Sermon 24
Sermon by Jeff Wattley at Wonersh
Habakkuk Series
Habakkuk 2 - God’s
Justice is Vindicated
BibleGateway.com
- Passage Lookup: Habakkuk 2;
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your
word. By your Spirit make it come alive as we study it and by your same Holy Spirit stir us
to hear and respond to you in faith and obedience. Amen.
John Metcalfe introduced us last week to Habakkuk and to the
question “If God is good, why do bad things
happen. Why is it sometimes so hard, and God does not answer when we cry to Him?
We come to the second part of our journey through the book
of Habakkuk. This journey is very
similar to the experience of driving a narrow boat on the canal network through
a long tunnel which had a double kink in it.
Going through a long dark tunnel is enough of an ordeal in itself but it
is made ten times worse if you have a double kink in the tunnel because it
means that for a while you are plunged into complete darkness. It is impossible to see light either in front
of your or behind you. That is what it
can feel like at times.
Habakkuk entered the tunnel crying to God that he would deal
with the crime and violence of his own people, the people of
Habakkuk the prophet is plunged into utter darkness and he
cries to God that he cannot see. He
cannot see how Holy God could use a wicked nation as an instrument for his
plans, or how God could deal with a bad nation by subjecting it to one even
worse.
But it was in the darkness that Habakkuk began to hear
God. Habakkuk was reminded to live by
faith and not by sight. In the darkness
of his fear and despair he once again heard the voice of God, and was assured
that God’s revelation was sure to come.
He caught a glimpse of a tiny glimmer of light in the tunnel ahead of
him (Read 2 v 2 & 3).
But God does not always bring instant clarity and bright
light, like a boat emerging from a tunnel – the light seems to come very
slowly. We can remain in a place of
darkness and confusion when the only comfort is a conviction that God is
faithful and He will act.
Although Habakkuk is still in darkness; although his nation
Let us take the analogy of the canal boat tunnel one step
further and use some imagination. I want
you to picture that as Habakkuk chugs slowly along instead of peering only at
the pinprick of light ahead, his confidence begins to grow and he has a good
look around as his eyes grow accustomed to the darkness, to his surprise he
sees that there are a series of pictures let into the side of the tunnel which
he is able to glimpse for a few moments as his boat glides past, to glimpse
pictures of those who live in the darkness.
These pictures are not brightly lit, but shadowy and hardly different
from the darkness all around, but each shows a picture of the corruption in the
world and Habakkuk sees that each picture tells a different story; the first
window is called the first woe: corrupt
wealth.
Verse 6: Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and
makes himself wealthy by extortion. Habakkuk sees the
great wealth of the Babylonians which had been acquired tremendously quickly,
not by hard work and honest enterprise but by plundering the property of poorer
nations, and by unjust financial deals, taking items of great value as security
for loans that could not be repaid. In
short the financial exploitation of the weak by the strong. It happens today. It happens among individuals where one gets in
a position to exploit another; perhaps a tenant or a debtor. It happens at the hands of respectable high
street institutions who use loopholes in the law to
recover the same debt several times over.
And it happens when the powerful countries of the world create a
mountain of debt to third world countries that cannot be repaid as the Make
Poverty History campaign has sought to bring home to the G8 Summit in
But as Habakkuk stares into this grimy picture and sees the
corrupt wealth of the Babylonians he remembers that the light is coming and
that God is in control. He sees
Habakkuk sees that the instrument of judgment against
Habakkuk passes on from the first picture and quickly sees a
second with the title: the second woe:
corrupt security. Verse
9: Woe
to him who builds his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high to escape
the clutches of ruin.
The imagery here is of an eagle that makes it nest high in
the trees to avoid the clutches of nest robbers and predators. The Babylonians are seeking to protect their
corrupt wealth and power by tyranny to guarantee their security. Today it is fences and security systems; off
shore accounts and creative accountants who protect the power and wealth of the
corrupt.
But Habakkuk remembers that the light is coming; light that
will expose the corruption and cruelty on which this security has been
built. Lasting peace cannot be achieved
by force. Because lasting peace is inner
peace, peace with God. True security
does not lie in the fortresses and guards, alarms and arms but the True
Shepherd.
