Habacuque 2
James Montgomery Boice · Citado em PreceptAustin
Habacuque 2
Boice notes… The life of faith mentioned in this key verse is nevertheless only one of two distinct paths the chapter sets before us. One is the way of faith. The other is the way of "un-faith" or unbelief. The contrast is seen in Habakkuk 2:4 itself. Even the most casual reader can see that the greater part of this verse deals with the wicked. It begins, "See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright… " Then there is a dash, followed by the part of the verse we have been studying ("but the righteous will live by his faith"), followed by another dash. Then the passage continues, "indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied… " (Hab 2:4-5). The way of the righteous is the way of faith in God. The way of the wicked is the way of drawing back from faith in God. The first submits to God and trusts God. The second submits to no one. The person who chooses the second way is arrogant. He says, "I don't need religion. I can take care of myself. I can do without God." The bulk of this chapter shows the course and dismal end of the ungodly. The challenge presented to us in this chapter is that choice. Will it be the world’s way, the way of the ungodly with its emptiness, frustration, and eventual ruin? Or will it be God’s way, the way of faith in Him who alone is worthy of that faith?… Though the world should rise up against us, the righteous will live by faith. It is by faith in the righteous God alone that we can stand against it. (Recommended Resource: The Minor Prophets: Micah-Malachi: James Montgomery Boice) Proud (06075) ('aphal) is a verb which means to be swelled, to be puffed up, to be lifted up and so pictures rank audacity and pride. The metaphor is of a person with their head held high or one having a swollen head, analogous to our modern idiom accusing someone of having "the big head". This same Hebrew word is describes Israel's presumptive attitude in Nu14:44 ("heedlessly"), their pride netting them an embarrassing national disaster (Nu14:45). In the present context the idea is that the "puffed up" one chooses to rely on his (her) own self or personal resources to secure and sustain his (her) life. Ronald Blue draws this word picture from the Hebrew verb 'aphal… Like a bloated toad, these arrogant people hopped along toward destruction. They were swollen… with evil passions. Their desires were not upright. (Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor) The proud, arrogant Chaldeans serve as a fitting prototype of all godless individuals who reject God as Savior, in favor of relying on their Self as psuedo-savior! The proud one - The Babylonians thought "their justice and authority originate with themselves." (Hab 1:7) and considered their "strength is their god." (Hab 1:10, 11). Some commentators think Yahweh is speaking to unbelieving Jews, but the immediate context would support that His address is primarily directed at the proud Babylonians. Of course the principle of the danger of pride and trusting in one's self is applicable not only to all the unbelieving Jews in Judah but to anyone who rejects God and His Gospel. The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar in the ultimate display of arrogance ask… Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? (Da 4:30, cp Da 4:31-33 for God's "answer" to such blatant arrogance!) Barker puts the proud person in proper perspective… Wherever human beings rely on something of this earth—whether it be intellectual achievement or wealth or military might or aesthetic ability and appreciation or pride of birth and status or even the ability to cope and solve problems and master the complexities of modern life—wherever confidence is placed in human prowess and not in God for the achievement of a satisfying and secure manner of living, there true life cannot be had.”(Vol. 20: Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers)
Habacuque 2
Boice: The revelation to Habakkuk shows that a person can be righteous (or justified) before God. In ourselves we are not righteous. This is what bothered Luther so deeply. Instead of being righteous, as we ought to be, we are sinners and therefore under God's just wrath and condemnation. How can a person who is a sinner and under God's condemnation attain righteousness? How can such a one become perfect? The answer is that nobody can attain to righteousness. No one is capable of perfect goodness. How do we get it then? It is God's gift to us in Jesus Christ. This is what Romans explains. It shows that the justified person is the one who has ceased trying to please God by his own efforts and who has turned to Jesus instead for the righteousness that God gives freely. This is what it means to be a Christian. It means to stop trying to attain heaven by our own good works and instead to receive what God has done for us in Christ. The foundation of our Christian life is not what we can do for God but what God has done for us. Therefore, the entrance into that life is not by working but by receiving. It is opening our hands to God's gift. (Ibid) Galatians 3:11+ Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” Comment: In the Galatians quote, Paul places the emphasis on how we live. We don't live by keeping the law (Gal 3:10, 12) but we live by faith, beginning on the day we first believed in Jesus to the day we die or are raptured to be with Him forever. Heb 10:38+ BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. Comment: The writer of Hebrews places the emphasis on faith. as shown the juxtaposition to Hebrews 11 the great "Hall of Faith" chapter. Boice: How do we receive God's gift? The answer is found in the second word in Habakkuk 2:4: "by faith." The Book of Hebrews is the New Testament commentary on it. What is faith? According to Hebrews, particularly Hebrews 11, faith is believing God and acting upon that belief (Ed: See related discussion of phrase Obedience of faith and Relationship of faith and obedience). It is important to stress faith's