But the righteous shall live by his faith.  Habakkuk 2:4

But – Once more the vocabulary is simply an appended vav.  The word for the righteous (tsadik) becomes ve-tsadik (the vav is appended).  Context determines the translation and “but” seems appropriate because the text is about a contrast.  However, that isn’t quite enough for us to grasp the meaning.  Yes, the righteous lives in contrast to the wicked.  Yes, the man of faith stands opposed to the man whose soul is filled with pride (puffed up).  But that isn’t the end of the matter.  There is another element in the story.

Habakkuk saw a vision (v. 2) and God told him to record that vision.  But the text doesn’t give us any description of the vision at all.  Instead, we are told that whatever Habakkuk saw, it is rushing toward its goal and will not be delayed.  In the meanwhile, we, as righteous men and women, are to live by faith.  The point of Habakkuk’s famous phrase is that we can trust God to deliver His plan when the time is ready.  In this case, faith is the equivalent of waiting and waiting is based on trust in the character of the God who proclaimed He will deliver.  That’s why Habakkuk can say, “But YHWH is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him.”

The world is full of evidence that God will not deliver.  Evil surmounts evil.  Corruption flows like water.  Injustice covers the land like rain from the storm clouds.  Every man and woman confronts a collapsing civilization, the rise of anarchy and the unconscionable destruction of innocents.  How can we survive in this flood?  By faith.  By the silence that surrounds YHWH in His holy temple.  He is not absent.  His creation is in silence.   This is the age of noise – the noise of men who believe they are gods.  They will howl and shout in their assertion that they rule.  God is silent, but His purposes are rushing to completion.  We do not have Habakkuk’s vision but we have God’s promise.  One day the heaven will shout, the mountains will clap, the earth will rejoice.  The silence will end in an explosion of heavenly relief – and the age of noise will be over.

Heschel says that this great answer, the answer to the question “How can I live in this world?” is not an answer given “in terms of thought, but in terms of existence.  Prophetic faith is trust in Him, in Whose presence stillness is a form of understanding.”[1] When you exercise the faith of Habakkuk, you enter into the assured answer of the silent temple.  The noise of the mad world comes to an end.  God is on His throne and the world will be set right.  Wait.  Wait.  In silent adoration, wait.

Topical Index:  faith, wait, silence, Habakkuk 2:4