The Earth Will Be Filled

God is filling the earth with his glory despite man’s attempts to glorify himself.

“Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:12-14) 

Man was created to be constructive. When God created Adam and placed him in the garden, he commanded him “to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Adam was to care for and cultivate fruitfulness in the animals and plants surrounding him. The goal was not simply to have a more beautiful garden, but that, through the growth of the garden and the population of God’s image bearers dwelling within it (Genesis 1:28), the dominion of the Lord would be expanded over the whole earth. Eden, like the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle, was the dwelling place of God with his people. Had Adam obediently fulfilled his mandate, the rule and reign of God as he dwelt with his people would have expanded throughout all of creation. 

Sin, however, changed things. Adam’s sin cast him out of the garden and prevented his return. Though God’s plan was neither thwarted nor frustrated, Adam failed in his role, and another would have to take his place. His innate desire for cultivation and dominion remained, but now his creative impulse, and that of all his descendants, was perverted. Rather than building the kingdom of God and expanding his glory throughout the earth, man would seek to build his own kingdom and expand his own glory. 

The Tower of Babel is a consummate example of man’s backwardness in this regard. As Moses records in Genesis 11,

And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there . . . Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. (2, 4) 

These two explicit goals were to “make a name for [themselves]” and not “be dispersed over the face of the earth.” These could not be more contrary to Adam’s commission to make a name for the Lord and multiply and expand over the whole earth. Babel is paradigmatic of mankind from the fall until Christ’s return: he seeks to build his own kingdom in opposition to God’s. 

Babylon, which traces its roots to Babel, continued to exhibit this self-serving opposition to the creation mandate given to Adam. Thus, in Habakkuk, the Lord pronounces a woe upon them for “build[ing] a town with blood and found[ing] a city on iniquity.” Their kingdom-building efforts were not only directed to sinful ends but founded on the sinful means of  violence to man, land, and city. As such, their efforts would have no lasting existence. They were a people “who labor merely for fire,” which should call to mind the image of chaff quickly burning up in the flames. Though they tried to provide security for their families and give permanence to their fame through city building, ultimately, they “weary themselves for nothing.” This judgment starkly highlights the futility of sin. The foundations of their city were faulty, meaning that the city itself, glorious as it was in human terms, would ultimately and swiftly collapse. 

Babylon was seeking to fill the earth with its own glory. Like Babel, its goal was opposed to the Edenic commission of Adam, and like Babel, its goal would find no success against the plan of God. Man exists for God’s glory, but fallen man seeks his own glory. 

In the face of man’s attempts to glorify himself, the Lord says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” This language hearkens back to the very beginning of Genesis and echoes the command given to Adam. Adam failed in that command, but One would come who would not fail. Neither man’s failure to obey God (Adam) nor man’s direct attempts to oppose God (Babel and Babylon) could stop the inexorable advance of God’s redemptive decree. 

While man futilely attempts to build a name that will soon be forgotten (Ecclesiastes 9:5) and a city that will soon turn to dust, the Lord is filling the earth with his own glory and gathering a people for himself that are “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Man was made to be part of a kingdom-building work wherein all the nations of the earth are gathered into the eternal, heavenly city of God. God has created man to be his emissaries to the ends of the earth. The command at the heart of Adam’s creation mandate is the same command at the heart of Jesus’ Great Commission—man obediently filling the earth with “the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” 

Here, nestled in the minor prophet Habakkuk, God promises his people that the command that spans all of redemptive history cannot fail. God commands Adam to “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28), he promises Habakkuk that “the earth will be filled,” and he reveals to John a heavenly city filled with “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). 

Christ succeeded where Adam failed. In Christ, we receive a divine sonship (John 1:12) and a heavenly citizenship (Philippians 3:20) in a glorious kingdom, while all the kingdoms of the world crumble around us. 

“Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). 

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 
What a comfort it is to know the end of the story. Like Habakkuk, we often struggle under the influence of prideful men seeking their own glory, yet you promise that you will fill the earth with your glory. May we be found obedient servants about the business of our Lord as we look forward to that eternal city at the consummation of redemption. 
In Jesus’ name, amen. 


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