Reflections on Habakkuk 2

 Habakkuk 02  (Contemporary English Version)

1. While standing guard on the watchtower, I waited for the LORD's answer, before explaining the reason for my complaint.
2. Then the LORD told me: "I will give you my message in the form of a vision. Write it clearly enough to be read at a glance.
3. At the time I have decided, my words will come true. You can trust what I say about the future. It may take a long time, but keep on waiting-- it will happen!
4. "I, the LORD, refuse to accept anyone who is proud. Only those who live by faith are acceptable to me."
5. Wine is treacherous, and arrogant people are never satisfied. They are no less greedy than death itself-- they open their mouths as wide as the world of the dead and swallow everyone.
6. But they will be mocked with these words: You're doomed! You stored up stolen goods and cheated others of what belonged to them.
7. But without warning, those you owe will demand payment. Then you will become a frightened victim.
8. You robbed cities and nations everywhere on earth and murdered their people. Now those who survived will be as cruel to you.
9. You're doomed! You made your family rich at the expense of others. You even said to yourself, "I'm above the law."
10. But you will bring shame on your family and ruin to yourself for what you did to others.
11. The very stones and wood in your home will testify against you.
12. You're doomed! You built a city on crime and violence.
13. But the LORD All-Powerful sends up in flames what nations and people work so hard to gain.
14. Just as water fills the sea, the land will be filled with people who know and honor the LORD.
15. You're doomed! You get your friends drunk, just to see them naked.
16. Now you will be disgraced instead of praised. The LORD will make you drunk, and when others see you naked, you will lose their respect.
17. You destroyed trees and animals on Mount Lebanon; you were ruthless to towns and people everywhere. Now you will be terrorized.
18. What is an idol worth? It's merely a false god. Why trust a speechless image made from wood or metal by human hands?
19. What can you learn from idols covered with silver or gold? They can't even breathe. Pity anyone who says to an idol of wood or stone, "Get up and do something!"
20. Let all the world be silent-- the LORD is present in his holy temple.

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Habakkuk, in chapter one, had lodged a complaint with the Lord. Actually he lodged two complaints: one had to do with the rampant injustice in Judah and why God didn't do something about it. When God said he was doing something about it and was going to use Babylon to bring punishment on Judah, Habakkuk complained that God was using a people even more unrighteous than Judah to bring judgement on Judah. It is this second complaint to which Habakkuk refers in verse 1 of this chapter.

The prophet retreated to the watchtower to be alone with God and watch for His response to his complaint and consider his own reply to God's response. In this time with God the Lord answered him saying, "Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it." The vision would not come to pass immediately but it "testifies about the end." Though its fulfillment would be delayed, it "will certainly come" and it would be on time.

The vision related to Babylon, the unrighteous nation about whom Habakkuk complained. Though the ego of the Babylonians was inflated and they were without integrity, a truth on which Habakkuk and his people could rely was that "the righteous one will live by his faith." The injustice of the unjust and the barbarism of the Babylonians does not alter this truth.

As the vision of Babylon's destruction continues in verse 5 and following, we come to realize that it was Bablyn's own desire to amass power and wealth and more of everything that brought the nation to its knees. Their deception grew through the increasing addiction to wine, contributing to an arrogance of their greatness and giving them an insatiable appetite to acquire. The nation became strong for a time, able to subdue other nations, collecting their people and wealth to themselves. But this turned on them. Verse 8 predicts what happened to Babylon: "Since you have plundered many nations, all the peoples who remain will plunder you."

Verse 10 described an irony that befalls those who try to acquire what is not theirs through the downfall of others. Their plans for greatness were really plans to bring shame on themselves. Their sin against others became sin against themselves. Verse 13 gives perspective to the whole scene, pointing out that what is not founded in God is destined to be in vain. The rise and fall of Babylon and the influence the nation on for a time affected one corner of the earth. But God's influence covers the whole earth.

Five woes against Babylon are stated in this chapter. They are:

• Woe to him who amasses what is not his. (V. 6)
• Woe to him who unjustly gains wealth for his house to place his nest on high, to escape from the reach of disaster! (V. 9)
• Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice! (V. 12)
• Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath and even making them drunk, in order to look at their nakedness! (V. 15)
• 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. (V. 19)
  
  

The final woe, looking upon objects made by their own hands as their gods, was a huge contributor to all the woes. Idolatry credits God's work to an inanimate object. It provides man a religion that he controls for his own benefit and gives him a false sense of power and security. But as the Babylonians discovered, it is the Lord who gives or takes away. Whatever is done apart from Him is done in vain.