How Long: Habbakuk Chapter 2
Welcome back to week TWO of our Miniseries on Habakkuk, friends!! I have to be honest since starting the book of Habakkuk I have become so in awe of God’s timing as I myself have needed to hear these reminders in MANY areas of my life. This is actually ironic because this entire miniseries is talking about just that! Last week we focused on Habakkuk’s first and second complaints where we get to witness and remind ourselves of the character of God that allows for us to trust not in our circumstances, but in the God of our circumstances. Through our different waiting periods of life, we get to believe that God will be faithful to his promises because that is who he is! Anyone heard the song “Promises” by Maverick City?!
So as we head into chapter two this week, we get to talk about the reflections and points I have taken away from reading the Lord’s answer to Habakkuk’s complaints. From the beginning of chapter 2 verse 2, we see God’s answer not only come as a command but also as a message of hope.
The end of verse 2 leads us to a challenge. “So that a herald may run with it.” The original Hebrew translation translates the word “herald” to “run”, so really God is calling Habakkuk to run and preach to those around him. But, if we look at the original definition of “preach” is to proclaim loudly. How often do we run and proclaim loudly the goodness of God? Maybe not as often as we would like. But that is what Boldly Seeking is all about, it’s about growing in bold faith to run and proclaim the goodness of God to all of those around us.
Verses 2 and 3 show different attributes of God’s character. Verse 2 gives us a picture of the eternal and timeless nature of God. Whereas verse three not only shows us God’s faithfulness but his trustworthiness and reliability. These three attributes are ones that I am sure we all look for or see in our best friend. We have an eternal best friend in Jesus, who not only is a God of promises, but is trustworthy, reliable, and faithful. At the very end of verse three, we read, “it will certainly come and will not delay.” This is the beautiful promise of the promised child that will one day come to deliver the nations. We know that God did fulfill that promise. Just as believers were waiting for the promised Messiah to come, so we also wait for the final fulfillment of this promise. Jesus’ return to earth.
“The people of God are characterized by waiting. We are a people who wait for our God. In the waiting, we may not understand. And yet, we can trust Him.” We are called to wait, yet, why do we have a difficult time waiting? The easy answer, because we live in a “yes” world. We live in a society where we can have all the answers in a split second just from the palm of our hands. Yet, in faith, we don’t have all the answers. We don’t know when Jesus will come back, we don’t know when that promotion will come, or when that special someone comes along. But, in faith, we can believe that God is a God of promises and by faith, we will believe that he will be faithful to give us the answers at the right time. I always say, “God’s timing is always perfect, but never easy.” And how true is that? It’s a phrase I came up with in college at a very low point of my life, and still to this day, it is still so true in many areas of my life.
Then we lead into verse 4!
Verse 4, is THE verse of the whole book. You know when you read a book and you think, this is the top of the mountain, the tipping point of the whole narrative? Well, friends, this is it! Verse 4 makes me so giddy because in one verse we have the entire gospel message. In the verse we have the word “puffed” this is in reference to pride which as we know is the “root of all sin.” So in this sentence, we are given the contrast of an unbeliever and a believer.
“The righteous person will live by his faithfulness.” This is the heart of the Scripture that ultimately leads to the heart of the gospel. To be righteous is to be right with God. For the people in Habakkuk’s time, this was putting their faith in the work of Jesus on the cross. For us, we are on the opposite side of the cross. We put our faith in the finished work of the cross. We are made righteous by faith and it is by faith that we live.
Verse 4 is the reminder for us of who we were, who we are, and what God desires for us.
As we head into verses 5-19, we reach the five woes of the Babylonians, and we will breakdown each one of them.
Verse 6: “Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion.” The first woe reflects becoming rich dishonestly and the parallel that wealth is not secure.
Verse 9: “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain…” The second woe reflects the gain of things unjustly, but it is this injustice that would lead to their undoing.
Verse 12: “Woe to him who builds a city of bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice.” The third woe is a reflection of a society built on violence, but it is in this section that we see the answer to all these woes, which is the promise that the whole world will be made holy. And as we see in Revelation 21 this will one day come true.
Verse: 14: “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies.” At first glance this woe may seem odd, in full we see the Babylonians who get their neighbors drunk and then shame them. Resulting in the fourth woe as an abuse of power. In this woe, we are given another parallel to the promise of God. Verse 16 we read about the cup from the Lord’s right hand which is parallel to Matthew 26:28, the communion cup. In verse 4 we see the message of the gospel, but in verse 16 we have the power of the gospel, the new covenant.
Our last woe is in verse 19: “woe to him who says to wood “come to life”, or to lifeless stone, “wake up.” The Babylonians were very materialistic people. This problem of idolatry was very present with the Babylonians as they would worship even the things they had created themselves. How often have we looked at other things rather than God, creating idols in our life?
The end of chapter 2 greets us with another affirmation of God’s character and shows us God’s sovereign hand. In reading chapter 2 of Habakkuk my favorite take away was this:
““Habakkuk has been reminded of who God is, and we need the same. We need to be reminded that our God is good and merciful, just and holy, in our weakness He came, we need the gospel to change our perspective and point us to the cross.” ”
At some point in our lives, we have all been Habakkuk, or even so the Babylonians. What stands true is the same God who never fails will never fail us. We need that reminder above and walk through life knowing we serve an incredible God who will always be faithful to what he promises!
Next week friends, we are wrapping up with the final chapter of Habakkuk and we get to see how Habakkuk follows the Lord’s answer and begins to shift his focus to an eternal perspective.
