January 19, 2026: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith - Habakkuk 1:12-2:20

Once again, it is a pleasure to be with you this morning as we

continue to look through the book of Habakkuk, this

three-week series entitled How Long?

O Lord? O Lord, How long will you idly

look at wrong? Last week we looked at

Habakkuk's first complaint as he surveyed the Kingdom of Judah.

He was heartbroken and in despair over the sinfulness of

those in charge who were oppressing their own people.

And so he cries out to God and says, God, won't you intervene,

do something. And God responds, says, I'm

raising up Babylon, that bitter and hasty nation.

They will come and judge Judah. Not exactly what Habakkuk had in

mind. And so today we will be looking

at Habakkuk's second complaint. He does not appreciate this news

from God. And God will respond once again

to Habakkuk. Now, as I was studying this

week, as I've been thinking about the book of Habakkuk, it

reminded me of of my sophomore year of high school playing

basketball. I've shared briefly in another

sermon a while ago about my athletic prowess as a courtesy

runner in baseball. Now, if you're not familiar,

when I was my Senior High School, I was my senior year, my

final year, I was our team's courtesy runner.

What that meant was when our pitcher or catcher got on base

to preserve them because they were more important, I subbed in

to run the bases for them. That was my job.

I did not hit. I did not play in the field.

I was the courtesy runner. Well, do you believe it or not,

my basketball career was probably worse than my baseball

career. So my sophomore year of

basketball in high school, I practiced with the varsity team.

Grueling practices every day in there, working hard, doing my

best, trying to help our varsity team get better.

When it came to game day, I had a spot right at the end of the

bench and there I sat supporting our team with encouragement, but

not with play. Didn't play at all.

Well, later on into the season, we were getting down to just a

few games left. It was in the fourth quarter,

there were about two minutes left and we were up by 30.

This was not one of those stories.

Guys, we're up by 30. And so with two minutes left, my

coach pointed to the last five guys on the bench and said OK go

in, Yes my time has come. So I go and I take a knee at the

check in table waiting for play to stop so that the Subs could

be sent in. Well the opposing coach saw

this. He had already taken his

starters out and their backups were in against our starters and

so when he saw that our Subs were coming in, he pointed to

his starters and he had them check in.

He's like this is our chance, might be able to score some

points here against the other teams backups.

My coach, for whatever reason, did not like this.

And so he pointed at each of us and said, go back and sit on the

bench up by 30 minute 40 left. So I get up from the table and I

walk back down the end of the bench and I keep on walking past

the bench. I was like, I'm done.

I'm not doing this anymore. One of our assistants said no,

wait, Matt, Matt, he called to me and he he had me sit down.

He's like, hey, there's only a minute 40 left.

Just sit. I understand you're upset.

I thought he had my back, but apparently in between that game

and the next practice he told my coach about this.

So I walk into practice the next day and coach says, Mr. Outlet,

I hear you have a problem with my coaching.

Needless to say, I didn't play a single second of that season as,

I guess, punishment for my wanting to get away.

But I tell that story because in that moment, I've worked so

hard. See no benefit.

I was frustrated and angry. I thought that relief was going

to come, that I would finally get a chance to play, only for

it to be taken from me at the last moment.

And so I cried out. How long, Oh basketball coach,

must I go to practice day after day and never see any benefits?

And so rather than talking to him about my frustrations, I

decided I was just going to bail.

Go the other direction. Now I'm curious how many of us

do that with the Lord that we cry out to Him and when we don't

get an answer or get an answer that we don't like, we decide

I'm going to take my ball and I'm going to go home.

I'm not going to do this anymore.

I'm done. And we go to other things, or we

rely on ourselves instead of going to God.

Well, in Habakkuk, Habakkuk chooses not to do that.

He chooses not to run. Instead, he chooses once again

to bring all of his fears, his angers, his frustrations, his

despairs to the Lord once again. So I want to encourage us today

to not grow weary in going to God.

Even when God doesn't respond or responds in a way that we don't

like, Continue to cry out to the Lord.

And that is what faith is all about, to trust in the Lord,

especially when we disagree or have no idea what He's doing.

