Episode 6: Reversals & Ruin (2:6-17)
A longer passage this week, and it is jam-packed with precise, deliberate judgement from God that reverses much of the wickedness and iniquity that the Babylonians have enacted on others.
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Justice is coming to the Babylonians as we see woe after woe. Why are they deserving of this judgement? How does it make us feel as we see it fall?
We're not marauding murderers, but how do we see our own heart tendencies in these descriptions? How does it feel as we begin to realise we're deserving of justice?
Sit with, and feel the discomfort, our guilt. But then remember 2:4. How do these verses help us cling to that truth more?
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Sarah: Hi, everyone.
Felicity: This is Word Fuelled hearts. It's a podcast sponsored by ten of those.com 10ofthose.com handpick the best Christian books that point to Jesus and sell them at discounted prices. And the more you buy, the cheaper do they get. Check them out at 10ofthose.com.
Sarah: Hello and welcome to Word Fuelled Hearts. This week, we're so excited you can join us for our next bit of Habakkuk. My name is Sarah and I live in the UK and my sister is here and her name is Felicity. Hello, Felicity. Hello.
Felicity: Nice to see you, Sarah.
Sarah: And you live in the US.
Felicity: I'm sorry, I do live in the US. I'm just in this little podcast where I'm actually sitting under a rug to kind of, like, get the sound right. So I forgot what country I was in right then, but I didn't forget what country I'm in, because my biscuit choice this week is highly American. Can you guess what it is? Well, they wouldn't even call it when I say the Americans wouldn't even call it a biscuit, they would just say straight up, you have a cookie in your hand, a chocolate chip cookie. Can you see?
Sarah: Very nice. That looks very tasty. I'm quite envious, actually. I've gone for a very safe option this week, because, to be honest, that Jamie Dodger had last week was really very disappointing in every way. I will not be buying them again. So this week I've gone back to my trusty custard queen because I know it's safe.
Felicity: That is good, solid, reliable choice. I mean, the custard cream, that could be on the packet of the custard cream, couldn't it? Solid reliably, good biscuit.
Sarah: Absolutely. Now, we thought we'd take a couple of minutes to tell everyone about our show notes because they're like this hidden treasure within the podcast, and I think it's worth trying to help people work out where they are and what they are so that you can mine them. For what it's worth. When you go into your podcast setting, let me just try and find this quickly. As you go into your podcast setting, you click the details about the podcast episode. As you scroll down, you'll have episode notes. And in that what we do is I say we this is what Fisti does each week. She summarizes the episode. So give a quick overview of what we're talking about, which is actually really helpful, especially when you're listening to this on the go. And also what we have are helpful resources and any tips for getting stuck into reading the Bible, and that includes any links to any books or any talks or any useful articles that we might be reading or think that might be helpful for you. And then, crucially, what do we have at the bottom of the footnotes?
Felicity: They are footnotes. What I have titled the Tea and Biscuit Chat footnotes. And, I mean, I think it's essential information telling you what sort of tea we're drinking, what sort of biscuits we're eating, and any other valuable information on that topic.
Sarah: Exactly. So that's just a really useful thing. To be honest, before we recorded this episode, plastic still didn't know how to find the show notes of her own podcast, which I find quite disheartening considering she's written them. But hopefully for you guys, these will be a really helpful kind of add on to what we do as we chat about have a cook and we go through it hopefully. This is just a really helpful different way of getting into have a cook through what we put on the show notes. So do go and find those after this episode if you like.
Felicity: Absolutely. Now, our passage this week, it's a little longer than the previous weeks, isn't it? Partly because it really does come as part of the whole section. We couldn't really just pick and choose a few verses from it, so it's going to take a little bit longer to read. But while we're reading it so it's going to be chapter two versus six through to 17. While we're reading it, be listening out for any repeated ideas, words, things. Just kind of try and listen out to why it all belongs together.
Sarah: Okay, great. Chapter two, verse six to 17. Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion. How long must this go on? Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey because you have plundered many nations. The people who left will plunder you, for you have shed human blood. You have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin. You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice. Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves 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 him. He gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wine skin till they are drunk so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn. Drink and let your nakedness be exposed. The cup from the Lord's right hand is coming round to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you, for you have shed human blood you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
Felicity: Thanks, Sarah. It's pretty brutal reading in some ways, isn't it? I don't know whether our listeners notice the repetition of just whoa, whoa, whoa. There's a whole lot of Woe going on.
Sarah: Five of them, isn't there?
Felicity: Yeah. Five woes. And wonderfully. The Woes are directed at the people that have a cook. And I think us have been longing for the Woe to hit. The Babylonians are in the crossfires of the Woes from God.
