Don't Shrink Back; Maintain Faith

March 12th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 10:37-39 For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. 38 But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Back around 610 BC the prophet Habakkuk was praying to God in a particularly difficult time in Israel’s history. Simply put, he wondered how long God was going to look upon the sinful state of Judah and her oppressors. Habakkuk had convinced himself that God was going to act on Judah’s behalf and deliver her from her enemies like the Babylonians (aka, Chaldeans) who were storming across the known world at that time, devastating kingdoms and cities.

To Habakkuk’s surprise, God not only answered him audibly, He explained to Habakkuk that what he thought was bad was just the beginning of devastations. In fact, God had planned to allow the Babylonians to shatter Judah entirely, Israel itself having already been overrun by the previous empire of the Assyrians in 722 BC. Habakkuk countered, telling God that this action was entirely inappropriate, that God could not allow a pagan empire like Babylonia to overrun God’s chosen people (Jews) and their sacred monarchy dating all the way back to King David. After making what he thought was a cogent case against what God had planned against Judah, Habakkuk humbly waited for God’s response, knowing he might be rebuked by God (2:1).

God’s initial response to Habakkuk (2:2-4) is quoted by the author of Hebrews in 10:37-38. The first line, however, “In a very little while,” is not in Habakkuk but is an idiom used in Isaiah 26:20 depicting the “little while” God’s people must hide until He has avenged their enemies. R.T. France says, “Its context is thus similar to Habakkuk’s impatient waiting atop his watchtower until God reveals how He will judge the wicked, and our author seems to have used a memorable phrase from one prophetic eschatological oracle to introduce another related one. Such combined quotations are frequent in the NT...”

The remainder of the quotation is taken from the Septuagint’s version of Habakkuk 2:3-4, slightly different than the Hebrew text without sacrificing any meaning. In Habakkuk’s context, God was saying that He would not delay in sending the Babylonians into Judah, and this God did in 605 BC (again in 597 and again in 586). Judah was overrun quickly and decisively—all for her centuries-long rebellion against the God who loved her and gave her everything.

As to the context of the Hebrews author, the God who had expunged the nations of Israel and Judah from the land of promise because they turned away from Him, is the same God who offered salvation to the Jews of the first century who had received the gospel preached by Jesus, their Messiah. Would these would-be believers turn away from Christ as ancient Israel had turned from God (cf. Heb. 3-4)? Would persecutions and disappointments cause them to fall away from the living God, or would they “live by faith” as God’s righteous ones do? God is quoted as finding “no pleasure” in him who instead of living by faith “shrinks back” (v. 38) into unbelief, into apostasy. The Hebrews author therefore, quoting OT Scripture, gives his audience another example from their past as to how grave it would be for them to come to the doorstep of salvation, having been “enlightened” by the gospel (v. 32), yet ultimately reject their Messiah.

In v. 39, the author is resolute in who he is and in what he believes about Christ, hoping that his audience will stand with him in their own commitment to Christ. He says, “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction...” Note here that to “shrink back” (Gr. hupostolē) is equal to apostatize—turning away from the gospel after having been enlightened. Note also that to do so is unto “destruction” (Gr. apōleia), not mere discipline. Destruction entails total loss. The author’s point is that turning away from Christ after having been enlightened entails eternal destruction. True believers, however, “have faith to the preserving of the soul.” Their “preservation” (Gr. peripoiēsis) is the protection from loss that God grants them for their faith. And “soul” (Gr. psuchē) in this context concerns the eternal spirit of a person—the one that either enters eternal life with Christ after death or who enters eternal death after physical death.

Food For Thought
If the righteous live by faith, what might that say about you? Some are known to live by anxiety, worrying about everything—from politics to work to family and children. When things don’t go right for them, they find themselves praying like Habakkuk, expecting God to do and act like they think God should act. But God is sovereign, so He acts as He sees best, even when we have no idea why He does what He does and allows what He allows. In accepting His will, we live by faith. Be receive eternal life through faith in Christ, and in Christ we live day by day in faith—always trusting God. Is that you? If not, the warning passages of Hebrews should be quite sobering (cf. Heb. 2:1-4; 3:7-4:11; 6:4-8; 10:26-31).