The Prayerful Song of a Trembling Believer (Habakkuk 3:1-2)

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“What can miserable Christians sing?” That was the question that Carl Trueman posed a half-dozen years ago in an article that was later included in his book, The Wages of Spin. Trueman lamented the “diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns” that are so prevalent in worship services today, because it “inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist street party — a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a world of broken individuals.” He says, “By excluding the cries of loneliness, dispossession, and desolation from its worship, the church has effectively silenced and excluded the voices of those who are themselves lonely, dispossessed, and desolate, both inside and outside the church … as if the idea of a broken-hearted, lonely, or despairing Christian was so absurd as to be comical.”[1] 

If that is what we think, then we haven’t read our Bibles very well. The Psalms, for example, give voice to the entire range of human emotion set to the musical strains of worshipful song. Elsewhere we find God’s faithful people pouring out hurting hearts and suffering souls to Him in song. Habakkuk is an example of just such a believer, and the third chapter of his book is an example of just such a song.

How did we get here? Let us remember that in Chapter 1, we found the prophet worrying and wondering. He was bewildered by the besetting sin of his own nation, and troubled even more by God’s seeming indifference and inactivity. He became even more troubled when God began to reveal what He was doing – raising up the godless Babylonians to bring judgment on Judah. This was, in Habakkuk’s mind, inconsistent with God’s own character.

Coming to Chapter 2, we find Habakkuk watching and waiting. As God unfolded the answer to Habakkuk’s many questions and concerns, the prophet silenced himself before the Lord. Five woes were pronounced upon the Babylonians, even as God’s people were reminded of three promises: the just will live by faith (v4); the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as waters cover the sea (v14); and the Lord reigns from His sovereign throne in His holy temple (v20).

Now we come to Chapter 3, and we find Habakkuk no longer worrying and wondering, no longer watching and waiting. Rather, he is now worshiping and witnessing. As Wiersbe puts it so well, “Habakkuk started in the valley, but he ended up on the mountaintop! He started with sighing and ended with singing. He started with perplexity, and he ended with praise.”[2]

How do we know that the prophet now sings? The notations within the third chapter make it plain. Like so many of the Psalms, the hymns of the Hebrew people, we have technical notations at the very beginning and the very end of the third chapter, along with a threefold repetition of the word, “Selah,” in verses 3, 9, and 13. This precise meaning of this term is unknown, but it seems to be a word that introduces a meditative pause, perhaps where instrumental music would play between the verses of a song. The statement in the final verse, “For the choir director, on my stringed instruments,” makes it clear that the poem is to be set to music and sung publicly. The mysterious phrase, “on Shigionoth” in verse 1 is also very difficult to explain with certainty. That is why the English versions tend to just transliterate the Hebrew word instead of translating it. Psalm 7 is said to be a “Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord,” and the word shigionoth here in Habakkuk is likely a plural form of the same word. So it is obviously some sort of musical directive, referring perhaps to the instruments that would accompany the song, or the style in which it was to be played. It may also refer to the specific tune to which the song is set, similar to what we find in our own hymnals where the hymn title is found at the top of the page, and the name of the hymn tune is found at the bottom.

So, we know it is a song, and I have called it a “prayerful song,” because verse 1 says that it is a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. Only in verse 2 do we find words of petition in which the prophet is asking the Lord to do something, so we will limit our study today to the threefold request that is found in that portion of the song. But before we do that, we must give a moment of consideration to what prompts this prayerful song. Habakkuk says, “Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear.” In verse 5 of Chapter 1, God began to give the report to Habakkuk of what He was doing in the world through the events of the prophet’s day. He explained that He was bringing the Chaldeans – the Babylonians – in to invade and conquer Judah as a means of judgment and discipline for the sins of the Jewish people: their idolatry, their immorality, and their injustice. But then in Chapter 2, He explained to Habakkuk that the righteous would be saved on the basis of their faith in God, and the Babylonians themselves would fall under the judgment of God for their excessive violence, arrogance, and destruction. Habakkuk says, “I have heard all of this.” For Habakkuk, it wasn’t a message about Judah, or a message about Babylon. It was a message about God! “I have heard the report about You,” he says. And we know he believed it because he says, “and I fear.”

The Hebrew word means “to stand in awe,” or “to tremble.” In Isaiah 66:2, the Lord said, “To this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Habakkuk was doing just that. In verse 16 he says that his inward parts trembled, his lips quivered, his bones were like they were decaying, and his legs were trembling in the place where he stood. So from head to toe, and everywhere in between, Habakkuk was trembling in the awestruck fear of the Lord as he considered His word. And now that he had heard, and believed, the report of the Lord, he could speak once more. This time it was not to question, argue, or inquire of the Lord. This time it was to pray and to praise, and to lead God’s people in a prayerful song of worship and witness.

And so we have this prayerful song of a trembling believer. Verse two contains three specific requests made to the Lord which are as relevant to us today as they were to those of Habakkuk’s generation. Like Habakkuk, we are perplexed by the things we see happening within our own nation, and the events going on in the world around us. Like Habakkuk, we have asked the Lord the questions of “Why?” and “How long?” We have been puzzled over God’s purpose and plan in the midst of the degradation and chaos of our times. Unlike Habakkuk, we do not have a specific answer from the Lord about what exactly He is doing in our midst. Nevertheless, we can share Habakkuk’s confidence that God is at work, and that God is good. So whatever it is that He is doing will prove in the end to be for the good of His people and the glory of His own name. And therefore we can sing to Him this song of prayerful worship as well. With quivering lips and trembling spirits, standing before Him in awestruck fear, we bring to God the same requests that the prophet did so long ago. So what are these requests?

I. We pray for God’s will to be done.

When Jesus instructed His followers how to pray, He said, “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:9-10). We often use that phrase when we pray, do we not? We say, “God, let Your will be done in this situation.” But often, when we say those words, they amount to something of a spiritual copout. It is a way of saying, “I don’t really know what to ask for,” or “I’m afraid to say what I really want here,” and so we resign ourselves to muttering almost reluctantly, “Thy will be done.” And yet, the Bible says that when we pray, we have the liberty to actually tell God what it is that we want. Philippians 4:6 says, “let your requests be made known to God.” Now, that doesn’t mean that God will always give us what we want, but He welcomes us to say it. But when we say, “Thy will be done,” what we are saying is not that we give up, or that we have no specific request to make. Rather, we are saying that we believe and accept that God is going to use whatever happens in our situation to further His will on earth. And that is how Habakkuk is praying here in verse 2.

He says, or sings rather, “O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years.” The word “revive” has to do with keeping something going. “Don’t let it end. Don’t let it die.” That is what the prophet is asking the Lord to do. And what he wants the Lord to keep going is His “work.” What is that work? The Lord revealed it in Chapter 1. When Habakkuk complained that the Lord was doing nothing to deal with the iniquity of his own people and nation, the Lord said to him, “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— you would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans …” (1:5-6a). Following that announcement, Habakkuk began to protest that God was not dealing rightly with His people. But now that God has announced the rest of the details, including what His faithful ones can expect and how the Babylonians will themselves be judged, Habakkuk is able to say, “Lord, do not stop what You are doing!” He has accepted the will of the Lord.

You may remember those old jelly commercials that said, “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.” Well, I don’t know how true that is for jelly, but we know for certain than when a work is being done by God, it has to be good! Habakkuk has come to accept this, and to welcome it. “God, keep doing what You are doing, because if You are the one doing it, then I am all for it!” That is what he was saying, and that is what we must say too. Friends, I am as perplexed and concerned for our nation in these days as anyone is. I do not have any special insights into what the ultimate divine plan is for America. We seem to be in a moral death spiral, watching our freedoms evaporate, and having no real assurance that the impending election will change things one way or another for good. I have no reason to think that things will get better before they get worse. But I know this: God is always at work. I know that Jesus said He would never abandon His people. I know that He has been faithful to uphold His promise to build His church in the midst of the most unimaginable oppression and persecution throughout history. And I know that the Bible assures us that there is no authority on earth except for that which God establishes and allows (Rom 13:1). So, even though I do not know what it is that God is doing, I know that if He is doing it, it will prove to be good in His time, and He will do it well. So, like Habakkuk, we too can pray, “O Lord, keep your work going in the midst of these years! We accept that your will is going to be done!”

