Tag: question

Habakkuk: Living By Faith (II)

Faith often requires waiting patiently. What is now may seem like what will be, but trust in God’s character and power calls on us to “wait upon the Lord” (Isa. 40:31). What does Habakkuk have to say for the one struggling to keep faith in faithless times?

Faith Taught (2:1-20)

Neal Pollard

Habakkuk is struggling, but he desires to know God’s answer in the situation. There is a tremendous difference between railing out at God like a spoiled, uncontrolled toddler and reaching up to God begging for clarity and understanding while trusting that He can help. So, Habakkuk dutifully reports himself like a guard looking out from the walkway of a defensive wall, watching and waiting for an answer from God (1).

Starting in verse two, the Lord answers him. God wants him to write His answer down, a permanent and practical record for others to read. Habakkuk is told that these words are for the not-too-distant future (3). 

From verse four to the end of the chapter, God gives Habakkuk a lesson on faith.

LIVING BY FAITH (4). God starts the lesson with the contrast between the proud and the righteous. What He says about the proud sets the stage for what follows in the bulk of the chapter. His heart is not right within him. As the result, we will see what he is capable of. Yet, the righteous will live by his faith. This had to be comfort for Habakkuk as he struggles, by faith, to understand why God is using the wicked Chaldeans to punish the sin of the prophet’s country of Judah. The righteous would need to cling to their faith as they endured the events prophesied in chapter one. Think about how that has not changed today, even if the specifics are different. The world seems to be winning, and at times God may even use people and events to try and refine our faith. The proud has an impure heart, but the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). 

LOSING BY FAITHLESSNESS (5-19). It appears that God is describing the character and behavior of the Babylonians. Though they are stronger and winning for the present, their immorality and ungodliness would undo them. Their voracious appetite for sin and destruction (5) would bring about their downfall (cf. Gal. 6:7-8; Prov. 22:8; Hos. 8:7). 

This is captured by the five “woe” statements in this chapter. “Woe” is an interjection of lamentation, found 50 times in the prophets. Ten percent of the occurrences are right here. It forms a list of charges that would indict the Babylonians. It would be a song sung by those who witnessed and endured their cruelty (6). The lamentation would be for those who:

  • …Take advantage of others financially (6-8). They would be overwhelmed by those who got the financial advantage over them. 
  • …Trust riches to get them what they think they want (9-11). They were impoverishing themselves, sinning against themselves. 
  • …Turn to violence and bloodshed to get what they want (12-14). God’s glory would eclipse not only whatever they temporarily achieve, but the name they briefly have for themselves (cf. Heb. 11:25). 
  • …Take advantage of others socially and sexually (15-17). What they sought to do to others would happen to them. The cup of judgment in God’s hand, which He was making others (like Judah) drink from as Babylon passed it to them, would come around to them and turn glory to disgrace. 
  • …Trust idols to save and lead them (18-19). They are proud of their invention, then turn and serve and worship it even though it cannot speak, guide, or save. 

We may feel more sophisticated than the Babylonians today, but we are wise to learn from their mistakes. The law of love will keep us from taking advantage of others in any way. Nor will we put our trust in money or anything that competes with the place only God is to occupy (Mat. 6:33). But if we do, God wants us to know how it will end. 

LOOKING UP BY FAITH (20). The end of the lesson is short and succinct. It will only be heeded by the faithful one of verse four. “The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” This truth should produce hope, patience, confidence, but also reverence and fear. It will keep us from being hasty and impulsive, remembering that “God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few” (Ecc. 5:2b). 

P.A.I.N.

Neal Pollard

Problems aren’t inherently negative.  Will you remember that? The middle-aged man with the persistent pain goes to the doctor, who discovers the malignant mass and gets him to the surgeon. The man’s life is saved by pain. The teenage Christian girl who endures the hurt of breaking up with the boy who is ungodly but who she loves feels pain. Eventually, though, as she raises her four children and enjoys marriage with a strong Christian man, she thanks God for that former pain. Illustrations of this point are endless.

How do you view your pain? By human nature, we tend to view suffering as the very worst thing that could happen to us. The anxiety of the medical test, the chronic disease that impacts every portion of our day and life, the permanent loss of a loved one through whatever events, or a rift in the family all can seem unbearable.

Will you remember that, as with the physical body and the emotional makeup, pain in our spiritual lives can have a positive benefit? We can learn from the painful thing. Pain can cause us to grow. Pain can serve as a spiritual refinery. After all, problems aren’t inherently negative. It is how we respond to the problems that makes all the difference. If we give up due to the problems we face, it’s devastating. If we sin in response to our pain, we fail and inflict damage on ourselves and others. If we blame God, we are in danger of allowing our pain to conquer us.

Despite those possibilities, though, none of these things have to occur. The encouraging thing is that how we respond to our problems is fully under our own control. We can be the example, in our suffering, that leads a lost soul to Christ or an erring Christian back home. We can be the role models others remember when they go down the road of trouble. We can bring glory to God by faithfully enduring such things.

Problems aren’t inherently negative! Thank God for this.

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