How Shall the Righteous Person Live? Habakkuk 2:2-5
This morning, I
would like to continue our series from the Book of Habakkuk. This will be our
third sermon in the series and there will likely be three or four more in this
book then, when we have finished Habakkuk, we will go on to the book of
Nehemiah.
The events in
Nehemiah take place after the prophecies we are studying here in Habakkuk have
been fulfilled; after the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were carried
off by the Persians and the people of the southern Kingdom of Judah were
carried off by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar.
The prophetic
statement in Habakkuk 3:16 is fulfilled in 539 BC when the Persians defeated
the Babylonians. We will dive into that a little deeper in a few lessons time.
Before we look at
today’s passage let me ask you a question: How Shall the Righteous Person Live?
We saw in our
previous lesson together that Habakkuk recognized the Holiness of God, and we
examined together that holiness is one of the attributes of God that are
transferable to us, and we are expected to live a life of holiness as followers
of Christ.
We discovered that
holiness does not mean sinlessness, it does not mean perfection.
Holiness means obedience to God’s teachings. As young Joshua told us in
his message in August, we are to strive to live like Jesus by avoiding people
or situations that will cause us to sin. We are to resist old habits and
temptations by keeping short accounts with God for our thoughts and actions.
How then, shall the
Righteous Person live? Does our personal relationship with Jesus Christ impact
our daily life? Does our relationship with Jesus cause us to live differently
than our godless or pagan neighbor? Can we honestly claim, “I am a Christian,
therefore I live differently than my lost friend or family member?” If not, maybe
you need to ask yourself, “How can I turn my life around and start walking in
the way of Jesus?”
In the passage that
we are going to look at today, the LORD answers Habakkuk with an impactful
statement that applies to us even today. “The righteous shall live by his
faith”. Here is a bit of a teaser: That statement may not mean what you think.
I will explain further when we get to that portion of the message, so stay
tuned.
Today, we will look
at the importance of faith in our daily walk with Christ. Even though this
prophecy was written over 3,000 years ago, I promise there are timeless
messages that still apply to us today.
Let us look together
at the book of Habakkuk 2:2. This morning I will be reading from the NIV
translation.
READ
HABAKKUK 2:2-5
PRAY
We have seen in our previous
messages that Habakkuk lived from 612 to 589 BC. He was a prophet to the
Southern Kingdom of Judah like the prophets Jeremiah and Obadiah who were also
alive in the time of Habakkuk. All three prophets were used by God to try and
warn the people of Judah of the impending judgment that was coming to them, but
the rulers and the people refused to listen.
In 605 BC, the first
captivity of Judah occurred, and Daniel was taken… In 597 BC the second
captivity of Judah happened, and Ezekiel was taken captive…, and finally, in
586 BC the Kingdom of Judah fell and remained in ruins for 50 years until 536
BC when some exiles were allowed to return and began to rebuild.
For the context of
what the fulfillment of this prophecy from God looked like for the people of
Judah, one can simply read the Book of Daniel to see what living in exile under
the Babylonians looked like.
But all of that is
yet to come for the people of Judah at the time of the writing of this book. By
the time that the original audience would have been reading this part of the
prophecy, they would have recognized that they had reached the apex of the
book. God is going to answer both complaints and explain why the wicked rule in
Judah and the more wicked Babylonians will also rule. Yahweh is about to
instruct the prophet on how to speak to his congregation, and God does not want
them to miss the apex either.
Look at what Yahweh
says in verse 2, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so
that a herald may run with it.”
We see God giving the prophet clear instructions on what he was to do with
this prophecy that Yahweh was giving to him. This was not a private prophecy
that Habakkuk was to keep to himself. This was a prophecy to be shared with the
whole Kingdom of Judah.
“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets”. The original
Hebrew makes it obvious that this information is to be written in such a way
that the information is to be plainly declared to the people.
Look at the second
half of the verse. Some translations simply say, “so he may run who reads it”.
This brings us to the first of Pastor Paul’s Points: identify the
pronouns. Throughout today’s passage, we will see a fair number of pronouns
used, and some of them are used in the middle of a contrasting statement which
will often make it difficult at times to follow exactly what the original
author intended. I will show you exactly what I mean here in a moment, but for
now, let’s take a quick turn through this passage and take a few moments to
identify the pronouns.
This is not only helpful in this passage, but it is a great rule of thumb
to use whenever you are studying scripture. This is a technique that I learned
back in Bible College, and this is a technique that I taught and use in the
weekly bible study that we hold in our home for young adults.
Let’s go through the verses and identify the pronouns. Starting at verse
2.
“Then the Lord replied:” So far, so good. No
pronouns here, just the name LORD in all-caps which represents what? The Tetragrammaton.