II. We pray for God’s word to be known.

In his private dialog with God, Habakkuk has been made privy to information that his fellow countrymen do not have. Now, sometimes we like having secret information – it can be somewhat empowering to be able to say, “I know something you don’t know!” But what Habakkuk has been told by the Lord does not need to remain a secret!

Throughout the nation, there are others like Habakkuk who remain faithful to the Lord. They are perplexed and burdened about the condition of their nation. They are fearful about the rumors they hear that the Babylonians are coming. The news that Habakkuk has received from the Lord has transformed his perspective, and he knows that it will do the same for others who trust in the Lord as well.

But there are also many in Judah who have rebelled against the Lord. Their rebellion has been the catalyst for this impending judgment. While the wheels that have been set in motion by God’s providence will not be halted, for individuals who hear and heed the message that God has delivered to the prophet, there is still hope. As long as there is life, there is the hope for repentance and a returning to the Lord. So, this message will be a much needed warning to those in Judah who have turned away from the Lord. If only they knew what Habakkuk knows, then perhaps they would turn from their sins and be saved!

So Habakkuk prays, even in song, “In the midst of the years, make it known.” In other words, “God, do not let this message come to me alone – let everyone know it and understand it! Let the righteous be encouraged by it and let the wicked be warned by it.” The eyes of the people must be opened to the realities of what God is doing. And so the prophet prays, because that is something only God can do.

It reminds me of that scene in 2 Kings 6 when Elisha was under siege by the forces of the king of Aram. When Elisha’s servant saw all the horses and chariots that surrounded them, he was terrified. But Elisha said, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” The servant must have been puzzled. He had seen the horses and the chariot of the enemy. And he knew how to count. “Hmm. Two of us, a whole bunch of them. I beg to differ,” he probably thought. But Elisha began to pray, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servants eyes, and he was able to see a host of spiritual forces encamped around them. We are so often like that servant – blind and oblivious to what God is doing around us. The only resolution is for the Lord to open our eyes! And that is what Habakkuk was praying for the Lord to do to his countrymen. “Make the message known to them, Lord, so that they will see what it is that You are doing in the midst of all this mess!”

This is how we must pray in our day as well. There are Christians who are perplexed and in despair about the political climate of our nation, who speak and act as though God were at risk of being dethroned in the upcoming election! O God, make Your word known to them! Encourage them by the promises of Your word! And then there are those who believe that they can sin with abandon and never have to give account to God for their actions. Sixty million unborn children have been murdered in the womb in America since Roe v. Wade, and people fight for the right to make this a legitimate option of birth control. Our nation has embraced every form of sexual deviance to the extent that we actually have serious political discussions going on about who is male and who is female, and which bathrooms people should use! Every young African-American male and every police officer steps out of their front door every morning unsure if they will return home that evening as violence rages in our cities. Drug and alcohol abuse are destroying lives and families. And people have done exactly what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:18 – they have suppressed the plain truth of God in their unrighteousness. It is more convenient for them to deny God’s existence than it is to consider that they will one day stand before Him in judgment. It is time for the people of God to pray! And how do we pray? Do we pray for God to consume them with fire from heaven? No, for if we prayed thusly, we ourselves would not be exempt from the judgment! Rather we pray as Habakkuk did, and as Elisha did – “Lord, open their eyes! Make Your truth known to them! Make them understand in the way that only You can!”

But how will God do that? Will He write a message in the clouds? Will He preempt prime time television for a special satellite feed from heaven? No! He has a better plan than that. He has entrusted the saving message of Jesus Christ to His church and commissioned us to go and tell this good news to everyone on earth. God’s “Plan A” for making the message known is for you and me to go and tell them. And He has no “Plan B.” So, as we pray for God to make the truth known to them, we are also committing ourselves to the mission. Here is the reality: you and I have more opportunity to impact the United States of America today than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton have. And we have that opportunity, not on the second Tuesday of November, but every day. What is this opportunity? It is the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus with others. God has promised that His Spirit will move through the proclamation of that message to save souls, to transform lives, and to strengthen His people. God never promised to save America, or any other geopolitical entity on earth. He did promise to save individuals – Americans and those of every other ethnicity and nationality on earth – as they hear and respond to the good news of Jesus. So if you want to see our nation changed, it will happen as individual lives are changed. And individual lives are changed one by one as the gospel goes forth through the people of God. “In the midst of the years, O Lord, make it known!” This is our prayer – our prayerful song, if you will – that we ask for and accept God’s will to be done, and that we ask Him to make His word known, using us as His ambassadors to proclaim the message.

Now we come to the final petition in this prayerful song of the trembling believer …

III. We pray for God’s mercy to be shown.

The most foundational of all of God’s attributes is also likely His least understood attribute. It is His holiness. All of God’s attributes are grounded in His holiness. And because God is holy, He has to deal with sin in a holy and righteous judgment. If He didn’t, He would not be righteous and He would not be holy. Habakkuk knew this well enough – the Scriptures made it clear, and it was reinforced through his own experience with the Lord. David Prior says, “with God there is holy, righteous anger.”[3] We usually think of anger as a bad thing, and it certainly can be. But anger is not always sinful. The Bible actually tells us to “be angry, and yet do not sin” (Eph 4:26). There is a righteous indignation, a holy anger, that is the only appropriate response that a holy God can have toward sin. So Prior writes, “However long he bides his time, however quiet and distant he appears to have become, however much violence and greed he seems to bypass or overlook, there is woe and wrath for the unrighteous.”[4]

But Habakkuk also knows that, even though God is a God of righteous wrath, He is also a God who is rich in mercy. So even though the wrath that is coming for Judah is well-deserved because of the sin of the nation, Habakkuk prays that God will let that wrath be well-seasoned with His mercy. Justice involves getting what one deserves, and that is the wrath that is coming for Judah. Mercy, on the other hand, involves the withholding or lessening of what one deserves. That is what Habakkuk prays for, and he knows that God is able and willing to show that mercy. Over and over again in Scripture, God is described as the One who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, but who will neither let the guilty go unpunished (Ex 34:7; cf. 2 Chron 30:9; Psa 103:8; 111:4; 116:5; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). So, even though the sins of the people are real and severe, so is the compassionate mercy and grace of God who is able and willing to forgive, to withhold or temper judgment, when there is a turning toward Him in repentance and faith.

Habakkuk’s prayer is that, as divine wrath comes upon the nation of Judah, God’s faithful remnant of believing people will be spared the worst of it, and that some of those who have rebelled against the Lord might return to Him and find saving mercy for themselves. Friends, this is our prayer as well. We do not know when or how judgment may fall upon our own nation, not to mention other nations where evil is rampant. But we know, based on God’s past dealings with the nations of the world, including the elect nation of Israel, that we cannot hope to escape it. History is replete with the rise and fall of nations  orchestrated by God’s providence. In fact, the description of wrath that is revealed in Romans 1 would indicate that it has already begun. There we find that God’s wrath is being revealed in the giving over of people to all manner of immorality and depravity. So it may well be that we should not speak of the judgment that is coming, but rather of the one that is ongoing in our day and time. It is certainly deserved. So, how should we pray? We should pray like Habakkuk did. “In wrath, remember mercy.” Lord, preserve Your church in the midst of these societal upheavals; and Lord, rescue the perishing by your saving mercy! For no matter what degree of judgment we have, or will experience, here and now, it pales in comparison to the ultimate and eternal judgment that is to come.

