Woe to the Idolatrous (Part 3): Habakkuk 2:15-20

Habakkuk 2:15–20 (ESV)

Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink!
You pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!
You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you,
and utter shame will come upon your glory!
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.
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!
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.
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.

How should we read this text?

In this passage we encounter the fourth and fifth woes against Babylon. The fourth woe, verses 15 to 17, condemns those who use alcohol to exploit and humiliate others. The imagery is really quite graphic for our modern sensibilities. The Babylonians are depicted as forcing their neighbours to drink until they are intoxicated and then humiliating them by gazing at their nakedness.

Now, while this could literally be taken as, you know, referring to drunken orgies, it's probably more likely a metaphor for how Babylon has humiliated the nations. They've taken all of their glory by plundering them.

In the ancient Near East, forcing someone to drink from a cup of wrath was a common image for military conquest, for being subjugated under military power. We see a similar imagery elsewhere in Scripture. It occurs again in Jeremiah 25, in Revelation 14, and so on. The point is that Babylon took perverse pleasure in degrading those they conquered.

But verse 16 promises us that this is not going to continue. The cup will become the cup in the Lord's hand and it will come around on them. The same humiliation they inflicted on others will come down to be their own portion of humiliation.

Verse 17 goes on to explain why judgment is coming. The violence done to Lebanon, likely referring to the famous forests around there used for these Babylonian building projects, and the slaughter of the terrorised people, both animals and people—judgment is coming for these things. The Babylonians had treated both human beings and the natural world simply as these resources to be exploited so that they could build these edifices to their glory, creations that they wanted everyone to respect.

Then in the fifth and final woe, verses 18 to 20, it turns to the theme of idolatry. This passage is mocking, really, the absurdity of creating an object with your own hands and then turning around and worshipping that thing as a god. These idols are called teachers of lies because they give a false assurance to the people that worship them. They tell them things that are not true.

Verse 19 highlights the mockery. It goes on to say that these people create these idols and then tell them, Awake, O piece of wood, arise, O piece of stone. Really, what the prophet is doing here is highlighting how impotent idols are. They need to be awakened or to be carried because they don't have any breath at all. They don't literally have a spirit. The word breath there is the same word we use for spirit.

Then comparing all of that to verse 20, where it says, But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him. You know, unlike these lifeless idols, God is truly present, living and active. He sits enthroned in his temple. There's glory for everyone who has eyes to see. The call for silence is not because God is speechless like an idol, but because his awesome presence demands that we be silent and reverent before him.

So this passage points us to the reality that exploitation and idolatry are ultimately foolish. These interrelated sins ultimately lead to judgment. But God demands that we worship him and bow down before him in reverent worship because of his might and power.

How should the text read us?

I think this passage speaks towards our tendency to really worship idols. We are more worshipful of idols than we realise, really. It challenges us because most of us don't bow down before statues, but we still do the same thing that's happening in this passage. We create and worship these modern idols. Our idols are probably more things like wealth and success or relationships, perhaps comfort or power, maybe political power. We can worship technology and really anything we trust in for our security or for our significance or for our meaning in life other than God.

But just like Babylon's idols, these things promise to deliver so much but they are ultimately nothing. They promise so much but they deliver so little. They teach us lies about what truly matters. I think that's true.

Think about your Instagram feed or your Facebook feed, depending on which age bracket you're in. What are the things that are shown and being taught, being promoted as things that truly matter? Do they really? Or is this idol teaching you lies?

Verse 20 calls us back to the proper place we need to be, to our proper posture before God in reverent silence. Our noisy world is constantly telling us to self-promote, to worship the idols of this world. But in all that noise, how often do we really enter into a sacred space, a quiet space, and to be still and know that God is God? Because this is precisely what our souls need most. Perhaps even to sit gazing at the foot of the cross and to see the Lord who is worthy of our worship.

So perhaps today take the time to be still, to stop listening to the idols of stone and wood, and to look again to Jesus as the one who truly gives your life meaning.

Prayer

O Lord, forgive us for all the idols that we worship.
Forgive us when we trust in them instead of trusting in you.
Help us to find our true joy, our true security in you alone.
Give us hearts that want to respond to your awesome presence and action in the world with reverent silence before your majesty.
Help us to recognise that you are the living God who has the true spirit of life, not the things we worship instead.
Thank you that Jesus took the cup of wrath that we deserved so that we can live eternally with you.
We pray this in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.