Habakkuk: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith| Guest Speaker: David Russ

Welcome to Christ the Redeemer Church of Marietta.

My name's David Russ.

I'm filling in for our pastor Russ Masterson while he's on sabbatical.

We're very we've made a commitment as a congregation to allow him and his family this time every year to go off and be with themselves, and so we're we're praying this will be a refreshing season for them, and of course we look forward to their return.

Well, if you're like me, 2020 has really seemed like a disaster movie so far.

And there's a scene in a disaster movie that I think well illustrates a key principle from today's passage.

In 2005, Steven Spielsberg made an updated version of the science fiction classic War of the Worlds by H.

G.

Wells.

And in this movie, Ray Farrier, played by Tom Cruise, and no, I didn't think I'd ever use Tom Cruise in a sermon illustration.

Ray Farrier, played by Tom Cruise, has taken his kids to his ex-wife's house, and in a scary scene at night, this giant airplane comes and crashes right out in front of their house.

And Ray is concerned that his daughter, Rachel, is going to get completely undone by the scene of devastation.

So here's what he says, hopefully this will work.

Here's what he says when he's taking her out to his car.

There are times when our senses tell us that we're in a situation that's messed up beyond belief or comprehension, and we can feel hopeless.

But in those times, if we put our eyes on, focus on someone outside ourselves, we can make it through.

We're continuing a series in an Old Testament book of Habakkuk.

And I've gotten blamed for taking us through this book.

It's not completely my fault.

It was a group decision, it wasn't just me.

And we've had this whole discussion about how to even pronounce it.

Okay, so I cheated and I asked a Jewish friend of mine, and he told me that I guess in Hebrew it's kind of something like Habakkuk.

But I'm going to stick with Habakkuk.

The Jewish prophet Habakkuk probably wrote this book around 600 BC.

And at that time, the nation of Judah was sandwiched in between two superpowers: Egypt to the south, which was a threat to Judah, but wasn't really harassing them all that much, and Assyria to the north, who was both vicious and ambitious.

And then in 605 BC, something unprecedented and something huge happened.

The Babylonians defeated, decisively defeated, both the Assyrians and the Egyptians in a battle.

Now, given their history, this probably seemed like good news to the Jewish people.

But as we'll see, it was anything but.

Inside Judah, the righteous reign of Josiah had been replaced by the wicked reign of his son Jehoiakim.

And Habakkuk was grieved by the wickedness that he saw around him, and he poured out his grief to God.

And this was what uh in the message that Brian gave two weeks ago.

That's what that was about.

And uh God's response was absolutely shocking.

God's response to all this injustice is that he's gonna use the Babylonians who had defeated both Egypt and Assyria.

He's gonna use the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and destroy the temple.

Now, uh in last week's passage, we heard from Brad, Habakkuk is just completely dumbfounded.

He's like, What are you talking about?

How can a good God allow this to happen?

Like, like, what on earth is up here?

And this week, we're gonna look in Habakkuk chapter 2 at God's response to Habakkuk's grief.

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

God assures Habakkuk that he will judge Babylon, and in the middle of talking about judgment, he gives some beautiful promises to Habakkuk, to the Jewish nation, and to us.

So let's start with verses two through four.

Verses two through four of Habakkuk chapter two.

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.

In verses two and three, God tells Habakkuk to write the vision down.

Israel as a land is going to be devastated for a long period of time, beyond Habakkuk's lifetime.

And God wants to make sure that Habakkuk has recorded his promises so that future generations can benefit.

God needs to equip Israel through Habakkuk with a foundation of trustworthy promises so that Israel as a land can make it through this long and perplexing season of devastation.

This overarching theme, trust that God's promises will eventually be fulfilled, forms the backdrop to our passage, and it leads to our first point.

Our faith journey begins and ends with trust in God's faithfulness.

Our faith journey begins and ends with trust in God's faithfulness.

Habakkuk 2.4 says, the righteous shall live by his faith.

This is a very important and well-traveled Bible verse, as we're about to see.

The word faith here comes from a Hebrew root amunah, which means firmness or certainty.

It's where we get the word amen from.

In verses 2 and 3, God reminds Habakkuk that his promises are trustworthy, and our firmness or certainty in those promises leads to life.

This verse is a lot like Genesis 15, 6.

Genesis 15, 6 says, Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.

The word believed in Genesis is a form of Amunah.

It's the same word used in Habakkuk.

So Genesis says Abraham had certainty in God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Habakkuk is saying the righteous will live by his certainty.

Abraham started his faith journey with a trusting faith in God, and God counted it to him as righteousness.

Habakkuk is saying, when you're in that righteous state, the way you continue is with a trusting faith in God.

So the two verses are counterparts of each other.

Now my Jewish friend pointed out, there's an interesting commentary, the official commentary that the Jewish people have for the Old Testament is called the Talmud.

And in the Talmud, there's a commentary in there about this verse.

In the Old Testament, it turns out, there are, we think of Ten Commandments.

There's actually 613 commandments.

613 thou shalt's and thou shalt nots in the Old Testament.

And the scholars in the Talmud say that Habakkuk has taken those 613 and condensed it down to one.

The righteous shall live by his faith.

In the New Testament, Paul quotes this verse when he's talking about the gospel.

In Romans 1:17, Paul says, In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by his faith, quoting Habakkuk.

Romans 1:17

Through the gospel, when we trust in Christ's finished work on the cross, our sin is placed on Jesus.

And Jesus' perfect righteousness is given to us.

And Paul is saying that idea is not a novel or new idea.

We actually see that in the life of Abraham.

