Habakkuk is an interesting man. We know little about him. He was a prophet of the Lord. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah in all likelihood and was writing to warn the people of God about the invasion of Judah by the Babylonians, well before they rose to power. And he struggled with a moral dilemma.
There was sin going unpunished, the oppression of Judah by her leaders. He has been pleading for God to act, for the God of justice to show justice, but he hasn’t seen it and he wonders why God is being idle. I’ve got to admit, I know where he is coming from. All you have to do is watch the news and you can wonder, where is the God of justice.
Now the section in between our lessons today is God’s response to Habakkuk. He says, basically I am doing something even though you don’t notice it. I am at work right now, but you aren’t going to like what I’m doing. God says that he is raising up the Babylonians to come and deal with the injustice in Judah.
Now a word about the Babylonians. This was no lover of justice or of the Lord. They were a cruel and violent nation. This made no sense to Habakkuk.
Why would you use a wicked nation to punish a less wicked one? How can you even look at that sinful people, let alone use them to judge a people who still had a righteous, faithful remnant? How can God allow His people to suffer?
Again these are difficult questions.
God responds again in chapter 2. He tells Habakkuk to write down the vision that he will give so that all can see, but while the vision will be revealed, it will have to wait for its completion. It may take a while, but be patient. God’s people are going to have to trust him.
Why?
Because the righteous shall live by faith. The author of Hebrews tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The righteous are those who have been made right with God.
In effect God is telling Habakkuk, and telling us, that my people will trust that I haven’t abandoned them even though it seems like it. Even though you have had hard leaders and I am going to bring in even worse people to judge them, trust me.
Now this verse takes on a whole new meaning in the NT. In fact, 3 times it is directly quoted by NT authors. And each time it helps our understanding of this verse, of how we are to live by faith.
The first place is in Romans 1:17. Paul is talking unpacking the gospel and God’s righteousness. He tells us in verse 16 that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The gospel is more than just a mere message, it is the power of God revealed to everyone, the revelation that God is in control.
And in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, that is goes forth from God and as it is given to sinners who believe, it shows his nature, that it begins with faith and is lived out by faith, because the righteous shall live by faith.
Our right standing with God begins and is continued by faith in what Jesus did for us not by what we do. And since it is lived out by faith, we need faith to live each and every day. So often I think we think that when we came to Christ we believed by faith and we set that up on a shelf in our hearts but we don’t allow that reality to transform how we live.
And that is what God truly desires, transformed lives. People who don’t live the same way they used to and are seeking to depend on Christ daily for everything in their lives.
So let’s look at the second quote of this, Galatians 3:10-14.
Paul says that if you want to follow the Law for your salvation that you are going to be under a curse if you can’t fulfill all of it. And none of us can. Even one sin nullifies all of the right stuff you have done. You can’t be justified then by trying to keep the law, but “the righteous shall life by faith”. Faith that Christ is sufficient to make you right with God.
So to live by faith here is to depend not on what you can do to measure up to the law, but to rely on what Christ did in fulfilling the law and by taking up the curse that we deserve on the cross. We are able to receive the Holy Spirit, the presence of God himself in us through what Christ did for us on the cross.
Now let’s look at Hebrews 11:38-39. Again, faith in Jesus Christ is not a one time thing. It is a way of living and because of that, we are called to persevere. We all go through rough patches in our life. Seasons where we look that our situation and we wonder where is God in the midst of this.
And all too often we have to make a decision in those situations, will I walk by faith or will I shrink back and depend on my flesh? Will I remember what Christ has done for me or will I only look at my situation and act based on it?
The righteous shall live by faith. They will push through those hard times and honor God in them. They will have faith that even though it doesn’t seem like it, God is with them.
But how much faith do you need? How much faith is enough? Jesus tells us in our Gospel today.
The disciples were complaining once again, this time that they needed more faith. Jesus tells them “if you have faith as big as a grain of mustard seed, you can tell a mulberry tree to get up and plant yourself in the sea and it would obey.”
Here Jesus is saying that if you have even the tiniest bit of faith, the amount of faith it takes to say yes to him and to follow him, than you can tell a tree to replant itself. You can do anything. Well almost anything.
Because as Jesus continues on, he tells us that servants do what they are commanded, they do their duty. What is our duty? What are we obligated to do?
As we learned, it isn’t to keep the law. It is following him daily, embracing out salvation daily and persevering daily. In short it is being obedient to him, not to save us, but because of what he has done for us.
Each and every day we are called to live by faith, to trust God, for our salvation and for all the needs of our life. We are called to trust him in the good times and the bad times.
It is much easier to do that when it feels like everything is going your way, when you are certain that God is pouring out blessings on you. It is much harder to do that when things aren’t going so well.
It is hard to walk by faith when life is a challenge, when work is difficult, when your family life seems more like a battle ground than home, when the thought of dealing with others makes you want to hide.
In those hard times and hard places and difficult decisions in your life, be obedient. Weigh everything against Scripture and seek good Godly council.
That is what Habakkuk did. He went right to the source, God, and called out to Him and God answered him. Not in the way he hoped, but he answered. And what was his response? Was it to sulk or to keep looking for another answer?
No, he rejoiced in the Lord. And that is what we are to do. Have the faith that God will act in what ever situation we are going through and rejoice not in the situation, but in the faithfulness of God.
This is the final 3 verses of Habakkuk:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV)
Take joy in the God of your salvation.
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