The just shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:1-4 NKJV I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. [2] Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. [3] For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. [4] “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk pleaded with God to do something about all the sin he observed about him (Habakkuk 1:1-4). The Lord answered by prophesying the Chaldeans’ savage destruction of the Jews (Habakkuk 1:5-11). This is not the answer that Habakkuk was expecting.
Habakkuk responded by saying this was more punishment than he had asked for (Habakkuk 1:12-17), so he tried to turn the Lord from the fierceness of His punishment by reasoning that it wouldn’t be right for the Lord to use people who were even more ungodly than the Jews to punish them. He also reasoned they would worship themselves and their own might.
In other words, he did what Abraham, Moses, and anyone who has a true and right relationship with the Lord did and still does, Habakkuk reasoned with the Lord. These were bold statements to make before the Lord, and the take away here is that Habakkuk humbled himself and waited for the Lord’s reply.
I share this because to study what “the just shall live by his faith” means to us, we must study this book, Galatians, Hebrews and Romans.
God willing, we will embark on that journey in February 2025.