A sermon by David Roquemore
The Camp Hill Presbyterian Church
June 6, 2010
Habakkuk 2
Last week we read the message of Habakkuk, who questions God, asking why the wicked prosper. God’s answer is that there will be salvation, there will be a savior, there will be justice and righteousness, – just wait, it will come in God’s good time.
Today we pick up where we stopped, in chapter two, verse four, and read the balance of chapter two. We read descriptions of the ways of the wicked, who are bringing on themselves the condemnation of God through the consequences of their actions. I told you last week, these minor prophets are not always so cheery. As we read these scriptures, we hear the prophet’s word to us as well.
In verse four we read, Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. We get focused on the second half of that sentence, the righteous live by their faith, and slide by the beginning. But this is the heading, as it were, for the next section of the book: the proud, whose spirit is not right, not righteous. Habakkuk goes on to enumerate their sins.
Look at verse 5:
moreover, wealth is treacherous;
the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
like Death they never have enough.
There is an interesting textual problem here, by the way. It could also read wine is treacherous, the Hebrew just isn’t clear. One has to choose. Either reading makes the point, but I think wealth makes more sense in the larger context, especially in view of what follows.
They open their mouths as wide as Sheol, the Pit, the grave, the abode of the dead. Sheol is not hell in the fire and brimstone sense; it is more a place of lonely waiting, where the dead await judgment. It is a place that is not in the presence of God. And it seeks to consume us. One Hebrew word for living being is nephesh – it is used here, translated “throats.” We are throats – endlessly wanting more poured in. Think of this in terms of desires, of consuming and wanting. A friend of mine says a person is just a “thirsty nephesh.” I think of nests full of little newly-hatched birds, throats wide open, chirping for the mother to bring more worms. Endlessly hungry. That is the way these people are described, and whether it is wine or wealth that they open their throats for, the result is the same.
Habakkuk says these people shall be taunted, and there follows a series of warnings. Let’s read.
Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!
How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?
Will not your own creditors suddenly rise,
and those who make you tremble wake up?
Now, what does that sound like? To me it sounds like our economy. It sounds like the economic crisis we have been through. I don’t mean that Habakkuk was seeing America, but that what he says about the treacherous nature of greed applies to us quite well. What happens to those who live this way? They meet their end:
Then you will be booty for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
all that survive of the peoples shall plunder you—
because of human bloodshed, and
violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them.
Those who have taken the goods of others without paying will be despoiled. Other nations will plunder you – they will perhaps buy up your credit and own you? Sounds familiar!
Perhaps we can find relief by setting ourselves apart in gated communities:
Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses,
setting your nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm!
10You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
11The very stones will cry out from the wall,
and the plaster will respond from the woodwork.
Cutting off many peoples – this sounds a little bit like some of the debate we have and need to have over illegal immigration, and how and when we are to welcome the stranger in our midst. Whatever the good answer to all of that is, it is not “setting our nest on high” in order to be safely out of reach – insulating ourselves from the realities of the world, trying to hide, even pretending that things are fine the way they are – none of that works. Cutting off many peoples – this sounds a little bit like some of the debate we have and need to have over illegal immigration, and how and when we are to welcome the stranger in our midst. No, the very woodwork will condemn the ones who try to escape.
Again, we hear the taunts:
12 Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed,
and found a city on iniquity!
13Is it not from the Lord of hosts
that peoples labor only to feed the flames,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14But the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
Those who build their society on bloodshed and violence will meet a similar end: the fruit of their labor will be used to feed the flames as the city burns. Rather let the earth be filled not with violence but with the knowledge of God’s glory.
It doesn’t end there:
15“Alas for you who make your neighbors drink,
pouring out your wrath until they are drunk,
in order to gaze on their nakedness!”
16You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.
Drink, you yourself, and stagger!
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will come around to you,
and shame will come upon your glory!
The first time I read this I thought of Hollywood, of our entire cultural entertainment industry, which thrives on getting people drunk, if not literally then with the intoxications of temptations and pleasures, and quite literally in gazing on another’s nakedness. These are sated with contempt: they hold no one in honor. No one is respected. And God’s cup of judgement will come, bringing shame.
One more:
8What use is an idol
once its maker has shaped it—
a cast image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in what has been made,
though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!
19Alas for you who say to the wood, “Wake up!”
to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!”
Can it teach?
See, it is gold and silver plated,
and there is no breath in it at all.
20But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!
Idols, the prophet says, are just pieces of wood. Just rocks. Something we make with our hands. How can those things teach us anything? It is a teacher of lies – lies that we make for ourselves. There is a contemporary word here, I think, relating to our commitment to technology. We have an idea that we can do anything, because so often, we can. Our technology has made so much possible, and much of it is good, but when we begin to trust it for all answers, we make it an idol. We believe that we have powers we do not have.
So in these verses Habakkuk lists the woes of a thirsty nephesh, a greedy people: economic exploitation and ruin, social isolation, rule by violence, preoccupation with idle pleasures, and idolatry, worshiping the work of our own hands. These ways will not lead to blessing, but to ruin. These are not the ways of those who wait for the Lord, who live in hope of the promised salvation.
In the midst of all this bad news, do not despair and do not be afraid. Jesus raised the widow’s son from death, and he will raise us to new life, where the word of the prophet becomes a word of hope.
In place of economic greed, Jesus teaches us to give and share.
In place of social isolation, Jesus calls us to welcome others into communities of love.
In place of governing by violence, Jesus bids us be peacemakers..
In place of indulging bodily pleasures, Jesus asks us to deny ourselves and follow him.
In place of idols, Jesus calls us to worship in spirit and in truth, to worship the only True God.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
