Habakkuk 2:18-19

Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 18 to 20 for our text this morning. We’ll be looking in particular at verses 18 and 19. But let’s read the three verses. What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it? Whereof hath graveneth the molten image, and a teacher lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, make dumb idols. Woe unto him that sat to the wood awake, and to the dumb stone arise, it shall teach. Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver. There is no breath at all in the midst of it. But the Lord is in his holy temple, that all the earth keeps silence before him. And God bless to us, His sacred and holy word this morning. Years ago, Harry Emerson Fausdick told a story about a church in Denmark where the worshippers bowed regularly before a certain spot on a wall. And they had been doing this for three centuries, but nobody knew at that time why they were bowling toward that wall in the sanctuary. word. No one remembered why this particular worship was started, but it became a fixed tradition. One day when they were renovating the church and they took the whitewash off the wall, at the exact spot where the people bowed, they found an image of the Madonna under the whitewash. It demonstrates to us how influential idolatry is in religious worship that people would persist in bowing, even though it was whitewashed over for centuries. It’s very much idolatry alive and well in our modern world today. What we find in our text here is something about the idolatry of Babylon. Habakkuk has been troubled because God is using the evil, wicked Babylonians. to chasten or punish his people Israel who are certainly in his eyes more righteous than Babylon. However, God promises he’s eventually going to judge the Babylonians. And we’ve been looking at the taunt song here in these last verses of this chapter, the last half really of the chapter, a taunt song of five-fold woe against the Babylonians. We’ve come to the fifth woe here, and it’s for the sin of idolatry. The Babylonians, remember, looked to Bell and Marduk and other gods. They engaged magicians and enchanters and sorcerers in their religion. An ancient record show that the Babylonian kings ascribed their successes to their gods. We saw that in chapter one. And verses 10 and 11, where they were worshipping their gods as the one giving them the victory over these nations. But our topic this morning is the sin of idolatry. Let me begin by saying this. You should realize idolatry is a false worship which God hates. In verses 18 and 19. We see the promotion of idolatry. It’s very popular. There’s great popularity to images of God. Man has a natural longing in his fallen state to have a visible image of the God he worships. wherever you go in the world, you will find people have formed images of their gods for worship. These images are figments of man’s imagination to represent a god by visible shape. Now, God is certainly clear in this matter. Thou shalt not make unto the any graven image or any likeness or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth for worship. Exodus chapter 20 in verse 4. And yet this commandment is very frequently violated at Mount Sinai when God came down on the mountain. no one was permitted to see him. Not even Moses. who can only see his afterglow, even though he requested to see the Lord. Here’s what God said in Deuteronomy 415. Take ye, therefore, good heed under yourselves, for you saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord spake under you in Horam out of the midst of the fire, lest you corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image the similitude of any figure. I didn’t show you what I look like. Therefore, don’t make an image of me. Scripture teaches that God is a spirit in John 424. And thus, he’s invisible. We read about the invisible God. 1. John 1. Timothy 117. So a physical representation of God is impossible. All this longing for a visible shape that we see from fallen man for an image of God is rebellion against God because it is something he has said not to do. It provokes him to anger. Now, you’ll recall, when Moses was up on Mount Sinai getting the law, what were the Israelites doing down below? Oh, we don’t know what happened in Moses, our leader. So they go to Aaron and say, make us a God. We want a visible God. We don’t know what’s going on. So he forms the golden calf. This is the gods. These are the gods that have brought you out of Egypt. Aaron tells the people, and they were worshipping this golden calf as a representation of Jehovah God. And of God. Of course, what does God tell Moses? Get down off this mountain and you stop them. And they’ve already broke it. Here he is given the law. And they already broke it in making this visible image. And so Moses has to go down and correct the situation down below. And God says to Moses, you remember, he was so angry. He says, let me wipe them off the face of the air. Let my wrath destroy them all. I’ll make. a nation out of you. Remember how Moses intercedes for them and so forth. He was angry because they had made a golden calf as a image of him, the invisible God. Now, since God is a triune god, we should not make any images or likenesses of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Sadly, even Christian. Sadly, even Christian. Christians who don’t seem to grasp the implication of that commandment of God, the Second Commandment, cannot resist portraying the Son, Jesus Christ, with some type of image. Like the Greeks who came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, people clamor, we would see Jesus. Many and evangelical churches do this. There’s widespread existence. acceptance of pictures and paintings and illustrations of Jesus. Why? Man wants some type of visible