Habakkuk was in a vigilant posture (Hab.2:2-4). He was fully expecting a response from the Most High to his prayer. The prophet's words had bordered on impudence in conversation with the Almighty. It had been suggested that the Holy One surely could not stand by in silence as heathen atrocities were unleashed against a guilty (but less wicked) Israel. The prophet fully anticipated being corrected by God himself.

The man of God who prayed for his nation's salvation was not disappointed. Jehovah 'answered' him (Hab.2:2) quite soon. Yet, to his surprise, there was no note of rebuke from the Lord. Out of the prophet's wrestling 'embrace'¹ with God was to come a revelation central to the message of Scripture.

The Nature of the Bible⤒🔗

God spoke with Moses 'face to face, even plainly' (Num. 12:6). In the same way the Father spoke to his Son who dwelt in his bosom (1 Cor. 13:12, John 1:18). However, to many the Lord made himself known 'in a vision' or 'in a dream' (Num. 12:6). The Lord's answer to Habakkuk came in the form of 'vision'. God's first words to him were a command to 'write the vision' (Hab. 2:2) which was about to begin. The God of the whole earth designed a written revelation of himself and of his purposes which would provide mankind with his own mind disclosed in written human words. He was consciously authoring Scripture. Therefore all its sayings are God-breathed.

The product of this book of Habakkuk is not an offering of man's own original thought, nor did it originate from his own will (2 Pet. 1:20-21). It was from the Lord's initiative that Habakkuk wrote. The message was given to him in a vision by the will of God. Consequently, as with all Scripture, this book contains qualities that mere human writings cannot reflect.

God is concerned here, as everywhere else in the Bible, about the clarity of his revelation. 'Make it plain' (Hab. 2:3). Many ancient religions were 'mystery sects'. These claimed to have truth, but their writings were encrypted. Only the initiated had the secret code by which to understand the truth. God spoke in such a way as to be understood plainly. He was not hiding secrets. Jesus said, 'What you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops' (Matt. 10:27). The church is the 'pillar of the truth' (1 Tim. 3:15), holding its teachings aloft for all to see.

A modern version of mystery religions is found in the suggestion that no ordinary person can read the Bible and understand it. We must have scholars who unlock the truth through their studies of archaeology, ancient history, or poetic forms that hide the real meaning. This takes the Bible away from the common man and makes him fully dependent on the priesthood of the academic community. Through this method a different interpretation is today placed on the very doctrine Habakkuk was to write plainly,² so that messengers who run may read it to the multitudes (Hab. 2:2).

Also God asserts the complete reliability of his Scripture. 'It will not lie' (Hab. 2:3). There is nothing deceptive in God's words. As Jesus taught, 'the Scripture cannot be broken' (John 10:35). In the Bible is no mixture of error with truth. 'It will surely come' (Hab. 2:3). It will come to pass as it was spoken. The glory of man (his scholarship and theories) will wither and fall away, 'but the word of the Lord endures forever' (1 Pet. 1:24-25).

The Profound Revelation to Habakkuk←⤒🔗

Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just, through his faith, will live.Habakkuk 2:4

There are only two kinds of men who have ever lived on the earth: men of pride and men of faith. This contrast is the key to history which unlocks the meaning of every generation living on the earth. Into this statement are swept all of the Old Testament and New Testament eras.

1. The proud person is not upright and thus is destined to die.
2. The just shall live through his faith.

There are three contrasts either stated or implied between the two categories of men:

1. The proud is contrasted with the believing (person of faith).
2. The 'not upright' (or unjust) is contrasted with the just.
3. One is destined to die, the other to live.

It is this contrast between pride and faith on which our Lord Jesus expanded in his teaching of justification. As our Saviour observed people 'who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others' (Luke 18:9), he taught the parable of 'two men who went up to the temple to pray'. The Pharisee did not really pray to God, but 'with himself'. True prayer to God arises out of a sense of personal inadequacy which relies upon God for help. Instead the Pharisee boasted to God of his superiority to other men and of his religious achievements (Luke 18:11-12).

In evident contrast the tax collector hesitated to draw near to God, because his conscience was smitten with guilt and shame. He confessed that he was 'the sinner', pleading with God to be propitiated (or appeased) toward him through the appointed sacrifice (Luke 18:13).

Whereas the Pharisee was self-confident and self-assertive before God, the tax collector had 'no confidence in the flesh' (Phil. 3:3). He relied entirely on God's pardoning grace through a sacrifice which satisfied divine justice with respect to his sins. Because the tax collector trusted only in God for pardon, he 'went down to his house justified' (Luke 18:14). His justification was immediate in the sight of God upon his expression of faith. Our Lord added to his teaching the principle which explains human experience: 'For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted' (Luke 18:14). Pride is the precise opposite of faith, as Habakkuk has written plainly.

