The Lord Answers Habakkuk.

Opening:

It is a beautiful thing to open the Word of God on the Lord’s Day.

Introduction of the Passage:

This morning we will be Habakkuk chapter 2. Last week we covered chapter 1. We saw Habakkuk’s complaint about the wickedness in the people of God. Why do the wicked trample over the righteous? We saw God’s answer. God told the prophet that He was sending the Chaldeans, the Babylonians in to conquer and enslave Judah. And we closed with Habbakuk asking God how He could use such wicked tools of judgement. Habakkuk ended by asking God is the wicked were to run unchecked without end. Are the Babylonians to go on conquering forever without end?

So we pick up our account in Chapter two. If you have located the text I would ask you to stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

Reading of the Passage:

Habakkuk 2.

2 I will take my stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

2 And the LORD answered me:

“Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.

3  For still the vision awaits its appointed time;

it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it;

it will surely come; it will not delay.

4  “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but the righteous shall live by his faith.

5  “Moreover, wine is a traitor,

an arrogant man who is never at rest.

His greed is as wide as Sheol;

like death he has never enough.

He gathers for himself all nations

and collects as his own all peoples.”

6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—

for how long?—

and loads himself with pledges!”

7  Will not your debtors suddenly arise,

and those awake who will make you tremble?

Then you will be spoil for them.

8  Because you have plundered many nations,

all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,

for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

9  “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

to set his nest on high,

to be safe from the reach of harm!

10  You have devised shame for your house

by cutting off many peoples;

you have forfeited your life.

11  For the stone will cry out from the wall,

and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12  “Woe to him who builds a town with blood

and founds a city on iniquity!

13  Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts

that peoples labor merely for fire,

and nations weary themselves for nothing?

14  For the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

15  “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—

you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,

in order to gaze at their nakedness!

16  You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.

Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!

The cup in the LORD’s right hand

will come around to you,

and utter shame will come upon your glory!

17  The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,

for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

18  “What profit is an idol

when its maker has shaped it,

a metal image, a teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in his own creation

when he makes speechless idols!

19  Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;

to a silent stone, Arise!

Can this teach?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

and there is no breath at all in it.

20  But the LORD is in his holy temple;

let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Behold the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God, let’s pray.

Prayer:

Our gracious Heavenly Father, we commit this time to you. May you open our hearts to the truths of Your Word. May this time be honoring and glorifying to you. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.

Review:

Let’s do a little review. Last week we saw really a difficult passage. In chapter 1 Habakkuk makes a very relatable complaint. He looked at the people of God and wondered why God was doing nothing. Why had not God done something? The wicked in the people of God were trampling the righteous. The worship of God in Judah was corrupt. They were idol worshippers and blasphemers. Habakkuk had clearly been praying long and hard, begging God to do something.

Then God answers and says He is sending the last answer Habakkuk would have wanted. The people of God will be cleansed, not by revival, not by righteous rule, but by an invading and enslaving army. They will be carried off and enslaved. Many will die. This is God’s answer. The even more wicked pagans will come in and be God’s tool of judgement on His people.

Habakkuk is confused as we all would be. So he asks God another question. Habakkuk opens his response by acknowledging who God is, God is eternal, personal, and holy, and by recalling God’s covenant promises. You see, Habakkuk knows God is right to judge Judah. But Habakkuk also remembers that God keeps His promises and that this means that Judah will not be utterly destroyed. He rests in the promises of God. But Habakkuk is still confused. Namely he is confused on how God can judge the wickedness of Judah with an even more wicked nation. How can God use Babylon? And he asks God if Babylon will go on conquering without end? Will there ever be an end to Babylon’s oppression and evil?

And that is where we left Habakkuk, waiting on the answer of the Lord.

Need:

And we were in the same boat. We often wonder if the evil will conquer the righteous forever. Will the wickedness of our culture go on without end? Will God do something? What are we to do in the midst of a culture consumed with death and perversion. How are we to handle the fact that much of the church in our nation has fallen to approving these sins and evils? We have many of the same questions as Habakkuk. Will Babylon go on forever oppressing the people of God?

