Habakkuk 2 (ESV) — 1 I will take my stand at my watchpost 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. 2 And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 3 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. 4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. 5 “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.” 6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!” 7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! 10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond. 12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 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! 16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! 17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 18 “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! 19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. 20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

The Righteous Will Live By His Faith

Many of us love the idea of the courtroom. We love our courtroom dramas and movies, along with real, live courtroom TV. We love watching the accused squirm in their seat. We love the tension of the moment.

At this point in Habakkuk, God has been called to Habakkuk's courtroom. The prophet has questioned God's goodness, wisdom, and holiness. He wonders why God is going to send the Babylonian armies to invade Israel and how that could be a just decision. Everyone knows the Babylonians are ruthless and evil. How could God allow them to run rampant over the nations?

The main idea of this passage is that God makes a promise to Habakkuk—and the world—that Babylon and all who imitate her will one day answer to God for the evil they have committed. God responds here to Habakkuk's accusations by assuring him that Babylon's crimes will not go unpunished.

Through five woes of judgment, God detailed the evil of Babylon better than Habakkuk did. But before those woes, God summarized Babylon: his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him (4). Like a bloated toad, Babylon was filled with self-assurance and pride. They thought no one could overcome them and that they could have their way with the societies of the earth. But God saw their hubris and pledged to execute justice on them.

But if that's the future of the wicked, what about the righteous? God also had a summary for them: the righteous will live by his faith (4). Many of you know this is a significant statement in Christianity. The New Testament writers quoted it often as a way to explain that we can only become righteous in God's sight through belief in the gospel and that after saving faith should want to live in continual trust in God (Galatians 3:11, Romans 1:17, Hebrews 10:38). And in the sixteenth century, this verse aided Martin Luther was aided in his departure from Roman Catholicism. One day, as a pilgrim in Rome, Luther visited a staircase the church said was miraculously transported from Pontius Pilate's judgment hall in Jerusalem. The custom for pilgrims was to get on their knees and crawl up the harsh stone steps, kissing stains the church claimed were left by Christ's blood. As Luther was crawling, this statement that the righteous will live by their faith popped into his mind. He realized he was trying to work his way to God when no work would do. He realized salvation and life before God comes by faith. He got up, left for his home in Germany, and became a major contributor to the reformation. He was free!

For the original readers, the faith God described meant trusting God's plan to judge Israel with the Babylonian armies and believing what God said about Babylon's ultimate destiny. Even when they were in exile 600 miles from Jerusalem, they needed to be confident that God was not done with his people. Though it looked like the world and its powers were winning while God and his people were losing, the righteous live by faith that the opposite is true. The world and its powers would—and will—face an ultimate day of reckoning.

This brand of faith produces a solid steadfastness in you. It is a faith that leads to faithfulness—a strong conviction that God is worth following no matter what unfolds around you. It generates an assurance and confidence about God's unseen promises (Hebrews 11:1). It generates an Abel-like thankfulness to God (Hebrews 11:4). It generates an Enoch-like walk with God (Hebrews 11:5-6). It generates a Noah-like obedience to God (Hebrews 11:7). It generates an Abraham-like endurance that waits for God (Hebrews 11:8-12). It generates a Isaac-like submission to God (Hebrews 11:20). It generates a Jacob-like desire for the blessing of God (Hebrews 11:21). It generates a Joseph-like anticipation of the permanent future city of God (Hebrews 11:22). This type of faith produces a beautiful brand of life in us. So how can we develop this level of trust? This chapter shows us three ways.

1. Patiently Wait (1-5)

Watchtower

First, the passage shows us we must patiently wait for God. Habakkuk began realizing this right after his diatribe against God in the first chapter. He said, "I will take my stand at my watchpost 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" (1). The prophet had a sense that he needed to wait for God's corrective word—his divine perspective—so he went to his proverbial watchtower and waited for God to speak.

The concept of a prophet in a watchtower is a biblical one (Isaiah 21:6-12, Ezekiel 23:17-21, Hosea 9:8). But Habakkuk's first step is one we can also take. When our reasoning with God or arguments against God take us as far as they can, when we become stuck on the problem as we see it, we need to patiently wait for instruction. We must go to our watchtower and wait for God.

