Bible Study Notes: Habakkuk Chapter 2: The Just Shall Live by Faith !

Overview: Habakkuk was bothered by the sin of Judah and was asking God why God wasn’t dealing with their sin and punishing the nation as they turned away from Him. Habakkuk doubted that God would deal with the sin of His people but was shocked when God actually told him what He was planning on doing ! So God tells Habakkuk that He will send the most powerful and wicked nation at that time, Babylon, to punish Judah and commands him to write down how terrible the punishment will be. How could God do this ? God responds with His answer to Habakkuk and then tells him about the five woes that will ultimately come in judgment on the nation of Babylon in the future. God will judge pride in His children and in the world, in His time. Proverbs 16:17-19 “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul. 18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.” From God speaking to Habakkuk to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Roman church, God used just one short powerful verse, “the just shall live by faith” to change the lives of millions of believers around the world. It is said that this one verse changed the life of Martin Luther, who challenged the then accepted teaching of the day, that we are justified by our works. That one movement, the Reformation, still continues today, but it isn’t a religious movement or a denomination or a church building. It is a powerful work of God’s Spirit in our lives bought on by the reading of His Word, by grace, by faith.

Key Verse: Habakkuk 2:4 “ Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.

 

Habakkuk 2:1-4 I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. 2 Then the LORD answered me and said: “ Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. 4 “ Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. (See Notes 1: The Power of Faith to Believe and to Endure !)

Habakkuk 2:5-11 “ Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, and he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, and he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples. 6 “ Will not all these take up a proverb against him, and a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘ Woe to him who increases What is not his—how long? and to him who loads himself with many pledges’? 7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men’s blood and the violence of the land and the city, and of all who dwell in it. 9 “ Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster! 10 You give shameful counsel to your house, Cutting off many peoples, and sin against your soul. 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timbers will answer it.

Habakkuk 2:12-20 “ Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, and nations weary themselves in vain? 14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. 15 “ Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness! 16 You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also—drink! and be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the LORD’s right hand will be turned against you, and utter shame will be on your glory. 17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, and the plunder of beasts which made them afraid, Because of men’s blood and the violence of the land and the city, and of all who dwell in it. 18 “ What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols? 19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no breath at all. 20 “ But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”(Habakkuk 2:4)
Romans 3:19-28 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
Colossians 1:21-23 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Hebrews 3:12-15 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “ Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Psalm 95:7-8)

Personal Application:  Beautiful grace from God, followed by a one time act of faith !

Step 1: Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Step 2: Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

This Is Or Could be Your Story, By Grace By Faith !

This Is Where We Were ! /Ephesians 2:1-3  "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."
Then God Stepped In ! Ephesian 2:4-10  "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. This Is God’s Gift to You ! For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

 
The Power of God’s Word ! Habakkuk 2:4 “ Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.”