Habakkuk 2:9-11

Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 9 through 11 for our text and study this morning. 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. Thou hast consulted, shame to thy house, by cutting off many people, and have sinned against thy soul. For the stones shall cry, out of the wall and the beam of the timber shall answer it. May God bless to us, he is sacred and holy word this morning. Among Esop’s fables is the story about the dog and the stream. It seems that a dog was crossing a plank bridge over a stream, and he had a piece of meat. in his mouth. However, when he looked at the water, he happened to see his own reflection, in the watery mirror. And he thought that the other dog, this dog reflected in the water, seemed to have a larger piece of meat than he had. So he let go of his own piece of meat and flew at the other dog, desiring to have that other piece of meat. But in his covetous greed, to have what belonged to another. He not only lost his own meat, but he certainly didn’t get the other meat because it was just a reflection and didn’t actually exist. And his own piece of meat was floating down the stream carried along by the current. The prophet speaks here of God’s condemnation of those who are unbelievers. who do not walk according to faith, as we saw from verse 4. In particular, he has in mind the heathen Babylonians. But of course, as we mentioned last week, it certainly fits the typical unbeliever, the unbeliever, the unbelieving neighbor or coworker that you or relative that you know in your own life. In verses 6 through 20, we have Cod’s condemnation here of such unbelievers, his judgment upon them. It’s in the form we said of a punt song with five sections to it, all have a woe involved with them. Our first woe we looked at in verses 6 to 8 was pronounced against the sin of greed. The second woe, verses 9 to 11, is pronounced against the sin of indesionced. So let me begin by saying this. You are assured of God’s certain judgment against the sin of injustice. Woe to him that coveted an evil covetousness to his house. House here is commonly used for family or clan or even dynasty. Here, of course, we’re looking at. at the ambitious Babylonians who wanted a long-term dynasty for their kingdom. It’s generally used, however, in scripture of one’s household, and so it can be applied to ordinary folk as well. The point is this. People do everything they can to build up, to prosper, to enrich their house, to benefit their kingdom. or their family. The problem here is that by evil covetousness, the Babylonians did what they did. In other words, this was their motivating factor. Like most of the people in the world, this is what ruled them. This covetousness leads to you taking for yourself what rightly belongs to your neighbor. You unjustly deal with your neighbor. neighbor to build up your own house. Remember Zach Kias in the New Testament and how that he was the tax collector and the Jews all looked down upon him and they frowned on Jesus for going to his house and so forth, that Jesus said that he is a son of Abraham and that salvation has come to his house. And remember what Zachias said. Because as a tax collector, what they would do to enrich themselves, is they would charge you more than you really were supposed to pay. And they kept it as graph. They kept the extra excess for themselves. But Zakias, upon conversion, upon meeting Christ and being saved, said that he would repay fourfold if he took something from someone. That he was willing to make amends because of what he had done. But certainly the idea is he took what was. is it really his in order to enrich his house, his family. Scripture says that we’re not to covet anything that is our neighbors, whether it be his ox or sheep or his Mercedes or his swimming pool or whatever the case may be. We’re not to covet our neighbor’s possessions. His wife is a man servant, his maid servant, his ox, his ass, or anything that is our neighbors. what here is prohibited is this unlawful, lusting, or desire after what belongs to someone else. And it is that discontentment with your own law and your desire for what belongs to someone else that leads to theft, it leads to stealing from him. Remember in the New Testament, our Lord condemned the scribes and the Pharisees for deviring widow’s houses, Now, what did he mean by that, deviring them? Well, can imagine the husband dies and he leaves behind whatever he has and maybe he leaves behind some wealth to his wife. And of course, the religious leaders take advantage of the woman, you know, get her to cough up the money to them, and they devire all her savings, they’re all her good. and take them. By one means or another, they took them from her. And this is what Jesus condemns, this taking from others. Babylon here covets what belongs to other nations. And using its military, it forcibly takes what it wants. People think nothing of plundering others as long as they can enrich themselves. You see stories in the news about, let’s say, a young man who, it belongs to a wealthy family. He’s raised in a very rich household. They have a mansion. They have all the amenities of life that rich people have. And then, of course, he reaches college age and he has to fend for himself. And he covets that $10 million that his father has and the family estate has. He doesn’t want to wait through it. 30 or 40 years to get that money. So he wants to enjoy it now. So what does he do? He plots to murder his own parents. Maybe he puts the, you know, concocks a car bomb, or maybe he concocks some kind of scheme by which he kills his parents so that he can take possession of the estate for himself. And ultimately, of course, they normally catch these individuals, convict them, and send them to prison. But it’s this unjust manner in which we would obtain what we want to steal from