Habakkuk Bible Study – Week 2: Living by Faith
A. Review Week 1 – The Prophet's First Complaint (1:1–11)
- Habakkuk opens with a raw complaint: “How long, Lord?” He sees injustice, violence,
and destruction.
- God’s surprising answer: He is raising up the Babylonians (Chaldeans) as an
instrument of judgment.
- This shakes Habakkuk’s understanding of God’s justice and character. My mom used
to say, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Habakkuk struggles to understand how God
can use a nation that he sees as more wicked than Judah to judge Judah. He is looking
at the world from his own limited perspective and not God’s perspective.
B. Habakkuk 1:12–17 – The Second Complaint: A Troubling Providence
“Why do You tolerate the treacherous?”
- Habakkuk is deeply troubled by God’s response: How can a holy God use a more
wicked nation (Babylon) to punish Judah?
- Verse 12: He affirms God’s eternal nature and covenant (Yahweh, my God, my Holy
One).
“Are you not from eternity, LORD my God? My Holy One, you (alt. Heb. “We”) will not
die.”
The first rhetorical question and answer in the verse offers us a perspective on the
nature of God. God is different from humanity in His existence—He is eternal. God is
different from humanity in His essence—He is holy.
God’s eternal nature means that He is not bound by the moment-by-moment perspective
that ties us to the here and now. Habakkuk is acknowledging that God has been involved
in the history of the people of God from ancient times. God did not just become involved
in the life of His people recently. He has always been involved. Habakkuk is not bothered
by God’s eternal existence. It doesn’t perplex Him.
There is an interesting variant in the Hebrew texts that we should note here. The MT has
“we” will not die, but another ancient scribal tradition has “You” will not die. Some
later scribes may have changed it because they did not like associating the idea of death
with God. Here we find God at work in both the texts. It is true that God continues to
exist without death. But, the translation “we” can also be seen to look at the reality that
because God does not die, He is able to keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. God was back in the past with our ancestors when He started all of this and He is
here in the present despite our trials and difficulties! Habakkuk can handle this…
But, it is the reality of God’s holiness that aggravates Habakkuk’s problem. The prophet
understood that God’s holiness called for the punishment of sinful Judah, but how could
God use the sinful Chaldeans to do it?
“LORD, you appointed them to execute judgement; my Rock, you destined them to
punish us.” God’s punishment is corrective, not punitive. He is “my Rock.” He is constant
in His dealings with His people Nothing can change either his character or His purposes
for His people.
This is an acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. God is in charge. Next Habakkuk
appeals to God’s purity, God’s essence.
- Verse 13: God’s purity (“too pure to look on evil”) clashes with what Habakkuk sees
happening. He tries to use reason to wrestle with mystery. It doesn’t make sense to the
prophet. We see through a glass darkly. We are not always going to understand
everything in life…
“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do
you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are you silent while one who is wicked
swallows up one who is more righteous than himself?”
- Verses 14–17: Graphic lament—Judah is like fish, and the Babylonians are fishermen
who worship their net (their military strength). How can God be glorified through this?
! Insight: This complaint is not rebellion, but relational prayer. Habakkuk brings his full
emotional honesty before God.
C. Habakkuk 2:1–5 – Waiting and Living by Faith
- 2:1: The prophet takes his stand to wait for God's response.
- The prophet was eager. He was determined to wait for God to provide some
satisfactory explanation of his bewilderment. He stood on his watchtower and basically
said, “Let’s wait and see…” He intended to keep a lookout, to keep his eyes open. He
also intended to keep his ears open so that he would not miss the answer that he was
confident would come. God didn’t disappoint him. (John Phillips)
- 2:2–3: God commands him to write the vision plainly—judgment is coming, but it will
not delay.
- When the answer came, it was threefold. The Holy Spirit spoke to the prophet about
the truth of God, the timing of God, and the trustworthiness of God.
- Regarding the Truth of God (2:2)
- Habakkuk was told to write the vision, and make it plain upon tables (presumably
tablets set in public places for all to read), that “he may run who reads it.” The idea is
that the message was to be written clearly and simply so that those reading it could
swiftly relay it to others.
- Regarding the Timing of God (2:3)
- “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie.
Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late.”
- The immediate reference here seems to be to BOTH the coming of the captivity and to
end of the captivity. God is never doing just one thing. The principle involved in this
verse applies to many of the prophecies in Scripture. Their fulfillment often seems to
be remarkably slow, giving scoffers ample time to exhibit their unbelief. But God’s clock
is much bigger than ours. Prophecies regarding the first coming of Christ took many
centuries to be fulfilled, but in the end all of them were proven accurate to the letter!
- Prophecy also often has an early, partial, illustrative fulfillment and a later, complete,
detailed fulfillment. Prophecies concerning the second coming of Christ have
slumbered in the womb of time for thousands of years. Today they are stirring all
around us. Jesus’s appearing is nearer than its ever been and He will return literally
and physically.
- Regarding the Trustworthiness of God (2:4)
- In 2:4a we find that the Lord knew about the Babylonian deceit and pride: “Look, his
ego is inflated; he is without integrity.” Older English translation: “His soul which is lifted
up is not upright.” During Habakkuk’s time Babylon was just rising to prominence, but
prophetically they were already just a historical memory.