Furthermore, the apostle Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4 as the theme of his great Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 1:17). He also noted the text as a decisive one in Galatians 3:11. In both epistles Paul is demonstrating the only way for men to be justified by God. Pride only shows a clinging to the essence of sin. The proud soul 'is not upright' (Hab. 2:4). It is 'through faith' that men become 'just' (Hab.2:4).

Paul explicitly states that conclusion in Romans 10:9-10, 'If you … believe in your heart that God has raised Him (Jesus the Lord) from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness…' The righteousness which God declares some men to have, they receive only through faith. It is not their personal righteousness but the righteousness of another which is put to their account. Of course, his epistle triumphantly explains that 'the gift of righteousness' is 'through … Jesus Christ' (Rom. 5:1-21). 'THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS' is his name (Jer. 23:6)!

Those who do not utterly rely on Christ for righteousness but rely upon their own deeds will receive the wages of their sin which is death. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 5:2, 1; 6:26). Thus the great contrasts of Habakkuk are emphasized in the gospel era: pride versus faith, unrighteousness versus righteousness, and death versus life.

Habakkuk's Personal Context←⤒🔗

Habakkuk had sought God's reviving mercies for his nation, only to be told that a ferocious heathen empire would vandalize his people. The prophet longed for soon-to-appear blessings to his land and his temple. However, he, like saints of days long past, had to exercise faith. An expectation of immediate triumph requires less faith.

Abraham, for example, had to live most of his life without an heir, and never saw a numerous seed, though God had promised these blessings. He died, never having possessed the land of promise, nor the Seed in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He who 'believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness' (Gen. 15:6) nonetheless 'waited for the city … whose builder and maker is God' (Heb. 11:10). In Abraham, and in all his spiritual children, faith was 'the conviction of things not seen' (Heb. 11:1). Faith embraces the written, yet unfulfilled, promises of God's words.

In Habakkuk 2:3 the man of God is told that 'the vision' (unfolding before him) 'is for an appointed time'. It contained a promise for the Jews which was not intended for immediate fulfilment. Furthermore the written vision 'strives for the end' promised. Scripture is 'living and powerful' (Heb. 4:13). Not only can it penetrate to man's heart, as Hebrews tells us. 'It strives after the end' (Hab. 2:3) of which it speaks. God's Word moves history to the results he has promised, as surely as his creative word brought our world into being.

It is to confidence in this Word that Habakkuk, and we, are called when all appearances of our day seem to move in a contrary direction. This was the faith recorded of many in Hebrews 11. It must be our faith too. We are called to a faith that is based upon the Scripture alone, not upon news reports or the sight of present fulfillments.

Thus Habakkuk, and we, are told:

Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry!Habakkuk 2:3

Promises may seem delayed in our time, but there will be no tarrying of fulfilment in God's appointed time. Faith is always called upon to wait, rather than to have all blessings now. 'You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven' (1 Thess. 1:9-10).

Faith is not credulous, ready to latch on to every positive prediction for the future. The optimism of faith is founded upon God's character as it is revealed in his Word. We know that God can save 'by many or by few', as we were taught by Jonathan, son of Saul (1 Sam. 14:6). His infinite wisdom and power may reverse the fortunes of saints in a moment with little means. Our optimism is also established by precise promises in the Scriptures. Since the Lord has revealed, 'I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob' (Amos 5:8), we know that he never will.

There are ultimate outcomes which God has pledged. These, therefore, we believe, although all present circumstances seem to conspire against the fulfilment of divine revelation.

Because our faith (and therefore our optimism) is utterly reliant on Scripture, it must also be tempered by the same Scripture. God, in very dark times, stunningly revives true religion, so that all must admit that the event is supernatural. However, the Lord does not always do so, 'For whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights' (Prov.3:12)

In the Scripture, God's severe correction of his sons has even come during times when there lived saints with outstanding measures of grace. Yet he did not use their gifts to revive. As Habakkuk spoke of his dread of Babylon's crushing blows to Judah, still to come, he was speaking of times in which not only he, but also Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel lived. Yet their prayers and their faithful ministries were not employed in quickly accomplishing a revival that prevented severe chastisement.

We must recognize that our minds have been too caught up in a humanistic interpretation of the history of the church. Even Reformed people have succumbed to a man-centered view of revival. It is the view which suggests that if only we had a sufficiently spiritual leader doing the right things, then revival would break upon us. No! Great men of God have been called to serve in very dark hours which only became darker as they continued to be faithful. A conviction of the truth of God's promises yet unseen is great faith.

The result of a humanistic view of revival is that men point fingers at leaders during difficult times as being failures. The truth is that revival, although it comes by human means, is entirely reliant upon the divine will and power. This means that seeking revival cannot be the talk of lazy optimism. It must be the urgent pleading of the church which leads to it.

But we have to recognize also that it is not God's will to send this solution to the church's weakness in every age. We may be called upon to remain faithful in still darker times to come. We may have to 'wait' through very black eras for the bright promises to 'surely come' in God's perfect timing.

'The vision is yet for an appointed time' (Hab. 2:3). It is a time of the Lord's appointing.