The Woe Against Survival Of The Fittest (Hab 2:9-11)

Habakkuk 2.9-11

GBCCR 4/5/25

Introduction

Catch- I would do anything from my family sounds like such a good thing to say right?

The Bible says to love our families

Christians are called to honor our parents according to the 5th Commandment

We are to store up for our children (2 Corinthians 12:14)

Proverbs 13:22- A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children..

But every good thing that becomes a Gd thing in our lives is now a bad thing

This idea of doing anything for the sake of my child is more of something that orginated from Darwin rather than the bible

As I sat in an evolutionary biology class, our professor got up and explain to all of us college students why our parents were pressuring us to have children

“it’s part of their need to evolve, that their DNA doesn’t just get passed onto you, but onto your children, so they will pressure to see that happen.”

Evolution existed long before Darwin as a philosophy, but Darwin made everyone say, Yes, that makes sense with his idea of natural selection and survival of the fittest

The idea was that those who were well equipped to handle the environment survived

And those genes unable to thrive would die off

Thus, each new generation would be better adapted for life

evolutionary rationale, says "love' is nothing more than self-interest in increasing the chances of our genes surviving in our offspring or our close relatives. In the 'struggle for survival of the fittest where is the basis for compassion?

Many evils were then done in the name of social Darwinism

From Hitler’s Nazi Germany to Marget Sanger’s planned parenthood

And since there is nothing new under the sun, there were previous evils done by people like the Chaldeans

Which God says will be judged

Instead, may we say… I will live by faith in the sovereign and forgiving God for the sake of my family

This is how we can best care for them

Review

We are in the section of Habakkuk where God gives some answers

We didn’t want to rush here too quickly

Because the bible doesn’t call us to run to resolution right away

Instead, Candor in our laments is important, because Jesus said that blessed are those who mourn

We are supposed to bring our issues to God like Habakkuk did

But you will recall how Habbakuk said

Habakkuk 2:1- I will stand on my guard post And station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved.

He looked for an answer from God

And we look for an answer in God’s word

God said that the prideful will fail, first saying:

to those who seek comfort as their safety,

to those who think their power over others means they will always be powerful

and those whose might makes right

Today, may we learn

Refuse to sin for the sake of your family because

Reprehensible acts for protection will fail (v9)

Explanation

A woe or cry of warning is given against those who seek evil gain

This makes total sense to us because it means to gain by violence or to plunder

I know that Shasta loves his pirates… but we all know that modern-day pirates who board ships, kill people and steal goods are doing evil

So of course… woe

But look at the reason they are doing these evil actsfor his house

for his house

You will recall that house doesn’t just mean a building that someone builds

Instead, it is a household and usually a family line

Like David was promised God would build his house and so he states

2 Samuel 7:11–12 The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you. “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.

Do you get the Babyloans are just doing all this conquest and slaying nations without sparing for the sake of their children

And what is more relatable than wanting to keep your children safe from harm?

Look down at to see the gain they’re seeking for

Kids… go look out in the upcoming weeks as spring comes and you hear the chirps of little baby birds

Are most of those nests on the ground or high up in trees?

Those high positions provide safety from predators from cats, snakes, and even frogs which love to eat baby birds

So God has so designed the instincts of birds that they seek to build safe places for their children

The Babylonians just wanted their children to be safe from empires like the Assyrians and Egyptians would no defeat them… so who cares if little ole Israel getgs int eh way

And Israel’s royalty did the same

Jeremiah 22:13–18- “Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness And his upper rooms without justice, ….your eyes and your heart Are intent only upon your own dishonest gain, And on shedding innocent blood And on practicing oppression and extortion.” Therefore thus says the Lord in regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, “They will not lament for him: ‘Alas, my brother!’ or, ‘Alas, sister!’ They will not lament for him: ‘Alas for the master!’ or, ‘Alas for his splendor!’

And Jesus observed in His time

Matthew 7:11- “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

an innate impulse to do what is best for their children, yet they are flawed as a result of sin’s corruption of all humanity through the fall of Adam and Eve

Because the image of God is preserved in all people,

love shines through,

but it’s a love that can be used as an excuse for all kinds of evil

Many people have said, I’m just doing this to secure my kid’s future

But scripture states:

Psalm 127:1- Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain

Illustration point-Reprehensible acts for our kids will fail them, what they need is God

I will admit that I have a long love of superhero stories because I am a geek at heart

And we can argue about it, but my son agrees with me that there is no greater superhero than Spiderman

He’s just a really good character and even though they keep changing him, the essence gets through to the next generation

And without giving any recommendation on the movie.. you will have to decide that for yourself, I want to point out a modern theme in storytelling that I think is actually helpful

A recent spiderman movie introduced the classic bad guy the Vulture… because spiderman has to have animal-themed bad guys

And rather than the vulture being a crazy mad scientist… he is a dad

And he has the relatable issue of being fired from a job and he has to still provide for his family

So he steals and sells weapons and almost repeatedly kills spiderman because he’s a family mane

Until Spiderman stops him of course

It’s a story as old as time

Trying to protect our children with reprehensible acts will not work in the end

Application

I do not believe most people have a chance to become super villians for the sake of our families, but some of the greatest evils in today’s world are being excused for the sake of family

RC Sproul called Abortion one of the greatest sins that has ever marred the history of civilization.

