Or, The Just Shall Live in Tension
Scripture: Habakkuk 2:2-5
Date: April 28, 2024
Speaker: Sean Higgins
There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who break down everything into twos and those who don’t. We can get ourselves confused by trying to make some things too simple, but we can also confuse ourselves making the simple complex.
In the world that God made, we can either love Him or not, either be in fellowship with Him or out. We can be righteous or in some level of rebellion. We can trust Him, or trust something or someone less wise and strong as Him. Some are of the seed of the serpent, some are of the seed of the woman, and the difference is where they put their faith.
God tells us what to want and how to get it. He tells us the dangers of wanting other things as well as the consequences of wanting the right things but pursuing them the wrong way. What is before us is one or the other: life or vanity.
We are about to hear the Lord’s response to Habakkuk’s second complaint. Habakkuk lamented the violence in Judah (and for interesting/ironic connection, in Hebrew the word for violence is pronounced (c)hamas), and the Lord replied that He was raising up the Babylonians to take the covenant people captive. Habakkuk questioned this, because how could it be right to punish the wicked by the hands of even more wicked? We’re about to see; the Lord’s answer takes up the rest of Habakkuk 2.
There are two parts to the reply, and the second part comes in five WOES in verses 6-20. But in verses 2-5 we get what is arguably the key to Habakkuk’s book and burden. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the key to life.
Here is not merely a reply, but dependable revelation for Habakkuk and all who would hear him.
And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
(Habakkuk 2:2–3 ESV)
The content of the vision will come in verse 4, with clarification in verse 5. The capture of the vision should be written on tablets , which is unique (an article and plural), and even echoes the writing of the 10 Commandments on two tablets. There is a permanence to this vision: etched in stone. There will be relevance beyond Habakkuk’s day.
This will also make it so he may run who reads it , which either means simple like a sign/billboard that’s legible for someone running by it or simple for sake of a herald rushing around to give the announcement.
The context of the vision is that it will take place soon but not immediately. As the Babylonians were appointed, so the vision is appointed , and certain, it will surely come . From Habakkuk’s standpoint it might seem slow, but getting all the pieces in place in the Middle East is always a work of God.
We don’t even know what the announcement is yet, but here is a call for faith in tension. Knowing that it will be, but not knowing when.
The vision narrows the options to the binary.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up;
it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
(Habakkuk 2:4 ESV)
“Look at this,” says the Lord, Behold . The his is a collective reference to the Babylonians, and the Lord gets right to the heart: his soul and within him .
Two problems: puffed up and not upright . The second half of the verse shows the contrast, and it is critical. The puffed up man is bloated, swollen with the hot air of autonomy. Hw worships his own strength (see Habakkuk 1:11). They’ve made a massive miscalculation at the very core of decision making—trusting themselves, and so all the other decisions/judgments of right will be skewed.
But the righteous shall live by his faith . We know that Paul quoted this in his letter to the Romans (1:17) and Galatians (3:11) contrasting justification by works with justification by faith. And we see how this word to Habakkuk belongs in that discussion. But Habakkuk’s concern and context was different, and this revelation has to do with how you’d get into Hebrews 11 (as evidenced by the quote of Habakkuk 2:4 at the end of Hebrews 10:38) not how you’d get into heaven.
The righteous are the “just” (KJV). The Lord does not tell Habakkuk that those with faith will be counted righteous (which is true), but that those who are righteous will live (in ongoing righteous conduct) by faith, in systemic trust. Trusting God is how they live their lives, trust in the Lord touches everything. It turns out that the righteous here start by faith as well, humble before the Lord rather than puffed up in self. But they live from faith to faith, by their “faithfulness.”
By faith, Habakkuk and those who listened to him accepted God’s judgment and were taken into captivity. By faith they sought the good of the foreign city (per Jeremiah 29:7). By faith they returned to the land (Ezra and Nehemiah). By faith they fought and built, Jerusalem’s walls and temple.
What living by faith did not allow was pietistic passivity. The faith of the righteous was enfleshed.
Before the five woes of the Lord’s judgment there is a bit about the drunken deceit brought by the Babylonians on themselves.
“Moreover, wine is a traitor,
an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
and collects as his own all peoples.”
(Habakkuk 2:5 ESV)
It’s an interesting personification of wine . Later copies changed it the word to “wealth,” and that would work, but wine does even deeper work by analogy. Their self-trust, like wine, went to their head (Baker).
God says that wine gladdens a man’s heart, but if not received as a gift, it can turn a man into its slave, and so an addict, always needing more. The Babylonians would be drunk on their power and luxuries, and like Sheol or the grave, never satisfied. This vision from the Lord shows that they will get what they want, and be consumed by their consuming.
As a comment about Babylon’s coming judgement, we know that Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, was in the middle of a feast where he called for the gold and silver cups from Jerusalem’s temple to be brought for drinking (Daniel 5:1-4). That was his last night in power, his last night alive (Daniel 5:30-31), and the last night of Babylon’s reign.
We hate tension, so we seek fun/distraction rather than live by faith. We hate tension, so we use force/power to get to the expectation our way, and faster, no waiting required.
Faith is trust in tension. Faith is the assurance of better but later. Faith fights doubting and double-mindedness (see these opposites of faith in James 1:6-8). Faith is lifestyle. Enfleshed faith, put flesh to faith, not flesh rather than faith.
Sell, spank, read, write, vote, run, lift, mow, build, brew, study, teach, play, sleep, laugh, love, and do it all because of humble dependence on the Lord. Faith knows that unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Faith also knows that when the Lord builds the house He’ll call us to get off the couch.
You must not be puffed up, and you have no excuse to be passive. You must not be puffed up, and so you had better pray before and during and after whatever work you offer to the Lord. You must not be puffed up, nor puff up any other man, any politician or political scheme, as if we could even make a seed grow let alone make a soul repent, or a nation.
The contrast is not between quiet-internal-right-thoughts (faith) and doing things (works); Hebrews 11 is filled with active/living faith-ers. But, what/who are we trusting in while in tension? Faith is the key to Habakkuk’s burden, and the only way for the righteous to live.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
May your hands be ever faithful and never manipulative.
[M]ay our God make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 ESV)