Living in Faithfulness

Last updated on: October 20, 2016 at 1:08 pm by John C Holbert

Living in Faithfulness 2016-10-20T13:08:53-05:00 John C Holbert

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291px-Habakkuk_Hajdudorog (Lectionary for October 30, 2016)

The small book of Habakkuk throws up an unusual number of textual and contextual difficulties. The received Hebrew text is peculiarly thorny, riddled with grammatical and syntactical conundrums able to keep scholars busy at their desks and computers long into the night. Arguments abound concerning the date of the prophecy. Suggestions have been offered from a time contemporary with Jeremiah (7th century BCE) down to the time of Daniel, late in the 2nd century BCE. The identifications of the oft-named “wicked” and “righteous” run the gamut from Chaldea (allies of the Neo- Babylonians), to Egypt, to Greece as external enemy wicked, or internal wicked ones among the Judeans themselves, opposed to the righteous Judeans of some unspecified time, employing equally unspecified types of wickedness and righteousness. In short, we know precious little about the provenance and precise interests of this prophet. Even his name is problematic: some early commentators claimed that his name was built on Hebrew “embrace” (chabaq), while more modern readers assume it was formed from a word meaning some kind of garden plant (see the Akkadian word habbaququ). Goodness gracious! What is a twenty-first century reader/preacher to do with all that?

I suggest the answer to that cry is: not much! We must admit profound ignorance as we approach this text, and tread very lightly when we use it in our ministry. That said, we have a pronounced and very large problem. Hab 2:4 has become an extraordinarily important locus for one of Christian theology’s most significant proclamations. The usual translation is, as recorded in the NRSV: “Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.” And from that final clause arises the central claim of the Protestant Reformation, namely “justification by faith,” or sola fides, as Luther’s Latin has it. Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38-39 are the classical places where this crucial doctrine finds its biblical root.

And as for Judaism, the Talmudic rabbi Simlai identified Hab 2:4 as nothing less than a summary of all 613 commandments of the Torah. Hence, that clause has played an enormous role in the development both of Jewish and Christian theologies.

But not so fast, says the critic that lives within me! Just what are we to make of the Hebrew text itself, given all its difficulties and uncertainties, when it comes to this unknown prophet’s concerns? Let’s begin with the opening verses of the whole, Hab 1:1- 4. “The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw,” reads NRSV, but the translation “oracle” is not quite accurate, though one can see why the translators might have gone there. The Hebrew massa’ means literally “burden” or by extension “pronouncement.” It may mean a specific type of prophetic discourse attempting to pinpoint how God intends to become manifest in human affairs. The fact that Habakkuk is said to have “seen” or “envisioned” this “burden” suggests that he has experienced a prophetic vision in the manner of Amos (1:1).

Immediately, the prophet begins his words with an anguished cry: “How long, YHWH, must I cry for help, and you not hear? I cry out ‘violence!’ but you do not save” (Hab 1:2). The word “violence” (chamas) is key here. In the Hebrew Bible, when the cry “violence” is shouted to YHWH, the goal is to urge YHWH’s intervention on the side of the violated. In Genesis 6:11, the perceived “violence” on the earth triggers YHWH’s universal flood. In Gen 16:5, Sarah cries violence against Hagar who, she feels, has wronged her in the matter of her son, Isaac. In Job 19:7, the sufferer cries “violence,” demanding that YHWH come to his rescue; of course, his problem is that he sees YHWH as the perpetrator of his violence! In addition, the word translated “cry out” appears in prominent places of perceived injustice and oppression, such as Gen 18:20 where YHWH hears “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah as great and how very grave is their evil.” Habakkuk joins the chorus of those who see evil and violence and YHWH’s indifference or refusal to come to help. The cry “how long” echoes through many biblical laments.

Hab 1:3 extends the pain. “Why do you force me to see evil, and witness trouble? Destructive violence confronts me; contentious strife looms.” Once again that word, “violence,” is sounded and is magnified by the equally powerful words “evil” and “trouble” and “destruction” and “conflict.” Life is a mess, and God is silent! As a result, “the Torah grows numb, and justice never wins, because the wicked surround the righteous” (Hab 1:4ab). All that Habakkuk can see are violence unanswered by YHWH, evil and trouble and wickedness, made possible by an ineffective Torah, made numb, useless, leading to a lack of justice, presented metaphorically as wickedness surrounding and outnumbering the righteous. “Therefore justice comes forth perverted” (Hab 1:4c).

And that is the terrible state of Habakkuk’s world, monstrous, ungodly in every sense, wickedness in triumph, evil conquering, God no where to be seen. It is a dark place, whenever and wherever its reference was intended. Surely, it refers to many perceptions of the world more than a few hold in our own day.

But Habakkuk finally hears from his God, but perhaps not quite in the way he imagined or hoped. “I will stand at my guard post,” he vows, will stand on the rampart, keep watch to see what God might say to me, see how I might respond to these complaints” (Hab 2:1). The usual translations change the pronoun to “he” (God), but the Hebrew plainly says “I.” Hence, I assume what Habakkuk means is that he will stand guard, expecting and hoping for a word from his God, and wondering just how he will respond to the horrors he sees in the world around him.

And finally YHWH answers his cries. “Write the vision plainly on tablets, so that even a runner can proclaim it! Yes, there is even a vision for this time; it speaks of a goal and does not lie. If it seems to delay, wait for it; it will come, and not tarry! Look at the proud! Their lives are far from upright! But the righteous, on the other hand, live in their faithfulness” (Hab 2:2-4). Note one important thing about these famous lines; God bids Habakkuk to work, and does not solve his problems for him. Habakkuk must write what he has seen so clearly that even a nearby runner will be able to read and proclaim (the basic meaning of the verb here) that vision, a vision distinctly offered for this specific time. If you imagine it will never come, that it is inordinately delayed, you must wait for it. It will without doubt come. Yes, there are proud folk who imagine that they rule your world, Habakkuk, but their lives are cankered, far from upright. But the truly righteous, those who can wait, who can continue their hope in the God of the promise, they are living by and in their faithfulness.

Despite the later use of Hab 2:4 as the central claim of righteousness by faith alone, Habakkuk’s statem Bible_readings_for_the_home_circle_-comprising_one_hundred_and_sixty-two_readings_for_public_and_private_study,in_which_are_answered_over_twenty-eight_hundred_questions_on_religious_topics(1888)(14778160661) ent goes rather farther than that famous doctrine. In the face of a world of pain and strife, where the wicked seem to prevail, and right is defeated again and again, faithfulness means the absolute conviction that righteousness wins in the end, that the arc of the universe always bends toward righteousness. This is hard-headed hope, not chicken-little expectation. Indeed, the righteous live in their faith and their hope and their love. This is far more than doctrine, a belief that will earn one the favor of God. This is a way of life, a life of genuine certainty that God wins, and evil and destruction finally lose. There can be no cynical Christians or Jews or, I assume, Muslims, either. That is an oxymoron. We live in faithfulness, if we live in God, or we do not really live at all.

(Images from Wikimedia Commons)

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