LIVING BY FAITH

AN EXEGESIS ON HABAKKUK 2:4

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Exegetical Paper

Presented to

Dr. Bryan H. Cribb

Anderson University

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In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for CHR 107

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By

Jonathan Keith Shorter

11/18/2014
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Introduction

What does it mean to have faith? Well, faith in itself is a complete trust in someone or

something. So to have faith in God would mean to have complete trust in God. This means that a

person believes God is the truth and trust God1. So a person looks upward to God instead of

inward to oneself. It is said in the Bible to live by faith and not by sight. Faith has been said to be

righteous in the Bible. God has been known to bless the righteous and honor them if they honor

him. So is faith a big deal? Absolutely! In the Bible it describes numerous times that we receive

salvation by faith and not merely by our works. Faith takes more than just belief. The Bible

speaks of how even the demons believe in God and tremble, but it does not say that they

completely trust God. That is what Christians are called to do, completely trust God When

people fully trust God, and then whatever God says goes, because they trust that God knows

what he is doing. In Habakkuk 2:4 it says, Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright

within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith2. In Habakkuk when the world is falling

apart God still honors the faithful. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed exegetical

analysis of Habakkuk 2:4. Through analysis of history, canon, literary context, exegesis,

theology, and application, the meaning of Habakkuk can truly be revealed.

Historical/Canonical/Literary Context

Historical

Destruction and chaos are familiar things to the Judeans. They must have seen what the

Assyrians could do and they have seen the Chaldeans campaign in growing in power3. In the first

chapter of Habakkuk God tells Habakkuk that he is raising up the Chaldeans to administer

1 Harrington, Two Dimensions of Faith. (America, 1979), 47.

2 This and all future biblical references will be from the English Standard Bible.
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justice. The book is believed to be written in some time between 612 B.C. and 605 B.C., so this

is written after the Assyrians attacked the Israelites and before the Babylonian induced exile4. At

this time period the prayers of the people and of the prophets seem to be lost and not heard by

God. The wording of Habakkuks prayer suggests that there has been a history of prayers that

have had no response from God5. So the people are in immediate danger and no matter how hard

or how many times the people and prophets pray God seems to just not be there anymore.

Canonical/Literary

The book of Habakkuk is set up in the section of the Bible called the Prophets. The Prophets

occur after all the Old Testament covenants have been made. For the most part, the prophets

main objectives were to remind the people to keep the covenant relationship that they had with

God6. So in the beginning of Habakkuk, Habakkuk is speaking on behalf of the people, but God

tells Habakkuk to write what he is about to say in Habakkuk 2:2. This is the transition when

Habakkuk returns to speaking on behalf of God and telling Gods message. He then returns to

being a prophet of God.

The book of Habakkuk is split into two portions: The communication between Habakkuk and

God in the first two chapters and the prayer hymn of Habakkuk in the third chapter. Those two

sections can be split into the subsections, which are as follow: The conversation between
3 Francisco, Introducing the Old Testament. (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1950), pp
138-139.

4 Ibid, 138

5 Craigie, Twelve Prophets. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984), 82.

6 Campbell, The Old Testament for Modern Readers. (Atlanta: John Knox Press,
1974), 51.
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Habakkuk and God, the five woe oracles, and the psalm of Habakkuk7. So the beginning of

Habakkuk starts with the lamenting of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is filled with grief and is crying out

to God. Contrary to this, at the end of the book Habakkuk is lifting up praise to God. The

sections are at opposition to each other. This suggests that there had to be some turning point in

the text that would cause this to happen. This turning point is found in Habakkuk 2:4. Right

before verse four Habakkuk is still questioning God and right after verse four Habakkuk is

telling decrees for God and praising him. The flip from lament to praise shows how powerful and

important the message of the verse really is.

Exegesis

Habakkuk 2:4 says, Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the

righteous shall live by his faith. In this one verse Habakkuk receive encouragement from the

Lord that the prideful might exist but the righteous, the ones that live in covenant relationship

with God, are the ones that will live forever because of their faith8.

Habakkuk and the Judeans faced destruction from the Babylonians and were about to

enter exile. The people were in panic and God was silent. God finally speaks to Habakkuk and

tells about how the Chaldeans were being raised up by God for the purpose of judgment. God

then says one thing that changes the whole situation. God does say that he will judge Judah, but

the judgment is not the end. God promised to spare a portion of the people based on their

faithfulness9. Habakkuk learns that even in hardship and a sense that God is gone and there is no

7 Andersen, Habakkuk: A New Translation. Vol. 25. (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 14-15.

8 Farley, The Progress of Old Testament Prophecy,pp. 136-140

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hope, there is hope, because God honors those who are faithful. Habakkuk found that God is

always just in the long term even if there seems to be no indication of it in the short term10.

