The Just Shall Live By Faith
The Book of Habakkuk
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHdXHFJzpxE
Today we’re continuing through our study on the minor prophets and the major theme found within each. So far, we’ve looked at Obadiah and how the Kingdom is the Lord’s, Haggai and the fear of God, Malachi and the unchangeableness of God, Hosea the faithfulness of God, and last week we looked at the book of Joel and the Day of the Lord.
Now, the biblical principle of “The just shall live by faith,” is the central theme of the book of Habakkuk. And like the ‘Day of the Lord,’ in the book of Joel that we looked at last week, it is also one of the central themes of the Bible.
Second-century Talmudic rabbi, Simlai, in the Babylonian Talmud book, “Maccoth,” said that Moses gave Israel 613 commandments, the prophet Isaiah reduced them to six (Isa 33:15), the prophet Micah reduced them to three (Mic 6:8), the prophet Isaiah, once again, reduced them to two (Isa 56:1), but, he said, that God can be found in the fulfillment of the law in Habakkuk (Hab 2:4), when he said, “The just shall live by his faith.”
[https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/S/simlai-rabbi.html].
This overall theme and fulfillment of the law is also found in the New Testament through the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:17, and Galatians 3:11, as well as the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10:38. And Martin Luther rallied the whole protestant movement behind this as being one of his five ‘Solas’, or ‘onlys’ which brought about the great reformation of the 16th century.
From our study today in the book of Habakkuk, we will learn how we can face the difficulties that await us and the great judgment that will come. We will learn how we can get on with our lives through the deep-seated conviction that comes from knowing who God is and that He is in control no matter what life may throw at us.
Yet, to understand its meaning, we must see what brings Habakkuk to this remarkable proclamation, and how it affected his outlook on God’s upcoming judgment, and how it affected the whole of his life. In other words, there is a lesson to be learned in how we are to look at and respond to by faith, what lies ahead in God’s plan for our lives.
First, let’s look at Habakkuk’s distress and what brings about his remarkable statement of faith.
“O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ And You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” (Habakkuk 1:2-4 NKJV)
Habakkuk’s complaint was “Why wasn’t anything being done about all the evil in the world.” To understand we must understand what was happening during this time.
Habakkuk lived during the final days of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and the days were getting progressively worse. Not only was violence on the rise, but the Babylonians were closing in. And not even the great revival under King Josiah, 12 years earlier, could turn God’s judgment away, because the people had it in their hearts to rebel against God and His word.
Notice the words Habakkuk uses to describe these deplorable conditions that existed: violence, iniquity, trouble, plundering, strife, and contention. The very fabric of Jewish life was unraveling. Oppression, exploitation, and terrorism ruled the day.
Now, doesn’t it get disconcerting and depressing when we read the same thing about our own world and society? And so, Habakkuk cries out, “How long O Lord,” and “Why.” These were the cries of an anguished soul over the unspeakable corruption and evil that was found in Judah. And such cries by God’s people were not uncommon. We find them throughout the Psalms as David continues to cry out to God feeling somehow that God had abandoned him, like in Psalm 13.
“How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” (Psalm 13:1-2 NKJV)
With evil and suffering running rampant through the world this should be our cry as well today as we see the violence being done to God’s word and grace.
This, however, brings us to a very sticky question. “Is it right to question God?” Now, what we need to notice with both Habakkuk and David is that they were addressing their question to God. They weren’t, as some people and groups are doing today, questioning the existence of God, or who God is, because of what is going on in our world.
I was introduced to one such group when I went to seminary. They were known as the “Jesus Seminar,” as if using the word “seminar,” it would give them some gravitas, and the impression of scholarly research. What they did was come out with a report on their findings on the Bible, especially about what Jesus did and didn’t say.
Let me just summarize their finding. The supernatural miracles attributed to Jesus didn’t happen and instead said Jesus possessed psychic powers. They removed Jesus’s knowledge of His divinity and that He was the Messiah, the son of God. They removed the saving significance of Jesus’s death saying that he was crucified as a political subversive. They also denied His resurrection and said that all accounts were merely the wishful thinking of the early church. They elevated the Gospel of Thomas while dismissing most of the four Gospels of the Bible. And they went so far as to blackball much of what the Gospel’s attributed Jesus as saying.
Did they have questions and doubts – Yes! But notice the difference. Habakkuk and David addressed their questions about God to God, and not to one another. They didn’t remove God from the equation, which was what the Jesus Seminar did.
Yes, we are going to have doubts and questions about what’s happening around us, and how God is working through it all. That’s normal unless our brains have shut down. The secret is how we handle these questions and express our doubts. We need to do what Habakkuk and David did, and that is, bring them to God, seek His face and then He will show us what we need to know. However, if we reject the Bible and the church, then we’ll get everything all mixed up and backward.
The Psalmist said, “When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.” (Psalm 73:16-17 NKJV)
It’s when he took his questions and doubts to the Lord that light was shed upon what was happening. Whatever seems insurmountable in our lives, we need to take it to God and see what He will say, that is, we need to get His take on what’s going on.
The Apostle James said, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” (James 1:5 NLT)
Now let’s look at God’s answer.
“Look among the nations and watch, be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.” (Habakkuk 1:5-7 NKJV)
Basically, the Lord was saying, “My ways are not yours.” This is what God was saying through the prophet Isaiah when He said, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV)
Maybe I can say it like this, any thoughts that we might have as to the way God works might as well be tossed out the window because they are beyond our limited understanding.
