They were dark days in Judah’s history. Israel had long ago fallen into Assyrian captivity, Assyria had fallen to the Chaldeans, and Judah was ripe for judgment. The prophet Habakkuk was witnessing great wickedness, injustice, and disregard for God’s law in Judah. He was troubled by it and questioned God: “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ And You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds” (Habakkuk 1:2-4).
The Lord answered that He will “work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you” (1:5).
The Lord then told him that he was raising up the Chaldeans “to possess dwelling places that are not theirs” (1:6). This troubled Habakkuk, and he answered God, asking, “Why do you look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours one more righteous than he?” (1:13) It was difficult to understand how God would use a nation more wicked than Judah to bring correction to Judah. Habakkuk awaited another answer from the Lord (2:1).
The Lord answered that He has appointed a work that will most surely come. And He said this to Habakkuk: “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith” (2:4). Then the Lord proceeded to tell him about the great wickedness of the Chaldeans, the nation who will soon be His instrument of judgment upon Judah.
Here was the solution to Habakkuk’s difficulties: “The just shall live by his faith.”
Hebrews 11 tells us that men of old all the way back to Abel pleased God when they lived by faith. And three times in the New Testament, “the just shall live by faith” is shown to be the right way to live and to please God in this gospel dispensation (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). Truly, “the just shall live by his faith” is the principle of the ages.
We look at the prevalence of wickedness around us and at the state of world affairs, and we do not know what is being worked, but we know that “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 2:17). Can we accept that truth and yet live with unanswered questions? Yes, we can, by faith. We may understand a God-given precept in the Bible yet have a “why” question that is not answered. Will we not accept what God did say? As in Habakkuk’s case, even if all our questions were to be answered, the answer might be too difficult to understand and would astound us. After all, we are “but men” (Psalm 9:20). But the just will live by his faith in what God has revealed. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Pleasing faith accepts God at His word.
Habakkuk received God’s answer and prayed that His work would be executed. Believing God, he ended the inspired prophecy with a great declaration of his faith: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls – Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills. To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments” (3:17-19).
Now that’s the kind of trust and belief in God that we want to live by!
-Larry Jones