Habakkuk

Upon hearing that God would use really bad people to discipline His people, Habakkuk could have easily stopped trusting God. As a godly man, he is barely holding on to his sanity in a godless world, crying out to God for answers. The only life raft that Habakkuk can hold onto is faith, which is the theme of the entire book: “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV).

Five-Fold Faith

Faith is not our way of getting what we want, but rather accepting what God wants.
Sometimes we think we know what we need, so we get frustrated because God seems unwilling to do what we want. Instead, true faith believes that we must trust God even when we do not understand or agree with what He’s doing. He knows what He is doing far more than we do. This is the exact process that Habakkuk undergoes.

Faith combats frustration with God by bringing our frustrations to God.
When we get frustrated with God, we can give up on our relationship for a while, grow bitter against God, rant about God to others, or even start to find some clever theological way to edit God into a more suitable version that we find more acceptable and less frustrating. Instead, faith brings our real frustrations to the real God seeking a relationship based on trust even if there is not resolution to our frustration. This is the model we see on display with Habakkuk.

Faith helps us have questions for God rather than accusations of God.
Have you ever had someone rush to a judgment about you that was simply wrong? In this person’s mind, the case was tried, the guilty verdict was rendered, and all that was left was sentencing you to your just consequences. However, this person did not know all the facts, never bothered to ask any questions, and, as a result, rushed to a wrong conclusion. That happens to God all the time. Rather than sitting in judgment over God with accusations, we can learn from the example of Habakkuk to bring our questions to God, starting in His Word.

Faith sees the difference between hurt and harm.
Sometimes we wrongly think that if God were good we would never hurt. There is a big difference between hurt and harm. Sometimes God allows a bit of hurt to prevent a lot of harm. In the same way, a doctor will hurt us by plunging a scalpel into our body to remove the cancer that will kill us. In Habakkuk, the godless nation coming to deal with God’s people is a scalpel in the hand of the Great Physician bringing a bit of hurt to prevent the eternal harm they will experience in hell if they do not repent.

Faith is what gets us through the bad times as we await the good times.
In the good times, sight will suffice. In the bad times, faith continues to trust that God has a future for us filled with joy – a future that we cannot see because the damp, thick fog of misery has settled over our life.
How are you at truly, practically, daily living by faith? What keeps you from trusting God more than you do currently?

Because of Habakkuk’s close relationship with God, he, – with voice raised, brow furrowed, and hands thrown up in frustration – just unloads his grief to God. God answers, but His response isn’t exactly what Habakkuk was expecting. There would be more suffering before relief, which we see in Habakkuk 1:5–11 (ESV):

“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Sometimes, we just wish God would tell us what He was doing. He did just that to Habakkuk, but things only got worse, not better. God’s plan was to use the most ungodly, powerful, ruthless, cruel, and unjust military power as a wooden spoon to discipline those who were supposed to be His people. Essentially, being oppressed by a demonic army sent directly from the bowels of hell to unleash fire on the earth, things were about to go from bad to very bad for Habakkuk and his nation.

Counselors often talk about something called complex grief. Complex grief is what happens when difficult experiences pile on top of one another, becoming an overwhelming deluge so quickly that you do not have time to process anything. That is the kind of thing Habakkuk is experiencing. Overcoming the situation will require tremendous faith that God is good, in charge, and knows what He’s doing. This is precisely what faith is: moving forward in the dark trusting that God is ahead somewhere.

How has God proven faithful to you in past circumstances that felt overwhelming to you? What in your life currently requires a new level of faith to trust God?

Sometimes, the most frustrated people are also the godliest. Anyone paying attention to how fallen our world really is has wondered how to persevere in hard times. Trusting in God’s character, Habakkuk has hope for the future. He begins the book bearing his name with a bit of a rant, saying in 1:2–4 (ESV),

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

Why is Habakkuk so upset? Because he is a godly person who knows the character of God and Kingdom of God. Subsequently, all of the sin and suffering that he sees in the world enrages him. Evil marches over good while brutal bullies are laughing and their victims are languishing. To make matters worse, the cultural corruption has overtaken the government, court system, and lawmen who were supposed to serve as the dike holding back the flood of evil.

When you start to really understand the Bible and what the world is supposed to be like once sin is gone and our King Jesus has come, then you start to see how bad the world truly is. In the coming Kingdom, sin, evil, sickness, death, conflict, hatred, injustice, poverty, war, elections, crime, lying, stealing, cheating, and weeping are banished. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Just knowing that this Kingdom is coming and will be ruled by our King Jesus makes us ache for the day it shows up and He shows off.

Meanwhile, time marches on, but only in a circle. Times have changed, but people have not. Habakkuk expresses fury and frustration over the exact same things that cause people to post nasty comments online and cuss one another out today. Habakkuk’s two questions are the same ones we are asking more than 2,500 years later.