And so let's look at together Habakkuk's second complaint, and

then we'll see how God responds. And we'll wrap up with some

application this morning. Habakkuk chapter 1, starting in

Habakkuk 1 · chapter mention

verse 12. Are you not from everlasting?

O Lord, my God, my holy one, we shall not die.

O Lord, You have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock,

have established them for reproof.

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look it

wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when

the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things

that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a

hook. He drags them out with his net,

He gathers them in his dragnet. So he rejoices and is glad.

Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his

dragnet, for by them he lives in luxury and his food is rich.

Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing

nations forever? I will take my stand up, my

watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see

what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my

complaint. Here we have Habakkuk second

complaints and his first He complained about the wickedness

of those in Judah. Here he complaints about the

wickedness of those in Babylon. And he cries out and says, how

God can you do this? How can you allow the wicked to

destroy those who are more righteous than them?

As we look a little deeper at this complaint, we notice that

the pattern of this complaint is very similar to the pattern of

Habakkuk's first complaint. And in fact, if you study the

Psalms and you look at psalms of lament, these psalms where folks

cry out to God in agony and in pain, a lot of these same

elements are repeated. Notice first, as in the first

one, that Habakkuk is crying out to Jehovah God the Lord.

Most lament psalms begin with an invocation, a calling out of

God's holy name. So again we see Habakkuk's faith

on display, that he is going to the one who is in control of all

things, the covenant keeping God of Israel.

That's who he goes to when the temptation is to go to lesser

things, right? But he cries out once again to

God, and as with his first complaint, he opens with this

question that he tosses out at God here in verse 12.

He says, are you not from everlasting?

This is a really interesting word, everlasting.

This is not actually a reference to God's eternality, though God

is eternal, but rather this references God's presence

throughout Israel's history. This word, in fact, is used in

places like Psalm 44 and Psalm 75, and in those places it's

translated days of old. In other words, Habakkuk's

complaint here Are you not from everlasting?

Is a reminder to God like he needs reminding, but a reminder

to God that in the days of old, God had preserved his people.

That's what this word references, that Habakkuk is

using this language to specifically address God's

preservation of his people. Think about in the Old Testament

how often we're called to remember.

Remember how God has previously worked to protect his people.

Think about Joseph and the famine.

You think about the Exodus. You think about the Jordan River

crossing and the walls of Jericho falling down.

And so Habakkuk is pleading to God and saying, you cannot

destroy your people. How can you do this?

That's why he says we shall not die.

God, I know that you've been faithful in the past.

It's a good reminder to us the Scriptures consistently, when we

are struggling with the present, call us to look to the past or

look to the future, not to the present.

If we get bogged down with the present, it becomes overwhelming

and we feel like we're hopeless. Instead, we are called to go and

look. What has God done before?

See how God has been faithful to His promises before.

And so Habakkuk is pleading with God to be faithful once again.

Next we see that Habakkuk cries out to the Lord in regards of

the oppression of the wicked against the righteous.

Obviously this time it is in reference to Babylon rather than

Judah's leaders. And again, he cries out to God

to see, to look at this wicked nation.

And he pleads, and this is sort of the highlight, the summary,

the end of verse 13. How can God remain silent when

the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

That's Habakkuk's biggest complaint.

He wants God to see, to look, to intervene and not allow the more

wicked people to oppress and destroy Judah.

Habeka then uses a word picture to describe the situation.

He describes Judah as a fish and he describes Babylon as the

fisherman. Sometimes I use the the terms

I'm the bug in this case, Babylon's the windshield.

Heard that before. Now is that an old my old?

I don't know, but he uses this word picture.

He describes Judah as the fish and he pictures Babylon as the

fisherman with the net and the hook and the dragnet capturing

up the nation of Judah. Really vivid picture, isn't it?

And you notice the response that Babylon gives in verse 16 to

gobbling people up, says therefore he that's Babylon

sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnets.

We saw in Habakkuk's first complaint that Babylon's God was

their own might. We see the same thing here, that

Babylon does not trust in God. Babylon trusts in their

mechanisms of war, their power to oppress and to capture and to

destroy, and so they worship their military might back.