Then Habakkuk comes along side another picture and this one
bears the title third woe: corrupt
Power. Verse 12: woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and
establishes a city by crime.
There have been several examples of cities established by
crime in our own country this century. I
particularly remember the case that was referred to locally in
Habakkuk was up against a corrupt nation rather than a
handful of local officials. Habakkuk did
not have a local Director of Public Prosecutions to refer the case to. But as he looked in the picture of corrupt
power, he knew that the light is coming and that the power of God is supreme
over the corrupt power of even the most powerful dictator. Because there is one kind of power that will
always triumph over corrupt power. The
Babylonians built their empire on the bloodshed of their victims, but God has
built his kingdom on the blood of the Lamb.
The light is coming. The true
power of God will prevail over all the corrupt power on the earth.
At this point Habakkuk turns his eyes away from the pictures
of woe for a moment and looks up. He
takes a long hard look ahead of himself towards the light that is growing ever
closer and slowly bigger each moment.
And as he looks at it he knows that the time is coming when, as he
expresses it in the beautiful words of verse 14 “the earth will be filled with
the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”. No longer will it be possible for anyone to
pretend that they can build their own wealth and security and power, for the
wealth and security and power of God will cover the earth. The light is coming into the darkness.
Habakkuk has this complete assurance but he knows that he
must await God’s timing. He is still in
the tunnel and still the darkness is all around him. So he peers again into the darkness and finds
that he is passing another of the grimy shadowy pictures. This one is called the fourth woe: corrupt relationships.
Verse 15: woe to him
who gives drink to his neighbour, pouring it from the wineskin till they are
drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies.
Here we have a picture of exploitation and abuse that is all
too relevant today in which people are seen as nothing more than tools for self
gratification and drink and drugs the tools of manipulation. At one end of the spectrum it is the liberal
(or spiked) use of drink to knock someone off their guard to butter them up for
a financial or business contract. A
similar approach used to soften someone up for a sexual encounter that has
nothing to do with trust and love and everything to do with self
gratification. Indeed our culture has
managed to portray this as so normal and even glamorous that vast numbers of
young people submit to it voluntarily and get themselves high ready for
whatever might follow. People become
objects and not creatures made in the image of God. Relationships become conquests and not
channels of self giving love.
But the light is coming and with it judgment. In Romans 1 we read that the wrath of God is
being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men
and that for a time God has given the Godless over to their sinful desires and
to degrading themselves with one another.
Habakkuk knows that God’s judgment is coming. The cup he refers to in verse 16 is the cup of God’s wrath which will bring shame and
exposure and disgrace to the corrupt.
Not only will the Babylonians be punished for their abuse of people but
also, we are told in verse 17, they
will face the consequences of their abuse of the forests and wildlife. God appointed man as his agent to subdue the
earth; he did not appoint him to take power to destroy and exploit the
earth. But the light is coming.
Habakkuk passes one last picture. Verse
19: woe to him who says to wood, “Come to life” or to lifeless stone, “Wake
up”. This picture is labelled the Fifth Woe: Corrupt gods and worship. In this he sees the Babylonians making
all manner of idols and images out of wood and metal. As Romans 1 v 22 puts it they became fools
and exchanged the glory of God for images made to look like mortal man and
birds and animals and reptiles.
I leave you to reflect on whether our culture has its own
idols and images. Do people today
worship the work of their own hands? Do
we sit before an image that teaches lies?
What do people turn to today for guidance?
As Habakkuk peered into the picture of false goods, he knew
that the light is coming. He knows that false goods will be exposed and that
the glory of the true and living God would one day be seen by all mankind.
Again Habakkuk turns his eyes away from the pictures of woe
and looks up. He takes another look
ahead of himself towards the light that is growing ever closer. What does he see?
He sees what he describes in verse 20. He sees a picture of peace and justice and
security. A picture of
true wealth, and security, and power.
He sees an example of true relationships and true worship. He sees that the Lord is in his holy temple, and all the earth silent before him. That is what the light at the end of the
tunnel will look like. And the light is
coming.
Let us pray.