Abraham had faith, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

We have faith in Christ, and we receive Christ's perfect righteousness.

This verse in Habakkuk, as quoted in Romans, has actually had a profound impact on history.

There was a Roman Catholic monk who struggled for years with what does it take to be righteous before God?

And he read the words quoted here: the righteous shall live by his faith.

And those words rang like a bell in his head.

Like Jewish scholars, he found this verse to be central.

The monk was Martin Luther.

And this verse from Habakkuk, as quoted in Paul, arguably launched the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther would later say, in the same moment, the face of the whole of Scripture became apparent to me.

This passage from Paul became to me the very gate of paradise.

Notice what God is saying.

The righteous shall live by their faith.

He's not saying the righteous will live by good deeds or by courage.

The key to life is a trust or a confidence in someone outside ourselves.

In this passage, the ones who are full of self-courage and confident action are the Babylonians, whom God is about to destroy.

God's discourse to Habakkuk continues in what's called a taunt.

Five woes pronounced against Babylon in judgment.

Habakkuk had wondered how a good God could use an evil enemy like Babylon to punish Israel.

And part of the answer here is that God acknowledges that the Babylonians are evil.

And I'm going to skip down to the third woe in verses 12 through 14.

Verses 12 through 14.

Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds the city on iniquity.

Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that the people labor merely for fire and the nations wear themselves for nothing?

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Babylon is pridefully building their city with bloodshed, that is, with plunder and slave labor.

This is implicit contrast to Jerusalem, which is about to be destroyed.

God's people will be trampled down.

God's power is going to seem limited, but that's not the last word.

Verse 14 says, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

And this leads to our second point.

While we don't see it today, the world will someday be filled with an awareness of God's greatness and presence.

Glory here is a Hebrew word kavod, and it comes from a root meaning weight or weightiness.

So the glory of the Lord includes his greatness, his majesty.

In context, God is letting Habakkuk know that he's unmistakably sovereign over history and over the nations of the world.

You see, in 600 BC, Babylon was a magnificent city, probably the largest in the world at that time.

And yet, in short order, God would judge the Babylonians, overthrow the city of Babylon, and so the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, in the sense that the known world will see God's greatness over and above the Babylonians.

Now we see a great city like Babylon, or a large, successful business, or a huge house, and we're tempted to be impressed by its greatness, and maybe even tempted, as the Babylonians were, to do whatever it takes to build it up.

But it's when we see God's greatness that we see how short-lived and small our earthly accomplishments.

However, in the New Testament, an even richer meaning of this verse emerges.

In a passage that directly echoes Habakkuk, Paul in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, says, For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

The same phrase is in Habakkuk.

But how does God give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God?

By destroying a city?

No.

He gives the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The knowledge of the glory of God will really fill the earth in Jesus, in his person, in his finished work, and in his salvation.

God's glory is made visible when he destroys and judges evil kingdoms like the Babylonians, but even more so when the God of the universe steps down into human history to save his people.

Through the church, Jesus is in the process even now of filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

God continues his taunt of Babylon, and in the fifth woe, in verses 18 through 20, he talks about Babylon's idolatry.

What prophet is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in his own creations when he makes speechless idols.

Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake, to a silent stone, arise.

Can this teach?

Behold, it's overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.

But the Lord is in his holy temple.

Let all the earth keep silence before him.

Babylon worships a slew of idols who can't talk, and yet these so-called gods will seem to have triumphed over God's people when Jerusalem and the temple is destroyed.

But that's not the last word.

Verse 20 says, The Lord is in his holy, that is his heavenly temple.

Let all the earth keep silence before him.

There's an implicit irony here.

The Babylonians were making these silent idols, and yet they themselves would be silent before the God of the universe.

But not just the Babylonians.

Those who trust and love and worship God like Habakkuk will also be silent.

A reverent and respectful silence, but also a humble and patient and trusting silence.

Habakkuk doesn't need to complain or doubt or even pour out long prayers.

He can rest, knowing that God will intervene in history to deliver his people.

And that leads to our last point.

God's unshakable presence in his heavenly temple tells us that we can confidently trust in God's purposes even when we don't understand his ways.

Habakkuk was seeing the future, that God would use Babylon to destroy Jerusalem, and then God would destroy Babylon, and that God would preserve his people, prompting them in exile to write down not only Habakkuk's words, but most of what we now call the Old Testament.

God preserved his people, and in the midst of them, he sent his son to earth in the final and fullest expression of his love.

I don't know how much that Habakkuk can see, but his trust in God was not misplaced.

In our day, we're tempted to despair.

The world we've known seems to be a thing of the past.

In the midst of illness and a craving for social justice, our senses seem to be telling us that God is not in charge.

Like Habakkuk, we need to trust and rely on God's promises.

We may need a season of silence and awe and trust that God will intervene.

We may also need a season of action, with God's promises supplying us the courage to act.

We don't know what will happen next.

We have no idea what will happen next.

But we do know how this story ends.

The Lord is in his holy temple, and the earth will be filled with a knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Let's pray.

Father God, I thank you for Habakkuk, for your faithful prop prophet, who recorded the bad news as well as the good news.

A prophet who faithfully did as you told him and wrote down your promises.

And we thank you that we have those precious promises made more sure by your son coming to earth and dying for our sins.

And in our day, in our season of confusion and despair, we feel helpless.

We feel like things are out of control.

And they are out of our control, but they're in your control.

We pray that we can look at your promises and look on your face and look at the face of Christ and in them see your faithfulness.

And that you would convey us through this season of despair until we all come to that day when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord fills the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Amen.