A watchtower is elevated above the place it protects, and we need places that detach us from the regular flow of life so we can get perspective and help. We need our Bibles, our churches, and our prayer closets to provide watchtower moments. Like a student stuck on a problem, hand raised, waiting for the help of a tutor or teacher, we must raise our hand and begin looking for God's perspective.

Tablets

And, as Habakkuk waited, God began to answer. Before giving his full perspective, God said, "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it" (2). Habakkuk would've understood that God wanted him to write down everything he said so that prophetic runners could take the message of God to God's people. God wanted everyone in Israel to know that though the Chaldean-Babylonian army was coming to discipline Israel, he would one day execute judgment on them. Then, as God's people heard God's word, they were to run in the truth God declared.

Daniel is a good example of an Israelite who ran with the vision God spoke to Habakkuk. During long years in Babylon, Daniel trusted that God's story was not finished and that one day his kingdom would come. He ran in the understanding that, as powerful as Nebuchadnezzar and all the kings after him were, their power would not last forever. One day, God would establish his forever kingdom and reign without end.

But this is another fine way to patiently wait for God—get into his word. Get further clarity on his truth and promises. Cling to them so that you can run through life with the correct mentality.

Trail race organizers understand the importance of learning what's coming in advance. Race websites will post the route, along with all the elevation shifts the runner should expect. This way, the informed runner knows when the big hills are coming and can prepare accordingly. And as we sit with God's word, we learn what the course is like. We find out what is coming, where this is all going, and how we should respond.

Slow-Moving Justice

Another way we should patiently wait is with...patience. God told Israel what would happen to Babylon, and it seems this is what's going to happen to the world system as well. In Revelation 17-18, we learn that another Babylon will be destroyed right before Christ returns. I think it is imagery that describes the destruction of the world system that's in dominance today. But it is taking a long time to get there, just as it took a while for the original Babylon to face its judgment. Some have called this God's slow-moving justice, and this justice requires patience.

But we don't like to wait. There is an example of this impatience in the book of Jeremiah. He had said things similar to Habakkuk but in greater detail and with more prophetic flourish. One day, with a farming yoke made for oxen on his neck, Jeremiah announced that the Babylonians would yoke the people into slavery for seventy years. But a false prophet named Hananiah was there, and he took the yoke off Jeremiah's neck, broke it, and told everyone that God would break Babylon in the space of two years. When confronted with decades of captivity or two years of difficulty, the people believed Hananiah. They didn't want to imagine a long process of waiting for God to rescue them (Jeremiah 28). But we must not be like them. Instead, we should trust in God's slow-moving justice.

In 1967, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan recorded and released his song, All Along The Watchtower (a song Jimi Hendrix covered the next year). The song is a conversation between two horse riders—a joker and a thief. The joker complains that businessmen were thieving from him without consequence. Many have thought the concept for the song was lifted from Isaiah 21, a passage that likely inspired Habakkuk. In it, God tells Isaiah to get on the watchtower to witness the future fall of Babylon. The idea is simple: though we see and experience injustice and evil, one day, God will settle all accounts. We must climb the watchtower, find God's promises of judgment in his word, and patiently wait for that day to come.

2. Sing The Woes (6-20)

The Woes

But another way the passage shows us to live by faith is to sing the five woes God pronounced over evil Babylon. Before thinking about each woe, I want you to notice something important—God is not the singer, but those waiting for justice are. God said, "Shall not these take up their taunt against (Babylon), with scoffing and riddles for him?" (6). What this means is that Israelites and other nations that Babylon had destroyed were meant to sing this battle rap of woe with the confidence that God would defend them. And just as they sang it over historical Babylon, the child of God can sing this song over the spiritual system of Babylon today. We can rejoice that one day all oppression and violence and greed and sensuality and idolatry will be destroyed.

But what did they sing? In the first woe, they sang that the plunderer would be plundered (6-8). Babylon had taken nations—their wealth, land, and peoples—that did not belong to them. They had plundered, but one day they would be plundered. The Babylonians had thought they were robbing the bank over and over, but God said they were actually taking out loans over and over (6-7). One day, they would pay.

The second woe of the song says that the one doing harm will eventually suffer harm (9-11). God depicted them as birds trying to set their nest on high so they could be out of harm's reach (9). Everyone is entitled to build and save and prosper, but these Babylonians created their secure position by destabilizing other peoples and nations (10). God said even the stones and beams they stole from other lands would testify against them (11).

