Habakkuk 2:9-20 “The Lord Is In His Holy Temple” 8-14-11 a.m.
A couple of weeks ago, when we studied Habakkuk 2:4, we talked about how Job, when he had endured so much, asked God questions for which he never really received any answers. In the end, he just covered his mouth and worshipped. We have seen that Habakkuk too asks God some difficult questions: why do evil practices not seem to be punished, when God is supposed to be a holy God?, etc. Here in Chapter 2 we find that Habakkuk gets some answers to his questions – at least more than Job did. But in the end, both Habakkuk – and we – do not get all the answers; we are still left challenged to live a life of faith, and trust God. Let’s read this whole chapter together, and then come back and look at “The Sin that Will Be Judged – and the God who is on His throne”.
I. The Sin That Will Be Judged
As we mentioned last Sunday, :6-19 of Habakkuk 2 are marked by a series of 5 “woe’s”, each linked to a different category of sin. Most of this chapter is taken up with the condemnation of the sins of the nation of Babylon. It like a “song” with 5 verses, each with a “chorus”, if you will, highlighted with the word, “woe.” God is pronouncing judgment upon Babylon (andIsrael) for their sins. He says, you cannot continue in these things and not expect to be judged. God is a holy God, and as we saw in 1:13, He cannot look on sin with approval. He is going to judge it.
Last week we looked at the first of the 5 “woes” for sin, the sin of the unrestrained appetite, which has so many applications for us in America today; it is one of our signature sins. But that’s just the “first verse” of the song! There are 4 other “verses” that follow; 4 other “woes” that God pronounces in Chapter 2. Now, at first glance, it may seem like some of these don’t apply very much to us, but they really do. Let’s look at them:
A. Unethical Business Practices
:9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house”
Hebrew scholars (Keil & Delitzsch) tell us that the Bible language here denotes cutting off something from someone else, in order to add to your house. One (Bailey) says that a literal translation would be “an evil cut” – for example, to cut a cloth in a shorter length than what was promised. In other words, he is talking about making money, and building your “house”, or your “fortune”, by cheating others, and not giving them what they paid for.
The Bible here condemns unethical business dealings of all kinds. Some people seem to have the mistaken idea that somehow God doesn’t care about how you run your business; that as long as you go to church and act “religious”, that “business is business” and you can cut corners and cheat people and do whatever you want to on the job, and God doesn’t mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Proverbs tells us, “Differing weights and differing measures, both of them are abominable to the Lord.” (Proverbs 20:10) In other words, God cares about the kind of standards you use in your business; He cares about whether you give people what they paid for; He cares about whether you are cheating people on the job. It’s not “business is business and church is church” – NO! – if you are a true follower of Christ, it should make a difference in the way you do business every day. You will give people an honest deal; you will give customers what they pay for. And if you don’t, the Bible tells us here, you will give account of it to God. He says, “WOE to him who gets evil gain for his house”!
B . Using People
The next two “woes” are pronounced for very similar offences, so I am going to take them together.
–In :12 we see a second “woe” pronounced: “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, and founds a town with violence.” This speaks of using other people’s lives, other people’s blood, to build your own kingdom.
–Then in :15 we find: “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink … so to look on their nakedness.” The picture here is of someone who gets a person drunk, so they can take advantage of them. Again, this too is referring to using people for one’s own advantage. God abhors this, and He says here that He will judge it. God did not make people to be “used”; He made them to love and be loved, not to be used.
Two people whom I am really growing to be fond of are David Smith’s parents. I have visited with them twice now, and they are just the sweetest folks. The other day we were over at David’s house, and his mom & dad were there, and I got to visit with his mom again for a bit. While we were talking, she said, “I told David long ago: just love people. No matter what else you do, just love people – short ones, tall ones, fat ones, skinny ones – just love people.” And I thought: no wonder David is so relational, and loves people so much; if he has gotten that kind of training from his mom! What a great word: just love people!
But unfortunately, that is NOT what many of us do. If some of you were honest, you would say that you don’t “love” people. You USE them. You use them for what personal pleasure you can get out of them; you use them to build a network to make yourself money; you use them to further your status and enhance your credibility; you use them to make yourself more popular; you use them for all kinds of selfish purposes. You don’t love people; you use them. That is exactly what the Babylonians did, and God says, “WOE” upon those who use people; for they will be judged for it!