In Hebrew was known as the four letters “YHWH” which denoted the Holy and
personal name of God. Not exactly a pronoun, more like an alias as the Hebrews
felt that God’s name was too Holy to actually speak or write down.
Continuing in verse 2, let’s see if we can find a
pronoun, “Write down the revelation and make it plain
on tablets” stop right there. “Make it plain on tablets”, make
what? The word “it” here is referring to the revelation that Yahweh is giving
to Habakkuk. The LORD wants Habakkuk to write the message down that Habakkuk is
receiving, on tablets in such a manner that the meaning will be clear to all
who read it. The “it” being the revelation, the prophecy from God.
Carrying on in verse
2, “so that a herald may run with it.” Ok, in this
little section we have two pronouns. I just mentioned earlier that in the
original Hebrew, a pronoun is used to indicate the person reading the prophecy.
The ESV translates the Hebrew as, “so he may run who
reads it”. The Legacy Standard
Bible says something very similar. The King James Version says, “That he may run that readeth it.” And the Christian
Standard Bible says, “so one may easily read it” and the CSB doesn’t even mention running in the
main body of the text. Yet the footnote that accompanies this passage says, quote
“Literally: one who reads in it may run”. End quote.
So, I think that
here, the NIV does a pretty good job helping us to determine who is running and
why he is running. The man who reads the prophecy is running because that’s his
job.
In ancient times, a
herald, in a primarily illiterate culture, was like an ancient-day anchor on
CNN. It was his job to go from town to town and proclaim the news.
But, what about the
second pronoun here in this short section, the second “it” of verse two? This
“it” is also referring to the prophecy that was written on the tablets. That
was the news that the herald was running from town-to-town proclaiming. The
prophecy that the LORD is about to dictate to Habakkuk.
Moving on to verse
three,
“3For the revelation awaits an
appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.” OK, stop there
for a second, another pronoun, another “it”. The LORD is still referring to the
prophecy that He is dictating to Habakkuk. “The revelation awaits an appointed
time”. Remember this line and we will come back here when I make my second
point.
Let’s continue with verse 3. Pay close attention here because the meaning of the word “it” is about to change. The subject of the pronoun is about to change. The LORD is about to move from referring to the prophecy and begin referring to the coming judgment that the prophecy represents.
“Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” “Though it linger”, with that phrase Yahweh has shifted the subject of the pronoun “it” in the sentence to His coming judgment. Yahweh is no longer speaking about the prophecy; He is referring to the actions that the prophecy is speaking about. The three pronouns, the three “its” if you will, all refer to the same thing and that is the punishment that God is about to pour out on the Kingdom of Judah.
When we look at the words, “The revelation awaits an appointed time” from verse three and the words, “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” These two sentences contained in verse three make the second point in today’s sermon. “The LORD’s promises are certain”. Yahweh is telling Habakkuk that though it may appear that my judgment is not arriving, though it looks like I’m delaying in delivering on my judgment, make no mistake, this promise is certain and will happen.
What God was showing Habakkuk here was… that the prophet needed to adjust his sense of timing. What Habakkuk needed (and received from Yahweh) was a larger and slower worldview, one that allowed for God’s slow-moving justice. God moves on His own schedule, and what may seem like a long delay to us, is God’s perfect timing.
This thought reminds me of another passage that I was reading and reflecting on this week. Romans 9:22-23 says, “What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us,”. Paul is telling us here in the Book of Romans that God delays His judgment as a sign of mercy and to make God’s riches of His Glory known to us. His Patience is one of the biggest indicators of how much God loves us.
Let me ask you something. Does that thought make you uncomfortable… the thought that God judges people or nations…and that He pours out His judgment and wrath on them? If we are being honest, it kind of makes a person squirm a little, doesn’t it? In this day and age when “anything goes” and we are constantly being told “not to judge”, or “it's not my place to judge” the fact that there is a Holy and Just God sitting and judging us makes us uncomfortable.
The, ”it’s not my place to judge” excuse was used by a couple of people in the movie we watched Wednesday night. When the interviewer asked the question, “Is abortion wrong?’ a couple of folks tried avoiding answering the question by making the statement, ”it’s not my place to judge”. We avoid passing judgment on the actions of others because we want to avoid the thought that God is passing judgment on us.
I mean if God is love, then He can’t possibly have a problem with the way that I am living right? I mean I’m a good person, especially compared to my neighbour, and you should see how he lives, so based on my neighbour I should be going to heaven, right?
As sinners, we want God to be loving and not judging. Judging someone is unloving, at least that is what culture would have us believe. “Love is love” we are told, even when it is the most immoral type of “love” that mankind can imagine. Even if it is the most destructive type of love to the family and to society, we are told to accept it and not be judgmental because “love is love”.
