Habakkuk Pt. 5 God pronounced 5 "Woes" upon the Babylonians.

Good morning to all of our Readers.

This next section of Habakkuk 2 provides much more detail about how God will ultimately judge the Babylonians. This is a furtherance of the vision Habakkuk was told to write down. 

Jehovah pronounced certain doom upon that wicked nation with 5 woes introducing each specific judgment. The word "woe" means someone is going to experience great sorrow, pain, grief or regret. It means that a terrible misfortune is about to hit someone very hard. This word conveys the idea of judgment that is coming and cannot be stopped. 

The 1st Woe: Greed & Lust

Habakkuk 2:6-8  Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! 7) Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? 8) Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 

Jehovah declared that other people and nations are going to taunt the Babylonians in the day of their judgment. The phrase "increaseth that which is not his" is the idea of a pawn shop taking advantage of people who are desperate and selling prized possessions for prices that are too low. Then, the pawn shop sells the items at exorbitant prices. 

The Babylonians engorged themselves by plucking up the valuable things of other nations. This woe indicated that the very people the Babylonians plundered would one day rise up and get revenge! All that they did to other nations would come back on the heads of the Babylonians.

1 Timothy 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Honoring the Lord and being content with whatever God has entrusted to us is how God intends for His children to live.

The 2nd Woe: Self Conceit

Habakkuk 2:9-11  Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! 10) Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. 11) For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. 

The Babylonians used their plunder for elevating themselves above all other nations. In the process of doing this they trampled many other nations into the ground. They were acting like they were more important, powerful, or wealthy. 

Yet, their egregious sins were not ignored by Holy God. Death would come to this wicked nation and the stones and beams of their lofty cities would rise to condemn them. 

Proverbs 16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

This truth applies to us and it would hold true for the Babylonians as well. God seeks to cultivate a spirit of genuine humility in His people but pride has the opposite effect upon us. 

The 3rd Woe: Bloodshed

Habakkuk 2:12-14 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! 13)  Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 14) For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 

Babylon and its satellite cities were built by bloodshed. All the vast numbers of people that they killed and the plunder that they stole were the foundation for their massive building projects. In addition, they carried away tens of thousands of people and made them slaves, forcing them into doing the rigorous construction work. 

Yet, Jehovah saw it all and knew what He would do about it. All their brutality to hoard plunder, enslave people and kill vast numbers of those living in other nations, would go up in flames. God is ultimately in control and He would make sure that the sins of the Babylonians would not go unpunished. All their works would be destroyed but in the future the entire earth will be permanently filled with the glorious knowledge of Jehovah. 

God's plan for mankind is that we treat each other with respect and He prohibits murder. The 6th commandment is "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13).

The 4th Woe: Drunkenness & Perversion

Habakkuk 2:15-17  Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 16) Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. 17) For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 

Many pagan religions included a cult to the "god" of wine and debauchery known as Bacchus or Dionysus. The Babylonians were no exception to this. Getting drunk was followed by unchecked sexual perversion.

God was holding them accountable for their sins of drunkenness, perversion, inflicting violence and taking spoils by theft. 

1 Corinthians 6:18-20  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19) What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20) For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 

God's plan for believers is that we treat our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit, because He indwells each believer. Therefore, we are to be careful with what we put into our bodies and be careful how we use our bodies. 

The 5th Woe: Idolatry

Habakkuk 2:18-20  What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? 19) Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. 20)  But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. 

The last woe is directed at the foolish idolatry of the Babylonians. Wikipedia has an extensive list of major and minor deities worshipped by the Babylonians. I counted about 135!

It is foolishness because a craftsman shaped stone, metals or wood into "gods" or "goddesses" and then the people prayed, pleaded, praised the gods of wood, stone or metal. 

The last verse of this last woe begins with the word "but." Why? Because we are going from powerless idols made by men to the living, One, True God of heaven and earth. In the most stark contrast to foolish idolatry stands our All Glorious God in verse 20. Jehovah is in His Temple and all futility connected with idolatry ceases in His presence. He is the Self Existent God who is the Sovereign Creator of all that exists. He is the sole sustainer of all life, physical and spiritual. And He wants a relationship with each one of us!

Psalm 115:4-8  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 5)  They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6)  They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7) They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8) They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. 

God's plan for all mankind is that they turn away from man made idols and religious systems and that they turn to the One, True, Living God of the universe. 

Thoughts to Ponder...

Remember as God answered Habakkuk, that the prophet's role is to be a watchman who faithfully reports and warns people about what God showed him. 

Jesus left us here to make disciples for Him one at a time (Matthew 28:18-20). We are like Habakkuk in that as we study and better understand God's Word, we must tell others what He said. We must warn people about the certainty of being judged for their sin and of the reality that Jesus Christ bore the full penalty of our sins. 

Therefore, we have a resurrected Lord and Savior who will save all who call upon Him in repentant faith.

The list of 5 woes where God indicted the Babylonians were vile and showed how morally corrupt they were. However, these are the same sins that believers see in the world today: greed & lust; pride; violence & murder; drunkenness & perversion followed by idolatry. 

Revelation 8:13  And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! 

We can say that there currently are "woes" pronounced on the world we live in due to flagrant sins just like those we saw in Habakkuk. 

The book of Revelation is one where God tells us through the apostle John, how all things on earth are going to end. It begins with the glorified Christ sending letters to 7 churches in Asia Minor. Then, we are shown what is happening in heaven (worship, praise & adoration). John shows us scenes of worldwide judgment that are sent upon those who reject Jesus Christ. They are administered in 3 groups of 7 judgments (7 seals, 7 vials and 7 trumpets). The text above contains the word "woe" 3 times which emphasizes the gravity of God's final judgment on unrepentant sinners.

Things we should pray about. First, may the Spirit of God grant us strength of will to abstain from these vices. Second, may we be more aware of that which causes "woe" in our culture so we know how to pray for those that are caught up in these things. Third, may we be bold enough to call sin what it is: an offense against Holy God. Last, may we pay special attention to idolatry because this practice looks very different today. An idol is any person, activity or possession that becomes more important to us than our Lord. 

May the Spirit of God do a work in our hearts and open our minds to the word of truth. May God be honored by our response to His word.

Bob