Hab. 2:4; Gal. 3:1-14
We saw that Habakkuk is carrying a burden and we looked together at the double nature of that burden.
As Habakkuk looked out at the church of his day, the covenant people of Jerusalem, he was appalled by their ungodliness (1:2-4); he speaks about injustice and wrong in v3, and about destruction and violence, conflict and strife. And this wasn’t the pagan nations around; it was the covenant people of God. V4 tells us that the Word of God seemed to be paralyzed; his people no longer believed it. Injustice and strife prevailed, and however much Habakkuk preached and prayed, God seemed to be totally inactive. That was his first great burden. O Lord, how long must I call for help?
The second burden came in the answer that God gives him in 1:5-11, when he reveals that he is going to punish his people at the hands of the terrifying Babylonian war machine. And in a sense that only increased Habakkuk’s problem: Look at 1:13: You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? So, the second burden is how God, who is pure and holy and utterly righteous, can use pagan, ruthless warriors to discipline His people.
Then we saw how God’s Word (2:1-20) reveals that Babylon itself will come under God’s judgment, and that all sin and injustice has within it the seeds of its own destruction because of two great realities that chap. 2 proclaims to us.
The reality of v14, which is a future expression of God’s sovereignty – “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
And then at 2:20, the other great present reality, which is the hidden secret behind all that Habakkuk sees around him: “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord is among his people, the Lord is reigning, the Lord is approachable, let all the earth be silent before him.”
So, we saw that whether you live in Babylon or in Jerusalem, neither location will defend you from the Lord. The Lord of heaven and earth, who is the Judge of everyone, the knowledge of whom will fill the world as the waters cover the sea, and that, therefore, the only way to live in the present confusion and distress and perplexity, is as 2:4 tells us to live by faith.
We want to take that little sentence: the righteous [just] shall live by faith and demonstrate how it is the resolution of Habakkuk’s dilemma and how it will affect our own lives if we understand it rightly.
Look at the vocabulary; three key words: righteous, live, by faith
1) Righteous
Already Habakkuk has shown us who he means by ‘the righteous’. You see the contrast in 1:4 is between the wicked who hem in the righteous, who do not obey God’s law, who do not allow justice to prevail, and the righteous who want to live under the authority of God.
The righteous here, of course, does not mean the morally perfect, for no one is that. But it does mean those who take the authority of God seriously, as it is expressed in his law, his Word, the instructions he has given to his people. And those who seek to live according to its teaching. They are the ones who please God, who affirm his will and who demonstrate his character. And it is that righteousness that Habakkuk is concerned about.
2) Live
Then he says that the righteous people will be those who live. He has already talked about this as he wrote in 1:12: ‘we will not die.’ Those who are committed to God, those who seek to live rightly before him will find in God, who is the author and giver of all life, that sustaining grace and strength that enables us to live. And that word doesn’t mean to just exist; it means to live vigorously with a quality of life that is thriving and prospering and fulfilling.
3) Faith
This sort of life, thirdly, is the product of faith. Faith means at its root, ‘firmness.’ It’s interesting that it is used in the OT in the incident with the battle that the Israelites had with the Amalekites, where you may remember that Moses lifted up his hands holding the rod of the Lord, and as he lifted up his hands the battle prevailed in Israel’s favor, and so his hands had to be supported by Aaron and Hur and they made his hands ‘steady’ (Exod. 17).
Now it is the same word as the root word for faith; it is steadiness, firmness. It is a God who calls us to have faith in him because he is a faithful, dependable God. So, it comes to mean reliability, trustworthiness; it means putting our faith and trust in this God who has revealed himself to us.
So that is what Habakkuk is shown by God to be the solution to the situation. Now let’s explore that a little more, because our first circle of reference is to see how this statement, the righteous shall live by his faith is the answer to Habakkuk’s situation.
The Answer to Habakkuk’s Situation
You see, he has come with his complaints about the unreasonable nature of all that he is going through with all his moral darts and objections. So, God comes back to him and says yes you are right, judgment is the only answer. Evil must be punished. And that is why my rebellious people are going to experience the wrath of my judgment against them.
But Habakkuk, the question is not whether I am going to act, or whether I am righteous in what I am doing. The question that I have for you is, what are you going to do in the waiting room before that judgment comes? What are you and the faithful remnant you represent, what will you do?
How are you going to occupy yourselves?
Are you going to remain faithful, believing God’s Word and character, even when there seem to be no intellectual answers to the problems you’re facing and even when faith doesn’t seem to be making sense at all?
Are you going to hold on?
Because it is those who hold on to a God who is faithful, who experience the life that he gives, however appalling the circumstances may turn out to be.
Some of you are familiar with Hudson Taylor’s biography, that great missionary of the last century who went to China, when no one had been there, to take the gospel; he learned the language and adopted the Chinese culture and was so greatly used. He kept a journal of what he did and how one of the great turning points in his life when he was there in China and feeling very alone and discouraged by what seemed to be so little progress, was that verse in Mark’s Gospel which simply says, ‘Have faith in God’ (Mk. 11:22).
Hudson Taylor must have felt much like Habakkuk. Here he was facing an impossible situation; he knew in his head that God was with him, yet he saw so little of God’s work at that stage. He was translating the Bible and there was very little interest. But as he studied that phrase, ‘have faith in God’, he saw that it meant ‘hold onto a faithful God,’ because faith and faithfulness are the same word in the NT, and ‘having’ is to hold, to secure, to take to ourselves, the God who is faithful.
So when Habakkuk is taught by God that the righteous is to live by faith, God is not saying there is some sort of quality, some spiritual ability out there, that is faith, which some people have and other people don’t have. He is saying you, Habakkuk, and all my people in Jerusalem are being called to hold on to me, the faithful God, even though at the moment you cannot see how all of this is going to work out. But you will live if you keep having faith, if you keep trusting me.
And the answer that God gives to Habakkuk is not to remove all his doubts, and all his uncertainties, but to move him from speculation to active faith, and from questioning back to obedience. Keeping on with what they know to be right. We are to keep on believing God’s promises and obeying his commands.
Remember the only alternative is the description of the other way of living; the way that is puffed up, whose desires are not right, the way of living that is described as arrogant and never at rest (2:4, 5). This is one of those statements in the Bible indicating that there are only two possible ways to live: one that leads to life and the other which leads to death.
So, I am faced with this sort of challenge – in the waiting room, not seeing always what God is always doing, maybe facing in my own life with its insoluble problems and difficulties, complexities which I can’t seem to get around,
I’m either going to live in a puffed up way which says God hasn’t shown me this so I don’t feel like I can trust him any longer.
I’m either going to drift away from him relying on my own understanding or looking for something other than God and his Word to sustain me
Or I’m going to live by faith in that Word.
We would greatly prefer explanations from God, we would like him to come and show us what the future holds, but like Habakkuk, when we come to pour out the why questions that burden our hearts, he asks us to live by faith in his word and not by sight.
To live by faith and not by sight is a very difficult thing to do, isn’t it, especially in a generation like ours that has so much control over so many areas of life and is so used to seeing the future and thinking that we can plan for and know everything that is coming up. It is so hard for a Christian to say, what God has said is sufficient for me, I’m going to build my life on the Word that God has already spoken; it is very tempting to go elsewhere and find some other security.
Well, the demonstration of God’s sovereignty and of his faithfulness to his Word remains to the end of the story: the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, but then faith will vanish into sight. That is for the end of the story.
What he calls for now is a whole-hearted commitment to him as Lord and a sincere and childlike trust in the truth of the Word he has already spoken. The righteous will live by his faith.
Pastor Wayne
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