The Lord promised to Habakkuk in verse 4 of Chapter 2, “the righteous will live by faith.” Those who have been saved by faith in God’s promises will persevere and be preserved in that faith as well. Because of the saving work of Jesus Christ, we who trust in Him have been spared from the worst of what is to come. In wrath, God has remembered mercy. He put the wrath on Jesus as our substitute in judgment, and He puts the mercy upon us – taking away from us the judgment we deserve because Christ has taken it on our behalf; and granting to us a salvation we do not deserve by His grace.

In Noah’s day, the conditions of the world were described in this way: “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth” (Gen 6:11-12). And we know what God did. In Abraham’s day, the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were characterized by unchecked sexual deviance and violence. And we know what God did. In Isaiah’s day, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had turned away from the Lord and embraced idolatry and immorality; and the Lord brought in the Assyrians to execute His judgment upon them. And in Habakkuk’s day, because of the immorality, injustice, and idolatry of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Babylonians were chosen by God to bring judgment upon them. Friends, if God was willing to deal in this way with a nation that He had specially chosen and called to be His own people in the earth, can we really expect that America, Western Europe, or any other civilization to be treated any differently by Him when we repeatedly commit and give approval to the same sins?

As Walt Chantry writes, “Here is a prayer to keep in the pocket of your memory for those dark hours of judgment. Acquaint yourself with mercy in Christ, and be certain that you enter the upheavals of war, conquest, and oppression as a person of steadfast faith. Men and women of faith shine as jewels of mercy amidst the deepest gloom of sin and unbelief.”[5] So, let us be found in these days with a prayer on our lips and a song in our hearts, for we have heard the Lord’s report, and we tremble in awestruck belief. We pray for His will to be done; for His word to be known; and for His mercy to be shown.

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[1] Carl R. Trueman, “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” in The Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historical and Contemporary Evangelicalism (Christian Focus: 2004) 158-160.

[2] Warren W. Wiersbe, From Worry to Worship (Lincoln, Neb.: Back to the Bible, 1983), 96. The alliterative series, worrying and wondering, watching and waiting, worshiping and witnessing, also from the same source, pp. 95-96.

[3] David Prior, The Message of Joel, Micah & Habakkuk (The Bible Speaks Today; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1998), 264.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Walter Chantry, Habakkuk: A Wrestler With God (Carlisle, Penn.: Banner of Truth, 2008), 73.

What Profit is the Idol? (Habakkuk 2:18-20)

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The first and second of the Ten Commandments are pretty straightforward. The Lord God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them” (Ex 20:3-4). It is easy to think that idolatry is an issue that humanity has outgrown. Many of us do not regularly encounter temples or shrines where devotees make sacrifices and offerings as acts of worship before a statue. We might be tempted to think that higher education, sociological changes, and even perhaps intellectual evolution have rendered idolatry obsolete. If we have the privilege to travel the world or get to know people who come from other parts of the world, however, we will quickly realize that idolatry in its most overt forms is still prevalent today. Moreover, there are subtler forms of idolatry that are even more ubiquitous, perhaps even taking place unwittingly in our lives. That is how subtle idolatry is.

In our text today, the sin of idolatry is the primary focus. The context of this portion of Habakkuk has been dealing with the impending judgment on Babylon. Four pronouncements of “Woe” have been issued to this point for a variety of transgressions. And now we come to the final one, but it is actually a root cause of the others. Why has Babylon pillaged, plundered, enslaved, and killed so many people? They are idolaters. As Roberston writes, “Because their religious orientation was wrong, their moral standards had to be perverted.”[1] David Prior says similarly, “What we worship affects our choices and our lifestyles. The Babylonians had chosen idolatry, and their social and national life bore the inevitable trademarks of their consequent lifestyle.”[2] Therefore the judgment announced in this passage is well-deserved for the Babylonians.

However, Habakkuk’s words are not merely for the Babylonians. They were also for his fellow-countrymen. Had Judah itself not fallen into rampant idolatry and the sins that flowed out of it, they would not be facing the Babylonian invasion. God had raised up the Babylonians to bring judgment on Judah for its sins. The condemnation against idolatry here in this passage is intended to rebuke the Jewish idolater who erroneously believes that he will escape judgment because of his ethnic heritage as a citizen of God’s chosen nation. But even among the righteous in Judah, there would be a great temptation, upon seeing the Babylonians swiftly conquer their homeland, to conclude that the idols of other nations were mightier than the God of Israel. The words delivered through the prophet here were a stern warning to never turn aside from the worship of the one true God to idols.

The message is also for us still today, for idolatry can creep into our lives in little known or least expected ways. Few, if any, of us would carve statues to worship or go to shrines or temples to make sacrificial offerings. And yet idols can be found elsewhere in our lives from time to time, and we need to be able to identify them so that we can be on guard against them and turn away from them in devotion to the only God who really is.

Before we deal with how to identify the idols in our lives, let us dive into our text and discover the answer to the question that the prophet rhetorically poses in verse 18: “What profit is the idol” The short answer is, “The idol is of absolutely no profit!” So there you go. We can just have the benediction and be on our way. This could be the shortest sermon I’ve ever preached. No, rather, we must look at what our text says about why the idol is of no profit. And there are three reasons set forth.

I. The idol is a powerless god created in the image of the one who crafts it. (v18)

The Bible tells us that mankind was created in the image of God. Scholars have debated for centuries what, exactly, this all entails. The full and detailed meaning of “the image of God” in which we were created will likely never be understood until we get to heaven, but at a minimum, we can understand that there are ways in which human beings have been made to be like the God who made us. Most commonly, it is said that this includes having a mind, a will, and emotions. It certainly goes beyond this to include the ability to communicate, the ability to create, and the capacity for relationships – including a relationship with Him. The image of God also seems to encompass being God’s representatives in exercising authority in the created world.

Because of our sinfulness, inherent within us since the fall of Adam, the image of God in man is distorted, but it is not destroyed. It is still present, but corrupted. Our mind, will and emotions are disordered and run contrary to the will of God. We communicate, but often what and how we communicate is not honoring to God. We create things to serve our own misguided desires. We abuse authority in self-serving rather than God-serving ways. And our relationships become theaters of our depravity. This includes our relationship with God. Rather than worshiping and serving God the creator, we have an innate tendency to worship and serve the creation. Paul says it this way in Romans 1, “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. … They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Rom 1:22, 25). We see it in nearly every culture of the world. Temples are filled with statues and images of deities who look like men and animals and are said to possess the power to affect daily life and experience. Rocks and trees are set apart as sacred and viewed as possessing supernatural powers.

Habakkuk says that all this religious zeal that takes place around the altars and shrines of idols is completely without profit. It is a powerless thing that has been crafted by the artistry of men. The word translated idol in verse 18 refers to something carved from wood, and the word for image that follows it refers to something made from molten metal. The idea is that a carver has taken a piece of wood, made it into an image, covered it with gold or silver, and then set it up as the god he will worship. How quickly he has forgotten or ignored the fact that it is “his own handiwork.”

Isaiah describes the folly of it. He says that a man plants a tree and watches it grow, and then he cuts it down. “Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, ‘Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.’ But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god’” (44:16-17). He says that those who do this “do not know, nor do they understand,” they do not remember, so as to realize, “I have burned half of it in the fire … Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” (44:19).

The idolater does not ask, “What does God want for me, or require of me?” Rather the idolater asks, “What do I want, and what would I require of a god?” And then he makes that thing, and sets it up to serve his wants and needs. If he wants money or possessions, he makes an idol of prosperity. Then he goes and does what he wants to attain that prosperity, and says, “Well, my god did not tell me not to do this, or stop me from doing it.” Right! Because this god is powerless. He was made in the image of its maker. But we were made in the image of our Maker, and our lives were meant to be lived to serve and worship Him. The idol is of no profit or value because it is a powerless god which is nothing more than the handiwork of sinful human beings trying to make a god in their own image and imagination.