others that is in the forefront here. Your covetousness leads to unjust feelings with your neighbor. Now notice God’s curse is pronounced upon your unjust feelings with your neighbor. Woe to him. Woe to him. This is commonly used, as we said in our previous study, for a funeral dirge. When someone dies, this person is good as dead in God’s say, this God’s judgment has got to hunt him down for this. Look with me at Zachariah. We looked at this, I believe, previously. But look at Zachariah chapter 5, 1 to 4 on the flying scroll again. Just a few pages over. Zechariah says here in chapter 5, verse 1, then I turned and lifted up my eyes and looked and behold a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seeest thou? And I answered, I see a fly. flying roll. The length thereof is 20 cubits. The breadth thereof 10 cubits. And he said unto me, this is the curse that go forth over the face of the whole earth. For everyone that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side, according to it. Everyone that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it. And I will bring it forth, set the Lord of hosts. And it shall enter into the house of the thief. And into the house of him. that sweareth falsely by my name, and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof. The flying scroll, remember we had said it was a reference to God’s law, and you’ll recall that it’s been broken, and God is declaring their sin against them. This is why it’s so large, and everybody can see it. The judgment is pronounced. against sinners in the law. And you notice this judgment doesn’t just lie still. It’s a flying scroll. The curse goes forth to hunt down like a bloodhound, the people who are guilty. Now, two particular sins are mentioned here, stealing and swearing, representative of the first and second tables of law swearing, taking God’s name in vain. table of the law, stealing for the second table of the law. And the idea is you can’t escape detection. It’s interesting in the book of Revelation. Remember that scroll that is in Christ, you read inside and the aisle, just like this? And what is it all about? It’s about woe. It’s about judgment that’s going to come. And Jesus is the Lamb of God who prevails to all. from the scroll, right? And judgment pours forth upon those who dwell upon the land. The same idea is here in this text of Scripture. God’s curse will ultimately consume the weekend. You’ll notice here, it hunts them down, and destroys their entire house here. Now, the stone and the timber here is not just talking about their literal household. But it’s symbolic of the tearing down everything that they have. The loss of all is connected with this. What did Jesus say in Matthew 2314? Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, for you devour our widow’s houses. There’s a woe pronounced against you for doing, for stealing, unjustly taking what you shouldn’t take. I pronounce a woe of judgment against you. It’s going to hunt you down. So you were assured of God’s. certain judgment for the sin of injustice. Secondly, you must not foolishly imagine you can secure what you unjustly possess. Now, not only do we find the unbeliever here unjustly taking something from the neighbor, but you’ll notice here we find that woe unto him that covet an evil covenantness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil. You may go to great pains to secure your unjust gain. To set one’s nest on high was a sort of a figure of speech for securing yourself or your property against attack. Like an eagle would put their nest way up high where no one could get at it. The idea here is the ungodly person only takes what he shouldn’t take, but now he goes to great pains to protect it. Don’t let anybody else take from him. Nobody’s going to do to me what I did to these other people. This strategy, you recall, was literally followed by the Edomites who actually built their kingdom up in the mountains and the strongholds up there. Now, this passage as it refers to Babylon, which was built on the plains. There was not a mountain. It’s a figurative speech here. But it certainly would refer to the fact of their fortress. Babylon was built as a fortress. That no one should be able to conquer. We talked about how big it was. How strong it was. How you get six terrets wide on the top of the wall and so forth. So, they were thinking, well, we’re well protected. No one’s going to harm us. We’re going to be secure here inside the walls of this impregnable city. But it’s a foolish notion which the wicked have. To imagine their prosperous condition is never going to be changed or altered at all. It’s how much they’re going to get away with it. The ungodly believed that they will be delivered from the power of evil, nothing bad is going to happen. What did we find with King Belchazor? While the Medes and the Persians are outside the walls, what is he doing on the inside? He’s partying. Why? They can’t get in here. They can’t conquer us. We’re safe. We’re secure. Well, they weren’t so safe and secure when the Meads decided to divert the river. Go under the walls through the riverbed and conquer the city. Psalm 49-11 says their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever and their dwelling places all generations. Our estate’s going to go on and on and on. I read a story about ancient Chinese who used to sell what they call cloud shoes enabling you to walk in the clouds. It seems that some people must have bought a pair of these miracle shoes imagining they could achieve the impossible. Well, people think they can achieve the impossible. here and secure their ill-gotten gain. They’re going to be surprised. It’s never going to happen. People trust in uncertain riches, as if they will prove to be a high wall of security for them. But it’s all a delusion because God’s curse, the flying scroll, will track you down