Habakkuk 2:4: “Behold the proud, / His soul is not upright in him; / But the just shall live by his faith.”

December 5th, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The first part of this verse, “Behold the proud,” was a reference to the Babylonians, and the second part was the main thrust of God’s message through Habakkuk to His people. He was declaring that faith in God was not a one-time act, but a way of life. The genuine, authentic believer, declared righteous by God (which means God declares that you are right with Him), will persevere in faith as a life-style; it will be the pattern of their life.

It may be argued that this was the verse that ignited the Protestant Reformation. The complete history is well recorded in many places but we should consider the part of the story that was born out of this verse. Martin Luther, who was searching for peace with God, went on a pilgrimage to Rome. On the way, he became quite ill. While he was recovering, a monk told him to read Habakkuk. He did and found this verse stuck in his mind, though he didn’t fully grasp it. Once he arrived in Rome, he went to the St. John Lateran church, whose famed steps were said to be the very one’s Jesus had walked in Pilate’s judgment hall in Jerusalem. Sections of the stairs, said to be stained with Jesus’ blood, where covered with glass. Throngs of pilgrims flocked to these stairs and climbed them, not on their feet, but their knees, stopping on the “blood-covered” stairs to kiss the glass and pray. This rite was what Luther had traveled to Rome for, and as he climbed the stairs on his knees, the verse from Habakkuk rung in his head. What happened to him there is told by his son Dr. Paul Luther and is preserved in the library of Rudolstadt, Germany:

As he repeated his prayers on the Lateran staircase, the words of the prophet Habakkuk came suddenly to his mind: ‘The just shall live by faith.’ Thereupon he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg, and took this as the chief foundation of all his doctrine.

Luther himself wrote, “When, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words—’The just shall live by faith!’—then I felt born again like a new man.”

“LORD, may these words go deeply into the heart of each of us who read them this day, in Jesus’ name.”