There is not going to be an immediate solution. The Babylonian is not going to be wiped off the face of the earth right away. You see, what Habakkuk knew was that there was going to first be the experience of Babylonian bondage for Judah, before they would see the judgment and the overthrow of Babylon.
So what does living by faith mean? It means living through suffering and distress. That tells us something about faith, doesn’t it? It tells us that faith is not the same as optimism. Faith is not the same as relief. Faith is not the same as escape. Faith is not the way to escape, but faith is the way in which you walk into distress and affliction and you go on living through it. That is what we mean by the doggedness of faith: you will go on living.What does that mean for us? Well, it means just what many of you have experienced—that if it is genuine faith, it has this aspect of endurance and doggedness about it. No, we do not necessarily enjoy it, but it means that the righteous in Habakkuk's time then, will go on living through sorrow, by their faith. The righteous will go on living through cancer, by their faith. The righteous will go on living through unemployment, by their faith. They righteous will go on living through surgery, by their faith. The righteous will go on living through rejection, by their faith.1
Ralph Davis
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.