Text Idea:

In this passage we have God’s answer. And the answer is this. Live by faith. God will judge the wickedness in His time.

Sermon Idea:

This morning we will see the hope in God’s answer to Habakkuk.

Transition:

So let’s dive into God’s answer. The Lord God answers Habakkuk and says the righteous shall live by faith. Hear now the Word of the Lord.

The Righteous Shall Live By Faith.

Habakkuk 2:2–5“2 And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. 4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. 5 “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.””

Explanation:

Habakkuk waited on the watchtower for God to answer. And the Lord did answer. God told Habakkuk to write the vision. Write this down. Write it so the heralds may run with it and take it to the people. Heralds would take the prophets words to the people and read it to them. God tells Habakkuk to write this down so that the vision will not be lost. And think of the blessing this is. If this had not been written down, we would not have it. But the Lord preserves His Word.

So the Lord tells Habakkuk to write this down. Why? To preserve it but also to constantly remind the people. This vision is going to come to pass, but it will take time. God says twice that this is certainly going to happen. He says it will surely come. And He says that it will not delay. What does this mean? It means that while in exile, the people of God are going to be wondering if God’s promised judgement on Babylon will ever come. But God assures them here that He will judge Babylon at His perfect time. It WILL happen. It is not a lie. It will come.

I cannot imagine the encouragement this would have given the people. Hold on a little longer, God promised He would judge our oppressors.

But now God begins the judgement. He says the soul of Babylon is puffed up. It is arrogant. It is not righteous. Babylon is evil. They are proud and worship their own strength. And this is true of all the wicked. The wicked have faith in themselves. But...

The Righteous shall live by faith. Here now is the central theme of this entire book. The sinner trusts in himself. The sinner has faith in his own strength. But the righteous abandon this. The righteous abandon faith in self. The faith of righteous rests on God.

To put it in current cultural terms, the wicked follow their hearts. They buy what I call the Disney lie. The lie of every single Disney movie is “follow your heart. Trust yourself. Believe in yourself.” That is the cultural motto isn’t it? Just believe in yourself! There is beauty within you! If you follow your heart, all your dreams will come true. Is that not the central theme of almost all media in our culture? Especially children’s media? Common kids, just trust your heart!

That is what God says the wicked do! The wicked puff themselves up. The wicked search their hearts and find reason to boast. The wicked trust in themselves. But God says the righteous do not place their faith in themselves. The righteous live by faith in God. They live by faith in God’s promises! Their lives are lives of faith.

They hope in God, not themselves. In the midst of a culture that screams at us to hope in ourselves, we must boldly say, no! We will trust only in the Lord our God. We will not buy the lie of the culture. We will not let our children buy the lie of self trust. We will teach our children to trust the Lord. We will baptize them in Word and water and we will raise them on the Water of the Word. We will raise them to trust God. Because they are holy before God. We will raise them to trust in the Lord their God, for He is our God and the God of our children. We will not make the mistakes of the Israelites. We will teach our children to fear God and trust only in Him.

But we must keep moving. In transition, God reminds Habakkuk of the wickedness of the Babylonians. He says they are drunk and arrogant. He says they are never at rest. They are as greedy as sheol or the grave. They hunger for death and are never satisfied. They gather nations in war and plunder. This is all similar to what God said in the last chapter.

Transition:

But God ends by saying that the wicked shall be taunted and scoffed at. And that is exactly what God does in the next section. God proceeds to give five woes against Babylon. So let’s look at the five woes.

The Five Woes.

Habakkuk 2:6 “6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say...