regardless of any precautions you make against the evil day. So you may take great pains to secure your ill-gotten gains against coming evil. But when you are covetous, such precautions against the evil day are useless. Now, wise men certainly will take precautions to secure their homes against the evil day. We build fences around our houses. We establish security system. We got lights. We got cameras. We get alarms. We do all kinds of stuff to secure our homes against theft or criminals. Now the person here who plunders and others going to do all they can see to secure themselves. As Proverbs 1811 says, the rich man’s wealth is his strong city as a high wall in his own conceit. But little does he know that God can bring those walls down just like the walls of Jericho, just causing to fall flat. And all of a sudden the person is exposed. A vain trust brings a proud heart, which is the immediate forerunner of complete ruin. In the book of Obadiah, you have a God’s pronouncement against Edom. Edom thinks itself secure because it’s high up in the mountains. No one can get to them. In fact, it’s interesting that the capital of Edom was entered through this narrow winding gorge or canyon called a sick was about a mile long and only 15 feet wide. Historians said about a dozen men could hold off a whole army trying to get through that mile long passage. And they couldn’t break through very easy. So Edom thinks itself secure. But if you read the book of Obadiah carefully, you’ll notice that God says he’s going to bring them down. And how does he do it? Well, God does it. Because the people, they were companions, their own military people who, and they fell because of it. Edom and their arrogance forgot that God’s power was unlimited. And what they had done to Israel, they thought they could get away with, how they mistreated Israel, and plundered them and heart them. And we’re in this fortress of security. Nobody’s going to get us. Yes, God made sure that it happened. Read the book of Obadiah. And that’s what we have spoken about. So whether it’s Babylon or whether it’s Eidem, or whether it’s simply an individual doing all they can to secure what they have, God can, of course, bring it to naught. And justice becomes your undoing. Notice thirdly, building unjustly ultimately brings ruin to your house. Versus ten and eleven, the scripture says this. Thou hast consoled and shame to thy house by cutting off. many people and has sinned against thy soul for the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. You harm your own soul by madly pursuing unjust gain. Sin against thy soul. You know, you sin against your neighbor when you steal from it. You’re harming your soul more than you realize when you’re doing this. People commit spiritual suicide in the pursuit of wealth and power and security in this life. Remember Jesus said, what shall it profit a man? Though he gained the whole world, if he lose his own soul. Remember the story of the rich man in Lazarus that Jesus talked about in the New Testament. How he explained to us in that parable that the person who has it all in this life, like the rich man, is not in a good situation. Because when he dies, if he’s not converted, of course, He’s parrish. He’s going to end up in hell. It’s Lazarus that was the person who really was right with the Lord and certainly was in a position where his soul was secure and safe. You remember that Nebuchadnezzar was probably the most successful, prosperous, and influential, one of the most influential people in the history of the human rights. He had everything. But he sinned against his own soul. And you recall that God dealt with him severely, made him a wild beast for a time and so forth. Nebuchadnezzar and his successors ignored the dictate of conscience in plundering the nations. They shamelessly exploited their victims, and you plant the seeds for your own destruction when you do that. When your God is gained, You are consumed with earthly possessions. All of it’s detrimental to your soul, and everyone over which you, family, or your nation. So you harm your own soul by madly pursuing unjust gain. Notice you ignore God’s counsel by leaning on your own wits to unjustly build your house. Verse 10, he talks about thou hast consulted shame to thy house. There’s a consultation here. You’re doing your own consulting. And a state that has grown by humanistic means, by devised plans on your own, in the end, bring shame to your own house. Those who cut off or seek to destroy others for personal enrichment, disgrace and destroy their own families. I remind you again of the account of King Ahap in the Old Testament. You remember how he coveted Nabos’ vineyard, his neighbor’s vineyard, and took it unjustly, stole it from him, and had Naboth put to death. Jezebel actually instigated the whole thing and worked it out all the details. But it was all a council that they plotted, and they took away this man’s venue. They hired false security. accusers and Nabos put to death. And then he takes the vineyard and what does he do? Scripture says he does. He goes, Don, and he starts… And while he’s doing that, who comes to meet him in the vineyard of Naboff that he had just stolen? Elijah the prophet. Tell you, my enemy, you found me. Yes, because you are the troubler of Israel. You’re the one that’s causing trouble. And so we find… Elijah is saying here, thus sayeth the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession. Thus, they have the Lord, in the place where the dogs lick the blood of Nabos, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine? Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity. And will cut away, or take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab, him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel. I’m not only going to take your life, your whole family line, you took what we did belong to you, and I’m going to wipe out your whole family line. This is God’s curse. His woe is catching up with Ahab. So his theft, to increase his estate, actually caused the demise of his estate. He has no household left. It all blows up in his face. Here’s what the scripture commands of us. Look at Proverbs, if you would, chapter 3 verses 5. and six. There are four main points here that I’ll mention briefly. Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thy own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy pass. You’re to place your entire trust in the Lord. That’s what verse 5 indicates. Unwavering confidence, not half-heartedness. Trust in the Lord with all your heartedness. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. and then secondly, not only your entire trust, but your exclusive trust is to be in the Lord. Don’t lean to your own understanding. Don’t add your own thinking to this. Trusting what God says in his word. Fallen man likes to lean on his own under, like a cane. Use it to put all his weight upon what he is thinking. What he wants, his own foolish schemes for success. And then we, we, we, uh, you know, we judge God’s word in our own courtroom and decide we know what’s better than God or we can do best ourselves. But the scripture says, man trusteth to himself and his heart departed from the Lord. Jeremiah 175. We trust in ourselves, we’re departing from the Lord. So our exclusive trust must be in the Lord, seeking God’s wisdom. Our third point is this. You are to place your… extensive trust in the Lord. Verse six, he says, in all thy ways, acknowledge you. How extensive is this trust to be? In everything, where to trust God. We ought to take a step in life without seeking God’s direction and help along the way. And then finally, fourthly, your expectant trust is to be in the Lord. Notice the second part of verse six. He. shall direct by power. We’re trusting him and he will direct us. He will guide us. He will give us what we need to know and lead us forth in the right way. This is what God commands of us, but this is not the way of the ungodly, for they take counsel of themselves. Notice this also. You fail to love your neighbor by unjustly taking his possessions and unleashing God’s curse against your house. else for verse 11 tells us here, for the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam of the timber shall answer it. By evil gain, Babylon gathered the necessary resources to construct its empire. You know, it’s the stone and the wood and all this, the timber, all this, it’s just symbolic of them taking possessions of others to enrich themselves in order to build Great Babylon or to build their own. empire. And here God says that stone and the wood will cry out for divine vengeance to fall. Now, not literally, as we know, stone and wood don’t literally have a voice. But those plundered goods built into Babylon’s house call forth every time they’re looked upon God’s judgment against them. Let me put this in the Bible. in an illustration. Suppose I want to build a show-type piece of home, a type of home, expensions, mansion that will be the envy of the neighborhood. But I decided I’m going to cut down the forest on my neighbor’s property to get the wood for the beams in my house. So I take his wood from my neighbor’s property who has these woods in the back. And I use those beams from my house. And then I tear down somebody else’s house because I like the stone on their house and I take all the stones and I use it to build my house. I use the nice stone look on the outside of my house. Beautiful stuff. Then I go to another neighbor’s house and I go in and I cut out all his copper plumbing. Take it to my house and I put it in my house and build my, you know, put my plumbing in with all his pipes. And on and on and on it goes. And I plumbed. And I from this person, I plunder for this person, and I build this beautiful house. Everybody looks at that house and say, hey, that guy stole that property for that house. Why, there is the Miller’s wood. There is the Jones’s stone. There is the Smith’s copper pipes. You know, that’s what they’re going to see. That’s the way God looks on the house that is built by unjust means. You stole that from this person. You stole it from that person. How can God’s blessing? rest on such a house. God’s curse rests upon it. For every time God looks upon the house, he sees the wickedness. He sees this broken law. Of course, when the police investigate and they find I’ve stole all these things, I’m not only going to go to jail, but they’re going to tear my house down and give back all the property to the person who belongs to. You know, when Kane slew Abel, the Bible says his blood cried out from the ground. around to the Lord. Well, that’s the same idea, I think, here with the stone and the wood. It’s not literal, but the idea is that it’s calling forth for God’s judgment to fall. You can’t escape unscathed when you enrich yourself unlawfully. That is the principle. Well, Esop’s fable of the dog in the stream illustrates what happens when you attempt to take from your neighbor to enrich yourself. Ultimately, you lose everything. And that’s what happens. This is what happened to Babylon. This is what happens to the unbeliever. Those who follow in Babylon’s footsteps here. God’s woe is pronounced against those individuals. And we should be aware of this and not follow their ways. Let us, Heavenly Father, we pray for your blessing upon your word this. morning. Grant us grace, Father, to understand the things of the Lord, to build honestly and justly our own households and to follow the principles of your word in doing so. Bless us as we gather here to worship you and let your spirit rest upon us. For it’s in Christ’s name. Now, if you would, let me direct your attention to the book of 1st Corinthians chapter 11, beginning with verse 23.