Habakkuk asks God, “Why can evil abound?” What was happening?

Greedy sinful leaders in Judah were treating people very badly and they were going to be disciplined by a nation (the Babylonians) even more wicked than the leaders in Judah. Habakkuk, a priest in Judah, does not understand how a good God can allow this.

God shows him the future when justice comes ’round: What does God show Habakkuk?

God shows him that Babylon will also fall and, in the rise and fall of nations, God will deal with all injustice in His time.

The righteous live by faith: Who are the righteous and what does it mean to live by faith?

The righteous in the Bible are those who are looking to God for what is right. Living by faith means our hope and trust is not in our circumstances, but in God’s love and care for us and His promise to do what is right.

So they can possess strength and joy from God, in times of distress: What does this mean? Possess, means to have (strength and joy). Distress, means hard times when things are not going the way we would like them to, as in Habakkuk’s situation. Habakkuk ends his book praising God even though he is going through hard times and he knows they will get worse. He says, in Habakkuk 3:17-19

“ 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.

 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.”