representation of God, even though all pictures of Christ are necessarily inaccurate and a complete figment of man’s imagination. Do you know what? Read the scriptures. The Bible doesn’t. doesn’t tell us what God, what Christ looks like. Have you ever noticed that? Do you know if he was short or tall? Do you know whether he was, you know, solidly built or slender? Do we know if he had blue eyes or brown, dark hair or fair? There’s silence about this. Well, we do know he had a beard because he plucked it out, according to scripture, but we really are told what he looked like. We’re not given any, even word picture of what he looks like. So pictures of Christ cannot be truly pictures of Christ, because we don’t even know what he looks like. And any picture of Christ cannot portray his divine nature. This is always a problem. You’re always portraying him as just a human being. Children do not need pictures of Christ, where God would have provided pictures of Christ. blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe remember Jesus told Thomas that if you’ve seen me you’ve seen my resurrected body and so forth you believe but blessed are those who have not seen believe but I like what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 315 from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus from a child, you know what? You knew the scriptures, and it is the scriptures that make you wise under salvation. How can salvation be based on a lie or a falsehood? This is a picture of Jesus when we don’t know what Jesus looked like. Kelvin said this. He said, daily experience teaches that the flesh is never satisfied till it has obtained some image, resembling itself. as an image of God. So we see the great popularity of images. People want an image, a visible representation of their God. We see the great variety of images. You can pick the God you like. Look at the massive collection of idols and images, whether they’re graven or molten, the wood carvings, the pictures, the etchings, the etchings of the various gods, throughout the world. Whether you go to South America, whether you go to Africa, whether you go to Asia, whether you go to the Middle East, we have all these different portrayals of God. The Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Amites, they all had different gods that they worshipped. And they had their images to portray them. I told you to be this story before in Toyota, Japan, there’s an unusual place of worship called the Temple of 1,000 Buddhists, and you go in there, and they have all these Buddha’s little images you can get the one you want, the one that they’re all different, and you can pick the one that you like, most, most people pick the one that looks the most like them. And the article said. And that’s the way, man, you know, pick the one you like. The same situation occurs with pictures of Jesus. When you have different artists, portraying the Savior, they’re all a bit different. Well, I’ll just pick the one you like. Paul says there be God’s many in 1 Corinthians 8, 5, 2 numerous account, and certainly the choices galore abound in this situation. There’s a great variety of images. And there’s great expense involved. You notice our text talks about the gold and the silver that’s put into these images. People spare no expense and beautifying and adorning the images. They want them to look precious. They cover them with precious metals like gold and silver. Even expensive jewels like rubies or diamonds or sapphires or something. King and Nebuchaneseer made a huge image 90 feet high, nine feet wide, of gold. The Bible tells us. Probably coated with gold, but it was still a golden image. Think about the size of that. and think how much gold he had, even if you had to just put a coating on it, that’s a lot of gold. Micah made a molten image out of 200 shekels of silver in Judges 17. The Israelites made the golden calves to worship under King Jerobal. Gideon. Gideon made a golden effid which people worshipped. Judges Chapter 8. Look at the elaborate workmanship and expense put into the images of Mary and the various saints of the Roman Catholic Church. People do this to court the adoration of the worshippers. To make the idol appear precious. To make the idol appear valuable. If an image is to represent God, it must be glorious in appearance. Even if the best man can do is to adorn it with precious men, So people become enthralled with these images. They ascribe great value to them. They put great expense in. Notice they expect great expectations here. They trust in them, the Texas. They pray to them. No one looks at an image and prays to it without accepting it as a God. They say to the word, awake. Hear our prayers. It reminds me of Elijah on Mount Carmel telling the prophets of Bail, maybe he’s sleeping. Maybe Bail’s sleeping. You better cry louder. He mocked them. They expect guidance from them. The idols are consulted as oracles that can provide people direction. Give answers to them. For the troubled worshiper goes and wants the image to teach. them something. To say something. Give them some kind of guidance. From above. Don’t we find this, even in the Roman Catholic Church and their images of Mary and the saints and so forth? So we have the promotion of idolatry. Great popularity. People want to see God. We have great variety. Pick whatever God you like. There’s plenty in this world. There’s great expense. They make them appear precious. And they’re great expectations. they trust in their idols. But we see also here the folly of idolatry. You notice he says that they are dumb idols in verse 18. They are dumb idols. Images are void of sense and reason. They’re lifeless and they’re speechless. An idol is dumb for it is made of mere matter, even of silver and gold. there’s not a spark of life in