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Habakkuk 2:2-3:19
We are in the Exile Stream reading from the Good News Translation.
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Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis
Lord, fill us with your faith. You tell us that the righteous shall life by faith, so that is how we want to live – by the faith that you put in our hearts. Amen.
We remember, from last week, Habakkuk petitioning of the Lord in great anxiety because of the Babylonians bearing down on Judah. It was an invasion that came in three waves: 605 B.C. 597 B.C. and 586 B.C. Habakkuk is writing his book right before the first invasion. His desperate prayer is answered starting in Hab. 2:2
2:2ff – Habakkuk is told to “have pen ready” to write down the prophecy that God gives. First item to be assured of is that the evil will not live and the just/the righteous shall live by faith; by being faithful to God. The Babylonians were wealthy, greedy, violent, armed, sneering, plundering – all taken by conquest v.s. building something and doing something positive. The Babylonians had shed blood everywhere and were bent on destruction. All nations cowered and trembled in the presence of the Babylonians. Well their time was coming and they were doomed to destruction; to the destruction they had inflicted on everyone else. They were doomed to fall shortly after finishing this conquest of Judah. However the Babylonians would not cover the earth. They would go down just like all their victims. And the people of God would, in time, be the ones who would cover the earth. The end of chapter two still echoes across the world: “The Lord is in His holy Temple. let everyone on earth be silent in His presence.”
3 – Habakkuk prays a response of great awe at God’s hand and workings. He gives a terribly colossal rendition of the mighty works of God who rules all the universe with great power and might. Habakkuk is also resigned that God must do what God must do (in the finishing of His cleansing Judah of their ungodliness). By now Habakkuk is so positively certain of God’s righteous work and his own personal faith in God that nothing is going to shake him from his faith. The coming days may be dark but the future is bright and glorious in God. And all the securities of the earth; food, shelter, clothing – come what may – are irrelevant to the security that God gives. The near future which held the decimation of Judah, did not dim the glory and wonder of God who eternally holds His best and His people in His hand.