How Should We Live?

A very religious man was once caught in rising floodwaters. He climbed onto the roof of his house and trusted God to rescue him. A neighbour came by in a canoe and said, “The waters will soon be above your house. Hop in and we’ll paddle to safety.”

“No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me”

A short time later the police came by in a boat. “The waters will soon be above your house. Hop in and we’ll take you to safety.”

“No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me”

A little time later a rescue services helicopter hovered overhead, let down a rope ladder and said. “The waters will soon be above your house. Climb the ladder and we’ll fly you to safety.”

“No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me”

All this time the floodwaters continued to rise, until soon they reached above the roof and the religious man drowned. When he arrived at heaven he demanded an audience with God. Ushered into God’s throne room he said, “Lord, why am I here in heaven? I prayed for you to save me, I trusted you to save me from that flood.”

“Yes you did my child” replied the Lord. “And I sent you a canoe, a boat and a helicopter. But you never got in.”

This silly story is a reminder to us that sometimes we get so caught up in what’s happening around us that we forget to listen for God’s voice in our lives. It can also happen when a person throws in the towel and feels as though living for Jesus is no longer worth it. They can allow all that is around us to cause us to forget the One Whom we serve.

Today, I hope you will be encouraged to:

Keep living for Jesus regardless of what may be happening all about us.

Let’s listen to what Habakkuk wrote in

Habakkuk 2:2–20 NASB95

Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith. “Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, So that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations And collects to himself all peoples. “Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, Even mockery and insinuations against him And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his— For how long— And makes himself rich with loans?’ “Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. “Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you— Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants. “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house To put his nest on high, To be delivered from the hand of calamity! “You have devised a shameful thing for your house By cutting off many peoples; So you are sinning against yourself. “Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework. “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence! “Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts That peoples toil for fire, And nations grow weary for nothing? “For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea. “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness! “You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, And utter disgrace will come upon your glory. “For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants. “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols. “Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it. “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Habakkuk 2:2

Live In Trust. - 2:2-3

We left Habakkuk waiting for God to respond last time we visited this prophet. Today, we get to hear God’s response. Very simply, it is as if God is saying that He has it all planned. Therefore, Habakkuk should patiently wait for God’s perfect timing to take place.

Here we see that God offers very clear information and tells the prophet what he is supposed to do with this vision. There is always the question as to what a vision really is. In the Bible, a vision or a revelation, depending on your translation, is a message that is transferred directly by God to the person He chooses. It may be through a dream or just some inward insight that the individual receives from God.

What God specifically shared in this vision is most likely found in verses 4-20 of chapter 2. Habakkuk is told to record this on tablets, which ought to remind us and the people in his time of the time the law was recorded by Moses. These tablets might have been wooden, stone, clay, or metal tablets. It is to be recorded in large, clear letters for all to understand.

It is helpful to know of the significance of this by understanding the routine that took place when a prophet received a message from God. They would write a summary of what was shared and place it on the gates of the temple so that everyone had the opportunity to see it and understand it. Then after a few days, the temple ministers would take it down and store it in the treasury like a permanent filing system.

The running was referring to the heralds or even the ordinary people who would have read it. Once they read it, they run off to tell others what was said.

Verse 3 is a reminder that what God has determined will happen is truly going to happen, though it is not immediate. Unlike the many false prophets of that time, this is a true vision or revelation from God and it will most certainly come true. Even though it may seem like a long way off, hope must persevere. Of course, based on what we learned last time of God’s character, the only real choice left to anyone is to have complete faith and hope in God.

A song which our quartet, Hearts 4 Him, would often sing was In Time, On Time, All the Time. One commentator stated, God’s Word is never late and His delays are always wise.

Live In Faith. - 2:4-5

Verse 4 introduces the Babylonian psyche. The NASB calls them proud; the NIV and ESV uses the phrase puffed up. It literally means swollen. Their pride and their attitude of self-sufficiency and indispensability have bloated their very being. Verse 11 in chapter 1 describes them as being arrogant and exalting themselves above God. They are concerned only for themselves.

Verse 4 continues by basically saying that they are morally bankrupt. If you were to look for an example of crooked, perverse, and corrupt people, you would find this Babylonian Empire to be at the top of the list.

Suddenly, we see an incredible contrast to what has just been described. The last part of verse 4 is one of my favorite sentences and serves as a foundation for at least three New Testament books.

The righteous will live by his faith.

Interestingly, the Talmud states that this simple sentence covers the 613 laws of the Pentateuch. That’s quite an interesting commentary. I personally believe this principle is built upon in the New Testament, also.

deals with the first part in talking about the righteous or the just, depending on your translation. focuses on will (shall) live. Hebrews 20:38 targets by faith.

focuses on will (shall) live.

Hebrews 20:38 targets by faith.

We see the contrast between two opposing kinds of people. The first mentioned is the proud one. This type of person is full of themselves and feel as though they need no one to help them. Their confidence is fully in themselves.

Their confidence is fully in themselves.

Then you have the righteous. This type of person is assured of their salvation. They exhibit humility because they place their trust in the Lord alone.

The interesting thing which we remember is that the Babylonians or Chaldeans were full of themselves and how powerful they were. They had no room for anyone, but themselves. What they didn’t realize was that the Almighty God was the One Who enabled them to be victorious.

For many of us, we really want to know what faith consists of. This appears to be talking about the righteous way in which a person strives to always live. It’s not in a way that tries to be justified, but rather a lifestyle that shows itself to be fully reliant upon God. In other words, if we are to be a people of faith, then we will cling to God, trusting wholeheartedly in the promises of His Word, while trusting Him implicitly to act according to His perfect and sovereign purposes. This is true, as Habakkuk observed, even when we cannot understand or explain God and His ways.