Sarah: Absolutely. That's really helpful for you. I think this is all about reversal, isn't it? The language helps us to see that. So those who pile up, those who build up, those who build, those who build up there's a lot of that kind of language and actually it's all being torn down here, isn't it? Because you have plundered, you will now be plundered yourself. Because you have built with unjust game, you are now going to be destroyed in every way. What they have done is coming back to them with added interest.
Felicity: Yeah, very much so, isn't it? And you get the sense that the Babylonians probably would have, and I guess this is true, if just anyone kind of going about injustice, you probably think, we're going to get off scot free, there's nothing's going to happen, we're just doing what we do about The Babylonians. All through Habakkuk, I think you get this feeling of what he says, their God is their own might, they have no kind of point of reference outside of themselves, and suddenly something, someone outside of themselves is bringing about extreme judgment upon them. It is really pleasing, isn't it, that it is precise like it's very, as we were saying earlier, appointed that God is doing this.
Sarah: Do you want to just remind us of the context of where this is coming in the Book of Habakkut for us? Yeah.
Felicity: So we've had habitat crying out, we've had two kind of big questions or big kind of moments of questioning from Abaco, saying, lord, there's just so much injustice all around us, all around me. It's in the other nations, but it's also amongst your people. And God says, well, don't worry, I'm going to send the Babylonians to sort it out.
Sarah: I was like, what?
Felicity: Why are you going to use them? They're even worse. They're just this horrible, wicked crowd who love to capture people. And then last, in the last week's episode passage, we had this kind of God speaking, saying, wait, have a cook, I am going to do it. It's going to happen at the right time, the appointed time, no delay. And then this is what he says. So the Woes are kind of part of that kind of appointed God is doing it kind of thing, isn't it?
Sarah: Yeah. And it's very powerful language, isn't it? In a similar way to what we saw in chapter one. The kind of the emotive nature of this language. The repetition of the woes. Just all the way that all the kind of huge sins of Babylon are named and shamed and then it's turned back on themselves. Extortion. Unjust. Gain bloodshed injustice in every way that's then the violence you have done will overwhelm you. Your destruction will then terrify you. And I think that is very sobering. Yes.
Felicity: Absolutely.
Sarah: Nothing is missed, nothing is left unseen, untouched, unnoticed in God's judgment here.
Felicity: Yeah, I think that's right. There's a very deliberate kind of thoroughness to this and it's justice is very much being dealt. And throughout Habakkuk so far, we've been longing along with Habakkuk for God to bring justice and this is what it looks like for God to judge, really and to deal with sin. And I think there's a part of us which is just delighted, and we're just so thrilled that actually justice is being dealt. But then also there's another part of me that's like, oh, but I belong, I'm not like the Babylonians, but I belong in the kind of unjust category because I know my heart. And so where does that leave me? And I think that's where then it's just so wonderful to remember two verse four and the righteous will live by his faith. This is like a storm of judgment coming, and yet in the midst of it, the righteous will live by faith. So have a cook. And as we listen to him and kind of stand with him through Jesus, breathe a sigh of relief, because it is, and I think that's the intention. This is kind of terrifying judgment, isn't it?
Sarah: Yeah. And it's very sobering, isn't it? In verse 16, the cup from the Lord's right hand is coming round to you. And that could just mean anything just off one reading, doesn't it? But actually, with a little bit of background to that phrase, we know that the cup from the Lord's right hand is the cup of God's rough. God's full anger against sin and injustice is coming round to you. That's a full waste of God's rough is coming on them. And as you say, that's absolutely terrifying, isn't it? Yeah. It makes us just the only place we can rent it is two verse four.
Felicity: And then as we rent two verse four and remember this side of the cross, we're just in such a privileged position because even more so, if we were to go back to the Gospel account, mark's Gospel or wherever, we see Jesus taking the cup of God's, roth and so on that cross, he takes on this level of judgment. That is actually what it is for the Babylonians. It is also for us in the kind of like we deserve this kind of judgment as well, don't we, then actually to know that Jesus takes on that judgment.
Sarah: So we're saying that Jesus takes on the full weight of this judgment. But this did still happen through the Babylonian back in that context of Habakkuk. He's waiting for this to happen. It did happen. And actually what we see in Jesus, that he's taken the cup of God's rough on the cross, but we are still waiting, aren't we? We are called to wait for that final judgment.
Felicity: Yes.
Sarah: Like a smaller picture of that.
Felicity: Yeah, I think that's really helpful to take us there as we see this, and we see the reality of God does bring judgment and justice, as he said, and as we read it, and we think but then actually, we know that we're waiting for that final day of judgment when Jesus does return. And wonderfully, the reversals that we have here, we talked about that. This is what the Babylonian has been done and it's being reversed upon them. So they plundered and now they're being plundered. They brought shame on others and now shame is brought on themselves. That level of reversal is what is going to happen on the final day. So those who have been persecuted, those who have been squashed, are going to be raised up as we stand in righteousness through Jesus. It's just a glorious picture, isn't it? As we see the reversals, we're thinking, wow, it's pretty powerful. And then you think, no, that is even just a small picture of what's going to happen on that final day.