It says How can this be? The employers got in verse 17

one final time. Will Babylon continue forever?

Is there no end to this? Is Babylon going to spend

eternity mercilessly killing nations?

Will no justice ever be found? And then Habakkuk does something

that's extremely wise. And this is how a lot of the

Psalms of Lament end, with a declaration of trust.

Look at chapter 2, verse one. Habakkuk says I will take my

stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and

look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer

concerning my complaint. Habakkuk uses another picture,

this time of a watchman at a watchtower looking out and

seeing keeping watch. This is often a picture that's

used to the prophets, that they are Watchmen who see, who hear

from the Lord and then pass on to the people.

And so Habakkuk says, I will stay at my post and hear what

you will say to me. He wants to know how to respond

to what God's going to do. So rather than being

presumptuous, he decides to be patient and wait on the Lord and

his quest for justice. Habakkuk wants to ensure that

what he believes aligns with the Lord.

And so he waits so that his response might be shaped by what

the Lord says. And we're going to see next week

that in response to what God has to say to him now, the book of

Habakkuk concludes with this beautiful Psalm of praise and

trust. He is waiting to see how the

Lord will answer this complaint. And so that leads us then into

God's response. Let's pick it up in Habakkuk

Habakkuk 2:2

chapter 2, verse 2 says, 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. Moreover, Wine is a traitor, an

arrogant man who is never at rest.

His greed is as wide as shield. Like death, he has never enough.

He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own

all peoples. This response of God can also be

broken up into three sections. Verses 2 and three contain the

prologue. Verses four and five are the

indictments against the charges against Babylon.

And then God's response closes in verse 6 through 20 with a

promise of judgment upon Babylon that they are in fact guilty and

God will judge them accordingly. Let's look first at the

prologue. Beautiful verses.

This is really at the heart of the book, these verses 2 through

5, but it's prologue, verses 2 and 3.

The Lord says write this vision, make it plain on tablets.

Take note of what I'm about to tell you.

This is important and it is important so that you may have

strength. He may run who reads it that it

might sustain you when you feel similar to how Habakkuk is

feeling that what the Lord is about to say.

It's meant to strengthen and encourage and build the faith of

those who would read it. I love verse 3.

This describes very accurately I feel, how a lot of us feel when

dealing with incredible times of difficulty.

For still the vision awaits. It's 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. Habakkuk has cried out.

Oh Lord, how long? How long?

Maybe you're in a similar position this morning when you

survey the world around us in the chaos.

How long? Maybe there's something that's

very close to you that you are wrestling with, and you're

crying out to God. How long?

What is God's response? If it seems slow, wait for it.

God's timing is not our timing. God is never late, that

everything will happen according to God's perfect plan at the

appointed time. There's so much assurance in

verse 3, isn't there? That God's plan will surely come

to pass. It will not delay.

And so He is asking Habakkuk to take heart.

He's asking His people to endure because his salvation will come.

And who will it come for? He says in verses 4:00 and 5:00.

Not the people like Babylon, right?

This is their indictment, that Babylon is puffed up, that

Babylon relies on themselves, their own might, their own

strength, their own power. That when things are difficult,

I am the one that I rely on. Nothing can defeat me, and

instead God says the righteous shall live by his faith.

It is only trust in God Almighty, the Maker of heaven

and earth, that will bring about deliverance, that these trials,

these pains, these sufferings are meant to refine the faith of

those who would trust in God. It is by faith that we are saved

and we are made righteous. Brilliant declaration from God.

Verse 5. God continues with the

indictments upon Babylon that they are arrogant, that they are

prone to whine, that they are greedy and like death.

They never have enough unless God intervenes.

Babylon is not going to stop that.

Babylon is going to continue to gather for himself all nations,

all peoples. Their thirst will never be

quenched unless the Lord intervenes.

Now verses 6 through 20. We do not have time to go

through them in depth, but verses 6 through 20 contain 5

woes, WOE for the people of Babylon.

This word woe is an important word in Scripture.

This woe speaks of coming grief and judgment.

We see Jesus pronounce woes upon the Pharisees during His

ministry. We also see in Revelation that

the whole earth receives God's woe.

