Habakkuk 2:1-20 The Lord Answers

In Habakkuk 2:1-20, Habakkuk first asks, why God would let evil go on so long among His own chosen people. Confused by the Lord’s answer, Habakkuk then asks, how the Lord can let the wicked trample the righteous? Again, the Lord’s answer is not what Habakkuk expects.

Habakkuk Review

Habakkuk was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah, probably during the reign of the evil King Jehoaikim. The nation was spiraling downward into evil and rebellion. The king was oppressing his people and the nation was a vassal state of the Babylonians. Habakkuk’s world is in tremendous geo-political turmoil. Life seems to be going from bad to worse. Into that setting Habakkuk seeks the Lord, asking how long will this go on? When will You rescue Your people?

The Lord answers that He is sending the wicked Babylonians to discipline His people. Habakkuk then asks, how God could use a people more wicked than His own as instruments of discipline and judgment. In Habakkuk 2, the Lord responds.

The Lord’s Second Response

¹I will stand on my guard post And station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved. ²Then the LORD answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. ³For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. ⁴Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith. ⁵Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.” – Habakkuk 2-1-5

• Instead of the typical parchment scroll, the Lord instructs Habakkuk to record this vision in a more permanent form: a stone or fired-clay tablet.
• The Lord wants this tablet to survive the fires and chaos of war. Perhaps the Babylonians will find it and realize they are not autonomous as they believe, rather they are tools in God’s hand.
• Habakkuk writes this vision approximately 10-30 years before the events described in the vision.
• In 2:4, one of the most frequently quoted verses in the New Testament (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38), he contrasts two kinds of people: one group believes they are self sufficient and need no God;  the other group lives by a deep abiding trust in God.
• The righteous in this context are those who trust God and embrace His truths.
• The proud one fails to acknowledge God and instead thinks he’s a law unto himself. His soul is not right with God.
• By contrast, the one who’s soul is right acknowledges God, trusts Him and will find Life.
• Wine is treacherous. For those who are addicted to it, it does not bring strength and life, but leads to ruin.  Likewise, the arrogant Babylonians think they are building an empire through their conquests, but their nation will fall. 

5 Woes

God assures Habakkuk that the wicked Babylonians will also be judged in a series of five woes.

⁶“Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, Even mockery and insinuations against him And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his– For how long– And makes himself rich with loans?’ ⁷Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. ⁸Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you– Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.” – Habakkuk 2:6-8

• In the first woe, the Babylonians are judges for looting many nations.
• The “taunt song” comes from those they have oppressed. The very people they conquered will taunt them with the futility of their efforts.
• The Babylonian oppressors who keep conquering yet another nation are compared to someone who continually borrows money until all hope of repayment is gone.  Eventually the borrower ends up in prison under a mountain of debt and everything will be taken away from him.
• Like the borrower, the Babylonians will be looted by other nations just as they looted others.

⁹“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house To put his nest on high, To be delivered from the hand of calamity! ¹⁰You have devised a shameful thing for your house By cutting off many peoples; So you are sinning against yourself. ¹¹Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework.” – Habakkuk 2:9-11

• In the second woe, the Babylonians are judged for taking from others to provide for their own security.
• The Babylonian oppressors seek to protect themselves and their wealth by building their city a walled, impregnable city on high ground. 
• They build their fortress through evil gain by looting and enslaving others. 
• But eventually their fortress will fall.  The only security is trusting in the Lord.
• The Babylonians looted Nineveh to bring down the Assyrian empire.  Nineveh’s fate will eventually be their own.  The city of Babylon was taken by Cyrus in 539 BC. 

¹²“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence! ¹³Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts That peoples toil for fire, And nations grow weary for nothing? ¹⁴For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:12-14

• The third woe judges the Babylonians for being bloodthirsty and violent.
• The oppressors have built their walled city and gained their empire by bloodshed, brutality and slave labor.
• They think they are safe and secure in their high city, having vanquished all their neighboring states. 
• But when God comes in judgment, all that effort will be for nothing. The city will fall.
• By contrast, the Lord will reign forever and ever. Nations will come and nations will go.  Evil dictators will rise and fall.  Earthly kingdoms will rise to glory and fall to dust, but the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.  His rule and reign will last forever. 

¹⁵“Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness! ¹⁶You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the LORD’S right hand will come around to you, And utter disgrace will come upon your glory. ¹⁷For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.” – Habakkuk 2:15-17

• The 4th woe judges the Babylonians for oppressing and inflicting violence and bloodshed on their neighbors.
• The “cup” is often used as a metaphor for one’s lot or one’s fortune (e.g. Psa 11:6; Psa 16:5; Psa 23:5).
• The life of a slave is pictured as a poisoned cup that the Babylonians are forcing him to drink.  
• The oppressors take captives and force a brutal, life of slavery and oppression upon them, gloating over their humiliation and robbing them of respect.
• As they compelled their captives to metaphorically drink from a poisoned cup of slavery, so they will in turn be compelled to metaphorically drink a cup of the Lord’s wrath and they will in turn be humiliated.

¹⁸“What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols. ¹⁹Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it. ²⁰But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” – Habakkuk 2:18-20

• The final woe exposes the folly of their idolatry.
• It’s foolish to worship something that can’t speak or act or move, something that has no brain or soul.
• To treat something we’ve made with our own hands as a god is like following a teacher of lies. 
• A living being who sleeps can be wakened, but no amount of shouting will wake a block of wood or piece of silver.
• BUT in contrast to speechless mindless idols, the Lord is in His holy temple. He reigns and rules, and He controls history.
• Let the earth be silent before him. There are no excuses.  No justifications.  No pleading or explaining to do.  He is just and he is Lord. 

Summary

Habakkuk asks: isn’t the cure worse than the disease? We learn from God’s answer:

1. Wickedness will always be judged.
2. God is at liberty to do what He wants to do in the way He wants to do in the time He wants to do it.
3. God will bring justice.
4. The righteous will find life by faith. The sufferings we experience now aren’t even worthy to be compared to the glorious Life we will find in the kingdom of heaven.

Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.

Next: Habakkuk 3:1-19 Habakkuk responds

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Series: Habakkuk: Faith Under Fire

Study Resources: Habakkuk

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Podcast Season 19 episodes 3