- 2:4b: “But the righteous one will live by his faith(fulness).”
A hinge verse in the book.
This is the full answer to Habakkuk’s questions. The LORD’s statement recorded here
has echoed down through the centuries. It put all divine-human relationships on a
higher plane: “The just shall live by his faith.” This statement, which is quoted verbatim
three times in the New Testament (Roman 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38), is the
key to the book of Habakkuk and the key to God’s dealings with humanity in every age.
God is simply saying, “Trust me!”(John Phillips)
- The Hebrew: faithfulness, firmness, steadfastness—not just belief, but reliability in
relationship.
- The accents in the Hebrew place the emphasis on the words translated “shall live.” To
reflect this emphasis, Habakkuk 2:4b could be translated, “The just one by his faith
shall live.” In this word order the contrast is not between faith and unbelief, but
between perishing and living forever (John 3:16). In the NT there are different
emphases each time the verse is quoted:
1. Romans 1:17 – Emphasizes faith as the means of justification and ongoing Christian
living. Emphasis is on “the just.”
2. Galatians 3:11 – Stresses the impossibility of justification through the Law; we live
by trusting in the faithfulness of Jesus. Emphasis is on “faith.”
- Galatians verses that include “faith/faithfulness of/in Jesus Christ:” This is one of
my favorite translational anomalies:
• Gal. 2:16 – “...through the faith of Jesus Christ...”
• Gal. 2:20 – “...faith in the Son of God...”
• Gal. 3:22 – “...by faith in Jesus Christ...”
Galatians 3:11 – Not by Works, but by Trust:
“Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will
live by faith.” (Gal 3:11, CSB)
• Emphasis: Paul highlights that the law cannot justify anyone—it is only through
faith that one is counted righteous.
• Use of Habakkuk 2:4: As in Romans, Paul quotes it to show that justification
always depended on faith, not law observance.
Related Key Verses in Galatians (expanded):
1. Galatians 2:16 (CSB)
“And yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law
but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus.
This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of
the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.”
? Greek: d?? p?ste?? ??s?? ???st?? (can be translated “through faith in
Jesus Christ” or “through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ”).
2. Galatians 2:20 (CSB)
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The
life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.”
? Again, the phrase could be rendered “by the faithfulness of the Son of
God.”
3. Galatians 3:22 (CSB)
“But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise
might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.”
? Another instance of pistis Iesou Christou.
Interpretive Note:
• The phrase pistis Iesou Christou is grammatically ambiguous:
? Objective genitive: faith in Jesus Christ (our faith directed toward Him).
? Subjective genitive: faithfulness of Jesus Christ (His faithfulness toward
God, especially in the cross).
• Preferred rendering for teaching:
“Trust in the faithfulness of Jesus.”
This phrasing honors both the covenantal obedience of Christ (Rom. 5:19) and
our response of faith, seeing Jesus not just as the object of belief, but the faithful
One who secures salvation.
3. Hebrews 10:38 – Highlights endurance through faith, just before the “hall of faith” in
chapter 11. The emphasis is on “live”… The writer of Hebrews was pointing to the
reality that if we are to “live” we must trust Jesus from beginning to the very end.
- Beyond the pages of the Bible, Habakkuk 2:4b made history with a vengeance, since it
brought about the conversion of Martin Luther. he was seeking plenary indulgence for
his sins by crawling on his knees up “Pilate’s Staircase” in Rome while saying the
required prayer to the Virgin Mary on each step when this verse came to him like
thunder in his soul! Luther was trying to earn his salvation by works. This sparked the
Protestant Reformation and set the trajectory that eventually resulted in the 20th
century Pentecostal movement. Luther’s anxiety was relieved as he realized he wasn’t
trusting in himself, but Christ as Savior! (John Phillips)
Conclusion: What Does It Mean to Live by Faith?
1. Faith is Trusting in God’s Character, Not Just His Plan.
• Habakkuk wrestled with how God was working, but he never doubted who God
was.
• In times of confusion, we rest in God’s eternality, holiness, and faithfulness.
2. Faith Is Honest Before God.
• Habakkuk brought his full heart to God—his confusion, pain, and questions.
• Real faith doesn’t avoid hard questions. It brings them into relationship with God.
3. Faith Waits on God’s Timing.
• “Though it delays, wait for it…”
• God’s clock is bigger than ours. Whether it’s justice, healing, provision, or Christ’s
return—He will come.
4. Faith Is Anchored in Jesus’s Faithfulness.
• We are justified and sustained not by our own works or perfection, but by trusting
the Faithful One.
• As Galatians makes clear, our righteousness is rooted in His perfect obedience.
Final Application Questions:
• Where are you struggling to understand God’s timing or methods?
• How can Habakkuk’s honesty and waiting shape your prayers this week?
• Are you trying to earn peace or righteousness by your efforts—or trusting in the
faithfulness of Jesus?
• What would it look like for you to take your place on the watchtower and wait in
trust this week?
“The righteous one will live by his faith.”
Let that be not just a doctrine—but a daily way of life.
