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confidence in the LORD

Habakkuk 1:12-2:20 (JDV)

Habakkuk 1:12 Are you not from antiquity, Yahveh my God? My Holy One, you will not die. Yahveh, you appointed them to execute judgment; my Rock, you destined them to punish us.
Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are you silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself?
Habakkuk 1:14 You have made Adam like the fish of the sea, like marine creatures that have no ruler.
Habakkuk 1:15 The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook, catch them in their dragnet, and gather them in their fishing net; that is why they are glad and shriek ecstatically.
Habakkuk 1:16 That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet and burn incense to their fishing net, because by these things their portion is rich and their food plentiful.
Habakkuk 1:17 Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?
Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see what he will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint.
Habakkuk 2:2 Yahveh answered me: Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it.
Habakkuk 2:3 Because the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it is delayed, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late.
Habakkuk 2:4 Notice, his throat is swollen; he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:5 Moreover, wine betrays; an arrogant man is never at rest. He enlarges his throat like Sheol, and like Death he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself; he collects all the peoples for himself.
Habakkuk 2:6 Won’t all of these take up a taunt against him, with mockery and riddles about him? They will say: Woe to him who amasses what is not his– how much longer? — and loads himself with goods taken in pledge.
Habakkuk 2:7 Won’t your creditors suddenly arise, and those who disturb you wake up? Then you will become prey to them.
Habakkuk 2:8 Since you have plundered many nations, all the peoples who remain will plunder you — because of human bloodshed and violence against land, city, and all who live in it.
Habakkuk 2:9 Woe to him who dishonestly makes wealth for his house to place his nest on high, to escape the grasp of disaster!
Habakkuk 2:10 You have planned shame for your house by wiping out many peoples and failing your own throat.
Habakkuk 2:11 For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will answer them from the woodwork.
Habakkuk 2:12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice!
Habakkuk 2:13 Is it not noticed by the Yahveh of Armies that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?
Habakkuk 2:14 For the land will be filled with the knowledge of the Yahveh’s glory, as the water covers the sea.
Habakkuk 2:15 Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath and even making them drunk, in order to look at their nakedness!
Habakkuk 2:16 You will be filled with disgrace instead of glory. You also – drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the Yahveh’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.
Habakkuk 2:17 For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you; the robbery of animals will terrify you because of your human bloodshed and violence against land, city, and all who live in it.
Habakkuk 2:18 What use is a carved idol after its craftsman carves it? It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies. For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it and makes idols that cannot speak.
Habakkuk 2:19 Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up! or to mute stone: Come alive! Can it teach? Notice! It may be plated with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.
Habakkuk 2:20 But the Yahveh is in his holy temple; let the whole land be silent in his presence.

confidence in the LORD

Habakkuk’s second complaint is that the LORD is overlooking the evil of Babylon as he metes out judgment through them. The answer is an oracle against Babylon which will be fulfilled in due time. Meanwhile, how does a righteous person live in a time when his own people are being judged for their sin? God’s righteous person lives by faith — confidence in the LORD regardless of the circumstances.

LORD, make us examples of your kind of person – the righteous who live by faith.