In stark contrast, verse 5 transitions to the Babylonian peoples. Though they think they are the best of the best and unconquerable, they are heading straight towards judgment. The drunken individual has no control over themselves and without inhibition hurtles without any brakes toward destruction. They are never satisfied with all that they have. They have no restraints because of their incredible power, greed, and ignorance of the One true God.

Live In Hope. - 2:6-20

There is a verse that reaches out to us in the midst of at the sins which God hates. It is:

Habakkuk 2:14 NASB95

“For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

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This is a promise that we can count on, as well. We know this to be true because the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is going to return and set up His kingdom. In this process, sin will be put down.

Yet, there is sin all around us today, just as there was in Habakkuk’s day. The sins which are mentioned in chapter 2 which God hates are five, though we can be assured that there are more. However, these stood out.

Verses 5-11 talks about the covetous mindset that showed itself in greed and violence. This deals with two of the sins that revolve around covetousness; the inward motivation and the outward result.

All in verse 6 seems to refer to all the conquered and vanquished nations that fell under the Babylonian seige. All of them seem to be waiting for God to pay the Babylonians back for the horrible cruelty. As you read through this it is evident that those who had been crushed are also wondering when God is going to step up in order to stop all this.

You get the sense in verses 7-8 that the tables will be turned. Those who were experiencing extortion, much like the mafia does, would rebel and demand ridiculous interest from the Babylonians. There will be a harsh demanding of everything to be restored by those who were currently under oppression. While Babylon was currently enjoying the spoils, there was going to come a time when all their wealth and more was going to be taken from them.

Historically, we know that this played out perfectly. The Medes and the Persians had been brutalized by the Babylonians. You will recall that one evening, the Medes and Persians suddenly took over the Babylonian Empire.

What goes around comes around. That phrase fits perfectly with what took place that one fateful evening. Babylon is not aware of this at that time; we fortunately have history to reveal that what God is describing to Habakkuk was very real. Interestingly, archaeologists today describe Babylon as a desolate waste. The destruction that Babylon showed became even worse for its Empire.

Verses 9-11 describes how Babylon worked at totally controlling other nations; how they abused them for their own personal gain. They thought nothing of profiting at the expense of others through crooked and unfair dealings. They became untouchable, so they thought, by using the wealth of other nations. As a result, they also though they were beyond God’s reach and even greater than God.

While the Babylonians thought they were so great, they were rather adding to their destruction by how they were treating others. There is so reward for willing bloodshed. They were, in essence, sinning against themselves, though they were attacking others. Things were so horrible that the evidence from the buildings and other inanimate objects would speak in condemnation against the Babylonians.

Verse 12 speaks of murder that serves as the foundation for a community. Basically, the slaves that were used to construct the amazing thick walls was held together by the blood of those destroyed. The Babylonian walls were 3-7 times thicker than the normal city walls. Yet, that would even be destroyed.

We see in verse 13 that God has set things up so that in all the destruction and building being done by the Babylonians, that it will be totally pointless. Everything they set up is going to be destroyed, much as what we would describe as going up in smoke.

It’s also a reminder to us that we must be careful where we pour our energy and efforts. For there is nothing on this earth that will remain after all is said and done. Only what is done for our Lord has eternal, lasting implications.

Finally, we come to that verse I described earlier which reaches out to us amidst all this other stuff which could be very depressing. It’s interesting how, after Babylon is destroyed by God’s righteous judgment, that the whole earth will recognize the glory of the Lord. When Babylon is wiped out, everyone throughout the world will know that God is truly in charge.

Verses 15-16 describes drunkenness and the terrible effects upon people. It seems that the purpose in sharing their drinking with others was in order to get their enemies drunk, fake friendship, so as to get what they wanted and take advantage of their conquest. This wasn’t so blatant, as it was done with cunning deception.

Once again we see that what they did to others will come back on them in full force. In fact, their humiliation and disgrace will be much more than what they did to others. In fact, whenever we see the phrase cup in the LORD’S right hand, it is in reference to God’s righteous judgment and wrath.

The concept of reaping and sowing seems quite obvious in verse 17.

Verses 18-20 deals with idolatry and its absurdness. This seems to summarize the reasoning behind the total destruction of Babylon. In fact, the whole of their evil seemed to be caused by their idol-worship.

Finally, verse 19 deals with idolatry and its absurdness.

The illogic of worshipping that which was created is presented in this section, as well. It causes humanity to willingly and intentionally deny God Who actually is the creator. No thing can save; for it could just as easily be destroyed since it was created.

Verse 20 gives us all that wonderful reminder of why we have an unfaltering hope. God is in His holy temple. We even see this in where the prophet sees that God is still on the throne.

Yet this is also in contrast to the dumb idols that are not living and cannot speak. In addition, because God is about to judge the whole world, since He is the only One Who is capable of doing so as the Holy God, everyone needs to step back and let God do what He’s going to do.

Conclusion

Conclusion

Obviously, Habakkuk had major concerns, yet He could have confidence that God was still in charge. God was anything but uninterested in what was going on all around Habakkuk. God was most definitely concerned and actively working things according to His perfect plan and timing.

If we focus on the immediate situation only, or on the circumstances that surround us, it would be quite understandable why someone would want to throw their hands up in despair and just give up and quit.

Yet, we are encouraged by the fact that God is and always has been in charge. We also are reminded that we are to live by faith. Plus, we know that Christ will return one day and put things as they should be. All of that gives us great hope and encouragement to keep living for Jesus regardless of what may be happening all about us.