Project 119: Habakkuk 2
| Project 119
This week's devotions are written by MBBC Student Ministry Intern Allison McSwain.
I love the image of Habakkuk standing like a watchman awaiting the Lord’s response to his prayer. All too often I throw a request at God, say “amen,” and carry on with my day without pausing to listen. I need to take up the practice of looking out to see what He will say to me, and perhaps you do, too. Let us not treat God like a silent Santa who grants our wishes. Let us have true relationship with Him in the form of prayers that await answers.
Answer He does, indeed. The Lord instructs Habakkuk to write down what He will show him. The promise that will be unveiled in this vision may come slowly, but it will be fulfilled. The righteous will live by faith in this promise, He says. Look at this, the gospel in Habakkuk! Verse 4 does not say that the righteous shall live by their good works, but by faith in what God says and does. This is the true gospel—justification by faith—and it is present in the Old Testament even before Jesus Christ sets foot on the earth.
God shows Habakkuk that He is using this corrupt nation of Babylon for His own good purpose. He will not let them rule over His people forever. God pronounces woes over the wicked nation, calling out and condemning their unjust economic practices, use of slave labor, drunkenness, and idolatry. Because of their wickedness toward Israel and others, the destroyers themselves will be destroyed. “Utter shame” will come upon their glory. This is God’s answer to institutions like Babylon. There are many “Babylons” in the world today—corrupt governments, hateful and oppressive leaders, and businesses built on injustice. As long as sin is in the world, there will always be “Babylons.” However, we can rejoice knowing that God has pronounced woe on all who oppose Him and His ways. We as His people do not have to suffer forever. Even so come, Lord, and rescue us from those who seek to do us harm. We thank you for the promise that the vengeance is Yours.
Habakkuk 2 (ESV):
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.
The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith
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.”
Woe to the Chaldeans
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.”