Hello everybody, and welcome in to episode 168 of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading Habakkuk 2 today and our focus is on how the just shall live by faith . We are a daily 10 minute podcast, where we will dig in to the truth of the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day and discussing it. Welcome to new listeners in Thanks for listening! Our goal is to encourage DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast Don’t forget about our web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more– Click here for our Bible 2021 reading plan\
Habakkuk – one of the most underrated books in the Bible, as far as I’m concerned. Short, but utterly fascinating. The prophet Habakkuk has a big and important question, and he asks it in chapter 1:
How long, Lord, must I call for help
and you do not listen
or cry out to you about violence
and you do not save?
3 Why do you force me to look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.
4 This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous;
therefore, justice comes out perverted.
Habakkuk’s problem sounds familiar, doesn’t it? He prays, but God doesn’t answer – He cries out for justice, but he doesn’t see God bringing justice. What will God say to these most important questions? God’s first answer is that He is raising up a nation to punish His people for their injustices, which causes Habakkuk to ask a second question: Who will punish THAT nation, the wicked Chaldeans, for it’s own injustices, which are WORSE than the one’s committed by the house of Israel? Let’s read Habakkuk 2, and find out!
First, let’s note that one of the most misused and misinterpreted verses in the Bible is in this passage:
2 The Lord answered me:
Write down this vision;
clearly inscribe it on tablets
so one may easily read it. Habakkuk 2:2
So many pastors and churches have used the passage as an indicator that the church should write down its vision and mission and make sure everybody knows it and can recite it. But of course, in context, God is simply telling Habakkuk that He is about to give him an answer to his question, and that Habakkuk needs to write that down…which, of course – he does, and therefore we have the book of Habakkuk!
Second, let’s note that God doesn’t fully answer Habakkuk’s question any more than He fully answers Job’s questions in the book of Job. God doesn’t owe man an explanation for what happens. But we do get some very strong wisdom from God here, including this powerful statement:
4 Look, his ego is inflated;
he is without integrity.
But the righteous one will live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4
Don’t worry about the Chaldeans, Habakkuk, but know this: My righteous one – those who set their hearts on following me and following my ways, says God, will LIVE BY HIS FAITH. Big deal here. Martyn Lloyd-Jones helps us see this truth, and the fact that it permeates both the Old Testament and the New Testament:
According to the Scriptures, there is only one way of obtaining salvation and all those blessings, and that is the way of faith. All the Old Testament saints believed explicitly in God, and they exercised faith. In Habakkuk 2:4 we read, ‘The just shall live by his faith.’ This is the theme and the message of the Old Testament from beginning to end, and, as in Hebrews 11, it is reiterated in the New Testament. Paul, quoting from Habakkuk, says in Romans 1:17, ‘The just shall live by faith’; and this is the theme of all his epistles.But Paul puts it still more clearly and specifically in Romans 4:23–5, where, referring to Abraham, he says, ‘Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.’ It is clear that we receive justification by faith, exactly as Abraham received it by faith. So once more under this heading, read again from the end of Hebrews 10 through chapter 11 to the beginning of chapter 12. It is the same truth, elaborated at length.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1996), 239.
Bible Memory verses for the month of June: Daniel 6:23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den. When Daniel was brought up from the den, he was found to be unharmed, for he trusted in his God.
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