Taunting Babylon

Have you ever walked in on two people having a conversation, and the first thing you hear one of them say just sounds absolutely bonkers? And you might give them a weird look, and they look at you and say, "No, it totally makes sense." And then they tell you what they've been talking about, and how the conversation got to that place, and all of a sudden it makes a bit more sense.

So it is with today's passage in the book of Habakkuk. Jumping into this passage is a bit like walking in on a conversation between Habakkuk and God, and to understand what's happening here we need to remember where this conversation began and how it got here.

Habakkuk began by complaining to God about the wicked people that surround him in Judah. God responded that He did see and was going to deal with them using the Babylonians.

Habakkuk responded that this didn't seem like the right thing to do, because the Babylonians were even worse than Judah. God responded by telling Habakkuk to be patient, to trust His promises, and that He saw all the same evil Habakkuk saw.

And then today, continuing that same vision, He tells Habakkuk that judgement is coming to the Babylonians for their sin. Today's passage is thus a really key part of God's response, because it assures Habakkuk that nobody gets away with anything. In the end, justice comes to everybody and God wins.

Let's notice how God tells Habakkuk about the judgement coming to Babylon. In verse 5, he described that wicked nation as if it were a single person who greedily gathered for himself all nations and collected as his own all peoples.

But now verse 6 says that "all these"—all these nations who were on the sharp end of Babylon's expansionist greed—these nations are going to take up a taunt against "him," which is Babylon, "with scoffing and riddles for him."

What does that tell you? When the oppressed and conquered nations start taunting, talking smack, and dropping diss tracks against the big, powerful empire, what does that tell you? It tells you that the big, powerful empire isn't going to be so big and powerful anymore. The tables are going to turn.

And that's exactly what's happening here. The nations are mocking the fallen Babylon. And their mockery is recorded in five taunts, each of which follows a pattern. They begin with the word "woe," which announces bad news for Babylon. They explain why this bad news is coming, and then they announce the doom that is going to come in response to Babylon's sins.

Now, right before we get into it, in case you're wondering what any of this might have to do with us, just notice how general most of these taunts are. They don't say "Woe to Babylon." They say, "Woe to him who acts a certain way." The shoe fit Babylon, but even at the outset, ask yourself: where else might this shoe fit? Where might these taunts apply, even in our world today?

Taunt 1: The Plunder, Plundered (vv. 6b-8)

With that said, let's begin with taunt 1, which starts halfway through verse 6. “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!” (Habakkuk 2:6).

Babylon was going around conquering nations, acting as if the whole world was theirs. But the language here of “pledges" and "debtors" in verse 7 suggests that all of the wealth that the Babylonians had heaped up for themselves wasn't really theirs. It was all a giant loan that needed to be paid back—which would happen when their debtors arise and they become spoil, in verse 7, for all the nations they had robbed.

The debt collectors are calling. And here is the doom, in verse 8: “Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them” (Habakkuk 2:8).

The tables will turn, and the plunderer will become the plundered. And perhaps the ultimate repayment is not just the loot being returned, but, as verse 8 says, "for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them."

God had declared to Noah, back in Genesis 9, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:5–6).

When someone kills another person, they are in debt to God for that life. He will require an accounting for that life, and when he calls up the debt, the only payment is another life.

So this is really significant. Babylon had killed many in their unjust wars of conquest, and though they may have thought life was cheap, God disagreed. He was going to make sure they got called on their debt of blood, which they would pay for by their own life. And we know this happened when Babylon fell to the Medes and the Persians.

Taunt 2: The House Cries Out (vv. 9-11)

Taunt #2, in verse 9, begins with a "woe" pronounced against the one who "gets evil gain for his house." This is talking about what the Babylonians did with all of the plunder from the nations: they built for themselves an impressive home, which verse 9 describes as a nest, set on high, to keep them out of the reach of harm.

It's quite a picture: hurting and stealing from others to build a safe spot where nobody can hurt or steal from you.

But as they did that, verse 10, they were actually devising shame for their house. By cutting off many peoples, they shamed themselves and forfeited their own lives.

And what's going to happen now? Verse 11: “For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond” (Habakkuk 2:11). This is symbolic language that describes this home, built from evil gain, crying out against its builder.

It's like when God spoke about Abel's blood crying out to him from the ground (Gen 4). The idea is that the Babylonian's house, like Abel's blood, is a witness before God against the very sin that built this house in the first place.

And of course, the implication is that God is going to hear and answer those cries. Their lives are forfeit. Justice is coming.