How long? How long will God watch the world devolve from people made to act like Him to people who act like animals? When do we get to quit our jobs, put on our party hats, and blow our kazoos because Jesus came back? This question is asked dozens of times throughout the Bible, most often in Psalms when those in great suffering cry out to God asking when they get to be Home.

Why? Why does a good and all-powerful God put up with so much rebellion? Why does God not fix the things that only He can fix when we are at the end of our resources and rope? Why do godly grandmas die in poverty of cancer while drug dealers, naughty movie makers, and immoral celebrities live long lives in big mansions to be worshiped like gods?

Habakkuk’s righteous anger is ultimately a result of his knowledge of how God made the world conflicting with what he sees around him.

What are you most looking forward to in Jesus’ Kingdom? What are you must frustrated by on the earth right now?

At some point, everyone experiences a day unlike any other day. That day is the day that someone or something bigger than you is in the process of defeating you. Fear races in as hope runs away.

On that day, the doctor may say that there is nothing more that can be done to treat the cancer; the lawyer may say that the divorce is finalized; the nurse might say that your loved one’s earthly life has come to an end. When that day comes, it’s easy to get frustrated with God, but you can also bring your frustrations to God, just as an ancient believer named Habakkuk did in his tear-stained journal. He lets us join him in the middle of his own crisis of faith in not knowing what the future might hold for him.

We know little to nothing about Habakkuk; his family and history are a mystery. In Hebrew, his name means embrace, which is fitting since he embraced God’s will. In Akadian, his name is a bit more obscure and refers to a plant or fruit tree.

Habakkuk begins by reporting “The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw” (Habakkuk 1:1). The concept here is that he is by faith carrying a great burden to God in hopes of finding hope and comfort. God’s response was to meet with Habakkuk and reveal to him some of what the future would hold amidst his fears. This somehow happened through a vision, or dream, where the recipient is awake. Perhaps it was a bit like watching a screen more than 2,500 years ago, or even like today’s virtual reality.

In this book, which you can read in about 10 to 15 minutes, there are four main characters. First, there is God. Second, there is the godly man Habakkuk along with a few righteous believers. Third, there are rebellious and ungodly “believers” who may or not belong to God but associate with His people nonetheless. Their sins are so significant that in addition to Habakkuk, God raised up other prophets – Nahum, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah– in the same season to preach repentance. While priests were often raised in religious homes and educated in religious schools, prophets were wild men often raised in the woods and working from the margins of society, as God’s fire alarm, calling people to run from sin and hell. The fourth and final characters are the ruthless, heartless, and godless enemies of God and His people.

Rather than getting frustrated with God, the prophet Habakkuk takes his frustrations to God. With the “good” guys acting as wickedly as the “bad” guys – and nothing but financial, moral, political, and spiritual death on the horizon – he brought his frustrations, fears, and faith God.

What are you frustrated about or fearful of right now? Have you earnestly brought those frustrations to God as Habakkuk did? How could this happen?

God’s Word is so powerful that even one small phrase can be lit like a wick to set off a revolution that continues for generations. An example of this is found in an ancient book called Habakkuk: “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV).

Romans 1:17 (ESV) quotes this line, saying, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ ”

Galatians 3:11 (ESV) adds, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ ”

Roughly 2,000 years after God told Habakkuk that “the righteous shall live by his faith,” a monk named Martin Luther was struggling mightily with his salvation. Trained as an attorney, he found himself tormented by guilt, shame, and condemnation as he judged his life by God’s perfect and holy law. Upon the Holy Spirit revealing to him the true meaning of faith, he was saved from his own efforts to gain salvation by instead trusting in Jesus’ work for his his salvation. Luther explains,

Before those words broke upon my mind I hated God and was angry with him because, not content with frightening us sinners by the law and by the miseries of life, he still further increased our torture by the gospel. But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words ­– “The just shall live by faith!” “The just shall live by faith!” – then I felt born again like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God.1

At the heart of Luther’s struggle was an issue that biblical scholars will refer to as justification. The question is simply this: How can a holy, righteous, and just God possibly declare unholy, unrighteous, and unjust sinners righteous in His eyes? At issue is one of the most important questions in world history: Who will God accept and reject, and why?

Some people struggle with the concept of hell. If you believe the Bible, hell makes perfect sense and heaven is a conundrum. Why would God send sinners to Paradise?

In our culture, we have cultural warriors who like to do “good” deeds to show that they are “good” people who are morally superior to those who do not believe what they believe or do what they do. They pursue righteousness by their own standards.

In religion, the pursuit of righteousness manifests itself in various human works: baptism, speaking in tongues, tithing, taking a vow of poverty or celibacy, suffering to pay back bad karma, or taking a holy pilgrimage. All of these are designed to pay God back and get out of the red.

