second, God responds to Habakkuk with his plan for the punishment of Judah by the Babylonian.
• Third, Habakkuk complains a second time, now confused as to why the Babylonians, a people more wicked than the Judeans, would be God's tool of punishment.
• Forth, God responds to Habakkuk that it is the Babylonians, not the Judeans, who are to be pittied, for the Lord's judgement hastens. 
• Throughout these first four sections, while Habakkuk talks directly to God, the Lord issues his responses to his people [1].
• And while these first four are in the form of dialogue, the last section is a responsive prayer and song to be sung by more than just Habakkuk: it is directed to the choirmaster, to be sung with stringed instruments (3:19). 
• In this final section Habakkuk expresses, in the form of a liturgical song, the believers' right response to what has been learned from the Lord's responses.
• The Message of Habakkuk
• Introduction
• Habakkuk begins with an extremely brief introduction of his book and himself in verse one: "The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw."  Habakkuk identifies himself as a prophet twice which is unusual among the prophets [2] [4].  It is also important to note how the prophesy was related to Habakkuk: he saw it.  This points strongly to the character of the book of Habakkuk being revelation [1].
• Habakkuk's First Complaint
• Habakkuk then relates his first complaint to the Lord.  Habakkuk sees the violence, iniquity, strife, contention, in and lack and perversion of justice in Judah and cries to Yahweh for help (1:2-4).  Habakkuk cannot understand why the Judeans, a people who have God's righteous law, are so wicked.
• Habakkuk has clearly been praying to the Lord over this issue for a significant length of time, and his complaint is, in general, that he perceives that his prayer has not been answered.
• As mentioned in the introduction, Habakkuk bares a strong resemblance to Job, a point driven home further by similar complaints [1]:
• Job 19:7: "Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice."
• Habakkuk 1:2: "O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?"
• God's First Response
• After this first complaint, ending in verse four, the change of speakers is not explicitly made, but the reader is left to find the distinction between verse four and five himself.  The Lord makes his response (1:5-11), directed to his people, in the form of a plan for the future, a plan that "[the Judeans] would not believe if told."
• God's response to his people is first that Habakkuk (and others in his position) was wrong to assume that his prayer has not been heard and answered; God is working among the nations to bring about judgement on Judah, a work that would create astonishment and disbelief in those who heard it.  And indeed, as Habakkuk's second complaint shows, he could not believe that God would execute his judgement in the manner described: the "bitter and hasty nation" (1:6) of the Chaldeans.
• Second in God's response comes the description of the terribleness of the tool of his judgement.  The Babylonians are described as thieves (1:6), powerful (1:7-8), violent (1:9), and confident in their own strength (1:11).  God expresses his sovereignty over these Babylonians in his intention to use this most vile people to accomplish his perfect judgement on wicked Judah.
• Third, Habakkuk is warned throughout this passage of God's reply that the state of Judah will not improve until it degrades further.  Judah had yet to face four more wicked kings and three invasions and exiles by the Babylonians.
• Habakkuk's Second Complaint
• Habakkuk, upon hearing this great and terrible revelation by God, voices his second complaint (1:12-17). 
• The thought that a people more wicked than the Judeans would be used to judge Judah causes confusing in Habakkuk: why doesn't God judge that more wicked people before turning to Judah? 
• Habakkuk is greatly troubled by Yahweh's revelation and argues that it is against his own character (1:13a): "You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

     and cannot look at wrong,"

