Hope Planted
be like Baker
There are five “woes” in Habakkuk chapter two. A woe, at least my translation of it, is like saying, “You are in big trouble now. “Woes” in the prophets are usually addressed to someone in particular. In this case, it is Babylon that is in view. This was spoken/written while they were ascendant. Still on the horizon was their conquest of Judah and the 70-year Babylonian Captivity. Yet, before their glory days even commenced, Habakkuk was announcing their “woes.”
It is, in many ways, a dark chapter. Habakkuk exposes all that is wrong with that empire. He sheds light on the spiritual and moral bankruptcy that would ultimately be its undoing. If one lived during the height of the Babylonian empire, he might conclude that it was a glorious utopian world that was being built. But, as Habakkuk pointed out, it was a kingdom built on sand, destined to collapse.
What was true of that kingdom, is true of all man-made kingdoms. As the writer of Hebrews noticed, “His [God’s] voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken – “
Babylon was shaken and removed. So too was Greece and Rome and every kingdom and nation that followed. They all are eventually shaken and removed.
It is a discouraging reality in some ways. Therefore, in the middle of Habakkuk chapter two, Habakkuk plants a flag for God’s kingdom. To use a football metaphor, Habakkuk does a Baker Mayfield and runs out into the middle of the opponent's field, and forcefully and triumphantly plants his team’s flag in the center of his opponent's field. It is there in verse fourteen. A verse that seems out of place, and interruption in Habakkuk’s extended woeful rant against the evils of Babylon:
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
This too is where the writer of Hebrews takes his interpretation of Haggai 2:21. For he continues, “In order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:26-29)
As you look around at the contemporary soap opera, “As the World Burns,” that is our situation today and realize we are undergoing our own “woes,” “woes” of our own making, don’t forget verse 14. Yes, it is all shaking and it is all coming apart. But there is a kingdom of which we are a part that cannot be shaken. It will remain and “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