action, because we have a definition of faith in our day that reduces it to mere intellectual assent and that is therefore far less than what the Bible means by belief. We can meet somebody on the street today and say to him, "Do you believe in God?" and have the person answer, "Of course I do. What do you think I am, an atheist?" He does not want to be an atheist, so he believes in God. But this does not necessarily mean that he is a Christian or that this faith makes any difference in his life. Belief includes intellectual assent. We must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6). But faith is more than this. In salvation matters, it means trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as the One Who died in our place and thus also turning from sin to follow Him. This is the context of the use of Habakkuk 2:4 in Hebrews. It occurs just before Hebrews 11, in Heb 10:37-39 Heb 10:37 FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. (Ed: Quoting Septuagint of Hab 2:3 - Habakkuk speaks of a revelation which is coming. Hebrews changes it to a personal masculine pronoun He, referring to Jesus. Since Jesus is both a person and God’s last word to man Heb 1:1, the change is appropriate.) Heb 10:38 BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. (Ed: Quoting Septuagint of Hab 2:4 but inverting the position of the passages.) Heb 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. (Ed: The writer of Hebrews warns those among his readers who only made a profession of faith, that if they draw back to the temple sacrifices, renouncing their professed faith in Messiah, God shall have no pleasure in that person. In short, they are unregenerate, spiritually lost!) RELATED RESOURCE: C H Spurgeon's sermon on Hab 2:4 entitled Faith: Life in which he discusses the three NT quotations of Hab 2:4. In summary, Habakkuk 2:4 is so important that it takes three NT verses to explain it! Blue explains that "The key clause “THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH” sparkles like a diamond in a pile of soot. In the midst of God’s unrelenting condemnations of Babylon stands a bright revelation of God’s favor that is quoted three times in the New Testament (Ro 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). In those passages the words “will live” have a broader meaning than in Habakkuk. In the New Testament they mean to enjoy salvation and eternal life. In contrast with the self-reliant, boastful ways of the unrighteous, the righteous are found to be reliant on God and faithful to Him. (Ibid) Heflin - It is better to live in faith than in rebellion, trusting God when answers are not to be found, living a life of faithfulness even when evil seems to have the upper hand. This approach to life is wise because God is the omnipotent Ruler; He will ultimately prevail over evil. A C Gaebelein has an interesting note "There is profound significance in the fact that God gave one of the very greatest of all spiritual insights – “the just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4b) – to a man who cried out to Him against injustice and violence. For Habakkuk there was no incompatibility between impassioned concern for social righteousness and the faith by which a man is justified. In this prophet’s perplexity, God revealed to him the moral pattern of history that tyranny and oppression are self-destroying but that faith in the Lord is life-giving. God showed this concerned man how He would use the Babylonians as a scourge to punish the wickedness of His people and then how He would require the Babylonians for their cruelty. His ultimate response to Habakkuk’s perplexity about the problem of evil came through the great theophany described in the third chapter of the book. In it God showed the prophet something we too need to know – that the divine logic in answering our profoundest problems transcends our human reason. Sidlow Baxter… This prophecy of Habakkuk puts into words a struggle and triumph of faith which took place in the soul of the prophet himself. It begins with a sob, and ends with a song; and it is in the process from the one to the other that the little book discloses the heart of its meaning to us. Ch. I. A “BURDEN”: FAITH GRAPPLING WITH PROBLEM. Ch. II. A “VISION”: FAITH GRASPING THE SOLUTION. Ch. III. A “PRAYER”: FAITH GLORYING IN ASSURANCE. The key verse to Habakkuk is Hab 2:4 – “The just shall live by his faith”; and around this truth precious lessons for faith are written. The living message of the little book is clear. Faith still has its problems. If Habakkuk’s days seemed draped with dark enigmas, even more do our own. But this book tells us not to judge merely by the appearances of the hour. God has given us great promises, and is working out great purposes. He cannot tell us the whole in so many words; but He has revealed enough to make faith intelligent, and to give it scope for development. (Explore the Book) C. H. McINTOSH. Faith is the grand principle of the divine life from first to last. By faith we are justified, and by faith we live; by faith we stand, and by faith we walk. From the starting-post to the goal of the Christian course it is all by faith. Rabbi Simlai in the third century noted that Moses gave us 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. David in Psalm 15 reduced them to eleven: Isaiah—in Isa 33:14, 15—made them six: Micah 6:8 binds them into three: and Habakkuk 2:4 reduces them all to one, namely—”The just shall live by faith.” (Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times) Robert
Habacuque 2