• This complaint is then voiced most clearly in 1:13b: "why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?"
• The prophet is distraught over the prospect that the Babylonians will simply become more confident in themselves and their engines of war as they gain victory after victory over the nations surrounding them.
• Habakkuk then sets himself up like Job (Job 13:3) (Hab. 2:1): "I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint."  Habakkuk expects a reproof from God, using the image of a watchpost to convey his expectation of a rebuke.
• God's Second Response
• Instead of a direct reproof, God begins by offering reassurance to his prophet in 2:2-4 and a further explanation of his judgement in 2:6-20, prompting Habakkuk's final response in chapter three, his prayerful, triumphant, rejoicing song.
• The Lord reassures Habakkuk before moving on to discuss the calamity that will befall the Babylonians, in the famous line (later quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11), "the righteous shall live by his faith."  Life is therefore possible for those with faith, even in such a time as will befall Judah and later Babylon.
• Yahweh reassures Habakkuk that his words will have their fulfillment and that his revelation is not a lie (2:3).  God's instruction to his people and Habakkuk is to wait upon the word of the Lord even if it seems slow in its coming.  The characteristics of the words of God shown here are its surety and swiftness, despite what seems to be evidence to the contrary.
• God spends an extended portion detailing how the Babylonians have a false sense of security.  The Lord agrees with Habakkuk that the time for the Babylonians to plunder other nations must and will come to an end: "Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—for how long?—and loads himself with pledges!" Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them."  Clearly, all the Babylonians have gained through their evil plundering is a false sense of security; their own might cannot save them from their coming calamity.
• Throughout the final response to Habakkuk, the Lord explains that it is not the Judeans who should be pittied for their coming exile by the Babylonians, but the Babylonians themselves, whose final destruction is sure.  The tool that God is using to sanctify Judah will reap its own punishment in God's time, therefore God pronounces his four woes on the Babylonians rather than the Judeans.  God thereby expresses his sovereignty over his own people, the tools he employs to chasten his people, and his right to punish those whose wickedness he used in his divine plan.
• All the things that the Babylonians trust in--their wealth, work, and worldly wisdom--are shown to be fleeting before the Plan of the Lord.  The message to the Judeans from the Lord in this passage is summarized in 2:13-14: the fact that the "knowledge of the glory of the LORD" will fill the earth is taught here to be as sure as an a-priori truth: as the waters cover the sea, so will God's glory be known throughout the earth.  The mockery of the plots of the nations in verse 13 is reminiscent of Psalm 2:1: "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?"  Since their disastrous ends are so sure, their very reason for rebelling against God in their wickedness is stolen away.  Therefore, "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision" (Psalm 2:4).
• The heinous variety of sins that the Lord had described in his first answer as well as additional grotesque actions are condemned and judged throughout God's final response.  Habakkuk is made to see that all of the wickedness of the Babylonians will be returned upon themselves.
• As with all wicked people, idols play a particularly corrupting role in Babylon.  In 1:11 the Lord accuses the Babylonians as "Guilty men, whose own might is their god!"  In 3:18-19, God pronounces his woes on Babylon for its worship of physical idols, idols made of wood, gold, and silver.
• Finally, God pronounces his authority over all the earth and ends the oracle section of the book of Habakkuk [3] (2:20): "But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."
• Habakkuk's Prayer and Rejoicing
• After God's second response, Habakkuk has a changed perspective on the sovereignty of God, his place in God's plan, and what his response should be.  Habakkuk acknowledges that his original petition (1:2a) has been answered: "O LORD, I have heard the report of you"; he is no longer waiting for the response of the Lord but has received it.
• Habakkuk is no longer confused about either the state of Judah or the method of punishment and sanctification that the Lord will use.  Habakkuk not only accepts the mode of punishment coming, but waits silently for the retribution that the Lord will visit upon his tool, the Babylonians: "Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us."
• Habakkuk becomes convinced that it is not envy that the Babylonians warrant but pity.
• At the end of Habakkuk's response, he expresses his confidence in the Lord even when calamity falls on Judah.  Habakkuk fist details the kind of disaster that will befall Judah in 3:17: "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."  The structure of this verse is very similar to Deuteronomy 8:8 [1]: "a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey."  Habakkuk is here saying that, even when all of the covenant blessings are removed from Judah, he will rejoice and be triumphant in the Lord's salvation.
• Application For Living Today
• Tension for the faithful believer exists today as it did in Habakkuk's day.  The message of Habakkuk is therefore valuable for our own walk as Christians.  The nation we live in deserves the wrath and chastening of God, and the instrument God may choose to execute this chastening may be a nation more wicked than our own.  Even within our nation, while violence against innocents (the unborn among them) occurs and justice appears to go forth perverted such that it is the righteous that must fear the justice of the land and not the wicked, we must be comforted by God's message to Habakkuk message in this time of incompleteness of the Biblical story, this time of eschatological tension.
• The word of the Lord, what Habakkuk had been taught repeatedly to rely upon, has had its final revelation in Christ, however, not everything is settled for the believers.  Our response to the believers' situation should therefore be the same response that the changed Habakkuk offered in his prayer.  First, after hearing Gods's final reply, Habakkuk expressed his fear of the Lord in 3:2, and we are to do the same after a right fear of the Lord has been evoked within us.  Second, Habakkuk's song was directed to be sung by a choir, we are to sing praise to God's being and works in public and not just our hearts (3:3-15).  Third, we are to express both our confidence in the promises of the Lord as well as our fear of his incredible power (3:16).

[1] Robertson

[2] Thomas McComisky

[3] John L. MacKay

[4] ESV Study Bible in-line Commentary and Bible Dictionary

[5] Easton's 1857 Bible Dictionary