it. Why, the beast of the field, the tiniest little creature, the mite, the ant, the earthworm. Why, it’s better than that dumb idol because it has life in it and an idol doesn’t have any life in it. No wonder, as I said, Elijah was mocking the prophets of bail. He knew there was not going to be any answer from bail. How could there be? Isaiah points out the foolishness of worshiping idols in Isaiah chapter 44. He says the guy goes out and cuts down a tree. And he takes part of that tree and he puts it in the fire so he can keep warm. And he takes some more of that wood and he uses it to cook with. And then he takes it the third part of the wood. And he says, I think I’ll make a god out of this. And he makes an image. And God is looking down on all this, and he says, you know, doesn’t the guy think about this at all? What’s the difference between the wood in the fire? And the wood in the idol? It’s the same tree. Calvin once quoted a heathen poet regarding this, and he said this. I was once the trunk of a fig tree, a useless log, when the tradesman, uncertain whether he should make me a stool or something else, chose rather that I should be a God. Same ideas as Isaiah 44. Against such madness, this spirit thunder forths a woe to the person who would do such a thing. Or as the Spirit says to us in Scripture, they that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusts them. The dumb idol. Notice it’s a powerless idol. In verse 18, What prophets the graven image? It’s powerless. It is not in an idol’s power to do the worshippers any good. Remember when God sarcastically spoke to the Israelites in the days of the judges. They abandoned him for heathen gods. And so what does he say to them? In Judges 10, 14, Go and cry into the gods, which you have chosen. Let them deliver you. In the time, of your tribulation. What do you come into me for? You’ve got your gods? Go cry to them. See if they help you. Idols originate from the hands of man, which proves that they are not gods. Whatever is created cannot be superior to the creator. If man creates a God, he is superior to that image. Thus we read in Josea verse 5 and 6 of chapter 8 of Josiah. Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast thee off. It’s not helping you. The workman made it. Therefore, it is not God. If man makes it, it can’t be a God. None of the gods of the heathen could prevent their downfall when God’s judgment was sent. Think about the Babylonians. What was King Belshazzar doing? Wasn’t he praising his gods with the cups and the utensils and that from the temple? were his gods able to help him when the Medes and the Persians broke through the walls? come under the walls, really through the riverbed and took the city. See King Melchiazscheas are praising the gods of gold and silver and it was useless to do so. When the French army under Napoleon invaded Russia, the Russian troops couldn’t stop him. They kept retreating. As Napoleon closed in on Moscow, the Russians decided that they would make a stand right outside of Moscow by a smaller city named Bordino. It became the major battle between the Russians and the French. The mood of the Russian resistance was rapidly assuming overtones of some type of religious crusade. The Metropolitan archbishop offered the Tsar of Russia the venerated icon of St. Sergius. It was entrusted to the Moscow militia as their guardian. Even the more famous Black Virgin of Similinsk, which was said to have curative properties, was delivered to the care of the Russian army. Inspired by these images, soldiers marched in the battle chanting tis the will of God. Still The French Grand Army defeated the Russians at Bordino and Moscow was eventually captured. The Russian idols didn’t help them any more than the Ark of the Covenant helped Israel when they were trusting in a box when they went against the Philistines. It was a powerless idol. What profits the graven image? It’s a deceitful idol. It says here in our text, it’s a teacher of lies. It promotes false ideas about the true and living God, like God having a body or God being finite or God being visible or God being dependent on man. An image created by man’s imagination is a complete deceit. It’s a falsehood. It conveys what isn’t true or real. Scripture indicates that behind these false idols is Satan. Isn’t that interesting? the great deceiver of mankind. We read in Deuteronomy 32, 16 and 17. They provoke Jehovah to jealousy with strange, or foreign gods, with abominations, provoked they him to anger. They sacrifice to devils and not to God. In a New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 10, 20, we read this. But I say that the things of which the Gentile sacrificed, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. The great temple of Diana, of the Ephesians, and so forth. When they sacrificed, they were sacrificing to the devil, to Satan. Image worship is satanic in nature. And I would not that ye have fellowship with devils, 1st Corinthians 10, 20, Paul says. People using images think that they’re worshipping God, but they are actually being deceived by Satan and ensnared by Satan. him. Many years ago, when I was a kid, there was a man named Art Link Letter who had a children’s show. And at one point he interviewed a small boy who was drawing a picture, and Link Letter inquired, what are you drawing? The little boy said, I’m drawing a picture of God. And Link Letter rightly responded, well, no one knows what God looks like. But the boy, that was no problem. He confidently replied, they will what I’m done. And that’s the way man is. with regard to this image making. It’s deceitful. Every founder is confounded by the graven image for his molten image is falsehood. Jeremiah 10. 