Now, secondly, we see that …

II. The idol is a speechless god deceiving the one who calls upon it. (vv18-19)

There are some people who are so prone to dishonesty that it is sometimes said of them, “You can tell they are lying because their lips are moving.” It would be a terrible thing to have that kind of reputation. Well, the idol’s lips never move, and yet it always lies. Notice that verse 18 says that the idol is a teacher of falsehood, and then says idols are “speechless.” That phrase “speechless idols” at the end of the verse could be just as well rendered, “dumb dumbies,” in the sense that dumb means unable to speak. But though they are silent and speechless, they are persuasive communicators. What they communicate, however, are falsehoods that deceive those who call upon them.

Positioned on an altar or in a place of prominence, the idol claims to be something it is not. It claims to be a deity and that it is worthy of worship and service. How can that be, when it is merely the handiwork of a craftsman? Not only does it claim to be something that it is not, but it also promises what it cannot deliver. The idolator is deceived into thinking that the idol is able to meet his or needs, to work and move powerfully on his or her behalf, to impart wisdom into his or her life. It cannot! It is merely an inaminate object! It can do none of the above. It claims to be something it is not, it promises what it cannot deliver, and also it cannot respond to the prayers it receives. One says to it, “Awake!” and another, “Arise!”, yet another, “This is our teacher!” But the idol cannot awaken, arise, or teach. It sits there like a bump on a log, because it is nothing more than a bump on a log.

Some years ago, I toured a Hindu temple in which the devout old priest walked us around showing us the gods which are worshiped there. He even called them idols. One, he said, was Vishnu – the four armed human figure holding various items in each of his four hands. Another he said was Shiva – another human figure who wears a cobra like a necklace. And then his voice began to shake as we came to the statue of Ganesha – the elephant-headed god. He said, “This is the god that I am most devoted to.” He described how he began his day. He would enter the temple and ring the bell to awaken Ganesha from his sleep, and then he would come and remove the idol from its bed and remove its pajamas. He would then bathe Ganesha in milk, because, in his words, “Ganesha likes the milk.” Then he would dress Ganesha in his clean clothes for the day, place him on the altar, and set before him his breakfast of fruit slices. And then he would prostrate himself before the idol and pray. Hearing the emotion in his voice, it suddenly dawned on me that this man was not mindlessly engaging in the rituals of an inherited tradition. He sincerely believed that this statue was his god, and he treated him as such. That idol has never, can never, and will never say a word, but it has deceived this man into thinking that it is something that it is not. And there are untold multitudes in the world today who are just as deceived. This includes those who are deceived by the more subtle, yet equally dangerous forms of idolatry.

We come then to the final reason why the idol is of no profit …

III. The idol is a lifeless god which condemns the one who trusts in it. (v19)

By nature, we are trusting people. We want to trust, and choose where to place our trust based on various reasons. We come into the world trusting our parents. We tend to trust others whom we know well. We trust ourselves and our own abilities make important decisions and handle responsibilities that come our way. We even trust in inanimate objects. For example, when we apply pressure to the horizontal pedal on the left in the floorboard of our cars, we trust that the brakes will engage and bring the car to a stop. But trust can be broken, leaving us hurting and confused. We want to trust our government officials, but broken campaign promises and hollow rhetoric leave us puzzled about whether we can or should. We want to trust the authorities of justice, but injustice abounds and leaves us feeling as though we cannot. We want to trust those we love, but past heartbreaks tell us that we need to be careful.

There is, of course, a deeper level of trust reserved for life’s ultimate hopes and ambitions, and for eternal peace and rest. Whom, or what, do we trust to deliver upon those things? Do we trust ourselves to create our own destinies? Do we trust others to create opportunities for us or deliver us from trouble? When it comes to this deeper level of trust, the Bible is clear that God, and God alone, is worthy of our trust when it comes to the most important matters of life. The Psalmist said, “Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us” (62:8). Again, “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield” (115:11). Isaiah says, “Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock” (26:4). Blessing is promised to the one who so trusts the Lord: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord” (Jer 17:7). But when we cease or fail to trust in the Lord in this way, we do not suddenly find ourselves trusting no one or nothing. Instead, we begin to trust other things, maybe anything, perhaps everything, but always the wrong thing.

The Bible speaks of those who trust in riches (Prov 11:28); powerful people (Psa 146:3; Jer 17:5); human strength and power (Psa 20:7); beauty (Ezk 16:15); their own hearts and minds (Prov 28:26; 3:5); and even in evil (Isa 30:12).[3] And then there are those who trust in objects of their own making to do for them what only God can do. And anytime we trust in anyone or anything to do for us what God alone can do, we have entered into idolatry. As one scholar writes, “Idolatry is essentially the worship of that which we make, rather than of our Maker. And that which we make may be found in our possessions, a home, a career, an ambition, a family, or a multitude of other people or things. We ‘worship’ them when they become the focal point of our lives, that for which we live. And as the goal and centre of human existence, they are as foolish as any wooden idol or metal image.”[4]

This is why verse 19 says that the idol has “no breath at all inside of it.” The Hebrew word for “breath” here is the word ruach. It is an interesting word that can be translated as breath, life, or spirit. Often, it means all three, as it does here. Though the idol has been skillfully crafted, and overlaid with gold and silver, it has no spirit within it. It cannot breathe. It possesses no life. It is a dead thing. No matter what one trusts ultimately for life, death, and eternity, if it is not the Lord and Him alone, it is a dead thing. It has no life in itself and cannot impart life. The only thing it is able to do is condemn the one who trusts in it.

We begin to see now the danger of trusting in idols. Idolatry renders unto something or someone which is not God that level of devotion, of worship, of service of which God alone is worthy, even as it ascribes unto the idol the ability to do what God alone can do. It is an affront of the greatest severity to God, because it says to Him essentially, “You are not worthy of my worship, my devotion, and my service, because You cannot or will not do for me what I wish; therefore I will devote myself to the service and adoration of this other thing.” Is it any wonder then that the pronouncement of “Woe!” is given?

This word “woe” is at one and the same time a word of lament and a word of condemnation. It is a word of lament because it expresses pity upon the one cries out in vain for something other than God to do for it what only God can do. It is also a word of lament and pity because of the judgment that is coming for that one. “Woe” is a word of warning saying that one is falling under the judgment and condemnation of God. Because of the grievous rebellion and spiritual anarchy of idolatry, no one who trusts in idols can expect to find salvation and acceptance before the God who commands us to trust in Him alone. As the original NIV translates Jonah 2:8, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” The lifeless idol has condemned the one who trusted in it.

Now that we understand the severity of idolatry, and the reasons why the idol is of no profit, we need to go on a search and destroy mission to identify and uproot the idols in our lives. The overt forms of idolatry are obvious. We know that graven images, be they statues, pictures, “good luck charms,” magical objects, etc. are not to be trusted, worshiped, or served. And few of us here today would knowingly do so. But we are all prone to fall prey to life’s more subtle forms of idolatry. To discover, there are texts and there are tests.

The texts are found in the New Testament. For example in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of human beings in whom the Corinthian Christians have placed far too much trust. The Corinthians are saying to one another, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ” (1:12). Paul says, “Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1:13). Friends, whether it is a favorite pastor or preacher (as was the case with the Corinthians), or a loved one such as a parent, grandparent, spouse, child, or dear friend, we must see to it that our devotion and affection to that one does not rival the affection and devotion of which only God-in-Christ is worthy. I cannot save you, but I can point you to the Savior who can. It is Christ and Him alone. Your parents or grandparents may have been great Christians, and by their faith in Christ, they will be saved. But by their faith in Christ, you cannot be saved. You must have your own!