Boice writes… In the context of the references to the Babylonians, it is clear that this involves not merely simple idolatry, a case of an individual bowing down to a wooden or stone idol. It involves the Babylonians' whole religious system with its divination, sorcery, spiritism, and demonism. Babylon was a center for such practices. Unfortunately, we also have this in our time. It is hard to understand why an educated, scientifically minded, modern people such as we imagine ourselves to be should be so intrigued by spiritism and the occult; but our chapter explains it perfectly. It is simply the end condition of a people who will not walk by faith in God but who trust to their own devices instead. We trust ourselves, but we are not adequate for the trust. So, finding no help in mere human beings and having rejected the true God, we turn to superstition. The most widespread American version of occult practices is astrology, and I have often asked myself why astrology is so popular in our "enlightened" age. I have found three explanations. First, astrology offers religion without moral responsibility. This is inherent in the very axioms of astrology, which substitute a causality of stars and planets for human free will, liberty, and responsibility. It is fatalism, and fatalism absolves man from duty. This outlook is also evident in other forms of occult practices where nothing is taught or said that might possibly make an individual feel guilty for something he or she has done. Second, astrology offers revelation without the disconcerting doctrines of the Bible. It pretends to give a word from beyond, but it does not speak of sin, death, or judgment. The Bible does. It says, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10). Third, astrology offers salvation without a real Savior. (The Minor Prophets: Micah-Malachi: James Montgomery Boice) Habakkuk 2:20 "But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.": The LORD: Ps 11:4 Ps 115:3 Ps 132:13,14 Isa 6:1 Isa 66:1,6 Jonah 2:4,7 Eph 2:21,22 Silent: Ps 46:10 Ps 76:8,9 Zep 1:7 Zec 2:13 Habakkuk 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries The LORD Himself testifies that the final outcome of human history will be worship of the one Holy and Righteous King. Hallelujah! Gaebelein - First, by way of contrast, their idols are dumb; Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the living God. He is in His holy temple; from there He takes notice of the doings of men. He is the Sovereign, the only Potentate; the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance (Isaiah 40:15). "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in" (Isaiah 40:22). But this closing verse of the chapter of woe has a prophetic meaning. When at last the world-power is dethroned, when the Lord returns, He will take His place as King of Kings. He will be in His holy temple, and then all the earth will keep silence before Him. Ronald Blue writes that "For Habakkuk, the message was clear. Stop complaining! Stop doubting! God is not indifferent to sin. He is not insensitive to suffering. The Lord is neither inactive nor impervious. He is in control. In His perfect time Yahweh will accomplish His divine purpose. Habakkuk was to stand in humble silence, a hushed expectancy of God’s intervention." (BKC) QUIET TIME - Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). A group of British miners in Australia heard the sweet song of a thrush one evening as they worked. The lovely sound hushed these hardened men into absolute silence. In the stillness their hearts became tender as memories of their boyhood days in their beloved England swept over them. Similarly, when we are quiet, God speaks to us most clearly and effectively. Stepping into the stillness of a cold winter morning and gazing upon fields and buildings coated with dazzling frost or covered with sparkling snow have been unforgettable experiences. During the night, the silvery frost had come silently, its unseen fingers deftly touching the landscape. Or feathery snowflakes had descended with-out awakening a single soul. The silence of such a moment brings to mind the words of Psalm 46:10:"Be still, and know that I am God." I would also think of Habakkuk 2:20"The LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." The quiet hour is the power hour. The Beauty Of Silence - Truly my soul silently waits for God.—Psalm 62:1 Written on the wall behind the pulpit of the church we attended in my teens were these words: "The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him" (Habakkuk 2:20). And keep silence we did! All eight of us boys said nothing to one another as we sat waiting for the service to begin. I loved this quiet time and often succeeded in pushing thoughts about girls and the Detroit Tigers out of my mind. The best I could, I tried to reflect on the wonder of God and His salvation. And in the silence I often sensed His presence. Today we live in a noisy world. Many people can't even drive without music blaring from their car, or the beat of the bass vibrating their vehicle. Even many church services are marked more by noise than by quiet reflection. In ancient times the pagans cried out in a noisy frenzy to their idols (1Kings 18:25, 26, 27, 28, 29). In sharp contrast, the psalmist saw the wisdom of silence, because in quiet reverence God can be heard. In the stillness of the night under a starry sky, in a hushed sanctuary, or in a quiet room at home, we can meet the living God and hear Him speak. The psalmist's words are relevant today: "Wait silently for God alone" (Psalm 62:5). Speak, Lord, in the stillness, While I wait on Thee; Hushed my heart to listen In expectancy. —Grimes To hear God's voice, turn down the world's volume. Our God Is Marching On - The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. —Habakkuk 2:20 In 1861, during the US Civil War, author and lecturer Julia Ward Howe visited Washington, DC. One day she went outside the city and saw a large number of soldiers marching. Early the next morning she awoke with words for a song in her mind. She was aware of all the ugliness of the war, but her faith led her to write: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." She saw, I believe, that in spite of and through all the ugliness, God was "marching on" toward the day when He will right the wrongs of the ages. God rules as Sovereign on His throne, He judges great and small; And those who would His earth destroy Beneath His rod shall fall. —D. De Haan Someday the scales of justice will be perfectly balance