This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Habakkuk” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 3, 1995.

This morning we are reading from Habakkuk chapter 2 and we are beginning at verse 2 to the end of the chapter. This is Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 2. Give your attention to God’s holy word. I’m reading from the New American Standard Version this morning. Then the Lord answered me and said, Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, it hastens towards the goal, and it will not fail, though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like shields, and he is like death, never satisfied.

He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples. Will not all of these take up a taunt song against him, even mockery and insinuations against him, and say, Woe to him who increases what is not his, for how long, and makes himself rich with loans? Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken?

Indeed, you will become plunder for them. Because you have looted many nations, all the remainder of the peoples will loot you. because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land and to the town and all its inhabitants. Go to him who gets evil gain for his house to put his nest on high to be delivered from the hand of calamity. You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples. So you are sinning against yourself.

Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence. Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts that peoples toil for fire and nations grow weary for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Woe to you who make your neighbors drink who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness. You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you and utter disgrace will come upon your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town, and all its inhabitants.

What prophet is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsity? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, to a dumb stone arise, and that is your teacher. Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it. That the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.” And then two verses from Romans chapter three. verses 27 and 28, where then is boasting, it is excluded.

By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Pray with me. Father, we are in need of refreshment from you. And Lord, as we have given ourselves to the tasks set before us, so also now, Lord, we would give ourselves in worship of our God. We pray, Father, that you would sanctify our rest, even as you bless our labor. Lord, bless the labor of those who work with your word, and may we all be profited by them. And help us, O God, that we would see the labor of our hands in light of the word that you have given. that we might be obedient servants of our God. This we pray through Jesus Christ, Amen. Although the thoughts of this prophecy bearing Habakkuk’s name, are very deep and quite complex. The outline of this book of Habakkuk is very simple.

The first two chapters present us with an argument, a dispute between the prophet and the Lord. while the third chapter presents us with the Prophet’s prayer of faith in conclusion. Now, the argument, the dispute in those first two chapters runs this way.

Chapter one, verses one through four, the Prophet expresses his distress that the Lord has not acted in the interest of his law and. Against those in Judah guilty of violent lawlessness. Chapter one verses five three eleven. Then gives to us the Lord’s first response. the Chaldeans are coming. Or, as we have come to know them, the Babylonians are coming as the instruments of God’s justice. The prophet, then, reacts to this devastating news, chapter 1, verse 12, through chapter 2, verse 1. And in his reaction to the Lord’s response, he does not hesitate to point out to the Lord the injustice of the Lord’s solution. How can the Lord allow the wicked, that is, these Chaldeans, these Babylonians, How can the Lord allow these wicked to devour those more righteous than they, particularly us Jews?

Now that’s verse 13 of that first chapter, and essential to your understanding of the mind of the Baptist and his argument. The Prophet’s posture subsequently in his watchtower. That’s chapter 2, verse 1 now. The prophet’s posture in his watchtower indicates that the Lord’s solution hardly satisfies Habakkuk.

But even though Habakkuk is hostile, even though he is argumentative to a false message, the Lord graciously speaks to him yet again.” Chapter 2, verses 2-20, the portion that we have read this morning. It is this second answer from the Lord that leads Habakkuk to the offering up of his great prayer with which his prophecy ends in the third chapter. When the Lord, therefore, again answers Habakkuk through the course of that second chapter, it is to the end of making Habakkuk a different man than he was at the beginning of that chapter. Chapter 2, the portion that we have read this morning, consequently takes on the greatest significance since it contains the word from the Lord that brings about change in the man. And all of us standing where we do, sensing however faintly The need for change in ourselves are drawn to what the Lord has to say to Habakkuk. Well then, what does the Lord say that has such impact on this man?

The charter text is verse four. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. Now grasp the import of this text, and here I have in mind more than its supreme theological interest. I have its literary impact, if you will, in mind.

