And the LORD answered me:
Habakkuk 2:2-4
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its 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.
Last time we looked at the word faith (emunah) in detail. We noted that in Hebrew, faith and faithfulness are the same word. You cannot separate thoughts from actions.
I want to take a step back and look at the verse as a whole in context. How did others understand this passage? What does it mean to live by faith?
Summing up the Torah
The Babylonian Talmud records a discussion among several rabbis about how to summarize the 613 commandments in the Torah. They observed Micah boiled them down to three: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). Isaiah summed them up in two statements: keep justice and do righteousness (Isaiah 56:1). Habakkuk reduced them down to one: the righteous will live by his faith (b. Makkot 23b).
It’s common to say that the Jews believe that they are saved by following the Torah. This is not true. Rather, they obey the Torah because they are saved. Because they are God’s people, they are expected to act in a certain way. There’s a clear correlation between being righteous and living faithfully. To the rabbis, this summed up what it meant to follow the Torah. Because you believe in God, you will follow his commands.
Paul and Faith
Paul quotes this verse in two of his letters:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:16-17
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”
Galatians 3:10-12
It is often taught that Paul rejected the Torah (“law”). However, if Jews commonly believed they were saved by their faith, why did Paul have to argue so much against being saved by the law? There are two dominant streams of thought weaving through his arguments. The first problem comes from Gentiles whose pagan backgrounds taught the idea of salvation by works (do things to please the gods). Second, Jews told the Gentiles that they needed to become Jewish (become part of the family) in order to be saved, which resulted in the expectation of obedience to the entire Torah (these are the things we do in this family).
Paul argued that Gentiles did not need to become Jews (and therefore obey all the Torah) in order to be saved. Rather, they were saved just like the Jews: by faith. Faith saves us from eternal condemnation.
The interpretation of Habakkuk in the Dead Sea Scrolls parallels Paul’s understanding, connecting faith to escaping the final judgment: “This refers to all those who obey the Law among the Jews whom God will rescue from the place of judgment, because of their suffering and their loyalty to the Teacher of Righteousness” (The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, 1QpHab Col vii:1-3).
Don’t Shrink Back
Our Habakkuk passage is also quoted is in Hebrews:
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Hebrews 10:35-39
This is a bit longer quotation than Paul’s references. It’s also quite different than the Hebrew Habakkuk we’re used to (compare to earlier). A lot of the other wording differences somewhat match what’s found in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible).
The greater context is to remain faithful in the midst of persecution. If the righteous live by faith, why are they dying under persecution? If we live by faith, why do some die for their faith? While faith impacts how we live now, it also imparts eternal life. We have the assurance of the resurrection.
To Ponder…
Are you more concerned with believing the right thing or acting the right way? What does it look like to balance both of these?
Does your faith enable you to endure hardships? What does such a faith look like?