Another text is Philippians 3:19, where Paul denounces those “whose god is their appetite.” I prefer the King James here, which says that their god “is their belly.” I always like to bring this one up as we get closer to lunchtime to make the people who are squirming with anticipation of getting out of church quickly feel awkward. I say that tongue in cheek, but it does illustrate Paul’s point. He is not talking about eating exclusively, but the sensate desires of our lives. He is speaking of the one whose life has become consumed with satisfying those desires of his natural flesh, be they food or drink, companionship, pleasure, possessions, etc. If one would disobey the word and will of God to satisfy a desire in one’s life, then that desire has become an idol. A related text is Colossians 3:5, in which Paul says that greed (or covetousness) “amounts to idolatry.” The thing which I want so badly that I would turn away from God in order to possess it is my idol. If I attain it, it will not satisfy me ultimately because it cannot. That desire is in my life to train me that true satisfaction cannot be found in earthly things, but in relationship with God alone.

So there are these texts which help us identify our idols, and then there is a series of practical tests.

(1) The Test of Devotion – What is it that you love more than anything else in life?

(2) The Test of Dependence – In whom, or in what, do you ultimately trust? That is, what or whom do you trust to carry you through life and death, to deliver you from trouble both now and in eternity? To whom or to what do you turn when trouble arises?

(3) The Test of Delight – What gives you the most pleasure and satisfaction?

(4) The Test of Decision – When there is an important decision to make, what or who guides you?

(5) The Test of Desire – What is it that you long for more than anything, the thing of which you would say, “If I only had that, my life would be complete”?

(6) The Test of Disaster – What are you most afraid of losing in your life? What is it which, if destroyed, would make you feel that life was no longer worth living?

(7) The Test of Destiny – Supposing that you had the assurance of life everlasting in heaven, what is it that you most look forward to once you are there? In other words, “If I cannot have ____________ in heaven, then I do not want to go.”[5]

Friends, if the answer to any of those questions is something other than God, then you have discovered your idol. God alone must be the object of our highest devotion, the ground of our foundational trust, and the source of our utmost satisfaction. He alone is a sure and certain guide through life’s difficulties and decisions. He alone can make our lives complete in a personal relationship with Him. He alone must be what we long for most of all in heaven. If heaven meant having anything and everything else besides Him, then it would not be heaven at all. To have heaven is to have Him, and to have Him is to know that we have heaven as well. And the best news is that if we have Him, we can never lose Him, nor will He lose us. If we have God and lose all else, then we have not lost anything. If we have everything and do not have God, then we will lose all either in life or death. 

In contrast to the idol which cannot speak, which cannot breathe or impart life, which only deceives and condemns the one who trusts in it, we have a God who is alive, who does speak, who is able to teach us truth, and who can save those who call upon Him. Thus the prophet says in verse 20, “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” Wiersbe says, “Instead of talking to a silent idol, we have a speaking God who tells us to be silent.”[6] Habakkuk understood that he was included in the summons to silence. All his speculations, all his questions and complaints, and even his repeated prayers to God about the troubles of his day must cease as he bows before the throne of heaven, from which God speaks with a voice that drowns out all others. Unlike the idols who have no life, breath, or spirit within them, God imparts to us His word, breathed out into the inspired pages of Scripture telling us to turn away from our idols and entrust ourselves to Him, to worship Him, and to serve Him. And this divine and eternal Word of God became one of us to die for our rebellious idolatry and receive in Himself all of the woes that are due to us in the condemnation of righteous judgment. In contrast to the idol who has no life, Jesus lived our life for us and laid His life down to save us. And where the idol is powerless to save anyone, Jesus is mighty to save everyone who turns away from vain idols and casts themselves upon His mercy. If you will silence yourself before Him, you can hear Him saying, “A righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isa 45:22).

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[1] O. Palmer Robertson, The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 207.

[2] David Prior, The Message of Joel, Micah & Habakkuk (The Bible Speaks Today; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1998), 257.

[3] Waylon Bailey, “Habakkuk,” in Kenneth L. Barker and Waylon Bailey, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (New American Commentary, vol. 20; Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998), 347.

[4] Peter C. Craigie, cited in Prior, 259.

[5] This list is adapted from Warren Wiersbe, From Worry to Worship (Lincoln, Neb.: Back to the Bible, 1983), 92-93.

[6] Wiersbe, 93. 

Crime and Punishment (Habakkuk 2:15-17)

Audio 

Senseless acts of violence, terrorism, and murder. Drug and alcohol abuse. Sexual abuse. Environmental disasters. Systemic injustice in which some are punished beyond the extent of their crimes, and others get off unpunished. Such things plague our society today. Almost every headline during this past news-filled week has related to one or the other of these issues. And yet, we constantly hear that the Bible is an antiquated book that has no relevance to our contemporary world. In just the three verses we have read, we see all of those matters addressed clearly. Habakkuk lived 2,600 years ago, and yet in his day, society was plagued by the same concerns that affect us today. This very week, in our own state, we have seen images in the news that reflect back decades to a day and time that we all hoped we had moved beyond. But these societal concerns that we have listed, and more that could be added to the list, are not the root of the problem. They are symptoms of an underlying cause: human sinfulness. Because the human heart and mind are warped by sin, we see the same manifestations of it over and over again throughout history. We cannot evolve beyond it; we cannot educate ourselves out of it.

Habakkuk’s day and age was much like our own, in that the primary concerns of the righteous Israelites involved moral degradation in their homeland and global unrest sparked by militant terror on the part of the Babylonians who branched out from modern-day Iraq to conquer by force and destruction. Many wondered why God did not stop them. But God had declared that He was in fact using them to accomplish His purpose. The Jewish people had violated God’s covenant with them and earned for themselves divine chastening and judgment. Babylon was the tool that God would use to deliver it. But the Babylonians were not exempt from God’s moral standards. They did not see themselves as divine agents of the one true God. Instead, they saw themselves as emissaries of their pagan deities, establishing a name for themselves in the world in the name of their gods. And so, in the exercise of their terror, they exceeded what was fitting. The punishment they inflicted on nations exceed the crimes for which God was bringing about judgment. And now the crimes of the Babylonians had to be punished in turn.

The passage before us is part and parcel of a larger section dealing with the impending doom of Babylon. Though they had conquered many lands and enslaved many peoples, the day was soon to come in which all the survivors of those peoples would see Babylon fall and would taunt and mock them in their demise. Five pronouncements of “Woe,” or “taunt-songs” are given from verses 6 through 20. Having considered three of them in weeks past, we come to the fourth today. In this one, we are dealing with the issue of crime and punishment – namely, the crimes committed by the Babylonians, and the punishment that would come upon them. But this is not merely a lesson in ancient Mesopotamian history. As we have said, the issues plaguing the world in that day were no different than the ones that occupy the news hour today. The crimes committed by the Babylonians in our text are parallel to many things we see going on around us. Therefore, the punishment that is meted out in God’s justice here in our text must be relevant for us as well.

I. The crimes of sinful men are many. (vv15, 17)

Every generation has had a person or entity that it has considered to be the epitome of evil in the world. Most recently, perhaps we might say that it was Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda; ISIS; or Boko Haram. A generation ago, it would have been Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Third Reich. In Habakkuk’s day, there would have been few if any who would contest that the moniker could be fittingly applied to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. The accounts of the Bible, secular historians, and even the inscriptions of the Babylonians themselves all accord with one another on the atrocities committed in the expansion of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire. Prior to his enthronement, he was the leader of his father Nabopolassar’s army. By the time Habakkuk’s book was written, his name was synonymous with terror and violence in the world.

