to the book of Habakkuk. The book of Habakkuk. Now, if you are not familiar with where that is, I'll tell you what page is found on the Pew Bible. It's found on page 1,082. 1,082 in the Pew Bible, the book of Habakkuk. So it's been a few weeks since we've been in this book. I started a series a few weeks back on this, and then things got interrupted. So I want to give you a little bit of a background to this book and where we've been that will help us, I think, as we look at the book today. The book of Habakkuk is written at a time when the nation of Israel has already fallen to the Assyrians, And the nation of Judah in the South is becoming more and more wicked. Wickedness seems to run rampant throughout the Judean society. And in the midst of that, a prophet named Habakkuk cries out to the Lord and says, how long, Lord, am I going to have to see this wickedness all around me, oppression all around me, and you don't act? And God's answer is, don't worry, I will act. I'm gonna raise up the Babylonians to deal with this. Which raises Habakkuk's second question, how could you possibly use the Babylonians? Because they're even worse than us. The book of Habakkuk really focuses on the question, where is God when it hurts? It focuses on where is God when there is suffering and oppression. Or the question, if God is good, fill in the blanks. And we saw that in Habakkuk's questions and God's answers, we see this basic unfolding. The first question, The first set of questions that Habakkuk asks essentially are the question, is God inactive and inattentive? In other words, is he not doing anything? Does he even not even see? Is he not paying attention to what's going on? God's answer to that was no, and reminds us that God is at work. Habakkuk's second question was essentially, is God unjust? Is God unjust in his ways? After all, Babylon is a lot worse than Judah. How could he use Babylon? And God's reply to this essentially reminds us, no, God will do right. So is God inactive and inattentive? No, God is at work. Is God unjust? No, God will do right. And God gives to Habakkuk a very important truth, a statement of fact, but also implied in that a command for how we are to live our lives. And it is simply this, that just shall live by faith. that we must trust God. How do we live right when life goes wrong? We just live by faith. So now we come to chapter two, and I'm gonna read, though, in the last message on Habakkuk, we read part of chapter two. I wanna read chapter two in its entirety, Again, if you're following along in the Pew Bible, this is found on page 1082. After asking his second question, which is essentially, how can God be just to allow the Babylonians to be the instrument of judgment? Habakkuk in chapter two, verse one says, I will stand my watch, set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected. Habakkuk realizes that he doesn't see the whole thing, and he understands that there's some correction that he needs. Then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie, though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. In other words, I will bring about my plans. And though it seems to take a long time, it may not seem to run on your timetable, it is running precisely on mine, God says. Behold the proud. His soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man and he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, and he is like death and cannot be satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples. Will not all these take up a proverb against him and a taunting riddle against him and say, woe to him who increases what is not his, how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges, will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnants of the people shall plunder you. Because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city, and of all who dwell in it. Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster. You give shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples, and sin against your soul. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timbers will answer it. Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity. Behold, it is not of the Lord of hosts that the people's labor to feed the fire, or is it not rather of the Lord of hosts that the people's labor to feed the fire and nations weary themselves in vain. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as waters cover the sea. Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle even to make him drunk that you may look on his nakedness. You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also drink and be exposed as uncircumcised. The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you and utter shame will be on your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you in the plunder of beasts which made them afraid because of men's blood, the violence of the land and the city and of all who dwell in it. What profit is the image that its maker should carve it. The molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols. Woe to him who says to wood, awake. To silent stone, arise, it shall teach. Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. In chapter 2, God shows that He knows exactly what is going on in the world. And He shows that He will judge it. He condemns this unbridled aggression of the Babylonians as they go forth trying to take more and more and more territory. It's interesting that God ironically uses a rhetorical device in his word here, in which the people who have, who have experienced the oppression from the Babylonians are the ones who take up this song against them. In this way, God is showing that he knows what is going on. that though things may seem completely wild and out of control, He is still in control. He is showing that the unjust will be punished and He is showing that the oppressed will receive justice. The sinful aggression of Babylon is fueled by evil motivations and engaged in an evil manner. And in the woes that God speaks in this passage, He speaks upon Babylon this judgment that will come for their evil. He speaks not only of their actions, but their attitudes behind it. He speaks not only of their manner, but of their motivation. And in this passage of scripture, there is a message both to those who engage in these kind of things and those who experience these kind of things. There's a warning to those who would walk in these paths that you will face judgment. But there is a reassurance to those who experience this against themselves that God is in control and He will judge what is done wrong. There is then a word both to violators and victims. There is in this passage both a rebuke and a reassurance. So let's take a look at this. We're gonna kind of do a flyby over this chapter and see what it is that God calls out about the Babylonians. What He will punish in His planned and purposeful ways. Well, as I've mentioned, all of this can be traced back to this unbridled aggression, this charging out to try to take territory more and more and more and bring it under their control. But within that larger context of this ongoing conquest, God focuses on a number of specific motivations and manners in which they are doing this. Notice first that God will punish vanity. God will punish vanity. I'm sure you noticed twice in this passage that God refers to the proud. Look in verse four, behold the proud. Verse five, indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man. Indeed, in verses five to eight, The description of the Babylonians are proud drunkards who go out and just do whatever they can because they're powerful and are proud of having done so. Now, I don't know how many of you have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with people who are drunken. There's different kinds of personalities of drunken people. But sometimes there are people that get drunk and they get weepy. Sometimes there are people that get drunk and they just sort of dissolve into a corner. But then sometimes there are other times that people get drunk and when they get drunk they get more and more belligerent and proud. And this is the picture then of the Babylonians. By the way, if we read the book of Daniel, we know that the Babylonians were known for their drinking. When the hand of God appeared to write the warning on the wall, what were the Babylonians doing? They were having a drunken party. So here God depicts these Babylonians as proud drunkards. God hates pride. He hates pride. In fact, some of you know that list of vices in the book of Proverbs, these six things, doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are abomination unto him. What's the very first thing that's listed? A proud look. Pride was a sin that cast Satan out of heaven. Pride is a horrible iniquity. And God says He will judge these proud people. You do not have to be someone who goes out and tries to conquer everyone's territory to be afflicted with the sin of pride or vanity. Pride sadly finds its way in the hearts of almost every person on this earth. Or we think of ourselves as better than we are, we think of ourselves as deserving more than we deserve, we think of ourselves in lofty terms. And God sees it. In fact, this description here in verses five to eight, God describes this pride leading Babylon and any who would follow the path of pride into incredible folly. Look at it with me in verse six. Will not all these take up a proverb against him and a taunting riddle against him and say, woe to him who increases what is not his? How long? and to him who loads himself with many pledges, will not your creditors rise up suddenly?" Now there are some people who look at this passage and they say, well, this is referring to Babylon's unjust monetary policies, where they would basically get nations to pay massive amounts of tribute and then come and take over them anyways, after promising them some security. And it may be, but I think more, I think more pointedly, the picture here is that Babylon, in their pride, keeps on taking more and more territory. And it's like a person, the image is like a person buying on credit. More and more and more things that they don't actually have the money to buy, to pay back. with every land that they conquered, with every bit of territory that they conquered, they were in effect becoming more and more indebted in God's eyes. And all of these would one day rise up like creditors. Pride is this way of deceiving us, making us think that we are far more capable than we really are. And here the Babylonians no doubt felt that they could take this territory and keep it. Just like the person in his pride thinks he can gather up more and more things, buying them on credit, show himself to be an amazing person, look at how many wonderful things that I have, and yet in the end the creditors rise up. And so it will happen to Babylon. And so it happens to all who live their lives by pride. All of those checks that we, in effect, write in our pride, will come back to haunt us. Will not your creditors, verse seven, rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you and you will become their booty because you have plundered many nations and the remnant of the people shall plunder you because of men's blood and the violence of the land of the city and of all who dwell in it. God will punish pride. By the way, I should mention as we go through this, I've mentioned the Moody Bible Commentary. It's a single volume commentary on the entire Bible. It's very helpful, and I found it very helpful as I studied this passage in particular. I commend it to you, actually. I think that that's a book that would be very useful and helpful in your own Bible study. The author, a guy named Ridelnick of this chapter in that commentary, was helpful to me as I looked through this as well. What else is God punishing? Well, God also not only is punishing this vanity, but he will punish their false security. Look at it with me in verse nine. Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster or from bloodshed. The idea is that they thought that they would find security in all of these things that they had accumulated. Again, we may not be going forth and trying to conquer our neighbors, But we very often are tempted to do the same thing. We find ourselves seeking security in the things of this life. We find ourselves seeking security in stuff. Whether it's the security of our image, the security of our person, the security of our own future, we think that all of those things are found in the stuff of this life instead of in God. Something like COVID comes along and it should wake us up to all of that. The sad thing is that far too many people responded to COVID by doubling down and getting more stuff and trying to find their security and stability in stuff instead of in God. God will punish vanity, but he will also punish those who live for a false security. He describes verse 10, you give shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples and sin against your soul. The very things that they thought would be for their stability were for their downfall. The very things that they thought would bring them security actually were sins against their soul. And he gives this image, the stone will cry out from the wall, the beam from the timbers will answer it. In other words, the entire structure that they have built, thinking that they will have security in that structure, will testify against them. There is no security ultimately apart from security in God. Which is not the same thing as saying we should never try to save or try to prepare for the future, but ultimately our security is in God, not stuff. And God will punish those who find a false security. God will punish further their brutality. He's spoken already of their brutality. They have this desire and he enlarged the desire as hell, it's like death and cannot be satisfied. This is in verse five, he gathers up to himself all nations, heaps up from himself all peoples. Verse eight speaks of men's blood, violence of the land and the city. But in verse 12, he really hones in on this brutality of the Babylonians. Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed. who establishes a city by iniquity. And again, here they are trying to take over territory. And it's not hard for us to see parallels in our own news today, is it? As we see nation rising against nation, trying to take over other peoples. Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity. Babylon thought that their brutal ways were actually establishing them. But this is the way that God describes their efforts, their brutal efforts. What are they gonna result in? Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people labor to feed the fire and nations weary themselves in vain? All of these brutal, violent, wicked attempts to build a person's kingdom are ultimately just like throwing stuff into a fire. It just gets burned up. Probably many of you have gone camping or had a campfire at some point and you just keep on feeding that fire and the stuff you put in that fire gets burned up. In other words, if you're trying to build something, you don't light it on fire, right? That's common sense. But here, the very things that they were doing to try to establish themselves, the actual result, it's like they're feeding it into a fire. And by the way, that is of the Lord of Hosts. They cannot ultimately be successful of them. So they're trying to establish their name, their fame, their glory. And all those things, it's just like they're feeding them into the fire. I think not only of the massive current events of nation against nation that we think of today, but I think of individuals. We've been hearing a lot about murder on our own streets of Toronto. You've been hearing about violence. And often there is this power struggle and people are thinking that it is through their own violent efforts that they can establish themselves, whether in a gang, establishing their territory, whether by intimidation, whatever the case is, they think that this is what's going to establish them. But ultimately it's just like all of those efforts are throwing, it's like throwing that in the fire. So even as they try to make a name for themselves through establishing a city by iniquity and bloodshed, what will ultimately be the result? The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Now, think about the waters covering the sea. That's an awful lot of water. And that's the picture. Rather than establishing their own glory, thinking that their violent means were going to set up their glory, that they were going to spread over the earth, that their kingdom was one that would last forever. No, there's another kingdom that's over and above all of that. And one day it will publicly, visibly be seen by everyone that this is the true kingdom that will not pass away. So God will punish vanity and false security and brutality. God will also punish inhumanity. Verse 15 is really a terrible description of the Babylonians. Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk that you may look on his nakedness. Today we hear about horrible wickedness that's done where there's date rape and people get people drunk or slip drugs into their drink to take advantage of them. And this is kind of the picture that we have here of Babylon, taking advantage of the nations around them. Here, you get drunk, you get drunk, so that they can look on their nakedness. It seems that they think Not only are they superior, not only are they getting their laughs, not only are they getting their pleasure, but hey, this just shows how great we are, how exalted we are over these people. And God says, you are filled with shame instead of glory. You also drink and be exposed as uncircumcised. The very inhumane methods that they utilized would come crashing back upon them. the inhumanity that they used against others to gain advantage over them, to make them their object of scorn and pleasure they themselves would experience. In fact, verse 16 is a chilling verse. The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you. And utter shame will be on your glory. You read through the pages of scripture, and the right hand of God, that's the hand of God's power. The cup is a cup of God's wrath and fury. And God says, this is what you will have to drink. You who have made the nations drunk so that you may take advantage of them. You who have practiced inhumane practices against them. You will face God's fury. You will drink the cup of his wrath. Utter shame will be on your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you. The plunder of beasts which made them afraid because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city and of all who dwell in it. God will punish inhumanity. And I, I think again, as we look at our own, our own society and our own, our world, the current events that are happening right now, you know, I mentioned, I think of a brother Gabriel a few weeks ago in Bible study, he was just saying, where are people, where's people's humanity? How can you treat another human being this way? Habakkuk chapter two is a reminder that God sees that. And God will judge that. This is a warning then against those who engage in this activity, but it's also a note of reassurance that God sees and God will judge. God will also punish idolatry. We see that then in verses 18 and 19. What profit is the image that its maker should carve it? The molded image, a teacher of lies that the maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols. Babylon, like the nations of the world, crafted for themselves idols, trusted in their gods instead of the true and living God. And God says that there's no profit to that. What prophet is the image? Woe to him who says to the wood, awake, as if you cut down a tree and carve an image, and then that becomes your God. Wake up, God. Woe to the one who says to the silent stone, arise, it shall teach. How utterly foolish that is. to find those things as God's substitutes. The things that God has made, the things that in themselves have no life, suddenly now become God's? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all. Now we today, as a society, may not have as obvious a kind of idolatry as there was in this day. In other words, very few people today are going out in the woods, chopping down a tree, burning half of it as a fire, and then making the other half an idol. Very few people today are going out and carving an image, plating it with gold and bowing down to it. There are, however, many God substitutes. Things that we look to instead of to God for the things that we should be looking to God for. I had the horrible misfortune of watching part of a service in a church, I can't even use the term church, but they had written this prayer out. this prayer to theoretically to God, but the God that they described was so utterly unbiblical. It bore no resemblance to God at all. And yet this was the God that collectively the people of this assembly were worshiping while claiming to be a Christian church. even when the obvious objects of our worship may not be idols or may not be obviously idols. Again, within our life, we may find ourselves placing our hope and trust in the things of this life instead of in God. We're going through right now in Sunday morning, 1 John. You know how John ends that book? Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Idolatry is all around us, and often, sadly, idolatry is within us. As one great Christian of the past said, the human heart is an idol factory. But God says there's no profit in idolatry. Woe to him who says this. Woe to the person who worships another God. Woe to the idolater. And again, that word woe, it shows up over and over and over again. That's basically doom upon this person. Doom upon these ones who fit this description. Ultimately, all of these things that they think are going to advance their greatness, exalt their glory, are futile. They take up more territory, and in the end, the very people that they have oppressed rise up against them. They covet evil, and they set their house on high with their actions, thinking that they'll be safe, but in the end, the very structure that they build will testify against them. They try to build their territory, expand their power through violence, and rather than exalting themselves, they feed the fire, and God is the one whose glory fills the earth. They engage in inhumane practices, thinking this will allow them to oppress and exert power over people, but in the end, they will drink the cup from God's own right hand. They think that the idol will provide for them the very things that they need, it will give them