Taunt 3: Building by Bloodshed (vv. 12-14)

And so we move into taunt 3, which follows many of the same themes as we've seen in the first two taunts. Verse 12: "Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!"

If you had travelled to ancient Babylon, you would have been blown away by how great and majestic that city was. The hanging gardens. The 50-foot-thick walls impossible to bash through.

But all of that glory came at a great cost—the dead of the many nations whom they conquered in order to gain all of those riches and build all of that glory.

And so, in a poetic turn of phrase, verse 12 describes the blood of the slaughtered peoples as the very building material used to build that city, and sin—iniquity—as its very foundation stones.

It's kind of like when Starship sang "We built this city on rock and roll." Babylon built their city on sin and blood.

And the doom that is coming to them is expressed in a very interesting way in verse 13: “Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?” (Habakkuk 2:13).

All of that work conquering nations, building a great empire—you know where it was all headed? For the fire. It was all going to burn, and it would all be for nothing. And that was from God.

Because Yahweh is the Lord of history. And his story is headed somewhere. Where it is headed is described in verse 14: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

This passage sounds an awful lot like Isaiah 11:9, where Isaiah speaks about the glories that are coming when the Messiah reigns. “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1). And in those days, verse 6, “The wild shall dwell with the lamb." Verse 9: "They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:7–9).

This is the glorious future awaiting the earth, when Jesus reigns and all things are made new. And when that happens, there will be no places you can go where God will not be known. Right now, the earth is filled with His glory, but people don't see it. They don't recognize it.

But one day, just like you can't escape from water in the ocean, you won't be able to escape from the knowledge of God. All who dwell in the New Earth will know Him.

Now think about how that truth functions here in Habakkuk 2:14. Remember the symmetry and repetition of each of these verses in this taunt song? Remember how each of the taunts ends with a statement of doom, bad news, against the sinful nation? You'll be plundered, your house will cry out against you? And here, what's the bad news?

The earth will be filled with the knowledge of God's glory as water fills the ocean.

And this is bad news for Babylon because there will be no dry spots in that great ocean of the knowledge of the glory of God. No refuge for the wicked who want to worship themselves.

God is getting his world back, and He's not going to let anybody wreck His plans, and there will be no safe spaces for those who reject His crown. Even Hell—the final destination of the unrepentant—will be filled with the knowledge of God's glory through judgement. God's glory will be inescapable.

Taunt 4: Drunkenness & Shame (vv. 15-17)

So, with that as the middle point in the song, we move into the fourth verse. “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!’ (Habakkuk 2:15).

When people drink too much alcohol, they tend to act like idiots and make fools of themselves. Even good men like Noah. And all throughout history, there have been people who take advantage of this. Predators, like Noah's son Ham, who take advantage of people in this state—or even deliberately put them into this state—in order to take advantage of the sights and experiences to follow.

Verse 15 is probably not saying that Babylon did this on a personal level, handing out free drinks to conquered peoples. Rather, it's comparing this to what they did on a national level. The way conquered nations left them vulnerable and exposed was like the man who gets his neighbours drunk in order to shame them.

This whole metaphor is playing off of the way that God's wrath and judgement are often compared by the prophets to a cup of strong drink. A "cup of staggering." Just like people can't walk straight, can't stand up, can't function when they are full of alcohol, so God's wrath causes people to stagger and fall apart.

And that's going to happen to Babylon. Verse 16: “You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! [That's their nakedness.] The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!" (Habakkuk 2:16).

So that's how the symbol works. Babylon will get what they've given. What does this actually mean in terms of actual, historic events? “The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them” (Habakkuk 2:17).

The violence that Babylon did to Lebanon and its animals—that violence is coming back on them. They will be shamed as they caused shame. They will be destroyed as they have destroyed.

Taunt 5: Silent Idols (vv. 18-20)

And so we move into the fifth and final taunt. And what's interesting is how this final verse doesn't start with "woe." That comes in verse 19. The order is switched up here, maybe to draw attention to just how significant this final act of sin is, or perhaps to highlight that this is the sin at the root of all of the other sins.

“What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!’ (Habakkuk 2:18).

This is one of many places where the Biblical authors critique the practice of making a statue to represent your god. What good is an idol, something you yourself make? How can something you made help save or rescue you?

These idols are called teachers of lies. They don't say anything—they are speechless—but their very presence keeps up the false idea that they are actually worth something.

So, verse 19, “Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it” (Habakkuk 2:19).