But often it is disguised in terms like I don’t want my teenager to have the weight of a child so young

Or my son should not get stuck paying child support to that woman

So to think of their future, grandparents push to destroy the lives of their grandchildren.

As one person shared their story on a prolife website, “"I was 20 years old when my parents advised me to have an abortion. My mom told me that if I waited to have the baby, insurance would not cover my surgery because I'd be taken off my parents’ insurance.”

Today, there is also a new form of this in the IVF world

The New York Times recently ran an opinion piece by the CEO of Orchid, a genetic screening company

She said, “When I was in elementary school, my mom started going blind.

so my baby —and everyone else's—gets to win the genetic lottery—avoid blindness— and hundreds of severe genetic diseases

the company also goes further, offering what is known as polygenic screening, which gives parents what is essentially a risk profile on each embryo’s propensity for conditions such as heart disease, for which the genetic component is far more complex.

What she fails to mention about this screening is not that those children are cured,

but in IVF they eliminate kill those tiny babies or freeze them forever

The future security of our children is used as an excuse to kill our unwanted

Woe to him to gets evil gain for his house to put his nest on high

I pray none of you are going there in your minds

But we too must watch out for the idol of safety

How easy it is to say… I will never have a sinner in my home because we need family time in my safe castle

Or we can be so focused on their future success in academics, sports, or finances that we neglect the greatest treasure of all… their relationship with God

This has been all very kid-focused, but the same thing can happen when we care for aging parents

Yes, much patience is required with them

But comfort over truth will never end well

Pastor Jim+ Koerber writes about working with aging parents

Your aging relatives need the truth. God’s grace means that it is not true that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks!

Your aging relatives need children who know the truth that can minister to them guided by a biblical understanding of how the gospel relates to those suffering with the heat of old age.

We cannot avoid the gospel and it’s bad news of calling them sinners for the sake of comfort and ease

Trans: Why is this true… why is survival of fittest wrong?

Remembrance of wrongs will come out (10-11)

The shame will stick (10)

Explanation

They have made plans to conquer and control

But God says that they are doing a shameful thing

Shame is the experience of being unacceptable, less than others, and different.

And sin brings rightful shame because sin is unacceptable

Remember in the garden

Genesis 2:25- And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

But after they disobeyed God

Genesis 3:7- Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Tim Challies says shame can be good

Shame comes about as we realize our guilt or our inadequacy. Shame comes as we compare ourselves to a better standard or even as we compare ourselves to another standard (which is, more often than not, other people). So while it is a product of sin and a necessity only in an imperfect world, it is also a gift, of sorts.

As Ezra brings the weight of sin before they get forgivness

Ezra 9:6- and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.

Yet, they do not feel that way because people stop feeling shame

It was Spurgeon who said long ago, “It is an awful thing when a man is no longer conscious of shame, but a more awful thing still when he comes to glory in his shame, for then his damnation is not far off”

Today, challies points out, “As obscenity became a thing of the past, so too did it’s necessary consequence: shame. Shame is increasingly missing from our culture. We do things, watch things, enjoy things, participate in things that at any other time and in any other place would be considered shameful

How easy it is to make an excuse of something that should be shameful for the sake of those we love

They killed whole nations for the sake of the children’s security

Today people bribe colleges to get their kids in

But he says they are sinning against themselves

The very household they are trying to build up will suffer for this

Illustration

Shame will stick, even to the next generation

The death of a parent is very tough time to go through

Perhaps the only thing worse is to realize the life you lived was a lie

Sadly, this was a reoccurring issue back in Orange County as the pressure to keep up with the Joneses can be overwhelming

One family lived a comfortable middle class life

They went on some good vacations

While they didn’t get everything they ever wanted, they did love comfortably

They had most of their wants

But then the sad news was met with the additional news that they were not really able to afford that lifestyle

The father was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt

The 2nd mortgage was not being paid

It turns out he had been paying for everything on borrowed money that he couldn’t pay back

