From Despair to Dependence | Habakkuk 2:2-5

March 2nd, 2025

This week, we continued our series called “Walking In High Places”. Last week we covered the second lament of Habakkuk, which was a hymn of lament. That is a  wrestling between what we know of God and the realities of our life. We saw that as we work through these things, our wrestling must be done in a posture of worship. We must cry out in faith because God is not far from us.

The previous section of Habbakuk (1:12-2:1) is saturated with despair. Habakkuk is wrestling with the holiness of God and the wickedness of the nations around him. Even in the midst of this deep despair, Habakkuk acknowledges the holiness of God and His covenant faithfulness! Even though he is perplexed by the way that God uses the sin of others to bring judgement on Israel, he declares the sovereignty of God. Habakkuk's words are full of anguish over the arrogance of people, and yet he holds to this posture of hope. He knows God will answer and God is faithful. Habakkuk’s dependency on God is what makes his lament worshipful. He knows God will answer!

In Habakkuk (2:2-5), we see God’s answer to Habakkuk’s wrestling. This section is the culmination of the book and in this section God reveals why He has raised up this super power to consume Judah. All that God was trying to teach Habbakuk, and us today is that dependance and faith are intrinsically linked. True faith is manifested in a reliance and dependence upon God. Faith is dependency expressed through obedience. Dependance is faith in action. 

Habakkuk began this second section with hope sitting on the watchtower waiting with anticipation for the Lord to answer him. Habakkuk is waiting for the reproof that he knew the Lord will bring. He knew that the Lord would help him, Judah, and us today move from despondency and despair to dependance on the Lord through God’s answer to Habbakkuk’s lament. We can see God respond to Habbakkuk with clarity, certainty, and an important contrast.

Clarity:

In verse 2, we begin to see that God’s response to Habakkuk is not obscure but is clear and understandable. God responded in a way that He could be understood. God acts not only clearly, but powerfully. Scripture is full of examples of the power in God’s words. Elijah and the prophets of Baal,God destroyed the altars of the false God with His words. Through creation Only an omnipotent God can create a universe with His words. Not only did He create by speaking, His words uphold and keep the world in existence.  

In creation, He made us to listen, speak and relate to one another as a reflection of who and what He is. When God commanded Adam to name the animals of the newly formed earth, God created order through language. Unlike animals who react and communicate instinctively, people speak with an ordered language that reflects the nature of God. This is also why we are warned so many times in Scripture about idle words and their power. God gave us words, be careful how you use those words! 

As God speaks, He demands a response from us. He invites us to fellowship with Him and others through conversation. Christ, the Word Incarnate, is the ultimate representation of God’s speech and God’s word. Communication with man is at the heart of His nature. Hebrews 1 demonstrates how divine communication is meant to be used, true fellowship and unity with God.  We also see the power of words in the Gospel. Romans 1 says the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. How is that power shown? Through the spreading of the Gospel and faithful preaching! People cannot call on the Lord unless they’ve heard the words about Him. 

When God commanded Habbakuk to write down His words, He was confirming the clarity of His word, through its permanence. God gave clear directions on how to communicate his words, for Habakkuk that meant writing on tablets. God chose that method of communicating at that time, because God knew that would be especially effective for the audience. Stone tablets also stood as a symbol of permanence. It also demonstrates God’s desire for his word to be accessible to everyone! Since it is accessible to all people, we are, therefore, accountable to it. The things God has made clear to us in His scriptures are ours! Ours to obey, ours to share!

The clarity of God’s word should cause an immediate response in us! The message given to Habakkuk was that the righteous will, must, live by faith! God’s word should always propel us towards living a more holy life. The right response to the word of God is to run towards God. Obedience with urgency is the right response to understanding.

Certainty:

God’s promises are never uncertain and never conditional. His vision is not just a dream, but it WILL come to pass.God guaranteed Habakkuk and Judah that a judgement was coming. When the judgement would come belonged to the Lord, what belongs to us and should push us to obedience is that judgement is unwaveringly coming. Even when we don’t see God working His will, we can trust that He is. The Bible often speaks in agricultural terms to describe the way we ought to wait on God. A farmer must give his harvest time to grow and come to fruition, so we must always wait expectantly for God to work.

God tells us that those who wait in and on Him will mount up on wings like eagles. In our modern society, we want everything 10 seconds ago. We expect immediate gratification. God tells us, as He told Habakkuk, to wait on God because that is our role in life. Our sphere of responsibility is to grow in strength and endurance through an active dependance on God. That is what we are called to do! Waiting is an exercise in faith because we are certain that God will do what He intends and promises. It is for us to wait, watch, and rejoice in the way that He carries out His will!

What may seem like an unending period of waiting to us, is merely the blink of an eye for God. His focus is eternal and so nothing is late, nothing is outside of His plan. We often lose sight of that and resort to anxiousness which is a lack of faith. When we don’t see God working when and how we think He ought to, we tend to create a rubric in our minds that declares God is not good.  Our faith ought to be in God’s certainty and clarity. As we take a stand and lay our roots down in God’s certainty and clarity, we take a step away from despair and closer to dependance.

The Contrast: 

God has presented a contrast in Habakkuk 2:4 that serves to strengthen our faith and acts as a turning point in the book. The central message of the book of Habakkuk is that the righteous will live by faith. Not only has this book been about the pride and arrogance of the Babylonians, but the opposite truth of pride: the righteous live by faith. Self-reliance leads to disruption and despair. The self-reliant soul is dead and knows what the righteous requirement of God is. 

The Babylonians and Chaldeans in the book of Habakkuk are the example God chose to use to demonstrate what an arrogant, self-reliant life, lived to the end looks like. The proud are never satisfied. Death is never satisfied. Faith in one’s self can’t ever be satisfied because we know we do not have eternality. In our despair, we oppress everyone around us because we feel like we must have control over something. 

In response to the Babylonians of the era, and the rest of humanity’s pride, God gave Habakkuk the most wonderful message! The answer to an unending, insatiable struggle against the grave, God provided the way of escape from despair. The righteous shall live by faith! The way of faith leads to dependance and life! The ones who are righteous submit to God and they are given the gift of faith. Not just a belief, but a heart transforming, life changing faith. That is the message that God gave Habakkuk, Judah, and to us today.

Judah had left their first love and developed an appetite for self love. The ultimate example of self-reliance and self-worship was the Chaldeans. The contrast was set in stone. Judah had transformed themselves, inwardly, to be the same as the Chaldeans. God reproved them and gave them the way to have their lives transformed again from despair to dependance again. This was a profound grace from God!  God provided the way for Habakkuk, Judah, and us, to present our despair to God so it can be transformed into dependance!

This week, you may be wrestling with recognizing the way God is working His will in your life. Take your wrestling and your struggling to God. His word is clear and can guide and comfort you! His promises and timing is certain and He WILL complete what He began in you. He has given examples and contrasts to help us recognize where we are stuck in despair so that we can be brought out of it into a state of dependance through our hope in Christ! Bring your laments to Christ this week so that you can receive comfort and fulfillment in Him!