Habakkuk’s attitude was right in the way he waited on God, “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.” (v1) God answers prayer in three ways – ‘Yes, No and Wait’. He was prepared to wait God’s timing even though he wasn’t overjoyed at The LORD’s answer.
He says that he will stand on guard to wait for God’s answer, there was no question of a casual acceptance, he was prepared to be corrected and would think carefully about God’s words. We often want God’s answers but only the answer we want. He was prepared to wait patiently like a soldier on guard. No slacking, completely alert.
“Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision and 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.”” (v2,3)
Habakkuk is told by God write down the answer on tablets which God had revealed to him in a vision, so that others may read it. He was to make it simple, uncomplicated (plain) so that his readers could understand it. We are told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Obviously, the message was for a future time, and it would certainly come to pass. Our message is for now – ‘Now is the day of salvation.’
God answers Habakkuk, showing him that He knows exactly what the situation is. He puts His finger on five things where the people were at fault (described as five ‘woes’). There was ‘the proud’, ‘the greedy’, ‘the violent’, ‘the drunkard’ and ‘the idolater’.
He begins with the proud (v4-8)
“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 remnant 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.”
Pride.
This sin is everywhere. It is not limited to the rich or those who consider themselves to be righteous or better than one else. We can be proud of anything we have or do or even don’t have or don’t do. Spurgeon once said, “It will live comfortably enough in a palace, and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel.”
Interesting that this man is proud because he transgresses by wine. He is never satisfied, wine affects our mind, it is a controller and makes us do what we perhaps would not normally do. I’m sure you, as I have, seen people intoxicated doing strange things. The English Standard Version states that ‘wine is a traitor’. It tells you one thing but is totally unreliable and in fact is an enemy.
In some circumstances it can be right to be proud of our achievements/abilities or the achievements/abilities of our children etc. I would suggest it becomes wrong when we make comparisons between us/ours and others and treat others with disdain.
Sinful pride is selfish/self-centred and the answer to it comes from God – “The just shall live by faith”. In contrast to the proud, there are ‘the just’. Their principle of life is faith, instead of pride that looks to self. True faith looks outside of self, unto God. This statement is the most quoted in the New Testament – Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. To be ‘just’ means that they are approved before God.
The Chaldeans (Babylonians) exemplified the proud, but Habakkuk could take comfort that in the end God would deal with them.
The Greedy.
“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.” (v9-11)
Greed looks after number one, himself. He thinks of himself only and satisfying his desires. In the end his greed will come to nothing. They often cut off people in their selfish desires, but they will lose their own souls. Even what they have built around them will cry out.
The violent.
“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity! Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the peoples labour 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 the waters cover the sea.” (v12-14)
You don’t need me to tell you that there is much violence around, whether in films, the news or in our neighbourhood. There’s evidence that watching such things leads people to commit acts of violence, the same goes for pornography, satanic and explicit sexual acts. Sin breeds sin.
The Babylonians were proud of their weapons of destruction, but God pronounces judgment upon them for ‘building towns with bloodshed’. Violence indicates injustice.
Verse 14 states an amazing fact, giving Habakkuk the assurance that despite the violence, injustice and corruption we see around, one day the glory of The LORD would be seen. God will be the victor in the end.
The drunkard.
Alcohol, as we mentioned earlier, is a traitor, in other words it tells you one thing and does another. It makes you feel good but there is a sting in its tail. Here God spells out ‘woe’ to the person who gives drink to his neighbour to make him drunk. (v15-17) Notice that He doesn’t condemn them just for giving drink to their neighbour but also drinking themselves.
It is deception and corruption. Drink and sexual immorality often go together and we see that here. The purpose of making one drunk is said to see one’s nakedness. God says that they are filled with shame for their actions. Drunkenness does not only affect the drinker but seriously affects others. The drunkard ruins family life, neighbourhoods and decimates victims and their families.
In Othello, Shakespeare said ‘Oh God that men should put an enemy (referring to alcohol) in their mouths to steal away their brains’. I would add to that – their money, their health, their freedom, their livelihood, their family and ultimately, their lives.
One writer said, “Alcohol-related illnesses are in danger of destroying the NHS and are responsible for 33,000 deaths every year, and that eight out of 10 people attending emergency units have alcohol related injuries.” (and that was in 2002!) As you can see those figures are hopelessly out of date. Save to say that Alcohol killed more people in 2020 in England and Wales than in any of the previous 20 years.
Alcohol is the biggest single cause of sexual immorality, marriage break up, crime, and abuse of children or partners. It is no respecter of persons or classes. It affects the young, (we’ve encountered alcoholics a young as 12 years old!) and the old, rich and poor, educated and those without much education.
It is clear to those of us who read the Bible and see what God can do in people’s lives that authorities fail to see that the only way to drastically reduce crime and abuse of all kinds is to change people from the inside out, and that is something only Jesus Christ can do by working in the lives of people who are prepared to go God’s way and give their lives over to Him. All need a life-changing experience with Jesus Christ, and those who profess to be Christians, need to heed the many warnings from life and particularly, from The Word of God, The Bible. I would sincerely encourage Christians to abstain and ‘avoid the appearance of evil’
The idolater
“What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, the moulded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mould 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.” (v18-20)
Here God aptly describes what an idol is. Made by a human, moulded, a teacher of lies, mute, no breath in it, dead. The idolater treats the idol as if it were alive, speaking to an inanimate object. Psalm 115 tells us quite plainly – “Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands.They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see;They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.”
He reminds them that He is in His holy temple. God is in control even though Habakkuk couldn’t understand why God should use a nation like Babylon to overthrow Judah.
How we must trust in The Living God, there is absolutely no comparison between Him and the gods of this world.