Explanation:

Now, a bit of explanation. A woe is a type of prophecy. There were generically two types of prophecy in the Bible. Prophecy of weal and woe. Weal was a prophetic blessing. Jesus uses this in Matthew in the sermon on the mount when He says “blessed are the...” This is prophesy or weal. But prophecy of woe are prophecies of death and destruction. They are prophetic warnings of God’s judgement. And they begin with the word “woe.” So God here gives five woe statements against Babylon. And He is doing this in a poetic mocking sense. God is exercising righteous sarcasm and mockery. There is a righteous way to be sarcastic and mocking. This is what is commonly called the serrated edge. God is mocking the wickedness of Babylon in these five woes.

So let’s look at the first woe God pronounces against Babylon.

1. Woe to the Plunderer. You Will Be Plundered.

Habakkuk 2:6–8 “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!” 7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.”

God says that in due time, those that Babylon plundered will rise up and plunder them. The debtors will rise up and destroy them. There is a coming day when the nations will rise up against Babylon. There will be a reckoning. And as Babylon conquered all before them, so they also will be conquered.

This is an answer to Habakkuk’s complaint. Will Babylon go on plundering forever? God answers, no. They themselves will be overthrown and plundered.

God continues in the second woe.

2. Woe to Those Who Seek Unjust Gain. Your Life is Forfeit.

Habakkuk 2:9–11“9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! 10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.”

Babylon had robbed and stolen. They had profited off of their wicked conquering. But there is a cost. There is a cost to their sin. They had gotten profit from their sin. They had set themselves up high where they thought no one could touch them. They believed that they had gained eternal glory. But God says that they will have shame. Their lives are forfeit. Judgement has been pronounced. They will perish.

And interestingly God says the very wall stones and wood beams will cry out against them. It is a matter of history that Babylon secured the very stones and trees to build their incredible architecture by plundering peoples. They hauled off the very wood and stone from people in order to build their temples and gardens. But God says even the stonework and lumber will cry our against them.

God continues in the third woe.

3. Woe to Those Who Build On Sin. God Will Conquer All for His Glory.

Habakkuk 2:12–14“12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

The Babylonians thought they had established an eternal kingdom. In pride and arrogance they worshipped themselves. God had said previously that they worship their own strength as a god. They believed themselves to be the ultimate victors. They had won the world. They honestly believed that the world was theirs. But woe to them. They had built their kingdom on the sand of sin. They had built their cities on blood.

They did not fear the Lord. And they forgot something. They are not gods. There is only one God to whom all glory and honor is due. And God will have all glory and honor. It is His. He does not give His glory to another. The Lord had raised them up, and the Lord would crush them as He willed in His sovereignty.

You see, Babylon thought the earth was theirs. But to quote the Psalmist, Psalm 24:1 “1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,” And in this passage God gives one of the most hopeful and encouraging promises in the Scriptures. He says in Habakkuk 2:14 “14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” This is the promise of the Lord. There is a coming day where the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth in the same way the water covers the sea. Evil loses. Righteousness wins. Evil fails. God wins. Period.

But we must continue with the fourth woe.

4. Woe to the Abusers. You Will Have Shame Instead of Glory.

Habakkuk 2:15–17“15 “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! 16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! 17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.”

God then uses very graphic language to describe what the Babylonians are doing. They are enslaving and physically shaming their captives. They are perverted and sexual deviants. God will not stand for this wickedness. He says that the cup is in His hand. The cup in prophetic language often symbolizes God’s judgement. The strong wine of God’s wrath. This is part of why the cup of wine in communion is so significant. The wine of God’s wrath was taken fully by Christ, and now we have the wine of God’s blessing left to us. You see, all have wine from God. Is it the wine of judgement or of blessing? If you are trusting in yourself, then like Babylon, the bitter wine of God’s wrath is in your cup and you will be forced to drink it. But if your faith is in Christ, then He drank the bitter wine in your place and welcomes you in to the wine of God’s blessing.

But here God says judgement is in His hand and it will be poured out on Babylon. They thought they had eternal glory. But God says that in the end, they will only have shame. Their glory will turn to shame. As they exposed others, so they will be exposed. It will as God says, “come around to you.”

But God concludes by pronouncing woe on their idolatry.