Verse 15 begins to list the charges against him and his regime. First we see the defiling of the human body by drunkenness and debauchery. “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk.” The propensity for abuse of alcohol among the Babylonians is well documented. But, notice a familiar theme here – they were not content to intoxicate themselves; they forced their drink on others in order to intoxicate them as well. The old saying is that misery loves company, and nowhere is this ever more evident than in the misery of sinful behavior. As Robertson writes, “Part of the depravity inherent in sin is its insistence on involving others in its debauchery. The Babylonian king is not satisfied with making himself drunk; he can rest contentedly only when he has forced his degradation on others. He delights with a twisted glee to see others indulging in the same sins.”[1]

The Babylonians’ goal in intoxicating others was “so as to look on their nakedness.” It is a bit of a euphemistic expression for sexual assault, rape. What the Babylonians, and presumably their esteemed king had done to others was no different than what we have heard in the news recently concerning the Stanford incident of Brock Turner and the helpless woman he raped behind a dumpster. And that is but one incident. Ask any college student and they will tell you that it happens to someone they know on a fairly regular basis. Drunkenness and sexual sin, sexual perversion, and sexual violence and victimization often go together. That is not new. The only thing new about it is that we have become numb to the horror and shame of it all. Some have said that we live in a rape culture. That is perhaps accurate. I would say that it is also an intoxicated culture. Drugs and alcohol are as much a part of every day life for so many as are the various sexual perversions that are so prevalent. We have been, as a society, pornogrophied and our culture is too inebriated to notice or to care. It will be said by some that we should not talk about such subjects in church. Friends, the Bible is not silent about it. Sexual deviance is talked about every day in the news, it is talked about every day in the governing assemblies of our nation, and it is paraded before our eyes and ears in movies, television, video games, music and literature. We cannot be silent about it. A hypersexualized society that has intoxicated itself into thinking that these kinds of things are normal, acceptable, or permissible must fall under the hammer of God’s judgment.

As if these repulsive acts were not enough, the list of the crimes does not end there. There is also the destruction of the natural world. Verse 17 speaks of what else drunken Babylon did to exploit all nature and humanity. We read of “violence done to Lebanon,” and “the devastation of its beasts,” and the “bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants.” Not only do drunkenness and sexual deviance go hand in hand, but violence usually comes along with it too. And in Babylon’s case, the violence is widespread and all-encompassing.

The violence done to Lebanon speaks of an environmental disaster. Lebanon was known for its magnificent cedars. The cedars of Lebanon were as proverbial as the sequoias of California. For thousands of years before Habakkuk’s time, Lebanon’s cedars were utilized in the building of temples and ships around the world. Just before the rise of Babylon, Sennacherib of Assyria boasted, “I came up to the heights of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon; and I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses” (Isa 37:24). Nebuchadnezzar followed suit and stripped the forests of Lebanon to provide lumber for his lavish building projects across his empire. If you recall in verse 11, it was said that the rafters from the framework of Babylon’s buildings would cry out against them. Those rafters were made from Lebanon cedar.

In the malicious deforestation of Lebanon, the Babylonians also brought calamity upon the wildlife native to the area. Some of the animals lost their natural habitat, many more undoubtedly were killed. Now, in our day, there is this notion in the minds of some people that if you speak about issues of conservation of the environment and of animal life, then you must be some kind of tree-hugging liberal. It is like, if you are a person of conservative social and moral values, then you must be okay with throwing Styrofoam cups out of your car window on the interstate and you must be opposed to recycling soda cans. No friends, these issues should concern those of us who take our Bibles seriously. God commanded humanity to exercise dominion, not domination, over all that He created. As one scholar has put it, “It is one thing to rule over creation, respecting it as God’s creation entrusted to one for the moment …; it is quite another thing to exploit it unmercifully as though it belonged to one absolutely, as though one were not accountable for it to its creator.”[2] Yes, this world is passing away and will be recreated by God when the new heaven and new earth are established at the end of all things, just as our bodies will be resurrected to immortality. But, until then, we must take care of our bodies and our world as stewards of the God we serve who made us and the world in which we live.

Finally, the charge is issued against Babylon for its devaluing of human life. “Bloodshed and violence” have been done to the land, the town, and all its inhabitants. Ruthlessly, mercilessly, the Babylonians tortured and slaughtered multitudes in carrying out its imperialism. Every victim was made in the image of God, and He never turns a blind eye toward the taking of innocent lives. Violence has become a form of entertainment in our culture, resulting in a devaluing of human life from the womb to the tomb. Generations of people have been desensitized to bloodshed and violence, resulting in the kinds of things like we see taking place in Charlotte this week, and around the country and the world in these days. But there is a God who takes notice of all this. Every senseless death is the end of a life that was created to display His image on the earth. And He will issue the final verdict of perfect justice in His appointed time.

That leads us from the discussion of the crimes in our text to the discussion of the punishment.

II. The punishment of a holy God is justified. (v16)

 Injustice is what underlies much of the unrest that surrounds us today. Punishments do not fit the crimes committed often. Imperfect cops make imperfect decisions. Imperfect observers jump to imperfect conclusions. Imperfect judges and juries make imperfect judgments. Sometimes the innocent are condemned (or worse), and the guilty go free. Though we do not turn a blind eye to injustice, and we do not hold our tongues about them, we also must view them through the lens of eternity. And in that perspective, we see that injustice, as horrible as it is, is only temporary. As Christopher Darden, one of the prosecutors in the O. J. Simpson murder trial, said, “I wanted to tell him that there was another court that would hear his case one day, with a judge who would try racist cops and murderers. A court where everyone will have to account for his actions alone, without lawyers or jurors …. A court where there will be no need for DNA, [or] gloves, … and the only witnesses will be the eyewitnesses….”[3] The God of perfect justice will undo all injustice and see to it that every person’s punishment fits his or her crimes when the final court comes to session. And verse 16 describes what that will look like for Babylon.

All that was done during the tyrannical reign of Babylon’s rulers was done to exalt themselves and bring honor to themselves. But the Lord says that a day is coming when they would be filled with disgrace rather than honor. The world will see all that was done in the building of their empire, and there will be no room for honor when it is all revealed. It will only be disgrace and shame. Babylon will receive in itself what it has inflicted upon others. Verse 16 issues a sarcastic command, “Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness.” I studied the Hebrew language for over two years in seminary, and I can tell you that the original language here is very graphic and indelicate. As most of you know, the Hebrew people practiced circumcision as an outward sign of their membership within the covenant community of God’s people. The idea expressed here in the original language is that Babylon will be left exposed in a drunken stupor and all the world will see that it stands outside of God’s covenant of redemption.

The Lord used them to administer His cup of judgment on Judah for its sins, but that did not bind Babylon into a relationship of faith and righteousness before God. And therefore, now the cup comes around full circle to be drank to the dregs by the ruthless Babylonians. “The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you.” And when it does, and Babylon’s nakedness is exposed, their only covering will be “utter disgrace.” Again, our English translators are protecting our sensitivities somewhat here. The King James comes the closest to the original with the phrase “shameful spewing.” In a context of drunkenness, it is not difficult to see that the reference is to vomit. As Theo Laetsch put it, “Dead drunk, the proud Chaldean shall lie naked on the floor in his own vomit, an object of horror and ridicule for all the world.”[4] Verse 14 promised us that in the final day, the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord as water covers the sea. As for the glory of Babylon and all who are like her, it will be covered in the utter disgrace of shameful spewing.

There is good news for human beings who have been oppressed and afflicted by injustice, who have been exploited, taken advantage of, and wrongfully victimized. Perfect justice is coming and all those who have transgressed God’s standard of righteousness will be made to drink from the cup that He holds in His right hand. Of course, there is bad news in this as well, for all of us – every single one of us – has transgressed that standard in our sins against one another and against a holy God. But the best news of all is that there is One who has come into the world to drink the cup of judgment for us. On the night before He died on the cross, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will. … My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Mt 26:39, 42). That cup contained the sins of the whole world and God’s righteous judgment against them. The only way to rescue sinners from the wrath and condemnation that was due to them was for Him to drink the cup in our place, and He drank it to the dregs. He shed His blood for the blood that we have shed in our rebellion against God. He bore the penalty as our substitute. And because He drank that cup for us, He offers us a different cup instead. He offers us the cup containing His own blood by which He has invited us into a new covenant relationship with God, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:27-28). Jesus takes the punishment for our crimes – our violence and hatred, our lust and abuse, our arrogance and greed, of which we are all guilty – so that we may be pardoned before the judgment bar of God.

