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2 I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
And the LORD answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
“Moreover, wine is a traitor,
an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
and collects as his own all peoples.”
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.
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
to set his nest on high,
to be safe from the reach of harm!
You have devised shame for your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
For the stone will cry out from the wall,
and the beam from the woodwork respond.
“Woe to him who builds a town with blood
and founds a city on iniquity!
Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts
that peoples labor merely for fire,
and nations weary 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 who makes his neighbors drink—
you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
in order to gaze at their nakedness!
You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the LORD’s right hand
will come around to you,
and utter shame will come upon your glory!
The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
“What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
But the LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
(ESV)
What’s the use of an idol? It is only something that a human being has made, and it tells you nothing but lies. What good does it do for its maker to trust it—a god that can’t even talk!
Habakkuk 2:18 GNB
Idolatry always begins with deception. It began in the Garden when Satan tempted man to disobey God and choose his own path in order to satisfy his needs. Since then, we have been continually tempted by the lure of deception. It promises so much but only delivers destruction in the end.
Habakkuk is highlighting the root of the problem. When we look around at our world today, we may be tempted to blame politics or a lack of morality as the culprits for such a decline. However, the catalyst for such a backslidden condition can always be traced back to idolatry. The book of Judges is an object lesson in how quickly things can unravel. First, there is spiritual apostasy. Next comes moral decline. Finally, there is political anarchy which eventually crushes the nation. You can try and blame politics, or a lack of morality, but the root issue is always a turning away from God in all aspects of life.
We are worshippers that inevitably find something or someone to worship. If it isn’t God, then we have been deceived. We have been fooled by a counterfeit. God will let us chase that idol to our destruction knowing that the tighter we cling to it, the more forcefully it pulls us into the darkness. This is exactly why prophets were given the Word of God to speak to the people and why we were given the Scriptures to read today. The truth of God breaks the chains of idolatry and awakens us to deceit. But that’s not all. It calls us to turn, repent, and come back to God!