For by this statement, the Lord will outline the remainder of the prophecy, even to the conclusion of the third chapter. You will notice that the rest of chapter two is merely an exposition of the first part of that fourth verse. In other words, verses 5 through 20 lay out for us, then, the description of the proud man, his wife, and God’s judgment upon him. Chapter 3, on the other hand, becomes the filling out of the second part of that fourth verse.

Here, through the gracious work of God, is the testimony in prayer, prayer from Habakkuk, the testimony from him of the man of faith who has been blessed immeasurably and declared to be righteous. It’s all a setup, then. For the Lord has set up Habakkuk’s testimony of faith in chapter 3 by the exposure of the proud man in chapter 2. Let us look then at the exposition of the proud man. Verse 5 in chapter 2 provides the crucial insight into the proud.

They are insatiable. They are never satisfied. Wine betrays the proud man so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied. The proud are insatiable. They are never satisfied. But why? Why are they never satisfied?

Because rather than living by faith, they live for and in terms of the things of this world. They live by sight, and what they see, they must have. and they cultivate an inquisitive spirit within themselves because of their desire to control and manage what they observe.

The proud, therefore, become like little gods in the world, managing their realms, realms which they consider to be their own. The Lord now, as the prophecy continues, reads out five woes, that is, five sentences of judgment against the proud. Verses six through eight, the proud increase what is not theirs, but they are told that their end will be impoverishment. Yes, they have sought to enrich themselves, but in the end they will be poor. What they have visited upon others will, in the end, be visited upon them. This is a maxim of the kingdom of God. You reap what you sow. As you have dealt with others, so you shall be dealt with yourselves.

Verses 9 through 11. The proud seek security to build for themselves an impregnable fortress, but they do this at the expense of others, even though it means the ruination of their neighbors. God will execute his woe upon the proud by causing their very houses, the ones they built for their own safety, to become their undoing. The stones and the rafters will revolt. Verses 12 through 14. See the proud seeking through injustice and violence to make a name for themselves.

But such an enterprise is doomed to failure, because the earth is not destined to be filled with the evidence that it belongs to the proud and the vain. Rather, as that fourteenth verse tells us, the earth is destined to be filled with the evidence that it belongs to the Lord. And the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

In verses 15 through 17, the proud are compared to rapists who take advantage of their victims by plying them with liquor. It’s not a very pretty picture. But as they have done, so the Lord promises it shall be done to them. The cup that they have passed out comes round to them in the end. Verses 18 through 20 expose idolatry as the work of vanity, the proud, you see, trusts in his own works. Here is the one who believes in works’ salvation. The works of my own hands shall save me. The root of works salvation is idolatry.

There is nothing to fear in an idol. It cannot as much as speak. That when the Lord holds court in his holy temple, he will speak. and all the clamor of the proud will be silenced. The Lord is in His holy temple, where all the earth keeps silence before Him.”

Here, then, is the Lord’s response to Habakkuk’s second complaint. It builds off of the Lord’s testimony about the proud, that they are not righteous and that they shall not live, in contrast to the righteous. But how exactly does this response that we have just reviewed, this response from the Lord to Habakkuk, bring about change in Habakkuk? Is it that Habakkuk now is assured, given his complaint about the Babylonians, is it that Habakkuk is now assured that the Lord intends to bring judgment upon these Babylonians, these wicked people who are about to overrun Judea? And with that confidence, he’s feeling much better. As we read through the series of woes in verses 5 through 20 of that second chapter, we might think that that is exactly the case.

Who, like the Chaldeans, are insatiable, avaricious, haughty, vain, rapacious, idolatrous? Surely the Lord, in the woes that he pronounces, is speaking about the Chaldeans. Or is he? Surely the Lord is speaking about those people over there. Surely the Lord is speaking about the notoriously wicked.

Those that we can immediately identify. But you will notice the universal tone that the Lord uses throughout these verses. Did you catch it as we went through there? The universal tone. It was hard to say, as you went through those verses, that only Chaldeans were in view. For what the Lord has to say here is deliberately broad and inclusive.