The Bible teaches that unjust sinners can be declared just or righteous in God’s sight by being justified, or by obtaining justification (Romans 2:13, 3:20). This legal term appears some 222 times in various forms throughout the New Testament. Justification refers to a double transaction whereby God takes away our sinful unrighteousness through Jesus’ substitutionary death in our place and imputes to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ, thereby giving us positive righteousness (Romans 3:21–22, 4:4–6, 5:12–21,10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8–9; 1 Peter 2:24, 3:18).

Scripture clearly states that we are justified by grace alone (Titus 3:7; Romans 4:2–5, 5:10–21), through faith alone (Habakkuk 2:4; Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1), because of Jesus Christ alone (Isaiah 53:11; Romans 5:16; Galatians 2:16–17), who justifies us by His death (Romans 5:9) and resurrection (Romans 4:25). In some instances, Paul even packs these great truths of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone into one compressed section of Scripture (Romans 3:23–28).         

To obtain this great gift of justification by grace through faith we need simply to repent of our sin (1 John 1:9) and believe in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:10). Among the innumerable benefits God bestows on us upon justification are: forgiveness of all sins (Acts 13:38–39), peace with God (Romans 5:1), escape from God’s wrath and condemnation (Romans 5:9, 18; 8:1, 33–34), freedom from God’s law (Galatians 3:11, 24), ongoing sanctification (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:13), Spirit-empowered enablement to do good works (James 2:24), and a final glorification (Romans 8:30).

Finally, perhaps the entirety of this incredible doctrine is illustrated most simply by Jesus’ parable, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9–14). Two guys stand before God. One brags about what a great guy he is but overlooks that he’s hell-bound. The other guy knows he’s a sinner, asks for mercy, and gets a first class ticket to the Kingdom. That’s how it works. Good people are bad. Therefore, it’s vital to know that you are a bad person who needs to trust the one and only good person: Jesus Christ.

Have you earnestly trusted the death of Jesus for your sins and the resurrection of Jesus for your salvation?

1. Boice, James Montgomery. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 408–409.

Tucked away in the middle of an often-overlooked, few thousand-year-old book called Habakkuk is this simple little phrase: “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV). This phrase is God’s answer to why the world is such a complete mess where there is no political, moral, or cultural hope since everyone is evil and everything is wrong. Faith is the godly response to everything that’s going wrong in the world. This little phrase gets repeated three times in the New Testament in what is likely the clearest definition of Christian faith in the entire Bible:

For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. (Hebrews 10:37–11:2 ESV)

We are told here that there are a lot of things for which we just need to trust God’s Word. This includes waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to crush His enemies and set up His Kingdom. None of us were there when the world was made and Adam and Eve ate the fruit salad that ruined everything. None of us were there when Mary the virgin had a baby who was God. And none of us were there when Jesus did His touchdown dance outside of his tomb three days after being crucified.

Faith is easy when you’re healthy, rich, winning, loved, certain, and strong. It’s a lot harder when you’re sick, broke, losing, hated, confused, and weak. It’s especially hard when you’re frustrated.

Faith is trusting what God says while waiting to see what God does.

Faith keeps trusting God’s promises that light is coming while pressing forward in utter darkness.

Faith loads up our truckload of burdens and drives them to the Lord to be dropped off so that we don’t have to carry them anymore.

Faith does not get frustrated with God but instead brings frustrations to God.

Faith is always trusting a God that you do not always understand.

Faith is letting God be your lightning rod to ground out the storms in your life.

Faith is what keeps you going when what you read in the Bible and see in the culture are completely at odds.

Faith has a lot more to do with trusting God than understanding Him.

Faith values relationship with God over resolution of life’s problems.

Faith is trusting what you read in the Word until you see it in the world.

Even the most mature believers hit rough patches with God. Habakkuk brings his frustrations to God not so much to find resolution but to build his relationship with the only one worth having faith in.

Is there a particular area of your life in which you are currently struggling to trust God? How can you bring that burden to God?

There are many ways in which frustrated people respond to the corrupted aspects of culture. Instead of turning to God, some rely on themselves or simply give into the temptation around them. We see five ungodly responses to the world’s cyclical problems in Habakkuk 2:2–5 (ESV):

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. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. 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.”

Five Ungodly Responses to Evil

I’m my own king.
These people are described in Habakkuk 2:2–5 as prideful since their “soul is puffed up” and they are “arrogant.” Are you a person who won’t submit to the culture or God’s Kingdom but has instead set up your life as your own little kingdom and yourself as your own little king?