5. Woe to Idolaters. The Lord is God.

Habakkuk 2:18–20“18 “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! 19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.””

God declares that the idols Babylon worships are empty and dead. They are mute and lifeless. They make idols with their hands, and worship them. But these are no gods. Behold there is only one God. God sits in Heaven. Think of Psalm 2. Psalm 2:1–6“1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.””

There is only one God. And cry out as they might, the wicked little kings can never touch Him. He is above them. They scream at the sky, they mock and blaspheme, they hate and cry out in anger against God. And what is God’s answer? “Be silent.” God tells them to shut up.

God ends His answer by saying wickedness will be silent before Him. He is God. The king of Babylon is nothing to God. God raises him up and God crushes him. God makes the king of Babylon like a dumb beast unable to talk. He sends him into the field to eat grass like a cow. He makes him mute and dumb as an animal. Read Daniel 4. God did this to Nebuchadnezzar. Wicked, blaspheming kings will be silenced before the Lord.

Hear now this truth, oh you people of God. Wickedness will be crushed. There is only one God and He sits in heaven and mocks the wicked little rulers here on earth that set themselves up against Him. Hear now the Word of the Lord, you people of God. Habakkuk 2:20“20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.””

Mock as they will, they will be silenced. This Word is true. It will not fail. “3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”

Do not despair. Live by faith you people of the Lord.

Argumentation:

This is true. Remember this. Evil will not endure forever.

Evil Will Not Endure Forever.

We are so often discouraged. We so often look at the state of our culture and wonder if it will go on like this forever? Will the murder of the unborn go on forever? Will the mutilation of children in the name of sexual perversion go on forever? Will our leaders blaspheme God almighty forever? Will the church continue to justify sin and blaspheme God forever?

I tell you the truth. Evil will not endure forever. God is not mocked. He will be glorified. The evil will end. The murder of children will end. The blasphemy of presidents and senators and congressmen will end. The bastardization of the pulpit in America will end. Wicked will NOT triumph forever. I do not know when, and I do not know how, but God will end this. He may send revival. He may give us a Christian prince to aid us in our distress. He may also crush our nation. I do not know. But I do know this, evil will not endure forever. God will not be mocked. How do I know this? Because God has said so in His Word.

Let me just give a little demonstration of this. Let me ask you a simple example. One question.

Where is Babylon? Where is the king of Babylon? Should we extend an invite to Babylon to join the UN? Should we open an embassy there? Why not? Because Babylon was wiped off the face of the earth. They set themselves up against the Lord Almighty in heaven. They declared war against God. And they lost. They are gone. All of them are dead and gone.

They were overthrown. Every Word of God’s woes came to be. God destroyed them. They were judged by God. The Persians came and wiped them out. Judgement fell in 539 B.C.

Listen to God’s Words through Daniel in Daniel 5:25–31“25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 30 That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. 31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.”

Judgement fell. Persia was God’s tool of judgement. So what happened to Persia? They blasphemed God. They set themselves up against God. Where are they now? They were crushed. Greece came and crushed them. Where are the Greeks? They too set themselves against God. Rome crushed them. So where is Rome? Well, Rome was conquered by Christ through sharing of the gospel which spread to all the west and established Christendom, the fruit of which we still enjoy.

Why do I bring this up? Because evil will not endure. God crushes those wicked peoples who set themselves up against Him. Always. Sometimes it takes time. But He always does. Evil will not endure. So as we look at our age, there are many who set themselves against God. But we know this, evil will not endure. It cannot. Sin is ultimately suicide. To set yourself against God is to run into the arms of death and destruction. Cultures that are in rebellion against God have two choices. Repent or be destroyed. And that warning stands on our nation and our churches as well. Repent of face God’s wrath.

But for the people of God, there is promised hope.

Promised Hope.