14. So we see the folly of idolatry. It’s a dumb idol. There’s no breath in it. It’s powerless. What does it profit? And thirdly, it’s deceitful because it is a teacher of lies. And then we can talk about the forms of idolatry that we must address, connected with our own day. Images we see used often in worship. Images, idols, icons, illustrations, pictures of God are commonly used. The idols of Mary and the saints are frequently seen. Pictures of Christ are found among almost all denominations. However, this violent the Second Commandment, and it promotes false hoods and lies about God. This makes the idea of God a precarious thing whatever man pleases. And it can all be different. It mixes the holy, what is of God, with the vile, what is of Satan. The worship of God is good, but the worship of God by the use of images is evil. You cannot do evil, use images, thinking that good, some benefit is going to happen to your soul or will come out of it by using it. Scripture says in 1.1 521, little children keep yourselves from idols. The youngest, the most immature Christian, does not need an image as a crutch. to rely on when he worships God. Little children. Even the youngest believer doesn’t need it, as the scripture indicates. There’s images in worship. In our society, we should also look at astrology and how it is promoted in our society. Babylon’s whole religious system involved divination, sorcery, spiritism, wizards, demonism. Unfortunately, We have not escaped these pagan practices even in our supposedly enlightened day and age. It’s hard to understand why an educated, scientifically-minded, people, as modern man claims to be, or imagines himself to be, can be so intrigued by horoscopes. I’ve got to see what my horoscope says today. Why? People are inclined to trust in the stars and the planets and their alignment for guidance for their lives. You know, in Scripture, we read about those who worship the host of heaven. Well, we’re still worshiping the host of heaven even in our day. There’s always the end condition of a people who, this is always the end condition of people who will not walk by faith in God, as chapter 2 and verse 4 indicates to us. So they turn to superstition. So the widespread American version of all this occult practice is astrology. Astrology offers us a religion without moral responsibility. It’s sort of a fatalism, but there’s no duty attached to it. There’s no involving of your conscience as to whether this is right or wrong. astrology offers revelation without the disconcerting doctrines of the Bible. It provides, or least pretends to, a word from beyond the earthly realm, but it’s not speaking about sin. It’s not speaking about the judgment to come. Things of this nature that trouble people. Astrology offers salvation without a real Savior. You remember one of the popular songs from the musical hair claims, when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars. I’m sorry, but God is the one who steers the planets and the stars. If there’s any going to be any peace of love in this world, it’s got to come through Jesus Christ and no other way. But the most frequent form of idolatry is the one that’s least known. And for this, I invite you to turn with me in the book of Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5 in the New Testament. Mortify, therefore, for your members which are upon earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Interesting statement we here have by the Apostle Paul. Covetousness is this insattable appetite of the mind, seeking riches and possessions and confiding in them as the chief good. Now, Paul, all classifies covetousness here as some type of idolatry. It’s easily missed, of course. Christlostrum put it this way. One of the church fathers. An idolater, an idolater, an idolatur looks to and regards with veneration his idol. So a covetous man, the riches he has heaped together. In short, the former worships the idol, the latter the gold. A covetous man is an idolater because he loves his riches and his possessions, above all things, because he trust in them more than all things, because he serves his riches more than he does God himself. Acquiring possessions is what his heart clings to as the chief good in life instead of seeking after God and honoring and glorifying him. Remember what Job said, Job 31. If I have made gold my hope, or have said to find gold, thou art my confidence, I should have denied the God that is above. And so when we put our confidence in our trust in our riches or our wealth, it is a denial of the true God. And that becomes what we trust in. Remember how Paul said in the New Testament, don’t trust in uncertain riches, but in the true and living God. The covetous person neglects the worship due to God alone. He devotes himself completely to the accumulation of riches. You cannot serve God and Mammon. You can’t worship them both, God tells us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And yet, as we look at this, we see that scarcely anybody is free of covetousness. It’s a very frequent problem to face and to deal with. So here are some forms of idolatry that we have still with us. We still are using images in worship today. We have astrology that we’re getting engaged in. And, of course, covetousness. Worshippers in Denmark bowed regularly before a certain spot on the church wall. They’ve been doing it for 300 years, and they didn’t even know why they were doing it after a period of time. Until the Madonna was found underneath the whitewash. It demonstrates how influential idol worship is. And friends, it’s still. still influential in our own day. You should realize idolatry is a false worship which God hates. There are many forms of it. It pervades even modern culture. And even Christians can be guilty of it, especially in the form of being covetous and pictures of Christ. Well, let us close with a word of prayer.