Habacuque 2

Habacuque 2

Phillips notes that Habakkuk 2:4b… made history with a vengeance, since it brought about the conversion of Martin Luther. He was seeking plenary indulgence for his sins by crawling on his knees up the Scala Santa (Pilate's staircase) in Rome and saying the required prayer to the virgin Mary on each step when this verse thundered in his soul. Luther was trying to earn salvation by works when it dawned on him that justification and life was by faith. He rose from his knees, dusted off his robe, stood upright, and marched back down the steps and out of the church of Rome. He took half of Europe with him (Ed: Luther was the primary impetus for the Protestant Reformation! All beginning with this one verse - Habakkuk 2:4b!). (Exploring the Minor Prophets: An Expository Commentary) 'Before those words broke upon my mind,' he says, 'I hated God and was angry with Him because, not content with frightening us sinners by the law and by the miseries of life, he still further increased our torture by the gospel. But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood these words— "The just shall live by faith!" "The just shall live by faith!" —then I felt born again like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God!' `Henceforward,' he says again, 'I saw the beloved and holy Scriptures with other eyes. The words that I had previously detested, I began from that hour to value and to love as the sweetest and most consoling words in the Bible. In very truth, this text was to me the true gate of Paradise!' `An open door into the very Paradise of God!' `This text was to me the true gate of Paradise!' And they who enter into the City of God by that gate will go no more out for ever. ( Frank W Boreham - A Bunch of Everlasting or, Texts that made History) - this is a fascinating book which chronicles Bible texts that had eternal impact on a variety of God's men over the ages - For list of these men see Table of contents) LIVE BY FAITH NOT FEELINGS! Habakkuk was not "feeling" good about what God had told him in Chapter 1, but faith lives not by what it sees but by what it does not see (2Cor 5:7-note, 2Cor 4:18-note). From Habakkuk's transformation described in Chapter 3, we can be certain that he began to live by faith in spite of his feelings, a pattern all God's children (enabled by the Spirit, Php 2:13-note) do well to imitate (cp Heb 6:11-12-note). Don't misunderstand the phrase "faith lives… by what it does not see." Although we cannot see God's Person today, we can "see" Him in the Bible, in His character and His promises. So faith is not in some ethereal invisible God, but in an invisible God Who has made Himself visible in the Word of Truth. Habakkuk's faith had a firm foundation - the faithful God, everlasting, Holy One, Jehovah, Elohim who promised that his prophet had not yet seen the end of the story but "though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come, it will not delay." Why? Because the faithful, promise keeping God said it would. This was the firm foundation for Habakkuk's faith and it is still the firm foundation for all God's children who are declared righteous (justified) by grace through faith!