C. Making Idols
:19 “Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘awake’, to a mute stone, ‘arise” and that is your teacher?” This is speaking, of course, of the sin of idolatry. The Babylonians worshipped idols of wood and stone, and God said that He would judge them for worshipping those images instead of Him. Now, you may think that there is not much application for us here, since most of don’t have idols, but that is far from the truth. Idolatry is rampant in America these days – the putting of other things in the place of God. John Calvin said that the human heart is an idol factory, and in America today we are living that truth out. Not too many of us literally bow before wood and stone; we are a little more subtle about it; but people today worship all kinds of things in the place of God: money, pleasure, cars, possessions, the attention of people, “success” – all kinds of things have taken God’s place.
Have you done that? Consider your own life. What do spend your “free time” on? What do you think about when your thoughts are not actively engaged elsewhere? What do you talk about all the time? Whatever that is, that is the most important thing in your life; that is your god. Now, if you were married to one person, but spent all your time talking about someone else, and spent all your money on that other person, that wouldn’t go over real big with your spouse, would it? Well, it doesn’t go over real big with God, either – when you SAY that He is your God, but you spend all your time on your business, or all you talk about is sports, or all you think about is something else. He knows He is not really your god. Your god is what your world revolves around, and for most people, their world does not revolve around God – even those of us in the church.
And it is to our own hurt. Idols can’t do for you what the true God can do for you. Verse 18 says they are “speechless.” They can’t talk to you. When you know the real God, He talks to you through His word. Each morning as I walk with God in His word & prayer, He gives me some word that gives me guidance or direction, or just helps me get through the day. Just like the old song says, “He walks with me, and talks with me, and tells me I am His own.” My God talks to me! Idols, substitutes for God don’t do that. And yet so many of “worship and serve the creature, rather than the creator.” No, you don’t see many people in America bowing down before images, but one of the biggest problems we have in our country today is idolatry – worshipping something other than the Living God of the Bible.
And the bottom line is that all of these things (and all other sins besides) will be judged; over and over the verdict is the same: “WOE … WOE … WOE … WOE … “WOE”! to those who commit these sins, God says, for they will be judged.
The application here is that there is coming a day of reckoning for sin. This calls us all to repent of specific sins in our personal lives. When John the Baptist came preaching “prepare the way” for the Messiah, the people asked him what they should do. And he told them to make some very specific changes in their lives: he said, if you have two coats, give one to the poor; he said stop grumbling about your wages; and stop cheating people. He was very specific. God is saying some of these same things to us today. If you really believe that judgment is on its way for our nation; if you really believe that the Lord is coming – then prepare yourself! Don’t just get “religious”; repent of the specific sins in your life. Because if you continue in your sins, you will be judged for them. There is time to repent; there is time to change – but as we saw last Sunday night, that time is NOW, BEFORE the judgment comes. Because when it does, sin will be judged.
II. The God Who Is On the Throne
To Habakkuk, and to many of the faithful remnant of Israel, it seemed that God was nowhere to be found in their day. The sins that I have mentioned – and others besides – were rampant in their world. The evil and vicious Babylonians were coming to ravage their country, and the future seemed dark. Where was God in all of this?
We might ask the same question today. Our nation seems to be sinking in an economic quagmire – and even worse, moral and spiritual quicksand – and things seem dark. Where is God today? The Lord gives Habakkuk – and us – some answers in this second chapter, in :14, and then in the very last verse, :20.
He begins His answer here in :14, “for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” God is saying that, far from being nonexistent during these times of crisis, His glory is being manifested. In fact, His glory will be known all over this earth – as the waters cover the sea, so will the earth be covered with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Even those difficult judgments that were coming on the land were a manifestation of God’s glory. Sin in Israel & Judah was going to be judged by the Babylonians, because God called for it; He is holy, and He uses even pagan nations for His purposes. Then the Babylonians themselves were going to be judged, as this second chapter of Habakkuk testifies – and they would be judged because God is holy. All of this wasn’t just “happening”; it was part of His glory being manifested. God says here that it is HE who is going to judge.
:13 “is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts …” GOD is going to do this!
:16 “the cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you – GOD will do it!
Babylon was about to suffer all of the things this 2nd chapter talks about, NOT just because it was “natural law”; NOT just because it was “karma”; NOT just because if “you roll a stone, it will roll back on you”. It was GOD Himself who was going to judge them, and He would be glorified in it. That is one of the reasons why God prophesied all of these woes in advance. He wanted them to know that it was going to happen, so that when it did, they would know that HE brought it about. He says in answer to Habakkuk’s questionings, don’t worry that evil will continue unpunished. It will not. I will judge. And that same word applies to us today, too. We see a lot of evil in our world today, too, just like Habakkuk did. It may seem like it, but it is not going unnoticed by heaven. God will judge sin. We can be confident of that. Many of the very things that we are seeing happen in our country today may very well be the beginnings of that “shaking” by God of our nation for our sins. Where is God in all this? He is here, and He is about to act!
