A Curious Question

A Curious Question

This morning as I read the article "'For I am not ashamed of the Gospel': Romans 1:16-17 and Habakkuk 2:4" by Rikki E. Watts in Romans & The People of God, a collection of essays in the honor of Gordon Fee, I began to understand the significance of Paul's praise. In his essay he shows the significance of Paul's quotation with modification of Hab 2:4 to Rom 1:16–17 the thesis of his letter. The themes of the coming one, the righteous, and living by faith (faithfulness) are all readily obvious. However, what we may not have been seen is how Habakkuk stops and breaks into praise (3:2-15, 18-9). Habakkuk, faced with the issue of God's faithfulness and the questions of theodicy, sees the need for God's people to be faithful (2:4). Likewise Paul faced with the issue of God's faithfulness to his promises to Abraham and his offspring, knows that God is faithful and keeps his promises as demonstrated in his gospel. Therefore like Habakkuk Paul worships (1:25; 8:25; 15:17; 16:25-27).