So the shame of cleaning it all up fell to them

Shame sticks, so we must avoid doing whatever it takes for our family

Application

Humans have a great tendency to actually glory in things that are shameful

Whether it is how much money they made by tricking someone to give them money

Or all kinds of immorality they boast about

Or making their identities around something God says is evil

It is easy to see God’s patience as an affirmation… that people must be ok with it

But the bible says… no, there will be judgment for it

Sometimes you and I do or have done shameful things

And while we may be able to hide it for a while, the shame sticks and it will come out

ignoring it is not an option, because then others will have to deal with it

The only solution to shame is to allow someone else to actually take care of it

This is what Jesus did on the cross

Hebrews 12:2- fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus despised the shame for us… he became sin so that in him you might become the righteousness of God (2 cor 5:21)

Thus you not only need not hide it from him, but not from His people either

Proverbs 28:13- He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

Trans: God has said family is no excuse for sin because you will not make their future secure, the shame will come out, and secondly

The accusations will stand (11)

Explanation

Building styles didn’t’ change for a long time in the ancient world

From around 1500-500 BC, Ancient Israelite houses were built with wood beams and slates upon stone pillars

So the walls along the sides were stones and the roofs were wooden rafters

And if these walls to talk… what would they say?

Habakkuk says they will bring forward the shame and explain the evil gain

Turn to Luke 19 for Jesus’ reference to this pasage:

Luke 19:38–42- shouting: “BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.

This is a perfect lead-up as next week is Palm Sunday and the day we remember this event

Here in Habakkuk, the inanimate objects to witness the divine judgment

And Jesus is saying the inanimate objects are witnessing divine judgment

Notice he says

Luke 19:43–44- “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

Jesus being king is good news to those who follow him,But bad news for those who have fought again

But bad news for those who have fought against him

Those stones will cry in judgment against the Pharisees

And while the stones of our houses may not cry out, we have our consciences which will accuse every person before God

Romans 2:15- in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

everyone under God’s judgment in chs 1-2… the Jews know the law written on stone and papyrus

But the Gentiles all know God’s law written on their hearts.

in 2:14- This knowledge of right and wrong is a clearly showing they have the law so thatv15-16 So their conscience will bear witness to accuse or excuse them

v15-16 So their conscience will bear witness to accuse or excuse them

So the conscience is an all seeing eye witness that can give accurate testimony

It is interesting, isn’t it, that a conscience feels like a separate voice speaking to us

No one knows exactly why and scripture isn’t clear

But it appears from these texts that this sense of right and wrong is part of being made in the image of Godwe all have a bit of God’s law written on our hearts

we all have a bit of God’s law written on our hearts

conscience is

The God designed guide, monitor, witness, and judge of what you believe is right or wrong

John MacArthur describes conscience as “a built-in warning system that signals us when something we have done is wrong. …. it inflicts distress, in the form of guilt, whenever we violate what our hearts tell us is right.

Illustration- The accusations will stand as the evidence comes out

In today’s world of forensic evidence, we see how this is possible

A person may make a perfect theft

He faked an alibi

He made it look like they were stealing random things instead of the one thing they were looking for

He carefully planned when the people would be gone

And he even wore gloves… except he put them on after he got inside, leaving a big fat fingerprint on the window heading into the house

And that glass spoke

Even if there are no victims remaining, the evidence will come out

Application

So, we can be confident that someone’s sin will find them out

It is easy to suspect something may be up at times

But in church discipline, we can wait until we see verified realities

We look for things that are consistent and clear

A church probably shouldn't excommunicate a husband who selfishly eats all of the ice cream in the house

Yet it should excommunicate a husband who abandons his wife

At times you may worry, will this be clear or stay hidden, and we have can have confidence that God will make it clear

Therefore

Since we have seen (Cohesion)-

The reprehensible acts done for loving security are not God’s standard for love

They will be found because of shame and because accusations

We know we must (Resolution)-

The pressure of family can be immense

1. We feel we must be strong to children safe from harms

2. But Admin Griffin’s book Family discipleship makes the great point “Your kids don’t need perfect parents ; they need to know how their imperfect family can know and follow their perfect heavenly Father . Don’t be afraid to let your kids see you make mistakes , but always glorify God that where we are weak he is strong , and even in the struggles we wish would be behind us , his grace is sufficient for us”[1]

[1]  Page 55 · Location 1018Family Discipleship (Matt Chandler & Adam Griffin)

The same is true for being a good son, daughter, sister

1. The best thing you can be is a son, daughter, sister, or brother defined by your faith

2. While the other things may last for a while, only what is done in faith will last forever.

So let’s pray

Lord, may we trust when you give a woe

I pray ffor people to turn away from their sins and trust you

I pray we may not long after the wicked ways but trust what you’re doing

Oh, lord… be right.