Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Habakkuk 2:4-20 PERPLEXING TIMES TEACH GOD’S PEOPLE TO LIVE BY FAITH


We have seen the prophet Habakkuk pleading with God to do something concerning the godlessness of Israel, even accusing God of doing nothing about it  (1:1-4).  
God does respond,  telling Habakkuk that the Babylonians shall be  the  instrument of His judgment  on  faithless  Israel (1:5-11). Habakkuk is  absolutely flabbergasted  by this answer and in  1:12-2:1 we have seen  him bargaining with God over this matter. His basic argument is,  “Lord, how could you possibly  use people more wicked than us  (the Babylonian cruelty was proverbial) to chastise your nation?”  Habakkuk is speechless at this revelation, and in response he says,
I will take my stand at my  watch-post 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.” (2:1)
Habakkuk thus applies a  ‘wait-and –see’ approach  to the situation.

The answer comes in  2:2-3, 
The Lord answered me: write the visionit will surely come ; it will not delay”. 
This  prophecy was  recorded  in writing, and now  with hindsight, it  serves as a proof that the Lord’s word through  His inspired prophet is  certain. It all happened in history. It is done. The Babylonians did become God’s tool of judgment upon Israel, BUT  as we shall learn now, the Babylonians  themselves shall be judged by God. This is what we shall consider now.  

What follows now in our text in Ch. 2:2-20  is  God’s assessment of the Babylonians, with a prophetic word  concerning their  future.  God’s first words to Habakkuk concerning the Babylonians are these, 
Behold his soul is puffed up; it is not upright  within him(v.4a) 
The rest of chapter 2  will be an explanation of this fact.    
The soul of the nation of the Babylonians is  unrighteous.

But God  also has a word for His faithful prophet,  who is struggling with  this theological problem – this fact that God here chooses to use an evil people  to punish  his  unfaithful covenant people.  The word which God has for Habakkuk is this,
the righteous  shall live by his faith”. (Habakkuk 2:4)
Habakkuk was one of these righteous people in Israel, and what he  and others needed to do now in this time  of God’s mysterious dealings with Israel, was to live by faith in God’s sovereign dealings with them. They needed to trust that God would know how to work outall things for their ultimate good (Rom. 8:28). 
The righteous shall live by his faith…”. This is a famous verse, quoted in   Romans, Galatians and Hebrews, and  in the context of Romans 1:17, this truth  greatly helped the great German  Reformer, Martin Luther, a monk in an Augustinian order of the Roman Catholic church,  who  until then had lived his life in  utter fear and terror  of God. He was  a God fearing man  and you might say, a believer in that sense.  But he  did not know God experientially. He was terrified of God. He never knew whether God was pleased with Him. He never felt good enough for God. He constantly beat himself  (physically  and mentally)  to subdue himself in order to please God. His whole system was built on a works righteousness. When he saw  that  he could never attain to a righteous life before God, but  that he needed to look by faith  to Christ,  he  finally understood  that  this difficult life in this world can only ever be lived  by faith  in God ALONE. This was his conversion experience, and  Martin Luther became a friend of God and a fearless, courageous man,because he had his eyes now focused  on God  and not on  situations before him.

It is  this  kind of faith which says, “Father God, I don’t  quite understand what you are doing  here in this situation, but I  love you and trust you as  my heavenly Father,  and I know that  you are too wise and too loving to err in this.” 

The powerful testimony of Sarah  Edwards  is an eloquent testimony to this attitude. When  her husband,  Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758), America’s greatest theologian was 55 years old smallpox vaccinations had just  been invented,  and since they were proving helpful, he was vaccinated. The doctor however administered too much of the vaccine, and he developed a fever which killed him.  His early death brought a severe trial to his wife  Sarah,   but listen how  this God centered woman dealt with his death, in a letter  written to her daughter:
My very dear child. What shall I say?  A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. The Lord has done it.  He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long.  But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us!  We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be. Your ever affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards[1].
That is the language of faith  in a good  and loving God.
This is  a great example  of how  the  righteous shall live by his faith.”

God essentially says to Habakkuk, “Look,  I know  very well  that the Babylonians  are puffed up (arrogant)  and unrighteous, but I am determined to use them, and in the act of using them to chastise you, my covenant people, I am asking you   my righteous servant Habakkuk, and all of you righteous people, who care to listen to the word that I am giving through him,   to trust  me in this !”
What follows in verses  2:6-19 is an exposition of the fact that God knows that the Babylonians  are  wicked, and that He is  determined to exercise judgment upon them once they have done His work.He is by no means condoning them  for their evil behaviour. 

Here is  God’s  analysis of them:

In  2:5  Babylon is compared to a drunkard whose appetite for more wine is never satisfied. In fact, the Babylonians were famous for their drunkenness.  Drunkenness creates false and foolish courage. What they did  was   often fuelled by alcohol. It was not surprising then  that  during one of their drinking parties  described  in the book of  Daniel (5:1-4),   Cyrus and the Persians were able to sneak into the city and defeat the Babylonians. That would be God’s judgment on them.

