“You can take that to the bank” is a phrase you’ve probably heard. It’s meant to assure us that what a person says is true and that they will follow through on their word. The Lord says something similar to Habakkuk in today’s message, and when God says something is certain, we had better pay attention!

Here in chapter 2 we come to the Lord’s response to Habakkuk’s second prayer, in which Habakkuk expressed shock because the Lord promised to raise up the Babylonians to discipline His own people. The Lord tells Habakkuk: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it” (v. 2). This “revelation,” sometimes translated as “vision,” refers to God’s promise to use the Babylonians as His instrument of discipline. The Lord goes on to promise that His word “will not prove false” (v. 3), even if it is not immediately fulfilled: “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (v. 3).

Next the Lord describes the wicked Babylonians again—“the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright” (v. 4). He is a drinker—“wine betrays him” (v. 5)—in addition to being “arrogant and never at rest,” “greedy as the grave,” and “like death [he] is never satisfied” (v. 5). In the midst of that description, though, the Lord offers a ray of hope for Habakkuk, that “the righteous person will live by his faithfulness” (v. 4). It is unclear who “his” refers to in this verse. Does the righteous person live by his own faithfulness? Or does the righteous person live by the Lord’s faithfulness? Given the context, it seems most likely that the Lord is referring to the righteous person’s faithfulness to—and trust in—the Lord, who is ever faithful.

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