“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
Habakkuk 2:4
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
This is the most famous verse in Habakkuk’s little book. Last time we looked at the word “upright” (yashar). I now want to turn my attention to an even more important word in this verse: faith. Next time we will look at the verse as a whole and how it was interpreted.
Firm Faith
The word “faith” in our passage is the Hebrew word אֱמוּנָה (emunah). While we may connect it with a thought (faith is something I think), Hebrew is a more active language than English. While thoughts are important, they lead to actions. “Faith” and “faithfulness” are the same thing in the Hebrew mindset. It comes from the root אמן (aman), which means “to support, be reliable, believe, or trust in”.
We first find the word emunah when the Israelites battled the Amalekites. Moses went up a mountain to watch. “Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady (emunah) until the going down of the sun” (Exodus 17:11-12). Notice how it describes Moses’ hands. They were steady/faithful. They could depend that they would remain raised.
When refurbishing the temple under the kings Joash and Josiah, the workers acted faithfully (2 Kings 12:15, 22:7). This meant they were honest in their transactions. Acting faithfully is the opposite of having lying lips (Proverbs 12:22).
Emunah also describes the Lord (paired with upright/yashar in these verses): “all his work is done in faithfulness” (Psalm 33:4). “A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, / just and upright is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Or, as we sing in the hymn: “Great is your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:23).
Trustworthy Truth
Another related word is emet: truth or trustworthiness.
When the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, she marveled at him and his kingdom. “The report was true (emet) that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe (aman) the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it” (1 Kings 10:6-7). Psalm 119:142 says God’s law (torah) is true (emet).
Emet isn’t simply saying something is true (as opposed to false), but that it is trustworthy and reliable. When God reveals himself to Moses, one of the key ways he described himself was as emet (Exodus 34:6). Many of those characteristics are repeated in Psalm 86:15: “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, / slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (emet).”
Just as God is faithful, so should we. When Joshua gave his final farewell speech, he appealed to the people: “Serve him in sincerity and faithfulness (emet)” (Joshua 24:14). Similarly, when Samuel stepped down, he urged the people to “serve him faithfully (emet)” (1 Samuel 12:24). David (1 Kings 3:6) and Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:3) walked before God in faithfulness (emet).
Amen!
The verb may look similar to an English word you’re familiar with: amen. Did you know this is originally a Hebrew word? It carried over into Greek, English, and scores of other languages. What does “amen” mean? Why do we traditionally end prayers that way?
Amen carries the same connotations of truth and steadiness. Ending a prayer with “amen” effectively says, “May this be/become true”. One examle of such an affirmation is when Moses commanded the people to shout out the curses from Mount Gerazim (Deuteronomy 27:14-26). At the end of each curse, the people shouted, “Amen,” affirming the statement.
Firm in Faith
It’s easy to believe in God’s promises when things are going well. What about when faced with difficulties?
Isaiah came to King Ahaz to reassure him of the Lord’s faithfulness when two other kings teamed up against him (Isaiah 7). Isaiah ended his message saying, “If you are not firm in faith, / you will not be firm at all” (Isaiah 7:9). Two forms of aman appears here: “If you (plural, speaking not only to the king but to everyone) do not believe, then you (plural again) will not be faithful/firm/steady.”
When King Jehoshaphat was confronted by an overwhelming alliance of kings, he prayed to the Lord. The Lord spoke through a prophet to march out against them. As they neared the battlefield, the king proclaimed, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe (ha’aminu) in the LORD your God, and you will be established (te’amenu); believe (ha’aminu) his prophets, and you will succeed” (2 Chronicles 20:20). These are all verbs from aman (I decided to show the full form just so you can see what’s similar and different). Their faith/belief leads to being faithful/steady.
A Crisis of Faith
While it’s encouraging to see how God acted in the past, what about when you’re in the midst of a crisis? Psalm 89 starts by repeating over and over how faithful God is.
I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever;
Psalm 89:1-2
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness (emunah) to all generations.
For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness (emunah).”
Emunah appears seven times in this Psalm, each time describing God! On top of that, we find emet in verse 15 and the verb in verse 37. However, after praising God’s faithfulness and his covenant with David, the Psalm shifts: “But now you have cast off and rejected / you are full of wrath against your anointed” (Psalm 89:38). He asks, “Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, / which by your faithfulness (emunah) you swore to David?” (Psalm 89:49). The Psalm ends with these questions hanging out there.
A life of faith does not mean life is easy. How can the Psalmist praise God for his faithfulness in the midst of tragedy?
To Ponder…
Just as God is faithful, so we should be faithful. How can we better emulate this character trait of our Heavenly Father? What does a faithful life look like?
Do you typically end prayers with “amen”? What do you usually mean by that? How does understanding its Hebrew origins enrich your understanding?
We saw a couple of examples where having faith is equated with being established and firm. How does faith make for a steady life?
Do you believe God is always faithful, even when it doesn’t seem that way? Are you able to praise God for his steadfast love and faithfulness, even when you can’t see it?