It's hard not to feel sorry for the man shouting at a rock "Arise! Get up and help me!" In some ways, this is a crime that contains its own punishment. Like we've seen in recent months, we become what we worship. When people worship idols, they become as dull and senseless as the idol itself.

So woe to you, Babylon, trusting in metal images you've made yourself. Woe to you, idolaters everywhere, expecting guidance from gold and silver.

Woe to you, because Yahweh is not just the territorial God of Israel. He is the God of all the earth, he deserves the worship of all the nations, and He will call to account all who chose to bow down to chunks of minerals and metal instead of to Him.

Which is why this whole song ends with the call of verse 20: “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20).

The "holy temple" here is probably not the Jerusalem temple, but the true, heavenly abode where God dwells over all the earth below. And all the earth is to hush, to keep silent before the divine king.

Why? Why do we keep silence before the Lord? Because He, unlike the idols of the nations, is not silent. He is going to speak. He is going to act. He is going to accomplish His plans and keep His promises.

So we can be silent, in a holy hush of expectation, waiting for the God who is there to speak and act.

And it's not hard to see a subtle rebuke to Habakkuk here again. Habakkuk, so worried that God was basically acting like an idol, mute and passive. Habakkuk, so confident to stand in his watchtower and almost demand an answer from God.

Habakkuk, along with the people of Judah and Babylon and everywhere, having heard the plans of God, is to now keep silence before the Lord who reigns and has spoken.

And as we turn over to chapter 3 next week, as Josh Bondoc brings the word to us, we'll get to hear how Habakkuk responded to this and then, the week after that, hear the conclusion of his own personal journey of faith.

Comforting the Afflicted

For today, though, let's think about what God has said here and what this passage is saying to us. And as we do that, we don't want to miss out on the big point of what's going on here in the book of Habakkuk: God is comforting the afflicted. He is comforting the prophet with the truth that He does see evil and one day, in the fullness of His plans, He's going to deal with it.

This is the ultimate answer to our questions about evil in the world. If you've lived long enough, there's no doubt you've asked questions like this. Why do the wicked prosper? Why do evil people seem to get away with it?

God's answer, much of the time, is wait. His purposes in history are being accomplished. There is a reckoning coming. Even for the wicked who die in peace, even the Old Testament prophets show that justice can't be escaped even on the other side of the grave.

So, you and I can be comforted. We can be comforted by the words of 2 Thessalonians 1:6, that “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.” We'll be comforted by this truth again and again starting in the fall as we step into the book of Revelation together and see the way that God will answer the cries of his children for deliverance.

And in the meantime, we seek to love our enemies and share the hope of salvation, the good news that Jesus died to save us from the wrath to come, with anyone who will hear and any who will listen.

So that's one big swath of what we should do with today's passage. Let it do for us what it was to do for Habakkuk: comfort us when we are bewildered by the evil in the world.

Afflicting the Comfortable

But that's not the only thing our passage does: it comforts the afflicted. But it also afflicts the comfortable.

This taunt song is a potent warning for anybody who stands in Babylon's shoes and does what Babylon does. For anybody who hears the words "woe to him who…" and thinks, "I've done that." Or, "I've seen that happen."

If we think about this passage in that light, it tells us that God cares about what nations do to each other. God cares when peoples are plundered. And not just when it involves His people Israel! He was going to visit justice on Babylon for what they did to Lebanon and their animals.

God cares about these things and God is going to deal with these things. And especially if you are of a more politically conservative persuasion, there's a chance that you might need to be reminded about this.

See, in recent years, in the wake of the high-profile death of George Floyd and other unarmed Black men at the hands of white police officers, there have been fierce debates about ethnicity and slavery and the very messy history of European settlers here in North America.

And, very unfortunately, people engaged in these debates sometimes swung into extreme positions. On the one side was the "woke" crowd, who embraced critical race theory and spouted nonsense like "white people need to repent of their whiteness." Some Christians got on board with this and swallowed a whole lot of ungodly junk under the label of diversity, equality, and inclusiveness.

But in reaction to that, some conservatives swung hard the other way, embracing ridiculous things like, maybe slavery wasn't all that bad, and racism isn't really a thing anymore, and anybody with any concern for justice in the social sphere is probably a secret Marxist.

Here in Canada, north of the border, we've wrestled with our own past involving Canada's first peoples. Once again, we've seen extreme ideas coming from the edges of the political spectrum. Some people talk like every European who came to this country was a genocidal monster bent on the total destruction of the indigenous population. And others react by embracing equally ridiculous positions, such as, maybe residential schools were actually pretty great.