So two cups are presented before us: the cup of judgment and the cup of salvation. Jesus offers to drink the cup of judgment for you so that you can drink from the cup of salvation. The Psalmist said, “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord” (Psalm 116:12-13). And the Bible promises us that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2:32; Rom 10:13). Which cup will you choose?

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[1] O. Palmer Robertson, The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 201.

[2] J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (Old Testament Library; Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991), 125.

[3] Christopher Darden, In Contempt (New York: Harper, 1997), 3.

[4] Cited in Richard D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary; Chicago: Moody, 1991), 204. 

A Message of Things to Come (Habakkuk 2:12-14)

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The chief end of man, says the often quoted Westminster Catechism, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This is the highest purpose to which we can aspire; it is the answer to the immortal question, “What is the meaning of life?” Each of us has been given life by our Creator as a gift, and we are to use that gift in the exercise of bringing glory to God and enjoying Him in the intimacy of a personal relationship. It sounds quite simple doesn’t it? But in the world of real human experience, we find that nearly everything is at odds with this purpose. The world is so infected with sin that it lures and beckons us to defy this purpose. We ourselves, in our sinful nature – our flesh – are also corrupted by sin, so that our desires run counter to the glory of God and the enjoyment of Him. And of course, we have a great spiritual enemy, the devil, who is constantly at work seeking to persuade and tempt us to abandon the course of glorifying and enjoying God. We are fallen people in a fallen world. And that makes this seemingly simple purpose of life much more difficult to attain in real experience. In Jesus Christ, we are called to be in the world but not of the world. We are here, in this fallen world, as agents of reconciliation and transformation to bring glory to God through our lives and our work for Him in the midst of this world’s corruption. But we are to be on guard, lest we ourselves become corrupted by the ways of this fallen world. In this world, we are surrounded by people and things. God’s word is clear that we are to love people and use things to bring Him glory. But the world and the devil are always appealing to the sinfulness of our flesh to turn that upside down – to love things and use people to acquire them, that we might glorify ourselves instead of our Maker.  

The Neo-Babylonian Empire that had burst onto the scene of world history during Habakkuk’s time is an example of this. Nabopolasser was perhaps initially motivated by noble ambitions to shake off the oppression of the Assyrian Empire. He united the Chaldean people and formed a strong military to secure independence. Soon enough, however, those ambitions became corrupted. He and his son Nebuchadnezzar began to advance against other nations, conquering, looting, torturing, and enslaving them simply because they could. No one in the world could stop them. In the meticulous providence of God, the uprising of the Babylonian Empire came at a time when God could use them to bring about the well-deserved judgment upon His own people. With the Northern Kingdom of Israel having already fallen to the Assyrians a century before, the Southern Kingdom of Judah had followed in their destructive ways. Injustice, idolatry and immorality were rampant among a people who had been established to bring glory to the God who had called them out for Himself, redeemed them from bondage and established them for Himself in a land that He gave them. In a short time, they would be steam-rolled by the Babylonians. But Babylon would not escape the judgment of God themselves. Though God used them, He did not endorse their methods or their motives. Babylon was building an empire of self-aggrandizement, and they were breaking the backs of innocent people to do so. They would answer for it eventually in the perfect timing of God.

Our text today is the third of five proclamations of judgment issued against Babylon. The Lord said that the day was coming in which all the plundered nations who had fallen prey to Babylon would rise up and sing taunt-songs against them. Each one begins with a word of “Woe.” We’ve discussed two of them in previous weeks. This is the third. In these taunt-songs, Babylon is mocked by the words of its victims, who give voice to the condemnation of God Himself.

With the passage of two and a half millennia, the world has changed a great deal. But in the words of the 19^th Century French satirist Alphonse Karr, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Oppressive geopolitical regimes still assert themselves by force on the world stage, exploiting weaker nations and minority peoples for their own advancement. Corrupt justice systems allow the strong to victimize the weak, often meaning that the wicked triumph over the good. Crooked leaders build massive corporations by taking advantage of the most vulnerable. And unscrupulous individuals acquire for themselves great wealth and luxury by trampling others underfoot. In our own nation, we regularly find ourselves in the voting booth trying to decide between what we consider “the lesser of two evils,” knowing that whichever candidate wins will mean bad news for a sizeable number of our fellow citizens. The causes of righteousness and justice are being trampled underfoot within the halls of so-called justice. Those who would speak for God are bullied into silence with threats and intimidation. And the freedoms on which our lives have been built to this point are evaporating before our eyes. Like Habakkuk, we cry out, “How long?” And it seems that there is no word from God.

Ah, but there is a word from God. As we examine His word, we find that today is not the only day we have and this world is not the only world there is. There is a better day and a better world promised to those who hold fast to God by faith in Jesus Christ. And for those who do not, a more dreadful world and more dreadful day is promised. God told Habakkuk that the vision He was giving him was “yet for the appointed time,” and that he must “wait for it; for it will certainly come” (2:3). And though that day did not come in its fullness in Habakkuk’s lifetime, and it has yet to come in fullness to this point in time, it will certainly come, according to the Lord’s own word. And so the righteous continue to live by faith, trusting that none of God’s words fall to the ground unfulfilled.

So here in this passage, we have not one, but three words from God that we must cling to as we await the fulfillment of God’s promises. These are words of things to come.

I. A word of condemnation: Woe to the bloody builders! (v12)

There are a lot of so-called experts out there who write a lot of stuff about ministry, preaching, church growth, and things like that. And over the last couple of decades, they have been advising that we need to get away from preaching about things like wrath, judgment, condemnation and hell. They say that those subjects are too offensive, and not what people want to hear. Maybe you feel that way yourself. But if so, I want to challenge you to examine that feeling for a moment. I want to suggest to you that subjects like these are not offensive or off-putting at all, but are in fact something that we desperately long to know are real and true.

Think of it this way. Let’s say that there has been a horrible act of terrorism committed that has affected many innocent people, and the perpetrator of that act is still on the loose. Do we not find ourselves glued to the television and the internet, anxiously awaiting news that the terrorist has been apprehended? And when they are brought to trial, do we not follow with great interest to see that justice has been served? The more hurt and brokenness we experience in this world, the more we long to know that God is going to do something to make the wrongs right. And the Bible has promised that He will. And when He does, it will involve those very subjects that so many claim that they do not want to hear about here and now: wrath, judgment, condemnation, and hell.

In the case of our text, this is God’s message to Babylon. It is a word of condemnation. “Woe to the bloody builders!” Verse 12 says, “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence.” In the imagery and writings of the ancient Babylonians that survives to this day, two things are evident about them. They loved to build things, and they were violently cruel toward the inhabitants of the lands that they conquered. The two were related, as conquered people were either killed or taken away into captivity, with many enslaved in forced labor for Babylon’s lavish construction projects. And all of the buildings, monuments, and cities across the Babylonian Empire were constructed for a twofold reason: (A) to honor the perverse idols of Babylonian religion, and (B) to memorialize the names of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, the kings who had them built. It was an act of idol-worship and an act of self-worship, and it was all carried out by the backbreaking labor of enslaved peoples, financed by the treasures that had been pillaged from bloody battles in foreign lands.