B. So some of Habakkuk’s questions have been answered: woes are coming to the wicked; the glory of God will be manifested. But some questions still remain: When is all this going to come about? What is going to happen to us now? How is it all going to work out? To all of the still unanswered questions Habakkuk – and we – are given this one last word, found in :20. In the Hebrew it is majestic in its simplicity and power: “v:YWHW bHecal kadosh; has … mi panay kal ha- eretz.”; literally: “YHWH in temple holy … hush … from His face, all the earth.” “The Lord is in His Holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.” As opposed to the idols of :18-19, the Lord is alive; He speaks in His word; He is working in this world; He is judging evil; He will save those who trust Him – and HE IS ON THE THRONE! HE is worthy of worship and reverence; indeed “let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
That word for “silence” here is the Hebrew word “has” – almost literally our same English word: “hush” – and it means the same thing: “Hush” – be silent before God on His holy throne!
God has answered Habakkuk in part: no one is getting away with evil; God is on His throne; He is going to judge. But now it was just time for Habakkuk to “hush”; to “be still and know that He is God.”
That same time comes for us, too. It is not wrong to ask God some questions, as Habakkuk and others did. God may give you some answers. But there often comes a time for us as believers when the last word we are going to get is “hush … You aren’t going to get any more answers now. It is time to ‘be still and know that I am God’.” There are times for us, as people of God, when our response is not going to be a response of the mind, in something that we understand, or a response of the lips, with more questions – it will just be the response of the heart, in quiet worship. Like Job whom we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we just cover our mouths – and worship in a hushed and submissive awe.
You know, if there is one complaint I have against some expressions of contemporary worship, it is that it is often so “noisy”; it is always “busy.” And I know that there is a time to “shout joyfully to the Lord” – but there is also a time to “be silent before Him.” There are times when we should just shut up and be silent before a holy God. There are just some moments in worship when it is precious; when God’s Spirit is manifestly present, and when that happens, we don’t need to clap; we don’t need to shout, we don’t need to say anything; we need to just leave it alone – I’m so grateful that Kyle’s helped us with that that a few times; he’s just let it be silent, and we have responded with quiet awe — let’s keep learning to do that; to just “hush”, and “keep silence before Him.”
And that attitude of hushed worship is how we are going to learn to respond in some of the difficult times we may face ahead of us. There are going to be some things happen that are not pleasant, and that we don’t understand; and we are just going to need to bow, and worship, and quietly know that God is on the throne.
Though the stock market crash; we are hushed: “The Lord is in His holy temple.”
Though the economy collapse;
Though the nation be overrun with immorality and depravity;
Though persecution come to us;
Though judgment come to our land;
Though the earth should change; though the mountains fall into heart the sea (Psalm 46);
Yeah, though He slay me! (Job);
With his last gasp the cry of God’s elect will always be: “But the Lord is in His holy temple; hush before Him, all the earth!”
CONCLUSION:
I know I’ve told the story before here of how when I was a boy, my dad said that one day he was going to take me to an OU game someday. Time went by, and I thought he had forgotten about it, and wasn’t going to do it. Then one night, my dad & I were at Gary’s restaurant in my home town of Harrah, Oklahoma, eating dinner, and we started talking about OU football. We both said again how good it would be to go to a game, and I said, “Yeah, you keep saying we are, but we never do.” Just then, he pulled two tickets for an OU game out of his pocket, and put them on the table. As you can imagine, I’ll never forget it.
Let me tell you something: I know that many people are probably saying, “Oh, there has been talk about God doing something in our world for some time; I don’t think anything is going to happen.” I just have the sense (and I am not alone in this) that just like my dad, God is about to put His tickets on the table! Judgment is coming soon – at least for our nation – maybe worldwide. The Lord Himself may be coming soon. We do not know times and dates and exact events. What we are responsible for is getting ready for whatever is about to happen. What do you need to do to get ready?
— turn from your known sins so that you can avoid the judgment that is coming
— and put your trust in God. Trust Jesus as the Savior from your sins; and learn to put your trust in God, so that no matter what happens in the days ahead, these words will be your theme:
“But the Lord is in His holy temple; hush before Him, all the earth.”
shawnethomas 