One of my great concerns for the people of God is how easy it is for us to be conformed to the pattern of the world by allowing the pre-fabricated categories of human politics to shape our thinking more than the word of God.

We hear nonsense coming from one side of the political spectrum, and so we reject whatever grains of truth might be mixed in there, and jump to the other side of the spectrum, embracing whatever nonsense that exists over there.

And friends, I've done some of that. In years past, as some very unhelpful ideas were pushed on me, I reacted by saying things like, "Why are we still talking about colonialism? Nations conquer other nations all the time. That's just what happens in the history of the world. Why can't we move on?" I confess that in years past I have rolled my eyes when people have talked about past injustices in this nation, writing it all off as a woke waste of time.

And today's passage is a giant slap in the face to that perspective. It shows us that yes, nations do conquer other nations all the time, and God cares about that. God keeps score. God cares when the powerful oppress the weak. God cares about empires built on the backs of plundered peoples.

Which makes me pause. As a man with a big amount of Dutch and French ancestry who lives in Canada, I am heir to a long legacy of colonialism. And no, all of it was bad. But certainly not all of which was good.

And if God cares about what happened between Babylon and Lebanon, then God cares about what happened between the English and the French and the Haida and the Blackfoot and the Cree and the Mi'kmaq.

And saying that doesn't mean we have to embrace the naive narrative that colonialism is the root of all evils, and before Europeans showed up the peoples of this land were all living in perfect utopian peace with one another. Canada's first peoples, like everyone else on planet Earth, are sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, exiles from Eden, desperately needy for the Messiah to rescue them and flood them with the knowledge of the living God.

And yet, while the people of Lebanon were sinners too, God held powerful Babylon responsible for the violence they did to them.

So we can't give ourselves permission to not care about the real harms done in this country, especially by those who claimed to be representatives of that Messiah. We must care about these things because our God cares about these things.

But what do we do about that today? What do we do with all of the messy, complicated situations for which there are no easy answers? What do we do when humans sin against other humans and the response is more sin which produces more sin and generations later you have giant tangled balls of sin for which we should have many tears and few easy answers?

How is God going to deal with the nations involved in all of this mess?

And not just our past, but our present? There are injustices all around us if we have the eyes to see. Racism is very alive and well. The exploitation and abuse of migrant workers in this country is a very real thing. And when we hear about homes built on blood, how can we not think about the countless people in this nation who have paid for their mortgages by murdering the inconvenient fetus who got in the way of their career advancement?

What do we do about all of this? We can't say politics has nothing to do with it. We should encourage our political leaders to make wise and just decisions as they continue to deal with our present sins and the fallout of the sins of all of our fathers.

But I hope as all know by now that there's no hope in politics. There's no hope in humans figuring this out. Our hope is in the knowledge of the glory of God flooding this earth like the waters cover the sea.

And our hope is that this process has already begun as “… God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Friends, the flood described in verse 14 has already begun with the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on the believing people of God. The age to come has dawned. The reconciliation of all tribes and peoples and languages and nations is already being accomplished as the peoples of this earth unite around the cross of our Saviour.

The good news that Jesus died for our sins, was raised up for our justification, and lives today to save us—this is the one reality that can give us all repentance for our own sins and forgiveness for the sins of others, and be able to do both with total honesty as we see it all in the clear light of the cross.

And the gospel is our hope for tomorrow, as it promises final vindication for the people of God, final deliverance from our sins and from death, final judgement for the unrepentant, and the final hope of resurrection life as one day people from every tribe, nation, and people, and language will worship the Lord Jesus on a new earth together.

So brothers and sisters, it's good for us to come to the table. Here we find forgiveness for all of the sins that plague us. Maybe you've believed your skin colour or upbringing makes you better than other people. Maybe you've driven a friend to the abortion clinic. Maybe you've done things or thought things you'd be ashamed to speak out loud.

God knows it all. And the suffering of Jesus shed on the cross is enough for you. Jesus really did pay it all.

And the gospel is enough for the sins of others, too. The sins of the homeless people living in camps in the woods outside of town. The sins of the smug rich people with their twelve-car garages. There is nobody outside of the reach of God.

And maybe God wants to use you to be an instrument of sharing His good news with some of these people. Though Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, maybe as you proclaim not yourself, but Jesus Christ as Lord, God will make light shine out of darkness. God will shine in the hearts of your hearers to give them the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of His son.

He is still doing this work. And He does it through us.

So come to the table to eat and drink, and then go out ready to share it.