Patience during the "Puffing Up"

2 I will take my stand at my watchpost
    and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
    and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

2 And the Lord answered me:

“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.

4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.

5 “Moreover, wine is a traitor,
    an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
    like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations    and collects as his own all peoples.”

We have here in verse 4 the classic statement: "The righteous (just) shall live by faith."  That is a victorious statement! But it is also a solemn one. In context here, the righteous are being contrasted to the "puffed up" one. God was promising Habakkuk that the Babylonians, who were going to be used by God to chastize Israel- even though they were much more wicked - would some day fall a great fall.  But read the verse before: "IF it seems slow, wait for it..." It would be over 100 years before Babylon would may it's final attack and level Jerusalem, and another 70 after that when Babylon would fall. This "Puffing Up" in pride was a long inhale of arrogance. That's Patience: Living by Faith for something you may never see in your lifetime. We can hardly survive a few months with our lives upset.  Living by faith is day by day, yet longterm. It's hard to watch, hard to wait. But be sure of this: "It will surely come."