And we see that in this passage. There is promised hope. Listen again to God’s promise in Habakkuk 2:14“14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” This is truly one of my favorite verses. It is stated again in Isaiah 11:9“9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

God has promised that there is a coming day when the knowledge and the glory of the Lord will cover the whole Earth. Think of the implications of this. Evil will occasionally seem to triumph. Good will also seem to triumph. If we take even the most simple glimpse at history and the history books of the Bible we see this all over. There are massive amounts of time where the righteous are advancing. But there are other times where evil seems to be destroying all righteousness. Habakkuk is in a time where evil is advancing seemingly without end. But he likely still remembers Josiah. Josiah comes on the scene as king and the righteous are taking ground without end.

And we see this in history. Right before the reformation, you have men like Jan Huss who are attempting to be faithful, seeming to take ground but then boom, he is killed. Brutally murdered. And you have 100 years of absolute oppression of the truth. It is likely really discouraging. It is hard to have hope in the valleys of history. But Live by faith in the promises of God. 100 years go by and boom, the powder-keg goes off and reformation sparks.

Think of the Christians in 300 A.D. There has been 300 years of absolute oppression by the Roman government. But in a mere 25 years, the emperor will be saved and the church will be legalized, Christianity will become the religion of the entire West, and one of the most pivotal councils in history will take place where Christians are welcomed in honor. They could have almost been pardoned for struggling to maintain hope.

But here is the reality of the hope we have. God has promised that evil will be crushed. He will crush evil. God has promised us this in 1 Corinthians 15:25–26,28 “25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death... 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” Christ is reigning, and He will reign until every enemy under His feet. We have promised hope. In our passage this morning God promises that someday in the future the entire World will be filled with the knowledge and holiness of God. He promised that! These wicked kings that rebel against God will be crushed. He will establish His worship in all the corners of the earth.

And think of the commission given to the church. Matthew 28:18–20 “18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples (Disciple the) of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” God has promised that His glory will fill the earth, He then sends the church out to do just that. And what guarantee do we have of this? Well aside from Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians we already read promising the enemies will be crushed, we have Christ’s own words to the Apostles. In Matthew 16 saying that the church will be established and the gates, the defences, of hell will not win. The church will advance and hell itself will not stop it.

So you see, we must never despair. Evil will be crushed. God has promised us hope. So what do we do?

In the Meantime, Live By Faith.

Beloved, I know the age we live in. It looks bad out there. It looked bad for Habakkuk too. But we have the exact same promise that God gave him. So what do we do? We live by faith. We die by faith. We raise our children to live by faith.

The Christian life is one defined by faith. It begins by faith. It endures by faith. It dies in faith. You see, our age looks bad. I do not know what the next four years will bring. I don’t know what the next fifty years will bring. We may live and die in a rebellious age. Our nation may be invaded and crushed in the next year. I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I do not know what will happen in our land. I may have ideas, but I ultimately do not know. I know we deserve judgement. I know the church in our culture deserves judgement. I know we are currently being judged and enduring judgement from God. But how that exactly plays out, I do not know.

So what do we do? How then shall we live? We will live by faith. Beloved, let me tell you what I do know. God has promised the gospel will go out and bear fruit to the ends of the Earth. I know this. God has promised it and I will die knowing that promise is true even if I do not live to see it. I know God has promised every enemy will be crushed under the feet of Christ. God has promised it and I will die knowing that promise is true even if I do not live to see it. I know God has promised that His Holy Church will never be destroyed and will cover the earth to His glory! God has promised it and I will die knowing that promise is true even if I do not live to see it. I know without a doubt that the knowledge and glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. God has promised it and I will die knowing that promise is true even if I do not live to see it.

We live in a wicked age. But Christ reigns. And nothing will ever change that. And we will live, breathe, and yes even die in that faith. Let all the forces of man and demons try to break God’s promises. They will all fail. They will all be crushed under the foot of King Jesus. We will endure in faith that God has spoken and His promises will never fail. We will sleep in peace in faith in Christ. Amen.

Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer:

Offering:

Offertory Prayer:

Benediction:

Habakkuk 2:14 “14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

1 Corinthians 15:25–26,28 “25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death... 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”