security, it will teach them, it will guide them. They live their lives making idols, but in the end, there's no breath in them at all. Ultimately, all of this is futile. And it's wise for us to remember this, lest we be tempted to walk in paths of vanity and pride. Lest we be tempted to find a false security, though we be tempted to engage in the kind of bloodshed, violence, lest we be tempted to engage in inhumanity and idolatry. It ultimately is pointless. It's futile. And rather than even just being ultimately, oh, we don't get any gain from it, it actually will come back to harm you. But having said all of these woes, verse 20, God then turns the focus upon himself. But the Lord is in his holy temple. but all the earth keep silence before him. The punishment that God brings now, God says, take a look at me. I am the Lord in my holy temple. The Lord is worthy of this reverence that is so great. It's like we're in wonder before him. It's like we're awestruck before him. See a similar thought in Psalm 46 verse 10, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The God who punishes, there is no other God. Having just spoken of idolatry, And the fact that in these idols there is no breath at all, the immediate contrast is, but the Lord is in his holy temple. In other words, these things are futile, empty, and dead, but God is the true and living God. There is no other God. He's in his holy temple, which is to say that he is above all idols. He is above the earth itself, for it is His heavenly temple that He is inhabiting. He is in His holy temple, which means that He is above all iniquity. There is no other God. Not only, of course, is there an immediate connection with the idolatry of these people, the Babylonians, and any who would walk in their paths, but really the entire passage Though these people of Babylon and even the people of Judah, who in many ways fell into these same kind of patterns, though they walked in their iniquity, God was in his holy temple and is in his holy temple. Thus, there was no ground for boasting he is the only true and living God. No matter how much they gained by their oppression, God would bring them low. Furthermore, not only is there no ground for boasting, there is no excuses because God, who sits above the earth, sees everything. And in His holy presence and before His holy judgment, everyone must stop talking. It's the same kind of idea that Paul gives us in Romans 3 verse 19, having talked about the condemnation that Jews and Gentile face. In Romans 3, 19, he says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. In other words, you can't make any more excuses. God is in his holy temple. In His great, holy sovereignty, He sees everything. He is exalted above all idolatry. He is exalted above all iniquity. He sees the reality. You can't make excuses for it. You can't say, well, I'm a victim here. It's somebody else's fault. He knows it all. Keep silence before Him. So there's no ground for boasting because there is no other God. There's no excuses because he sees everything. And there is no other hope. Throughout this passage, God has over and over again said, whoa, whoa, whoa, doom and judgment upon those who walk in these paths. As we have said so often, there is no hope for those who walk in unrighteousness but repentance. The very one that they need to be saved from is the one who could save them. And we catch this little glimmer of a future, a future cup that will be drained In verse 16, the cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you. We look in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 20 in verse 22, Jesus says, the cup that my father gives me, will I not drink it? He goes to the garden and he says, father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will, your will be done. Our only hope against God's fury, against God's cup of righteous judgment, is not that we can do better, but in the one who drank the cup of fury on behalf of those who would trust in him. He's our hope. See, God will punish all sin. This is what the passage is revealing to us. that God sees it all, all the questions that Hosea has. How can you look on this evil that's happening in Judah? Well, I am doing something. I am working. I'm going to raise up the Babylonians. How could you, how could you use the Babylonians? Well, I know what they're doing too. And I will judge Judah for their sin. I will judge Babylon for their sin. I will judge all iniquity. My justice will be poured out upon them. God cannot simply overlook sin. Sin will be punished. We, ourselves, will bear the wrath of God for eternity, unless we trust in the one who drank the cup of that wrath. And so, our hope then, of escaping this wrath that we deserve. If we're honest, we look at these things and we may not find ourselves fall into the same depths of Babylon or Judah, but we find in ourselves so much that would witness against us. Our only hope of escaping the wrath that is due is through Jesus, through the one who took the cup of the Lord's right hand and drank it to the dregs. And having drank it all, said, it is finished. And this, by the way, is what we look forward to worshiping, or thinking and celebrating and worshiping our Lord on Friday. His death on our behalf. And so God will judge sin. The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned out upon us, unless we turn to the one upon whom the cup of God's wrath was poured out, Jesus Christ. Have you turned to Jesus? Have you trusted in Him? He's your only hope. If you have trusted in Him, rejoice in what a great salvation you have. What a great God that you have. The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Amen.