Sarah: Cool. Yeah. It's very sobering, isn't it? I think where does it take our hearts on this? I think it takes us into absolute awe at God and his right justice and right judgment, doesn't it? As it said back in verse three that we read last week, that it's coming at an appointed time, there's no mistake. There's no kind of discussion about whether this should happen or not. It will happen. And God's justice is perfect for the crime in hand. It's perfect for the sin that's been committed. And I think that just gives you it always gives me goosebumps just thinking about that. Just kind of the awe of God's knowledge and the weight of that for us. Yeah, absolutely.
Felicity: And the challenge then, that we would long for that, as in we would long for justice to be done. Do we really want justice? We really want sin to be dealt with, because that is what God has promised to do. That's a wonderful, wonderful thing, talking about driving it to our hearts. Sarah, I think the best way of doing that is to pray. We've already run out of time. I mean, it's a pretty big pattern, isn't it? And we feel, again, we just touched on it. But do you want to pray for us and help us just to kind of feel it in our hearts as we do that?
Sarah: I'd love to do that. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for this passage in so many ways. It's so weighty and there's so much here. So we do pray, Lord, that you'd help us to dwell on these words this week, but we thank you most of all that they lead us to the cross, they lead us to Jesus, knowing that we cannot survive under this weight of judgment that you will bring to anyone and everyone who has sinned. We may not fall in that class of the Babylonians, but we know we are guilty of sin. We know that we deserve your right judgment. And so we praise you so much for Jesus that we delight in Him, we delight in his righteousness, and by Him we can stand with habituk and wait for that final day. Help us Lord, to do that this week with all the different distractions, all the different things that are going on in our weeks. Help us to wait as Habakkuk does, trusting in the Lord Jesus. I know we're just praying wrapped up, but actually I want to just dig into this a little bit more fluently before we quickly go in terms of how this really impacts our week, this week. What is it like for this long passage on judgment to impact my day tomorrow?
Felicity: Yeah, good question, because it could seem a little kind of alien, couldn't it? We were just talking about the Babylonians getting bosched and actually what does that mean for us? And I think what it does mean is that as we see God's justice being done, it gives us great assurance that God really is going to do what he has said he will do. He will bring justice all the wrongs and the injustice and the sin ridden world we see around us that is going to be sorted out at the appointed time, at the right time by God. And I don't know about you, but I can look around at the world and think, I just want it to be done now. I just don't know why God's not. It's very similar to having a cook kind of questions and I think this is a passage that reminds me of the reality of judgment and it's a challenge as well. Do I really want judgment to come? Do I really want justice to be done?
Sarah: Yeah, I think that's helpful for you. I think also this just makes me remember that my security has to be in Jesus and not what I'm doing this week. Like, as much as I want to serve and try hard my best with home schooling and whatever else it is that I'm doing, actually at the end of the day, my security is in Jesus and my righteousness can only be found in Him, and that I don't need to fear judgment, I don't need to fear this kind of judgment. I get to delight in Jesus as my Savior and not my judge because of what has happened on the cross. And I think that drives through my week. Then am I choosing to delight in Jesus. Verse 14 for the earth will be filled with knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's both a terrifying image, but also it's a wonderful image for those who are shifting to you and actually like, delighting in the knowledge of the glory of the Lord and growing and wanting to read about this more and more because that is the direction of travel.
Felicity: Yes, and I think that's absolutely right. And even as we read that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, we already have a knowledge of the glory of the Lord in the sense that we know Jesus. And so as we remember that, and we remember that we do know Jesus, so we can then, I think, have the freedom to long for justice to be done. So I wonder, if we're not in Jesus or we're not remembering that, then we might just hesitate to cry out for justice. But actually, as you say, the refuge we have in Christ therefore means that we can freely cry out for justice and delight in knowing Jesus as our savior, as our rescuer.
Sarah: Yeah, definitely. I think we probably need to work out now. There we are. I can keep going on talking about this. Let's leave everyone to it. It's been really good to chat again. Thanks so much for tuning in. Do check out those show notes, they will help you and obviously you'll be able to check out our biscuit choices and all that.
Felicity: And do give us a review, especially.
Sarah: If you're an apple.
Felicity: That's where we seem to be able to do it at the moment. But do give us a review if you get a chance. It's been lovely to chat again, Sarah, as ever. We'll look forward to next time.
Sarah: All right, take care.
Felicity: Bye bye. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. We hope you enjoyed it. It's been sponsored by Tenofbos.com. Check them out for great discounted resources that point to.
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