Babylon, God's Instrument, God's Tool

We pick up the testimony of Habakkuk as he watches faithless Judah abandon the Lord and wickedness increase in his nation. He wants answers as to why God allows it and why God would use Babylon to judge them, since they are such wicked people. So in the first part of chapter 2, he describes himself as a watchman on the wall.

Soon enough, the Lord speaks:
Habakkuk 2:2–3 (ESV) And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 3 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.

The Lord has bigger plans than simply answering Habakkuk's questions. The Lord has a purpose for the prophet to fulfill. He will not only hear God's Word, but he will also write it down and make it known. The watchman on the wall has one job: to warn when disaters comes. 

One of the responsibilities God's people have is to warn. I know this is officially a lost art with the modern church, but there are still a few who carry this sacred task forward. The ministry of every prophet, from Elijah to John the Baptist, the precursor to Christ, saw the need to warn sinners of judgment. To the religious establishment, John responded as such:
Matthew 3:7 (ESV) when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

The job of the Lord's house is to warn the world. Hell is real. Now they will not like it, but some will hear it. And this warning needs to be made plain, and someone needs to carry (run) it to those who need it. So verse 4 offers us a glimpse of the response:
Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV) “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

The puffed-up ones here are the Babylonians, as the prophet is assured the Lord knows about them. And like the Babylonians, most people, in arrogant pride, will refuse to hear the Lord. But there will be a chosen few, the righteous who know and believe in the Lord's saving grace.

The prophet writes down the words of woe delivered by the Lord toward this evil nation:
Habakkuk 2:6 (ESV) “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!”
Habakkuk 2:9 (ESV) “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!
Habakkuk 2:12 (ESV) “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!
Habakkuk 2:15 (ESV) “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

Habakkuk makes it clear that the time of judgment for the instrument of Babylon against Israel will come. 
Habakkuk 2:16 (ESV) 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!

Eventually, in Daniel 5, we read of Babylon's sudden fall to the Medes and Persians. The God of Israel is God over all nations. 

Thus, the chapter ends with a calming assurance to those who look upon the evil and struggle to comprehend why God can allow it. He will not allow it forever, and recompense comes.
Habakkuk 2:19–20 (ESV) 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. 20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”


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