Habakkuk 2:4 - Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

Bible Comments

CRITICAL NOTES.]

Habakkuk 2:4.] Judgment announced. Lifted] Puffed up, then haughty or presumptuous. Upright] Not straight, not without turning or trickery. The heart of the enemy was proud and displeasing to God. But] Marking the contrast between the Jew and the Chaldean, the believer and the unbeliever. Live] Opposed to death. The boast of power in one destroyed, the constant faith of the other secures salvation. Faith] from âmăn, to be firmly rooted or established, as a building upon its foundation, or a tree by its roots. Constant and strong faith is necessary under all the afflictions of life (cf. Romans 1:17; Hebrews 10:38).

HOMILETICS

THE GREAT CONTRAST, OR THE BELIEVER AND THE UNBELIEVER.—Habakkuk 2:4

These words are generally applied to the Chaldeans, but we apply them to the Jews. Some believed the words of the prophet and others did not. “While those Jews who, elated by false views of security, refused to listen to the Divine message should have their security disturbed and their minds agitated by the calamities with which they would be visited, such as lived righteously before God and men should experience true happiness in the exercise of faith in that message and others which God might communicate to them by his prophets” [Henderson].

I. The unbeliever’s character and conduct. God takes notice of man’s behaviour in times of trial, for it tends to promote peace or disturbance, to honour or dishonour God. “Behold.” The unbeliever is first described.

1. He is proud in heart. “His soul which is lifted up.” The source of all sin is pride. In the oppression of the Chaldeans, the exaltation of anti-christ, and the rejection of the gospel, pride is manifest. “From heaven the sinning angels fell.” “Pride,” says one, “had her beginning among the angels that fell, her continuance on earth, her end in hell.”

2. He is perverted in mind. His soul “is not upright in him.” He is not straight, but crooked in his thoughts and purpose. He does not please God, but denies his providence and ridicules his word. He is conceited in his own wisdom, and will not wait upon God. Uprightness of character results from peace with God and reliance upon his grace. We see the stature, the complexion, and the deeds of men: God here reads the heart and censures the wicked. “The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.”

3. He is restless in his soul. Luther gives, “He who is stiff-necked will have no rest in his soul.” Pride inflates and unsettles. Those who trust to themselves are disquieted within them, excited by fear, stirred to fresh adventures by hope, but disappointed in their pursuits. Unbelief can never give rest of mind. He who toils, contrives, and wearies himself in pursuit of sin will find his labour in vain. Like the treasure in the miser’s dream, all will vanish in a world of reality. “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”

II. The believer’s character and conduct. Opposed to those who proudly reject the prophetic vision, others give it a cordial reception.

1. The believer confides in the word. He has firm attachment to God, unwavering confidence in his promise, and waits patiently for its fulfilment. This faith is opposed to the pride of the enemy on the one hand and self-assertion on the other. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.”

2. The believer lives by his faith in the word. “The just shall live by his faith.” It supports in deepest sorrows, and brings comfort in darkest times. It gives real life. Whatever outward or inward sorrows assail, faith sustains in life and enjoyment. We begin to live by faith in Christ. Through union with him we gain spiritual, holy, and progressive life here and eternal life hereafter. Steadfast faith is the source and element of the highest life. “But without faith it is impossible to please God.”

3. The believer is delivered from death by his faith in the word. Delivered from temporal calamity, spiritual death, and eternal wrath. Out of faith springs life. Abiding faith is continuous life; but life never dwells in the unbelieving heart. If faith in God only is the source of life, then pride which estranges from God results in death. Faith raises a man from danger and sets him on high (Psalms 91:14). There he is “kept by the power of God unto salvation.” “Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”

HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES

Habakkuk 2:4.

1. Unsanctified affliction begets a wrong spirit. The soul is lifted up. Instead of humbling and correcting, trial often discovers pride, murmuring against Divine sovereignty, and vain thoughts of self.

2. The wrong spirit when cherished under affliction begets apostasy. Those who are proud and complain will not long wait upon God. They become self-sufficient, unrighteous, and withdraw from God. “The just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” This verse containeth an antithesis, wherein two contraries are set in opposition one against the other.

(1) The man that is lifted up. In which note two things. (a) His notation, “lifted up.” (b) His censure, “his soul is not right.”

(2) The just man. (a) By just we understand not legal righteousness but evangelical righteousness, rectitude of obedience and holy life. (b) He shall live, naturally, against oppression; spiritually, in Jesus Christ; eternally, in glory [Marbury].

Notice the relation between righteousness, faith, and life. Three words containing the essence of creeds and the requirements of the gospel. “This sentence, the just shall live by faith, is universal, belonging at once to Jews and Christians, to sinners who are first being justified, as also to those who are already justified. For the spiritual life of each of these begins, is maintained, and grows through faith. When then it is said, the just shall live by his faith, this word his marks the cause, which both begins and preserves life. The just, believing and hoping in God, begins to live spiritually, to have a soul right within him, whereby he pleases God; and again, advancing and making progress in this his faith and hope in God, therewith advances and makes progress in the spiritual life, in rightness and righteousness of soul, in the grace and friendship of God, so as more and more to please God” [Pusey]. This is an answer to those that ask, What shall we do till the vision speak? how shall we hold out till it come? till the 70 years of captivity be expired? “The just shall live by faith,” saith he, and shall make a good living of it too; he shall live and be safe by the same faith whereby he is just. He shall feed upon his faith, as some read that (Psalms 37:3) [Trapp].

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2

Habakkuk 2:4. Faith. The life of faith can only spring from faith; as trees and plants do from their proper seeds. Faith begins here with a weak apprehension of things not seen, and ends with the immediate vision of God in the world to come.

Habakkuk 2:4

4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.