We see this in Habakkuk’s response. “Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:12-13 NKJV)
What’s important to realize is that Habakkuk didn’t give up on God, because God didn’t answer his prayer the way he wanted. Habakkuk felt that God’s method of punishment was not totally fair, but he doesn’t pull the plug on his relationship with God. Far too many people decide to give up on God because they don’t like the way He is doing something, or they don’t like the situation or circumstance they find themselves in.
Others pull the plug on God because they think they have the right to constant good health. And so, they blame God because He didn’t heal, or He allowed something bad to happen. Instead, what we need to realize is that God reserves the right to be God, and to work out His will His way. Yes, we can ask the tough questions, but we must be careful not to turn away from Him when we don’t hear what we like.
Now, Habakkuk continues down this same thought pattern not being able to figure out how this all fits.
“Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet; because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?” (Habakkuk 1:14-17 NKJV)
To Habakkuk, God seems to have zigged where Habakkuk through that He should have zagged. What is Habakkuk to do? What are we to do? The answer is found in the very next chapter.
“I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.” (Habakkuk 2:1 NKJV)
Habakkuk is saying that now is the time to wait on God and His answer rather than going off in our own understanding. Unfortunately, we’re impatient and want answers now, and solutions yesterday. In fact, we feel like we have the right to answers, solutions to our problems, and health instead of sickness. What we want is God to align His thinking with ours, but that never works.
Yes, we have questions, and we would have done things differently, but instead of getting impatient and pulling the plug on God, we should wait upon Him. We need to stand the watch and look to God. We need to take the time necessary to get our thinking straight and in line with God. We need to take time and ponder and mediate upon God and His word.
Isaiah said, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)
When we wait upon the Lord for His understanding and answers, then He will renew our strength and we’ll be able to live in this world filled with sin.
Now notice that the Lord tells Habakkuk to write down what he sees and make it plain for others to read and understand, because when it comes to pass our faith in God is settled, knowing that He is ultimately working out His plan.
“Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2:2-3 NKJV)
God wants us to wait in faith, knowing that He will never leave us nor forsake us. That He is the author and finisher of our faith, and that He is working out His plan and way for our lives.
Now comes the centerpiece, the central theme of Habakkuk.
“The just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4b NKJV)
But now comes the question, “Who is just, or who is righteous?” Clearly, it isn’t through how ethical or moral we are. Nor is it by keeping the law of God, which we have seen that no one can perfectly keep. Rather, what makes us righteous or just is faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ.
To the religious leader, Nicodemus, Jesus said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God … (and) as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:3, 14-16 NKJV)
Unfortunately, we make believers out of anyone who says that they’re a Christian, yet in some cases, there exists no evidence to substantiate their claim, instead a huge chasm exists between what they say and how they live. They make loud proclamations about their faith but live their lives in direct disobedience to God’s word.
What I’d like to do is look at How Habakkuk Reveals His Faith.
Through His Walk
Habakkuk shows this in how the just “live” out their lives by faith.
No matter what may come, Habakkuk’s faith is revealed through his faithfulness. Faithfulness for a believer is not an option, it’s what God calls us to be. A life that is lived by faith is a life that is lived day-to-day for God through His Son Jesus Christ.
Paul said we are to, “Walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” (1 Thessalonians 2:12 NKJV)
In fact when Jesus returns it is our faithfulness that He will be looking for. Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8b NKJV)
And so, in our walk, we walk by faith, and not by sight.
Through Waiting
Habakkuk reveals his faith through waiting. It’s not the fact that we wait, but it’s that we wait upon God by faith, knowing that He will work out His plan in His time.
Now, many are “waiting” on the Lord, but they are doing it the wrong way.
“Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
The focus is on our need to wait upon the Lord. However, the word wait is not a passive noun. It’s an active verb, which means waiting is an action.
Think of it this way. Those who serve us at our favorite restaurant are called “waiters.” Their function is to serve us, not wait for us to serve them.
That’s what it means to wait upon the Lord. It’s to serve in whatever capacity is needed by allowing God to direct and show us His will through our involvement. And so, those who wait upon the Lord are those who are serving Him in and through serving others.
We must remember that we’ve been called to make a difference in our community and in our world for Christ. We’re called to be the light shining in the darkness. And remember, light is only fulfilling its purpose when it’s on.
Through Worship
Knowing that judgment was coming and that God was and is fully in control, Habakkuk worships and praises God. And what Habakkuk teaches us is our need to rejoice no matter what.
This is exactly what we see at the end of Habakkuk’s prophecy.
“Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls.” (Habakkuk 3:17 NKJV)
“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.” (Habakkuk 3:18-19 NKJV)
Nothing was going to remain. It was all going to be gone, yet, Habakkuk response was to rejoice
Conclusion
I’d like to end with Habakkuk’s great statement of faith.
“O Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.” (Habakkuk 3:2 NKJV)
God is not only righteous and just, but He is also gracious and merciful, wishing none to perish but all to come to repentance and eternal life. And so, like Habakkuk we need to pray, “Lord in wrath remember mercy.”
Now, this is not a cry of resignation, but a belief that God will work all things out for His and our good. And so the lesson of Habakkuk is that even though judgment may come, we can still trust God in and through the whole thing.
• Even though we lose our jobs and our health fails.
• Even though the forces of evil seem to be having their way,
• Even though the economy doesn’t work the way we want,
• Even though we’ve been rejected by our loved ones and those who have called us their friend
• Even though everything in our lives seems to go wrong
• And even though this pandemic is here to stay
Even though all these things may happen, we walk by faith and not by sight, where we’ll wait by faith on the Lord and His perfect timing, and that we will rejoice and lift up our voices and praise the Lord God through it all.
Or, as we are told by Habakkuk, “The just shall live by faith”
