God hears, listens and responds with salvation to the complaints we bring.
Habakkuk 2:4-5 (NIV)
“See, the enemy is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness —
5 indeed, wine betrays him;
he is arrogant and never at rest.
Because he is as greedy as the grave
and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
and takes captive all the peoples.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 24: The Sanctification of Sinners (Part 2)
Our good works,
proceeding from the good root of faith,
are good and acceptable to God,
since they are all sanctified by his grace.
Yet they do not count toward our justification—
for by faith in Christ we are justified,
even before we do good works.
Otherwise they could not be good,
any more than the fruit of a tree could be good
if the tree is not good in the first place.
So then, we do good works,
but nor for merit—
for what would we merit?
Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do,
and not he to us,
since it is he who “works in us both to will and do
according to his good pleasure”
thus keeping in mind what is written:
“When you have done all that is commanded you,
then you shall say, ‘We are unworthy servants;
we have done what it was our duty to do.’“
Yet we do not wish to deny
that God rewards good works—
but it is by his grace
that he crowns his gifts.
Moreover,
although we do good works
we do not base our salvation on them;
for we cannot do any work
that is not defiled by our flesh
and also worthy of punishment.
And even if we could point to one,
memory of a single sin is enough
for God to reject that work.
So we would always be in doubt,
tossed back and forth
without any certainty,
and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly
if they did not rest on the merit
of the suffering and death of our Savior.
Summary
Habakkuk is an Old Testament book we don't get to turn to nearly often enough. It's a short book - only three chapters long - so you can read through the whole thing quite quickly. I encourage you to make the time to read it all.
It contains a dialogue between the prophet Habakkuk and God, written in a poetic format designed to be set to music (the final line says "For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.").
Habakkuk boldly approaches God with two serious complaints about the suffering and lack of justice he sees in the world. Habakkuk begins by accusing God of ignoring His people:
How long, LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save? (1:2)
As we look across our world and even our own communities today, many of the complaints Habakkuk raises to God will resonate. So often it seems like God turns a blind eye to the rampant sin and injustice all over the world, and like Habakkuk, we gaze heavenward and wonder what's going on.
But God responds to Habakkuk with a reminder that the day is coming where unrepentant sinners will be crushed, and woe will come "to him who builds his house by unjust gain" (2:9). On that day, "the earth," the God promises, "will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD" (2:14). God finishes responding to Habakkuk's complaints with the simple reminder that "The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him" (2:20).
Habakkuk ends his short book with a psalm of praise looking forward to the day when the LORD will come out "to deliver His people, to save His anointed one." Habakkuk knows the LORD will "crush the leader of the land of wickedness" (3:13).
Dig Deeper
Maybe you're wondering why we're reading an Old Testament minor prophet in the midst of learning about doctrines like justification and salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone. Well, for one, it's good to be reminded that the whole Bible speaks to our salvation, not just the New Testament epistles.
But it's God's response in 2:4 that catches our attention today. Apart from knowing our salvation is completely provided for in Christ, we would be just like the sinners of the world who are "arrogant and never at rest" (v5). As our Confession puts it, if we were depending upon our own good works to save us, "we would be tossed back and forth without any certainty... and and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly."
So as you finish another week of work and look forward to the coming Lord's Day, rest in the assurance that God gave to his prophet, pointing forward to the salvation in Christ that you've been included in: "the righteous will live by his faith" (v4, ESV).
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him (2:30);
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your faith in Jesus Christ will strengthen and sustain you as we look forward to Christ's return when He will make all things new;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 Corinthians 4
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