“Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, ‘Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—for how long?—and loads himself with pledges!’ Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. 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 2:6-8 ESV)
God always punishes sin. God may forebear with sin for a time or delay its punishment, but he never dismisses it. From our perspective, however, delayed punishment can appear as if God is ignorant of or indifferent to sin. This has been Habakkuk’s struggle from the beginning of his book: that even though God is “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,” he appears to “idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he” (1:13).
In this passage, we see that God is not sitting idle as Babylon’s sin increases, but that their increase of sin is building up an increased punishment. We see clearly that punishment withheld is not punishment foregone. The nations of the ancient world being swallowed up by Babylon will soon taunt Babylon when its own destruction is made manifest.
In these verses, the first of a series of woes against Babylon, the Lord says that Babylon “heaps up what is not [its] own.” Babylon is an unlawful possessor of its captive people and lands. Though it currently has a long list of debtors, those debtors will “suddenly arise” and make it “tremble.”
Of the many truths we draw from the pages of Habakkuk, one of the clearest is that earthly kingdoms can fall from power as quickly as they rise to it. At that time, Babylon essentially held unquestioned rule over the majority of the known world. To Habakkuk, or any inhabitant of the Ancient Near East, the thought of Babylon’s power being challenged—let alone overthrown—was almost unimaginable. Yet, the word of the Lord was that Babylon would soon be the spoil rather than the one taking the spoil.
When the hand of God moves to accomplish his purposes, not even vast armies can withstand it. Just as God used Babylon to discipline his own people for their sin, so he would bring Babylon to destruction for their ruthless conquest and unthinkable violence. Though they had “plundered many nations,” they themselves would soon be plundered.
The basis for their destruction is found in three parts: the blood of man, violence to the earth, and violence to cities and all who dwell in them.
Regarding the first of these, Matthew Henry notes the “thousands of lives that have been sacrificed to his ambition and revenge, especially . . . the blood of Israelites, which is in a special manner precious to God.” The magnitude of Babylon’s destruction of human life was massive. It was not a small battle here or a skirmish there for which judgment was coming, but an overwhelmingly broad irreverence for the sanctity of human life. While there are certainly situations in which the taking of human life is justified, a just war being one of them, Babylon was not driven by any just goal but rather by avarice and ambition, which cannot excuse its violence against those created in God’s image.
The second reason for Babylon’s coming destruction is that they cared nothing for the earth that God created. Though God commanded Adam to subdue and rule over the earth, implicit in the command is an expectation to respect and care for it as God’s creation. The Babylonian conquest was not a reflection of God’s command to exercise dominion over the earth but was in direct opposition to it because of their complete disregard for the land of which they took possession. The lands, fruits, and trees left in their wake were not cultivated but decimated of beauty and usefulness. Man ought never to elevate his valuing of the earth to the height of a rabid environmentalism, but he certainly ought to carefully tend to the part of the world over which the Lord grants him dominion.
Third, Babylon left the cities they conquered in mountains of rubble. As with the earth, they had no regard for the constructive accomplishments of the cities’ former inhabitants. There is no reason to believe they put the cities to good and proper use; they simply razed them to the ground to illustrate their own magnificent power. It was not the taking down of the buildings themselves for which they are guilty, as if there is a sanctity in the physical wood and stone, but the heedless manner in which they carried it out.
The Babylonian conquest was characterized by destruction of human life, land, and cities. Therefore, their rapid advance would soon be halted, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would show Judah that his hand was mighty, and his wrath was swift.
Like Habakkuk, we know that our Lord is returning to judge the quick and the dead, and like Habakkuk, we may find refuge in the God of Judah.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
What a comfort your omniscience is to your people. Teach us to rest in your providential rule, knowing that justice will stand in the end. May we place our trust in Christ alone and find refuge in him as our only sure foundation.
In his name, amen.
Prayer Requests:
- Tuesday: Pray for missionaries working on a Portuguese sign language translation of the Bible.
- Wednesday: Pray for the instructors and students serving with Storytellers Abroad as they prepare for a photography missions trip to Brazil.
- Thursday: Pray for missionaries engaged in benevolence ministry in Nicaragua.
- Friday: Pray for the ongoing theological education of the Maranatha Seminary and Biblical Institute (SIBIMA) in Brazil.
- Saturday: Pray for missionaries ministering to the Zulu people in South Africa.
- Sunday: Pray for missionaries laboring to reach the distant, rural communities of Mongolia.
- Monday: Pray for missionaries hosting Bible clubs among the public school population of Papua New Guinea.
