Habakkuk · chapter 2 of 3
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Habakkuk 2 is God's answer to the prophet's questions. The Lord commands him to write the vision and wait for it even if it seems slow, declares that the proud have no upright soul but the righteous shall live by faith, and pronounces five woes against the oppressor who grows rich through violence and idolatry. The chapter ends with the Lord in his holy temple and the command that all the earth be silent before him.
After the two complaints of chapter 1, Habakkuk goes up to his watchtower to wait. God's answer is the heart of the book. Here appears the declaration that the New Testament quotes three times to explain justification by faith, along with a series of woes against anyone who builds power on violence, like the Chaldeans.
Habakkuk says he will take his post on the watchtower and wait to see what the Lord will say to him and what he will answer concerning his complaint. The Lord tells him to write the vision plainly on tablets so that one can read it on the run. The vision still awaits its appointed time and will surely come; if it seems slow, wait for it. Then he contrasts the proud, whose soul is not upright, with the righteous, who shall live by his faith.
A series of five woes against the oppressor follows, a man as greedy as the grave who is never satisfied. First: woe to the one who piles up what is not his and loads himself with pledges; his debtors will rise up, and the plundered peoples will plunder him. Second: woe to the one who gets unjust gain for his house in order to set his nest on high; the stones of the wall will cry out. Third: woe to the one who builds a town with blood; the labor of the peoples is fuel for fire. Verse 14 announces that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Fourth: woe to the one who gives his neighbor drink until drunk in order to gaze on his nakedness; the cup of the Lord's right hand will come around to him, and the violence done to Lebanon and its animals will overwhelm him. Fifth: woe to the one who says to wood, awake, and to a silent stone, arise and teach; the idol overlaid with gold and silver has no breath in it. The Lord, however, is in his holy temple, and all the earth must be silent before him.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The vision awaits its appointed time and will come; even if it seems slow, it must be waited for because it will not be late. It is the answer to the complaint of chapter 1: God has not forgotten, but his calendar is not the prophet's.
The proud trust in themselves and are not upright, but the righteous shall live by faith. The New Testament quotes this line in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38 to show that life before God is received by trusting him.
The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In the middle of the violence of empires, God declares the final destiny of the world: not human power, but his glory.
The Lord is in his holy temple, and all the earth is to be silent before him. Against the mute idols of the nations, the living God reigns, and before his presence the fitting response is the silence of those who recognize who is in charge.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: At his watch post, on the tower. — Habakkuk 2:1
Answer: To write it plainly on tablets and wait for it, because it will come even if it seems slow. — Habakkuk 2:2-3
Answer: The proud are not upright, while the righteous shall live by his faith. — Habakkuk 2:4
Answer: His debtors will rise up, and the plundered peoples will plunder him. — Habakkuk 2:7-8
Answer: With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. — Habakkuk 2:14
Answer: Be silent before him. — Habakkuk 2:20
Habakkuk 2 teaches us to wait without ceasing to trust. God does not always answer at once, but he asks the believer to write down what he knows and live by it in the meantime. In a class or small group you can ask which promise of God is hard to wait for today, and what it means to live by faith in the midst of that waiting.
The woes also remind us that power and wealth gained through abuse do not last. Anyone with authority at home, at work or in the church should ask whether what they build serves their neighbor or exploits them. And the last verse invites a pause of silence before God.
Habakkuk 2 answers the prophet's complaints: God will judge the oppressor, and the righteous will live by trusting in the meantime. The answer transforms the prophet, and in chapter 3 we see him pray a psalm that recalls God's past work and ends with one of the most beautiful confessions of trust in the Bible.
In context it means that whoever trusts God and stays faithful to him while waiting will live, even when judgment falls on the nation. The New Testament takes up the line to teach that justification before God is received by faith (Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11) and that we must persevere in it (Hebrews 10:38).
It is a difficult phrase. It can mean that the vision is written so plainly that whoever reads it can run with the message to others, or that the reader runs to obey. Either way it stresses that the message is clear and urgent.
It is a promise that God will make himself known throughout the earth and that his enemies will not have the last word. Christians see it partly fulfilled in the spread of the gospel and fully at the end of the age.