What about the proud in Judah? Is pride the private property of Babylonians? What about the proud in Judah? Had not Habakkuk himself begun his initial complaint to the Lord by pointing out to the Lord the wickedness rampant in Judah? Chapter 1, verses 2 through 4. What about Jews, then, against whom Habakkuk invades, who are insatiable?

What about Jews? who live by sight and not by faith? What about Jews who make themselves rich at the expense of others? Who build their own safety nets upon the ruination of their neighbors? Who seek immortal reputations through violence and at the expense of the Lord’s claim upon them and his claim upon the world? Who give vent to their lusts and who worship idols? even if that idol is merely the mental, spiritual, religious monument to their own works, which stand at the center of their religion. Chaldeans? Well, broadening things a bit, yes. Judeans? But what if we take the whole matter a step further?

What if the whole of God’s response to Habakkuk is more brutal still? What if Habakkuk, in hearing the Lord’s response, in being confronted by the comprehensiveness of that response, what if Habakkuk sees not just Chaldeans under the Lord’s just sentence, not just his fellow compromised countrymen, but himself? What if, in hearing these woes read out by the Lord, Habakkuk has the sense that he personally is being brought under divine wrath? That he can’t simply point to wicked Chaldeans or unrighteous Judeans. That he has to point to himself. I maintain that that is precisely what Habakkuk sees. And it is this that brings transformation, change.

Have you thought about change for yourself? Have you wished that you were someone else? Have you longed to do better? have you wished to understand? There will not be that progress for you. There will not be that change. There will be no transformation for you unless you see yourself under the woes of God, liable to His judgment and in need of His mercy and grace. No more of these flattering comparisons. between yourself and someone else.

Why, it’s obvious I’m better than they. It is my contention, then, that this is exactly what Habakkuk sees. As those woes are read out over him, he understands that he’s included. He no longer can subscribe to the quantitative view of righteousness, imagining himself more righteous, yes, than the Chaldeans or his fellow Jews, for he himself has been undone. And he now knows more than ever that there is not one righteous, no, not one. Where, then, is Boston? It is excluded. By what law? The law of work? No, but by the law of faith. But we maintain that a man is justified by faith and not by the works of the law.

Habakkuk, in a manner appropriate to him in the time in which he lived, hears the gospel. And that gospel says, the just shall live by faith.” Habakkuk knows that although he hardly sees the full salvation that is coming, or the full solution for his sin, he must cast himself completely upon God, and upon those things that are perceived only by faith, grasped only in that way. And in time, that is, in the words of the Apostle Paul, in the fullness of time, that is, at the end of time, the object of Habakkuk’s probe comes to light with radiant clarity. Jesus Christ shines forth, not only as payment for Habakkuk’s sin, delivering him from the woes under which he stands. But this one, Jesus Christ, also stands forth as the author and the perfecter of that faith that Habakkuk is called to express. Here then, finally and fully, is that one whom the Lord, in his response to Habakkuk, would have not only habatic, but you to trust, if he and you are to escape the wrath that justly comes upon us.

Here is the one who summarily puts to an end all of our self-flattering comparisons with others, who provides solution for all of us who cry out, as did Isaiah, Woe is me! I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. This one then, Jesus Christ the righteous, who enables you to erupt in praise-filled prayer, just as Habakkuk does at the conclusion of his prophecy, to erupt in praise-filled prayer as one who lives by faith, as one who has been declared righteous. by God. Will the rose then touch you if you live by faith? There is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. Have you heard this message? Do you believe it? Do you love it? If you do, you will live.

O Lord, we who have closed with you, who have confessed our faith, may we, Lord, be strengthened even as we hear the word, this means of grace, that we might continue in our faith by grace. But Lord, I also pray for those who may not have faith, for those who struggle so desperately. May it please you in your kindness to deal with them as you have dealt with Habakkuk, and may the transformation you work in them be such as to bring forth praise-filled prayer, such as we hear from Habakkuk himself. But Lord, help us, help us all. We who have faith with regard to those who do not. And those who do not, O God, may they be helped immeasurably by your blessings communicated here today, even to the point. of believing in Jesus Christ and receiving newness of life. This I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.