That judgement is coming. And that's God's message for

Babylon, that they are guilty, that He will judge them

accordingly. Let's summarize these woes.

The first woe is called down upon Babylon because they

plunder other nations. Says in the middle of verse 6

Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own, that Babylon

destroys and kills and steals, commits violence against other

people. We see that in verse 8 that

because they plunder, God is going to judge them.

The second woe in verse 9 is called down about Babylon

because they plot to use their plunder to try and make

themselves secure. Says woe to him it gets evil

gain for his house to set his nest on high.

Babylon thought the more we accumulate the stronger we

become to the point that we are invulnerable.

Nothing could ever possibly defeat us.

That is their plot and their scheme, that if they have

enough, they will build a nest on high and will be

undefeatable. God says woe.

The third woe is called down upon Babylon, because they

oppress others for their own benefits.

Verse 12 Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and founds a

city on iniquity, as through this blood money that they have

made themselves great, this money obtained by victimizing

others to build their own might. Rather I love verse 14.

It is not the glory of Babylon that will fill the earth.

Rather the Lord declares, For the earth will be filled with

the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the

sea. It is the Lord's glory will fill

the earth, not Babylon's. The 4th Woe is called upon

Babylon because they live in debauchery.

Verse 15. Woe to him who makes his

neighbors drink. You pour out your wrath and make

them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness.

That the people of Babylon are perverted.

Ultimately in the book of Daniel we see Babylon's end.

Nebuchadnezzar's son Belshazzar is having a drunken party, very

unholy, and at that party they are praising the gods of gold

and of silver and of stone. And then we have the handwriting

on the wall. Daniel informs Belshazzar that

his days have been numbered. That very night Persia comes in

and defeats and destroys Babylon.

The 5th Woe, verse 19 Woe to him who makes, who says to a wooden

thing awake to a silent stone arise.

This 5th and final woe is pronouncing it's Babylon because

of their idolatry. God rightfully mocks in these

verses. They're gods made of stone and

metal that can do nothing, that can say nothing, that can teach

nothing. It is the Lord who is in His

holy temple in verse 20. Let all the earth keep silence

before him. And so God sees, and though He

will use Babylon as an instrument of his justice, their

judgement is assured. God knows their wickedness.

He will judge justly and righteously, even if His timing

is not our timing. I have three applications for us

this morning as we end our time together.

Application number one is repeat, repeat.

Last week I encouraged all of us to go to God.

Don't just go to God once. Don't just go to God when He

responds how you want Him to. Don't just go to God when He

fixes things, even if things get worse, go to God.

Repeat it. Continue.

Don't just walk on by the bench and leave and say I'm out of

here, I'm done with this. Be persistent.

Continue to cry out to the Lord, just as Habakkuk did #2 repent.

Repent. It's very easy for us when we

read Scripture to be the hero and not recognize that we're a

lot like Babylon too. It's a lot easier to point out

the sin in others while ignoring my own heart.

Let us each examine our hearts this morning.

Examine our need for God's righteousness.

Examine how we are like Babylon. Repent of the wickedness in our

own hearts, and #3 resolve, resolve, resolve to live by

faith, by faith in God. So easy to trust in other things

instead, resolve. We need to renew our minds.

We need to remember all that God has done and resolve that no

matter the circumstances, no matter how bad it gets, that we

will continue to seek to trust God, especially during times

when our faith is put to the test.

And so this morning we've seen that our just, righteous,

gracious God judges the wicked and gives grace to the righteous

who live by faith in him. Let's pray together.

God, we thank you. We thank you that your ways are

not our ways. We thank you that you have a

perfect plan in your perfect timing.

God, I pray that in the midst of a world that seems chaotic, when

it seems like evil is winning, whether it's out there or in our

own hearts. God, I pray that we would

continue to cry out to you that we wouldn't do it in our own

strength, that we wouldn't worship our own might, but

instead that we would live by faith.

We believe, God, we ask that you would help.

Our unbelief may be resolved to follow you, especially when

things seem hopeless. We pray these things in the name

of Jesus, Amen.