Habakkuk was watching his country fall apart. Violence in the streets, injustice in the courts, and wickedness in the temple. The righteous were being crushed and the wicked were prospering, and God seemed to be doing nothing about it.
Habakkuk 1:2-3 “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.”
So Habakkuk asked God the question every Christian has asked at some point:
How long are You going to let this go on?
And God answered him. But the answer was not what Habakkuk expected.
Habakkuk 1:6 “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.”
God said He was raising up Babylon to come and judge Judah. The most brutal, pagan, idolatrous empire on earth was going to sweep through God’s land.
Habakkuk was blown away. He came back to God with a second question that was even harder than the first. How can You use a nation more wicked than us to judge us? How is that just?
That is where chapter 2 picks up. And in chapter 2, we see three things Habakkuk does that every Christian should learn from when God’s answers do not make sense.
1. There Was A Waiting
Habakkuk 2:1 “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”
Habakkuk did not stomp off or walk away in frustration. He did not decide he knew better than God.
He climbed the watchtower, got alone and waited.
And notice something important. He said, “what I shall answer when I am reproved.” Habakkuk was ready for God to correct him. He was not just waiting for God to agree with him. He was waiting to be shaped by whatever God had to say, even if it hurt.
That is the posture of a Christian who is truly seeking God.
Psalm 27:14 “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”
James 1:19 “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
James 5:7 “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.”
Waiting is not a passive activity. It is an active surrender! It is the willingness to sit still until God speaks and then obey whatever He says, even if it is not what we wanted to hear.
Most Christians never get an answer from God because they never sit long enough to hear one. Habakkuk climbed the tower. He waited and God spoke.
2. There Was A Writing
Habakkuk 2:2 “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”
When God finally spoke, He told Habakkuk to write it down.
Write it down and make it plain. Put it on tablets big enough and clear enough that a runner could grab the message on the run and take it to others.
Why write it down? Because a written vision is a vision that survives. A written vision can be carried, shared, remembered, and acted on. A vision that stays in your head fades.
When God gives us direction in our life, we should write it down so we can run.
The Christian who writes down their direction is the Christian who can run with it!
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”
God has always told His people to write down His Word so it goes with them everywhere. Write down what God tells you. Write down the verses that are shaping you. Write down the direction He is giving you and run with it.
3. There Was A Working Of Faith
Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”
Here is the heart of everything God told Habakkuk. And it is the heart of everything God tells us today.
The just shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk was in a horrible situation. His country was about to be destroyed, and his people were about to be dragged into captivity. His way of life was about to end and God’s answer was not to promise Habakkuk relief. God’s answer was to tell him how to live in the middle of it.
Live by faith.
Do right no matter what is happening around you. Trust God when it makes no sense. Keep serving Him when everything is falling apart. Keep obeying Him when the wicked are winning. Live by faith!
This verse is so central to Christianity that the New Testament quotes it three separate times.
Romans 1:17 “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
Galatians 3:11 “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.”
Hebrews 10:38 “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Three times. Paul and the writer of Hebrews both went back to Habakkuk 2:4 as the foundation for the whole Christian life.
Faith is something we walk in when things fall apart. It is trusting God when the city is being destroyed. It is doing right when everyone else is doing wrong. It is obeying God when the world is telling you to give up.
What Happens In The Rest Of The Chapter
After God gives Habakkuk the vision, He spends the rest of chapter 2 spelling out how Babylon will fall. Five different woes are pronounced against them for:
1. Greed and unjust gain
2. Pride and covetousness
3. Bloodshed and building on oppression
4. Drunkenness and immorality
5. Idolatry
God essentially says: I am using Babylon right now, but do not think for a second that they are getting away with anything. Their day is coming.
And then Habakkuk 2 closes with one of the most awesome verses in the whole Bible.
Habakkuk 2:20 “But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”
While the nations rage, while cities fall, while evil looks like it is winning, God is on His throne. He’s sovereign, never worried and never rushed.
The whole earth is told to shut their mouth before Him.
If you are a Christian watching your country come apart, your family go through trials, or your own life fall into circumstances you did not ask for, take Habakkuk with you.
Wait on the Lord. Do not run ahead of Him and get alone with Him.
Write down what He tells you. Do not lose the direction He gives you.
And then live by faith. Serve Him when everything is falling apart.
The just shall live by his faith. The Lord is in His holy temple. And every wicked kingdom will one day fall.
Wait. Write. Work.