Being truthful is also being loving. Imagine, you see a young couple running through a meadow, laughing and kissing and holding hands and staring longingly in each other's eyes completely oblivious to their surroundings. They are so wrapped up in each other’s love that they don’t even know you exist.
Would it be a loving thing to yell at them and break their trance, and bring them back to the real world? To scream at them like a madman and tell them to wake up and pay attention to the world? Would that be the loving thing to do?
It would be loving, if… they were staring into each other’s eyes so intently that they didn’t realize that they were running towards a cliff and they were about to fall to their deaths. If they were about to “love each other” right off a cliff, the most unloving thing for you to do would be to remain silent and watch it happen.
But that is exactly what too many people, and dare I say it, too many churches with too many complacent preachers are doing right now in our country. They remain silent while our society is loving itself right off a cliff.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am not judging anyone because I think I have it all together and I am so perfect. The exact opposite is true. I’m just as much of a mess as they are. My answers and my wisdom do not come from me, it comes from God’s Word and His Holy Spirit. It is only because of His intervention in my life that I am no longer running towards the cliff with the rest of them.
And, of course, I still sin. Every day, I commit some type of sin against God. I am a constant disappointment to myself in my lack of perfection. But I am not a disappointment to God. I serve an all-powerful and all-knowing God, who chose to love me enough to show me the truth of my life.
He loved me enough, to reach out to me in a very personal way and save me from running off the cliff. Jesus loved me enough, to wake me up and knock me off the path of destruction and hell, and He loved me into heaven and an eternal relationship with Him. He knew every sin I had committed and every sin I would commit after He saved me, but He still chose to love me enough to save me.
Stay with me here, I know it seems like I lost my way. The uncomfortableness that we experience when we feel that God is judgmental and is judging our lives and the way that we are living… is the wake-up call of a loving Father using the Holy Spirit to knock us off the path of destruction.
When we feel uncomfortable with our actions and the thought that God is judging us, that is the Holy Spirit yelling at you to wake you out of the trance of self-love as you run towards the cliff. Society tells us, “Love is Love”. Bookstores are filled with books in the self-help section on how to “love yourself”, and even preachers are telling you that “God is Love” and the preacher stops there because they want you to be happy.
I want you to be happy too. But I don’t want you running blindly off a cliff happily on your way to hell!
God cannot love us so much that He violates His own character. He cannot love us enough to ignore our sins and thus ignore His Holiness and His perfect Judgement. But what He can do is find a way, to love us back to Him without having to rely on His own stubborn children to find a way on their own. What is that way? I’m glad you asked.
The way back for us sinful children… to come back to a loving relationship… where we will be accepted, unconditionally by the Father… is through the completed work of Jesus on the cross.
Only by trusting in His work completely, and not
on any of our actions to earn favour with the Father, can we be restored to
God.
It is a thing called Grace. God sees the sin of man… God judges man… God must condemn man to hell.
God came up with a plan before the foundations of the world were laid. Before He even made the first man. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made a path back to Him. God sent His Son, to be born of a virgin, to add humanness to His eternal Godliness, and to live a perfect and sinless life. Only then, could Jesus be offered up as the perfect lamb without blemish and be sacrificed as an atonement for all those who accept the gift of Grace.
This sacrifice was done on the very day that all of Israel were making their yearly sacrifices at the temple in an attempt to be right with God.
The sacrifice of the blood of Jesus was so perfect that God the Father no longer required the blood of innocent animals to be offered to Him as a way into a relationship with Him. The Father was pleased with the work of the Son and accepted His sacrifice on our behalf.
All that we must do, is to repent, to change our attitude and actions from sin toward obedience to God. Place our trust in the completed work of Christ and then we will receive His righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus, and be clothed in that so that we may stand before God as heirs and adopted children of His.
First, let me point out the contrasting statement in the middle, “but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—” this is a new person that is introduced into the thought and is referring to someone different from the rest of the sentence. We will come back to this in a second.
The first and last part of this verse refers to the enemy, the Chaldeans, also known as the Babylonians whom God is about to unleash on the Kingdom of Judah. God is warning Habakkuk that the people of Judah are about to experience unholy terror in their nation.
I use the word “unleash” here very intentionally. God is about to “unleash” the Babylonians. He is not causing them to sin, the LORD is simply removing His restraining hand from the hearts of the Babylonians and turning them over to their own sinful and lustful intentions unhampered by the influence of God.
Look at the remainder of verse five, “indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.” Again, the pronouns here are all referring to the Babylonians. The thought and meaning behind the reference to wine was seen as the unsavoury practice of plying someone with much drink for the express purpose of taking advantage of them in a sexual manner.
Isn’t it interesting that
the greed and the lust of the Babylonians are compared to the grave? In the
original Hebrew, the words would have been “as wide as Sheol” as the ESV translates it into English.
