This is Important!

Series: The Minor Prophets (Chronologically)

Text: Habakkuk 2:1-20

Introduction: (What?)

In the last message we saw Habakkuk’s first prayer and then God’s answer. But Habakkuk was not done. He prayed a second prayer acknowledging that God was using the Chaldeans to discipline Judah but complaining about how they were so evil and it seemed that God was not judging them. Then he declared “I will watch to see what He says to me, and what I should reply in my complaint.” You can almost see him folding his arms across his chest. In this message we find God’s answer to Habakkuk’s second prayer…and it is graphic.

Examination: (Why?)

1. Pay close attention!

Hab 2:2-5 “2 The Lord answered me: Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it. 3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late. 4 Look, his ego is inflated; he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith. 5 Moreover, wine betrays; an arrogant man is never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself; he collects all the peoples for himself.”

We live in a “micro-wave” era. We want things done immediately if not sooner. Evidently Habakkuk would have fit right in with us. He wanted an answer from God and said, “I’m not leaving my post until I have an answer.” God’s answer was “here it comes, write it down so you won’t forget it. The answer is coming, but later rather than sooner. Wait for it.” The fact that God wanted him to write it down meant that the answer had what J. McArthur called, “lasting relevance”. That meant that it would happen later enough that Habakkuk might not even be around. Habakkuk wrote this around 605 BC. In 539 BC the Babylonian Empire fell to the Medo-Persian Kingdom, some 66 years later. God had an end time pre-determined, but now was not it.

God made sure that Habakkuk knew that He was observant and had noticed that the Chaldeans (Babylonians) were egotistical, dishonest and arrogant and were wreaking havoc on many nations. His admonition to Habakkuk and the people of Judah was essentially, “Until I take care of them, ‘the righteous one will live by his faith’”.

In our day, with evil advancing all around us, we should also recognize the importance of living by faith. We have plenty of examples of people of God who persevered through their faith. Abraham waited 25 years for his promised son. Moses waited 40 years for his assignment to deliver Israel from Egypt. Joseph waited 13 years to move from prison to palace. Go to Hebrews 11 and read of many others who lived by faith…and some of them have yet to receive what was promised.

Until Jesus comes again, those of us alive today must live by faith that He will return. We must never lose sight of the promises of God even though evil grows all around us. Paul gave a head’s up to Timothy in 2 Tim 3:1-5

“1 But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.”

Remember the old adage, “Forewarned is forearmed.” Arm yourself with faith so you can persevere through the evil.

2. Woe to the dishonest and murderer (vv:6-14)

Hab 2:6-14 “6 Won’t all of these take up a taunt against him, with mockery and riddles about him? They will say: Woe to him who amasses what is not his— how much longer?— and loads himself with goods taken in pledge.” 7 Won’t your creditors suddenly arise, and those who disturb you wake up? Then you will become spoil for them. 8 Since you have plundered many nations, all the peoples who remain will plunder you— because of human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them. 9 Woe to him who dishonestly makes wealth for his house to place his nest on high, to escape the grasp of disaster! 10 You have planned shame for your house by wiping out many peoples and sinning against your own self. 11 For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will answer them from the woodwork. 12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice! 13 Is it not from the Lord of Armies that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire and countries exhaust themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD’s glory, as the water covers the sea.”

God delivered His judgment against the Chaldeans in the form of five woes. J. McArthur noted that these were “5 woes presented in 5 stanzas of 3 verses each, with the 5 woes directed at 5 different classes of evildoers.”

The first woe was against extortion. (vv 6-8) Their plundering of nations under the threat of bodily harm would come back on their own heads.

The second woe is against their premeditated exploiting of the people they plundered. (vss 9-11) This was no “spur of the moment” act, but they planned it from the get-go. They took from others to line their own pockets and build their own fortresses. (like some politicians today) These very things would stand in testimony against them before God.

In vv 12-14 we find the third charge against the Chaldeans. They became “ruthless despots” who built their own kingdom by way of bloodshed and forced labor. However, God promised that the whole earth would one day recognize His glory, having long forgotten the false “glory” of the ruthless despots.

3. Woe to the disgraceful and idolater. (vv:15-20)

Hab 2:15-20 “15 Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath and even making them drunk, in order to look at their nakedness! 16 You will be filled with disgrace instead of glory. You also—drink, and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory. 17 For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of animals will terrify you because of your human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them. 18 What use is a carved idol after its craftsman carves it? It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies. For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it and makes worthless idols that cannot speak. 19 Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up! or to mute stone: Come alive! Can it teach? Look! It may be plated with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let the whole earth be silent in his presence.”

The fourth woe is against drunkeness and debauchery. Not only did the Chaldeans imbibe intoxicating beverages, but they also forced such on those under their power in order to take advantage of them. That is somewhat like a person who spikes a drink with a “date-rape” drug in order to take advantage sexually of the other person. The “woe” is that God will turn the tables on the perpetrator. They will be striped naked and exposed. The violence they have rained on others will result in disgrace on themselves. Although we may not see it, no one gets away with anything. Justice will prevail…always.

The fifth, and most damning woe is idolatry. The pantheistic Chaldeans worshipped many gods. One article listed seven gods; An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu, and Inanna. Another article included Marduk as the “patron god of the Babylonians”. Eventually, as on Mt Carmel, God would show Himself as superior to all pagan gods in the destruction of the Chaldeans. Vv 18-19 sound a bit like Elijah’s sarcastic jibe at the priests of Baal in 1 Kings 18:27 “27 At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, “Shout loudly, for he’s a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; (the NLT says “maybe he is daydreaming of relieving himself”) or maybe he’s on the road. Perhaps he’s sleeping and will wake up!””

God has no problem putting down our idols. In our day the greatest idols are entertainment, comfort and self-indulgence (alcohol, drugs, sex and money). Don’t be deceived, God will mock these as He did the gods of the Chaldeans. And then He will declare His presence; 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let the whole earth be silent in his presence.”

Application: (How should I respond to this message?)

Our only acceptable response before God is REPENTANCE!

Acknowledge your sin. Say the same thing about it that God does. Own it! That is called confession.

Turn away from your sin and to God. There is no turning away without a turning to. You can’t repent and stay where you are. You must head in a different direction, and that direction is toward God through obedience and worship.