Also (2:5), the Babylonians were  greedy- ”his greed is as wide as Sheol, like death he has never enough”. The Babylonians, like Hitler and the Nazi’s in my father’s day,  were  never content with the size of their empire. They tried to conquer more and more.

Next, in vv. 6-19 Habakkuk gives a series of "Woe"  oracles to describe  the ‘woeful’ state  of  Babylon.   Can you see the five  sections  in  verses 6, 9, 12, 15 and 19?

1. Woe to the greedy who steal and plunder  for they shall be plundered! (2:6-8) The first crime is theft – “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own…”. This was   some 2,700 years ago and still the heart of man is unchanged. Our cities and towns and villages are full of thieves and everyone has a story to tell about that. Think also of the political power of  many dictators  in our world, and how they have impoverished their  countries,  and have enriched themselves  and their families, living in palaces protected by private armies, all  while their countrymen and women  suffer,  and their prisons are full of their opponents , and the people cry, “How long must this go on?”(v.6)
God says … the “debtors will suddenly arise… (v.7). Those who were once plunderers will be plundered. This will happen to mighty Babylon, says God.  And it will  also happen in the great day of judgment when every thief in Windhoek and Namibia  will be summoned to give an account to God. There will be no escape.

2. Woe to the dishonest who get evil gain for themselves - for the stones will cry out against them from the wall (2:9-11).   The Babylonians enriched themselves by plundering the treasuries and the homes of the people they conquered. Think of the drug barons, the loan sharks and all  those that practice extortion. Think of politicians who  use their position to gain  quick wealth  for themselves through kickbacks  and bribes. Our newspapers  are full of these things.  But the Lord says: “This will not go unnoticedFor the stones will cry out  from  the wall- dishonesty, greed, extortion“,  and the beams of the woodwork will respond  and echo back, “excess,  theft, debauchery,  drunkenness ” (v.11). The love of money is at the heart of this, and it invites God’s judgment.

3. Woe to the violent who build a town with blood for they will weary themselves for nothing (2:12-14).  The Babylonians built their cities with the help of the people they had captured in their wars. When slaves grew exhausted, they were killed without mercy, like  many  prisoners of war  in the wars of the 20th century.  But think about this: while the Babylonians built their thick walls, did these help them when the appointed time for the destruction of Babylon came?  No one on earth resists God. Before God the fortifications were as nothing!  In the year 538 BC , the Persian  Cyrus launched his attack on the city one night when the population had a big drinking party. They were relying on the strength of these walls. But a canal  of water  from the Euphrates river   ran into the city  under the city wall, and  Cyrus had  the water  diverted,  and so while  they were boozing, Cyrus’ army entered  though that canal right into the city – without  using battering rams or shooting  a single arrow . The nation had  wearied themselves for nothing in building their walls. If God is against the Babylonians, who can be for them?

4. Woe to the sexual pervert for you will be shamed! (2:15-17). Alcohol and sexual immorality go hand in hand.  Here is a picture of Babylonian depravity, using drink  to lower the inhibitions of men and women  until  they  had no sense of shame left.  But God says  in v. 16b,  Now it is your turn!  You will be filled with shame instead of glory …”.  God will put a cup in your hand to drink Babylon but it will be the cup of disgrace!  The violence you inflicted in one particular shameful massacre in Lebanon will be inflicted on you. That will be your future when Cyrus captures the city.”
So, here is the perspective that Habakkuk (and we) need:  God having judged his own people with the Babylonian invasion ultimately brings worse judgment on Babylon. God is answering Habakkuk’s prayer. Babylon is not going to have the last word in history. This powerful  empire  will eventually  be sacked   through God’s servant  Cyrus, the Persian.

THE EARTH WILL BE FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD.

God assures Habakkuk, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (2:14). This is one of these beautiful verses in the Bible  which  we sometimes find in the midst of the most depressing and darkest of circumstances. God is saying, “Look up, Habakkuk! Don’t despair. This is hard to understand, but  I am committed to subduing this earth for my glory!”   

God said the same  in Isaiah 10 and 11 in the context of the Assyrian invasion. There God speaks of His judgment coming upon that ungodly  nation. In that context also God tells the people through Isaiah of a Branch growing out of the root of Jesse. There these identical words are used, ‘For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea’ (Isa. 11:9). The Branch is a reference to the Messiah. It is He of whose coming it was said, ‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: For the mouth of the Lord has spoken’ (Isa.40:5).

Those words should fill us with hope and confidence.   This is   a theology of glory. This is a vision of the true end: The earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!  Obadiah  (same era as Habakkuk, and same circumstances) says in conclusion of his brief prophecy “ … and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s” (v.21).

And with this in mind we conclude with v. 20:
The Lord is  in His holy temple; let  all the earth keep silent before Him”.  God is in charge of your world. He knows the way He takes amidst all the current political and economic maneuvering   in this world.  This  is what Hababkkuk  learned at this time . Perplexing times teach God's people to live by faith in God.   Rest in His sovereignty, dear child of God. Amen!


[1] Elizabeth Dodds: Marriage to a difficult man, p.200

No comments:

THE DOCTRINE OF REST

This Paper was given at a Break-away Session  during the 2024 SOLA 5 Conference by Joachim Rieck  The doctrine of rest, or ceasing from work...