God is shown to be just in Habakkuk, not just for giving life to the righteous, but also for

giving punishment to the unrighteous. The first half of Habakkuk 2:4 says, Behold, his soul is

puffed up; it is not upright within him. God is speaking about the evil that Habakkuk is worried

about. Habakkuk can understand that there is evil in the world, but cannot grasp why the evil is

allowed to run free and rise up11. God tells Habakkuk in the first chapter that he is raising up the

Chaldeans to provide judgment to the people of Judah. The prophet wonders why God would

allow this to happen. Then after 2:4 God reassures Habakkuk when God proclaims the five woes

to the Chaldeans12. God does not allow the unrighteous to go unpunished. God shows he is just in

the verse when he uses one word. God uses the conjunction but. This shows contradiction

between the first statement and the second. God has stated that there is life for the righteous that

are faithful, so when he uses the word but he shows a contradiction to the statement the some

will live. This means that while some will live because of their faith, the ones that are puffed up

and self-righteous will not live, because they do not have the faith required to be saved from

judgment. This applies to the Judeans as well as the Babylonians.

As discussed earlier, the prophets were dedicated to reminding the people to stay loyal to

the covenant relationship. In Habakkuk 2:2-3 Habakkuk returns to being a prophet on behalf of

9Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, pp 278.

10 Ibid,280

11 Craigie, 83

12 Ibid, 96
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God when he writes down the specific message of God. The message in Habakkuk 2:4 is that the

righteous will live by faith and the puffed up, self-righteous will not live. So Habakkuk is still

calling the people back to the covenants when he writes this. He does this by saying that God

will still honor those who have faith and stay true to the covenants, even when there seems to be

no reply and no hope13. God still rewards the righteous and is just in his punishment.

Theology/Application

God saves. Even though there is lamenting in Habakkuk, there is also praise. This is

because God shows that there is the possibility of salvation. God is shown as just in Habakkuk.

Even though it seems as though he is not present or listening and is allowing evil to run wild in

the beginning of Habakkuk, he is shown to be just. God reveals that he is raising up the

Chaldeans to bring judgment on the Judeans. He has a reason for the Chaldeans overtaking the

Judeans, and that is to bring justice to those who have wondered from him and do evil. God is

shown as just as well when he also provides for those that kept the covenantal relationship. God

saves those that honor the covenant.

Habakkuk shows how God saves. God tells Habakkuk that, the righteous shall live by

his faith (2:4). God saves those that he considers righteous, and the ones that he considers

righteous are the ones that trust him and show that they have faith. Habakkuk is focused towards

the Judeans that were about to endure judgment and when it says that they will live by faith, and

to them it more or less meant that the faithful would not be destroyed by the Chaldeans during
13 Ibid, 93
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the exile14. The verse can mean even more. In Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38

the second part of Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted. These New Testament verses refer to salvation as

well. The salvation they refer to is much greater though. Each quotation of the verse is in

reference to salvation from sin by faith in Jesus Christ. The authors use the quotation to point out

that their ancestors were saved by their faith like God had promised and Jesus died so that they

could have the same opportunity to be saved from judgment due to their sins.

This should be taken as something that is very comforting. The author showed in

Habakkuk 2:4 that God is just. God will always do the right thing even though it might not seem

like it at the time. It shows that we can trust God even in the hardest of times, because he has

promised and been shown to fulfill the promise to give life and salvation to those who have faith.

So this verse should be used as a strengthener of faith. There is salvation for those who trust in

God and God has proven this to be true. So why not trust in his word and aspire to have faith in

Gods covenant?

14 Harrington, 47
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References

Books

Andersen, Francis I. Habakkuk: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 25.

New York: Doubleday, 2001

Barker, Kenneth L., and D. Waylon Bailey. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. Nashville,

Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 1998.

Campbell, D. B. J. The Old Testament for Modern Readers. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1974.

Craigie, Peter C. Twelve Prophets. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984.

Francisco, Clyde T., and John Richard Sampey. Introducing the Old Testament. Nashville:

Broadman Press, 1950.

Periodical

Harrington, D. J. (2007). Two Dimensions of Faith. America, 197(9), 47.