Driving through the expanse of white desert west of Salt Lake City, you will see it.   Mile after mile of  salt plains which would be barren apart from the messages written in the sand along the highway.    An intentionality is evidenced by the presence of rocks, bottles, sticks, and other materials brought from elsewhere to make a creative mark on the expansive blank slate.  Perhaps you’ve seen it in Hawaii, white rocks forming messages on  black lava fields.   Some have seen it  in downtown areas, graffiti art  on otherwise blank walls.   People want to make a mark, to state their vision, or leave some message  behind on the empty fields of their world.   
            Habakkuk’s  message is captured in the simple and profound verse,  ”But the righteous will live by his faith”  (Hab 2:4).   Some have called this verse the key to unlocking the book, a theme statement with powerful relevancy for the modern Christian.    Paul quotes it in his letter to the Romans (1:17) and the writer of Hebrews blows off the dust to highlight the message of faith (Hebrews 10:38a).
            The book of Habakkuk is set during  the decline and fall of the Judean kingdom, a spiritual desert encroaching on  the land of promise.   The Babylonians have risen to power and  taken the people into captivity.  Habakkuk watched the decline, from prosperity to desperation, from excellent days to dry times of emptiness and barrenness.    In the fields of this background, the prophet  carves an inspired message revealing faithful handprints within our reach.     
 
Questions
            An exploration of the opening verses of Habakkuk might lead us to draw  a  large question mark on the embankment of our journey.      Why is justice perverted (1:2-4)?    Why do faithless men prevail (1:12-2:1)?    Why are the righteous having to endure such persecutions and troubles at the hands of the unrighteous?    It’s ok to raise your hand.   Why do good people have to face bad things?   Why is there suffering and injustice in the world?     Asking serious questions puts us in good company.   The psalmist does it in Psalm 73.    Job explored it.   The prophets considered it, but none as directly as Habakkuk.      
            God is big enough to handle  questions.    Habakkuk 1:1-2:5 is an honest dialogue with God in which the prophet’s questions come across as complaints.   You might call them lamenting interrogatives.   God answers the prophet, without rebuke,  but his answers do not remove the need for faith.    God responds by pointing out that the Babylonians are under his control, and that he is working.   “Look at the nations and watch — and be utterly amazed.  For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told”  (1:5).  
            After a second set of questions, God encourages the prophet to write the revelation (2:2-3).   We can envision the prophet’s hand carving the faith-building message into blank slates  for pilgrims of the ages.   Out of the question marks arise  an altar of exclamation, “But the righteous will live by his faith.”
 
 
“But the Righteous Will Live….”
            Don’t miss the contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous in Habakkuk 2:4.    This  key faith statement is a powerful slice of truth sandwiched  between two ragged edges of worldly arrogance and injustice,  the place of pressure where faith is often tested and tasted.    The Babylonians were puffed up, proud of  their great military achievements, controlling  Israel’s  Northern Kingdom in exile.    The evil, prospering, wicked oppressors were seemingly victorious.   When the world is closing in, a righteous response is a sign of  true life.   
            In that context, God delivers a series of woes which reveal the reliability of his righteous rule (2:6-20).   For the readers of that day, obedience to his rule meant blessing.   Disobedience and rebellion led to curses, captivity, and death.    Yet,  God’s hands were still at work, shaping a people for his glory.    His hands are still at work in the lives of those who have come into a right relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ,  forming us into his image.   As we walk by faith, God shapes the righteous  to reveal his   faithful fingerprints in our lives, even when squeezed.
 
                                   
“But the Righteous Will Live By his Faith.”
            When the world is closing in, faith is at the heart of a righteous, life building response.  Righteous faith is required for the journey into the victorious deeper life.   The writer of Hebrews defines faith this way, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”  (Heb 11:1-2).   We can’t always see it or feel it.    Faith doesn’t bear all the answers.   Sometimes the source, like the origins of materials used on the great salt desert, is a mystery with origins from another place.    Our faith is  rooted in God’s faithfulness.     When my questions are bigger than life and my faith is questioned, His faithfulness is the source of life.
            Habakkuk 3:1-21 paints a wonderful picture of  victorious living that flows from an honest journey with God.    Habakkuk expresses a wonderful prayer.      “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 go on the heights”   (3:17-19).
            Habakkuk, by the end of the book, reveals that he has faith without question.   In his honest search,  seeking  to reconcile the discrepancy between what he believes by faith and what he is seeing in the world around him, he shows us that unquestionable faith isn’t always faith without questions.    Yet, through a right relationship with God that cultivates faith rooted in his faithfulness, we can traverse the heights and live abundantly in Christ.   Onwards and upwards we journey, by faith,  even when the terrain is tough.