This thought relays the message that “as wide as” was an ever-expanding
area and Sheol represented death and the grave, so the passage conveys the
thought that the grave never “fills up” and just as the grave is never “full”, the
greed and the lust of their natures are never filled, the Babylonians are never
satisfied.
God identifies the exact sins that are driving the
Babylonians: pride drives their desires and arrogance; lust also drives their
desires; and finally, greed is also driving their actions in the invasion that
is about to happen. These are the impulses that Yahweh is about to remove His
restraining hand from and to give them over to.
Now, for the final point of today’s sermon, let’s go
back to the contrasting point in the middle of verse four, “but the righteous person
will live by his faithfulness—”. The author of Habakkuk, who of course
is God Himself, really throws a curveball here. There are two pronouns in this
little statement and at first glance one would think that they are referring to
the same person, the righteous person. I’m going to show you that they are not
referring to the same person. We are going to use Scripture to interpret
Scripture.
First, the righteous
person as applied to us today, is referring to those who have placed their
trusting faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ. They are righteous, not
because of what they have done, but rather, because of the righteousness of
Christ that is bestowed on us when we accept the gift of Grace.
Paul, in his second
letter to the church in Corinth, said this of Jesus, “God made him who
had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God.” What Paul is saying is the “righteousness of God” is essentially the
covenant dealings between God and his people, who are given a new humanity.
Their heart of stone is replaced by Jesus with a heart of flesh. The covenant
represents a sacred and binding relationship between God and His people.
The righteousness of
Christ does not make us perfect or sinless. Rather, we are clothed, or
covered if you will, in the righteousness of Christ so that our sins are no
longer held against us by the Father. Because Jesus paid the price, we can enter
a rightful relationship with God as heirs and adopted children of the Father.
That is who the righteous person is, the one who is in a proper
relationship with God the Father because of the actions of Jesus Christ the Son
on the Cross at Calvary.
So now that we have identified the righteous person, who does the pronoun
“his” represent when God is telling Habakkuk about “faithfulness”? “but the righteous person
will live by his faithfulness—”.
First we must define the
word “faithfulness”. In the original Hebrew, the word used carries with it the meaning
of trustworthiness and integrity in a moral sense. Because it is used in a
moral sense, it is used to reveal God’s character, and it is often used in a
sense of praise towards God.
So who’s faithfulness is
God referring to here?
Well, we know that God is
not referring to the Babylonians. Yahweh had just finished telling Habakkuk
that “the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright.” That certainly
doesn’t sound like a righteous one or a person of faithfulness.
God is not referring to Habakkuk
the prophet. God did not say, “But the righteous person shall live by your
faithfulness”. Nor, is God referring to the faithfulness of the scribe who
wrote down the prophecy, nor of the herald who ran with the prophecy from town
to town.
As a matter of fact,
would you want to rely on the faithfulness of any man? Would you want to depend
on the faithfulness of a friend, spouse, or relative to ensure your
righteousness? Who then is this person
on whom we should rely on their faithfulness?
Again, using Scripture to
interpret Scripture, turn with me to Galatians 2:20. Paul makes it clear whose
faithfulness we are to live by.
READ GALATIANS 2:20
“I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live
in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.”
The one who trusts God in
faith lives faithfully by his Word. Conversely, the one who is faithful to his
Word also clearly trusts it and has faith in the One who gave it. Jesus is the
only one who is trustworthy enough to be faithful and thus deserving of our
faith.
I’m running out of time here so let me conclude with these thoughts.
CONCLUSION
The enduring message of Habakkuk is carried in the words “The righteous will live by his
faith”. These words are quoted three times in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17;
Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). The original Hebrew is “the righteous will live by his faithfulness,” or, possibly, “the
righteous will live by its faithfulness”
referring to the word of God given to Habakkuk in this “revelation,” that we
looked at today.
The righteous will believe what God is about to
say and live by trust in his word and thus in Yahweh himself. The
meaning of this text (and its use by people of faith through the centuries)
relies on the relationships between the faith and faithfulness of the believer
and the faithfulness of God.
Finally, these forms of judgment are not swift. Like history, they take time. God’s delay is a sign of His patience and love for us.
Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit to interpret and understand your Word. What a marvelous gift you have given your adopted sons and daughters.
We thank you for your faithfulness and your unchanging Nature. You are the
same today as you were yesterday and as you will be tomorrow and for all of
eternity.
We can build our faith and lives on the firm foundation of You and Your
Son. It is in the completed work of Jesus that we can rest assured that we have
Salvation and that we will spend eternity with You.
Because of this, we thank You for Your Grace and for Your Love, Amen
Finally, let me send you off with this benediction:
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
Colossians 3:17
Have a blessed week.
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