I’m my own savior.
Not trusting that God will protect or provide, these people seek to be their own savior and are constantly working frantically with stress and duress because they are never at rest. Are you a person who has more faith in yourself than in God? Have you set up your life in such a way that even if God does not come through, you will be fine because you can take care of yourself?

I’m choosing culture over Kingdom.
There are always cultural compromisers, including those who have new interpretations of the Bible that allow them to tolerate and celebrate what God commands us to hate. These people are spoken of in Habakkuk 2:2–5. Such people, we are told, are crooked in their hearts and minds which are, “not upright.” Are you a person who has caved into the pressures of culture (including social media) so that you do not have to change your behavior or encourage anyone else to do the same?

I’m avoiding reality.
Admittedly, the world often stinks and seems ready to be flushed down the drain. Anyone who pays attention to all of the human suffering and evil in the world will quickly find themselves overwhelmed, discouraged, and anxious to some degree. Nonetheless, the wrong response is to avoid reality and just keep self-medicating with everything from entertainment to food, sex, gambling, shopping, drugs, and alcohol. Are you avoiding reality and your social responsibility to help others?

I’m going to benefit myself.
When foolishness overtakes wisdom, the opportunists find a way to profit from the pain of others. According to Habakkuk 2:2–5, these people are marked by “greed,” because this type of person “never has enough,” and so he or she constantly “gathers for himself.” Are you someone who is taking advantage of foolish, hurting, or vulnerable people who are easy prey for your gain at their pain?

For the believer, there is also a sixth and righteous path called faith that we will examine next.

Do any of these five wrong responses to a corrupt culture explain any aspect of your life? What changes need to be made?

The book of Habakkuk opens using the following words to describe the political, moral, and spiritual condition of the culture more than 2,500 years ago: violence, iniquity, wrong, destruction, strife, contention, the law is paralyzed, justice never goes forth, the wicked surround the righteous, and justice perverted.

Sound familiar?

Nowadays, if you watch the news, listen to talk radio, or scan the comments sections on blogs and social media, you’ll find total strangers seeking to set one another on fire publicly. You’ll quickly understand that even though time has marched on, godliness has not come along for the ride.

Most of the time, a prophet speaks a word from God to the people. In Habakkuk, the prophet speaks to God on behalf of the few godly people remaining. His questions (1:2–3) are the same ones any frustrated person continues to ask:

“How Long?”

“Why?”

Amazingly, God actually answers him – twice! Imagine the next time you are checking the news or social media and ask yourself, “What would it be like if God actually jumped in and answered a few questions?” That’s what happens in Habakkuk.

To understand the point of God’s answers, we must examine Habakkuk 2:2–5 (ESV):

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. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. 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.”

The problem in every culture is that people do not have a vision for God’s Kingdom. One day, there will be no more churches, nations, elections, wars, sins, or tears. One day, King Jesus is returning to set up His eternal Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the way that the world is supposed to be and will be when sinners and their sins are all dealt with once and for all. Once we have a vision of God’s Kingdom written down in the Scriptures, we then have a vision by which to judge our own culture and our lives within that culture. In this way, the Christian life is to be lived Kingdom down, not culture up, which is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9–10 ESV).

Do you spend more time and energy focused on the sinful culture or on God’s eternal Kingdom? What aspects of your life are not currently being lived in congruence with God’s Kingdom and identity for you?

Anytime you turn on talk radio, the same thing happens call after call and day after day. People call in, vent their frustration with everything from politics to economics, and rant about how unjust the world is since the bad guys are winning while the good guys are weeping. How amazing would it be if God actually sat in as a guest host to take calls and answer questions? What would He say? How would He respond? In the ancient book of Habakkuk, this scenario essentially happens. A man named Habakkuk unleashes all of his venting, ranting, and complaining to God about crooked politicians, greedy business leaders, and nasty celebrities. And, shockingly, God takes his call and enters into a brutally honest conversation.

I grew up in a car family that spent many weekends in the pits watching stock car races. My older brother even raced in the quarter mile. If you’ve spent any time in a race car, you understand the force that launches you back in your seat as the car explodes from a stationary position. Habakkuk’s introduction is like that. Some books of the Bible start with a warm introduction and heartfelt prayer. Instead, the frustrated author unleashes all of his ranting to God right from the start. Immediately, we, in the passenger seat, are thrown back and need to hold on for the high-octane ride that is before us.

Here’s how Habakkuk begins in 1:2–4 (ESV):

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.

Habakkuk was frustrated that the bad guys were winning while the “good” guys were weeping. The honest to God book that he penned recounts God’s answers to his questions about why things were so bad and how long God would let the world circle the drain before getting involved. In this first devotional in Habakkuk, we examine what it really means to live by faith – especially when you are frustrated with a world that is falling apart.

When will be a good time to sit down and read Habakkuk in one sitting this week?