Vespers - Homily on Habakkuk with video recording

A video of the service at St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church may be found on Facebook here. 

2024-3-6 Habakkuk

O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen. 

Most Lutherans do not realize it, but Habakkuk plays a significant role in Martin Luther’s evangelical breakthrough.  This breakthrough occurs somewhere between 1513 and 1517 when Luther was lecturing on the Psalms, then the Epistles of Romans and Galatians.  It just so happens that Habakkuk 2:4, in particular the last part of the verse is quoted in three New Testament Letters: Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38.   When you look up these citations you will see the phrase “the righteous will live by faith.” 

Roland Bainton’s classic biography of Luther includes Luther’s own words describing what happened. As I read Luther’s words, please know that the word “righteous” that we encounter in the English Standard Version can also be translated as “just.”  The word “just” is short for justice, justified or justification.  The translation that Bainton provides uses the word just. 

Here Martin describes his spiritual transition and the role that Habakkuk’s phrase “the righteous will live by faith” plays in this development. 

I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the justice of God,” because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust.  My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him.  Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him.  Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant. 

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.” Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.  Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.  The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.  This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven…

If you have a true faith that Christ is your Saviour, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God’s heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart, in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness.  He who sees God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face. (page 65, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton, 1950)   

As Pastor Luther attests, God is indeed gracious.  He has called us into faith. We have faith in Jesus Christ and his cross and on account of the cross, God declares us righteous. God chooses, out of his mercy, to continue to forgive us sinners. 

In the book of Habakkuk, we also receive another gift of God’s grace.  Habakkuk, like Nahum, reveals to us that God is working behind the scenes for His grander purposes.  He is using nations to enact his judgment upon other nations. 

There are times when our world seems out of control, but Habakkuk tells us that God is very much aware of what is going in our human affairs.  For Habakkuk, these are the waning years of Assyria’s influence as an empire. God has used the Assyrian’s to enact a damaging judgment upon the northern kingdom which steadfastly refused to turn away from idol worship. As Habakkuk witnesses God’s vision and writes it down, Assyria is a menace to the remaining southern kingdom, Judah in general and Jerusalem in particular. The LORD assures Habakkuk and the people that he is “raising up the Chaldeans” (1:6) to challenge Assyria.  The Chaldeans are a group of Aramaic tribes that will join forces with others in what is now southern Iraq to form the Babylonian Empire.  The Babylonians will defeat arrogant, idol worshiping Assyria. 

Habakkuk reveals that God is behind the rise of one empire and the collapse of another. But that clash has not yet happened yet, so the faithful have to wait. History tells us that events did play out as the LORD said that they would. 

In chapter two, the LORD tells Habakkuk, “write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.  For still the vision awaits it appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie.  If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” 

These are important words for us to hear and hold onto. Christians throughout the world find themselves in all manner of circumstances.  Sometimes our communities get caught up in the judgment that God is enacting on a particular nation or region.  What do we do? We continue to live by our faith in the one true God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  

In the midst of the upheaval, uncertainty, confusion, violence, death all around us, we continue to live by the faith that the Lord God has given us. 

Another gift that we receive from Habakkuk, is a similar one that we receive from the Psalms. When we are anxious of confused or we just want answers, we have the blessing of God to bring it to him in prayer.  God receives all prayers. Even ones that sound as exasperated as Habakkuk. “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?”  

We may not like the answer. Yet, God is gracious. He not only forgives our sins, but he encourages the sinner to send any and all concerns His way.  Our God desires that we have a relationship with Him. Our faith is deepened when we can speak frankly to the one who loves us, saves us, and preserves us, and promises us an eternal home with Him. 

Yes, despite what is going on in our world, internationally, or within our businesses, towns and homes, we live by faith. Thanks be to God! … 

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.