The third woe of the song says that the oppressor would end up with nothing (12-14). They had built their towns and founded their cities with the blood of laborers and slaves who were given no choice in the matter (12). God said building a society that way was like building a bonfire—it feels like you are getting somewhere, but it will soon be burned to ash (12). All their efforts would be lost. Their future was nothingness.

The fourth woe of the song says that those who promote rampant sensuality would be exposed (15-17). God said they used alcohol to get their neighbors drunk, all with the goal of increasing nakedness (15). This was God's way of saying that this Babylonian society and system promotes sensuality and sexual expression that defies God, using alcohol and substance to get there. But God saw all their violence—including the violence they did to the forests and animal species of Lebanon—and would judge it (17).

And the last woe of the song says that those who try to make their own gods will one day hear the voice of the true God (18-20). A major reason someone invents their own religion is so they can tell their "gods" what to say, but the true God will have the final word.

Each woe is worth our contemplation today. In each, the actions of Babylon should make us sorrowful, but to our sorrow, we can add the joy of knowing God will right every wrong.

The movies understand this song. When the villain or bully or unjust or cheater is revealed, the audience begins hoping for their demise. We want them to get what's coming to them. And, often, that's precisely the way the script plays out. In under three hours, justice is served. But this song helps us wait with patience for the justice God promises to deliver. It is coming.

In the classic book Anne Of Green Gables, the main character, Anne, a feisty orphan adopted by a hardened but loving woman named Marilla, asked Marilla if she'd ever seen someone outgrow their red hair. When Marilla said no, Anne said, “Well, that is another hope gone. ‘My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.’” This is true without the gospel. With the gospel, however, our lives can become fertile ground for hope to grow. The seeds of injustice, greed, violence, sensuality, and idolatry go in, but out comes the hope that God will deal with it all one day when Christ returns. Because of Jesus, despair is the fertile ground of hope.

3. Be Filled With Wonder (14, 20)

The Earth's Destiny

And this is all hinted at in the passage. God said, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (14). God said the same thing to Isaiah (Isaiah 11:9). And right here, smack in the middle of all five woes, God declares a day is coming when the whole world will know and love God. When Jesus came, he brought the beginnings of this kingdom. It is already here but not yet fully revealed.

For that full revelation, we wait. Confronted with a world and culture that is often hostile to Christianity, we have the strong confidence that a day is coming when God will be loved by everyone. But, like Abraham, we must faithfully wait for it, looking forward in awe-filled wonder. As Hebrews said:

Hebrews 11:9–10 (ESV) — 9 By faith (Abraham) went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Keep Silence

But we are often like little children in the back of the SUV—Dad, are we there yet? How long until we get there? For this feeling, God gave Habakkuk (and us) a wise practice. In his last word in Habakkuk, God said, "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him" (20).

This exhortation is in direct contrast with what came before it. God said the Babylonians made idols that couldn't speak. The Babylonians could say whatever they wanted to their gods without any hope of a response. But we must be silent because God speaks—he is alive, working, promising, and judging.

Like Habakkuk, we can replace our complaints and doubts with the firm expectation that God will come and establish his kingdom.

Conclusion

In a classic scene from C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver play emergency host to the Pevensie children. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie had discovered the magical world of Narnia, and the talking beavers helped them acclimate. While they talked, the beavers let slip that their world was under a witch's curse, that she had the power to turn her enemies to stone, but that they were awaiting the return of Aslan, a fierce lion who would defeat her in battle. Edmund asked, "Won't she turn him into stone too?"

Mrs. Beaver replied, "Turn him into stone!? If she can stand on her two feet and look him in the face, it’ll be the most she can do and more than I expect of her. No, no. He’ll put all to rights, as it says in an old rhyme in these parts:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again."

A major facet of the Christian life is our questions about evil and injustice in the world. What is God doing? When will he react?

Like Habakkuk, we must trust God's promise. Just as Mr. and Mrs. Beaver awaited Aslan, we must await God's wise, certain, and successful judgment of all evil. We must believe a day is coming when the knowledge of his glory with cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (14). His fame will run from pole to pole, and every nation, culture, and society will be allegiant to his name. And, in trusting silence, we must wait for that day when Christ comes to rule the nations with a rod of iron (Revelation 12:5, 19:15), when the lion will lie down with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6, 65:25), and when the whole world will flow to his house in adoration and worship (Micah 4:1).