While people around the world would marvel at Babylon’s impressive architectural and engineering feats, the Lord was not impressed. As Theo Laetsch put it so well, the Lord “saw only the blood of untold numbers of people who were slaughtered in ruthless warfare in order to obtain the means which made these buildings possible. He saw only the iniquity, the perversity, the crookedness of the builders.”[1] Because human beings are created in the image of God, He takes very seriously how people treat one another. And the blood that gives life to man is considered by God to be very sacred. God’s law was clear: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” (Gen 9:6). From the first shedding of human blood recorded in the Bible, in Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, we learn that innocent blood has a voice that cries out to God for justice to be served. God said to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground” (Gen 4:10). In the wake of Babylon’s terroristic campaign, there was a mighty choir of voices crying out from the pools of shed blood for justice to be served upon Babylon. And God heard it. Thus He proclaims that there can be nothing for Babylon but “Woe.”

This word, “Woe,” is the promise of a curse and condemnation. And that is what is coming for Babylon. Moreover, it is coming for every nation, every enterprise, every tyrant, and every greedy individual who tramples innocent life underfoot, oppressing the weak and disregarding the image of God in man in order to secure wealth, power, fame, and luxury for themselves. This word of condemnation applies to all who pursue such things in such ways as the Babylonians did. Woe to the bloody builders!

Following this word of condemnation, we find …

II. A word of explanation: Fueling the fires of futility! (v13)

We began our service today with a reading of Psalm 2. The Psalmist asks, “Why are the nations in an uproar?” The New King James wording is perhaps more familiar: “Why do the nations rage?” Why are “the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’” Does this not sound like the daily news? Nations in an uproar, raging against one another; kings and rulers taking bold stands to liberate themselves and their people from the restraints that God Himself has put in place on civil and moral issues. Our own nation is aptly described in these words. But notice the calm assurance by which the Psalmist says, “He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.”

While godless people and godless regimes seem to prosper in the world in our day, as they seemed to in Habakkuk’s day, the righteous live by faith that none of this escapes the notice of a holy God who is enthroned above all of this mess and is doing something about it – even when what He is doing about it escapes our notice or our understanding. Remember that the Lord’s first words to Habakkuk in Chapter 1 were these: “I am doing something in your days – You would not believe if you were told” (1:5). And He still is. He is enthroned above all powers, all nations, all corporations and individuals, and when they posture themselves against Him in rebellion, He cannot but laugh at their feeble efforts.

The Psalmist says, “the peoples [are] devising a vain thing.” That word vain is the same word that is used in Habakkuk 2:13 – “the nations grow weary for nothing.” All of Babylon’s efforts to build for themselves an empire, great cities, impressive monuments, amounts ultimately to nothing. The same word is used in Psalm 127:1 – “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” Anything built in this world apart from the Lord’s pleasure and purpose is but a passing vapor of vanity. The rhetorical question is asked in verse 13, “Is it not from the Lord of hosts that the peoples toil for fire?” In other words, all that the godless empire builders of this world are amassing for themselves in their unjust oppression, in their violence and bloodshed, is only fuel for the fire of judgment. It will all burn in the end. None of it will last.

How do we know this? Because the Lord has ordained it! “Is it not from the Lord?” It is indeed. God has hard wired this universe to bring glory to Himself. All that does not bring Him glory will go up in the fire of His judgment, and the smoke that rises will in itself bring Him glory. As Ron Blue writes, Babylon’s “carefully hewn stones would serve as the altar, and their ornately carved wood as the kindling for the giant sacrificial fire that would leave Babylon in ashes.”[2]

And so it is with all who, like Babylon, build for themselves personal, professional, or political empires with no regard for others or for the Lord who is their Creator and Judge, and the Defender of the vulnerable and oppressed. All that is done that does not ultimately serve His purposes proves to be only fuel for the fires of futility. It will not last. Within a century of Babylon’s meteoric rise, they were wiped off the stage of history. Others have come like them, and still others will yet, be they individuals, governments, or other structures and systems. The word of explanation that is given here is that all such efforts are condemned because they amount to nothing in the eyes of the Lord – nothing but fuel for the fire.

How tragic it would be to spend our lives and resources building for ourselves reputations, careers, lifestyles, or monuments that will be reduced to ashes that God might be glorified in the burning of them. He has providentially arranged it to be certain and inescapable.

Now finally we come to a third word here:

III. A word of expectation: A future filled with pervasive praise! (v14)

What is the world coming to? That is a question we want to ask every day as we see unsettling events unfold around us. We look at unfathomable court rulings, global terrorism, systemic injustice, political corruption, an absolute vacuum of moral leadership, and we want to throw up our hands in despair and say, “What is the world coming to?” Well, my friends, there is good news. The world is coming to the ultimate and eternal praise of Jesus Christ. This is the reason why the Christian can sleep at night. We know that there is a God enthroned above all of this, who laughs at the raging of the nations, who will set the torch to all that goes against His ultimate purposes and ignite it in a flame of judgment and then the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Presently, the earth may be filled with the crimes of men. Presently, it may be filled with bloodshed, violence, and corruption. But a day is coming – God has promised it – when the knowledge of His glory will be known by every person on the planet.

A hundred years before Habakkuk’s time, when the Assyrians were committing the same atrocities as the Babylonians, Isaiah the prophet said something similar. In Isaiah 11, against the dark backdrop of Assyrian oppression, God spoke through him declaring that a shoot would spring from the stem of Jesse – that is, a descendant of David the King was coming. And the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon Him, and He would judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And a rod would come forth from His mouth with which He will strike the earth, and with the breath of His lips the wicked would be slain. In that day, God promised through Isaiah, “They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious” (11:9-10).

God’s glory – the weighty magnificence of His character, the intrinsic honor that is uniquely His, the radiant splendor of His person – is going to be fully known. All that God has been doing in human history has been building toward this day. Everything He has done, everything that He is doing or will do, is to demonstrate His glory in the earth in the last day. Everything that has run counter to His glory will be consumed in the fire of judgment, and at last, all people will know His ultimate and everlasting glory!

The Hebrew word for “knowledge” means far more than the acquisition of information. It is an experiential relationship. In that day, every living thing on the planet will have a personal, experiential, and relational knowledge of God’s glory. God spoke through Jeremiah of that day, saying, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, … for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer 31:33-34).

How long O Lord? How long until that glory breaks forth in the world? Look at the darkened skies and behold, the first shafts of light have broken in already. When Jesus Christ was born, angels attended His birth proclaiming, “Glory to God in the Highest!” (Lk 2:14). And when He returns, He says, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Lk 21:27). Revelation 11:15 tells us that in that day, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” And a voice will be heard, declaring “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” (17:5). The Babylonian Empire that dominated the world in Habakkuk’s day is already long gone, but other Babylons will rise, and they too will fall. And the warning goes forth from heaven, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. … For this reason in one day her plagues will come, … and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong” (18:4-5, 8). And then we read that after these things, the voice of a great multitude in heaven begins to say,

Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are true and righteous; … Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great … Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. … He has a name written, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Rev 19:1-2, 5, 16).

How do we go on living by faith in a world gone haywire, in a world where violence, injustice, oppression, and corruption prevail? Because we know that these words have been unchangeably declared and decreed by the sovereign God of the universe. A word of condemnation against all the bloody builders who erect for themselves monuments of idolatry on the backs of their victims. A word of explanation that all of their efforts and accomplishments will only fuel the fires of their judgment. And this wonderful word of expectation that the whole world will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea!

What have you been building in your life? Have you loved people and used things to bring glory to God? Or have you used people to acquire things to bring glory to yourself? The Lord has promised that it will all burn. Turn to Him in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ to save you from that fire, and set you free to live in the knowledge of His everlasting glory. That day is coming. If you are a believer in Christ, God never promised you that this world and these days would always be good. But He did promise that a better day and a better world are coming. Live by faith, in the unshakable hope and expectation of that day when all wrongs will be made right, and the whole world will be filled with His glory.

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[1] Theodore Laetsch, quoted in Richard D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary; Chicago: Moody, 1991), 194.

[2] J. Ronald Blue, “Habakkuk,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary (ed. John Walvoord and Roy Zuck; Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 1995), 1515.