Woe, Be Gone!
Habakkuk 2:2-20
Introduction:
Lake Wobegon is a fictional town in the state of Minnesota, made famous by author Garrison Keillor. It’s a town where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” With this kind of reputation, it may seem odd that the English word “woebegone” is defined as “strongly affected with woe, exhibiting great woe, sorrow, or misery or being in a sorry state.” The term could also mean “shabby, derelict or run down.”
That hardly seems like a fitting description for a town in which the natural human tendency is to overestimate one’s capabilities. But the word “woebegone” could also be a compound word, composed of “woe” “be” and “gone” as in “Woe, Be Gone!” This would make more sense: that a town which thinks so highly of themselves would be characterized by an absence of woe.
The Need for Patience:
In our text this morning, the prophet Habakkuk proclaims a message of woe and a message of hope. Habakkuk had experienced a profound dilemma. He was burdened by the wickedness, violence, and destruction that were going on in the land of Judah. It seemed as if the Lord would not even lift a finger to save the righteous from the oppression of violent men. And so, Habakkuk wanted to know why God wouldn’t listen. Habakkuk wanted to know why God wouldn’t help. And Habakkuk wanted to know why God even tolerated all this.
God revealed his amazing plan. God was going to use the evil and barbaric Babylonians to punish Judah. This didn’t make any sense at all. This revelation seemed like a perversion of justice. “Why would God use a nation that is even more evil than Judah to provide discipline?” Habakkuk wondered. Habakkuk waited for God’s reply, and God answered. God would deal with the Babylonians in his own way and in his own time.
God speaks to Habakkuk clearly and truthfully. God commands Habakkuk to write down everything that is being revealed to him so that it can be proclaimed in all the land of Judah. God was continually at work. God would not destroy his people. God’s people would be disciplined. But God’s judgment on the Babylonians was also on its way.
God assures Habakkuk that the appointed time will come. It may seem like a long time. But it will indeed come and not delay. God’s message to Habakkuk points toward a future goal. It speaks of the end. Like a panting runner pressing toward the finish line, the appointed time hastens to arrive.
God will provide his people with salvation. Even in discipline, God will preserve his people. Through God’s discipline, his people will be reconciled to himself. They will be purified like a precious metal in a refiner’s fire.
God’s revelation will not prove false. Circumstances often suggest that hope is nothing but wishful thinking. Sometimes faith contradicts experience. But God’s Word is true. Even though the fulfillment of God’s plan seems delayed, it will come to pass according to God’s perfect plan. “Wait for it,” God says.
The Scorn for the Enemy:
God summarizes again what the Babylonians are like. They are puffed up. Their desires are not upright. They are arrogant and never at rest. They are greedy and never satisfied. They wreak havoc on all the nations and take all the people captive. They think that they are worthy to enjoy whatever they want, and therefore they make it their business to obtain it all by whatever means they choose.
God announces the destruction of Babylon in greater detail in a song of woe. Since pride had been their sin, disgrace and dishonor will be their punishment. The Babylonians will be viewed with contempt. They will be despised by all the nations they had abused. In fact, those very nations will be the instruments of their disgrace. All those nations conquered and plundered by the Babylonians will in due time witness the fall of their conqueror and join together in a song of derision and reproach.
It’s a song of woe. Woe is an interjection of distress pronounced in the face of disaster or in view of coming judgment because of certain sins. The first stanza in this song of woe emphasizes that those who brutally mistreat others will one day experience the same treatment.
The Babylonians had made themselves wealthy by extortion and violence. They had viciously heaped up the wealth of the nations. But in time, the victimized nations would suddenly arise in revolt. They would unexpectedly strike back. The Babylonians themselves would be victimized in the same way that they had victimized other nations. The spoiler would be spoiled. The plundered would suddenly arise to plunder. Babylon would reap what they had sown.
The second woe serves as a warning that those who elevate themselves by trampling on others will themselves be brought down. Babylon’s physical splendor, made possible by its exploitation of others, testified of its crimes. They sought their own exaltation. They used their plunder to build a name for themselves. They used their illegal gain to build a towering world empire.
But Babylon’s plan to destroy others in order to make themselves secure would fail. In the crusade to erect a monument, they were constructing their own shameful mausoleum. Death would become their due. Even the stones of the wall and the beams of the woodwork would testify against the cruel hands of the Babylonians that had fashioned these building materials to show off their empire’s strength and glory. Babylon would be ruined.
The third stanza in this song of woe emphasizes that it is futile to use oppressive policies to build a city and promote its humanistic culture. The Babylonians had abused the people they conquered by forcing them to work under oppressive conditions. And the Babylonians prided themselves in the city they had built by the blood, sweat, and tears of enslaved people.
But God gives his assessment of this building project. The Lord Almighty, the Sovereign of the universe, declares that the ambitious work of the Babylonians has been in vain. Their carefully hewn stones would serve as the altar. Their ornately carved wood would serve as kindling for the giant sacrificial fire that would leave Babylon in ashes. The nations they had conquered had worn themselves out in useless labor. All they had built will go up in flames. Babylon would be destroyed.
The fourth woe emphasizes that those who are arrogant and boast in themselves will be brought to shame. Instead of being admired, the wicked will be ridiculed. They will be objects of contempt. The Babylonians treated their subjects with humiliation and disgrace. The picture here is of a drunkard who gives wine to his neighbors to intoxicate them so that he may indulge in some evil act and expose his victims to shame.
But those who gloated over the shame of their drunken victims would someday be filled with shame themselves. Their glory would be turned to shame. The Babylonians would be forced to drink the cup from the LORD‘s right hand. They would be forced to endure divine retribution. They would experience the wrath of God. And they would be utterly and shamefully scorned because of their powerlessness and disgrace. Babylon would be brought down.
The last woe indicates that there will be no escape from God’s wrath. No idol can protect the wicked against the judgment that will befall them. No help or guidance will come from a lifeless object, even if it is encased in gold and silver. Idols have no value.
This condemnation against idols removes any hope the Babylonians may have had that their gods would protect them from the judgments which have been threatened in the preceding verses. Like their idols, the Babylonians stand condemned under God’s woe. God’s judgment on the Babylonians would prove to all nations how foolish it is to worship idols. Such trust in idols is groundless. Babylon would indeed fall.
Woe is Babylon! Woe are all those who are enemies of God! Woe are all those who are prideful, who abuse others, who promote injustice, who exploit others. Woe are all those who worship idols. Woe are all those who lie, cheat, and steal. Let’s not be one of them.
The Assurance for Those Who Overcome:
But if we find ourselves living a Babylonian lifestyle, let us remember that God is merciful. God assures us of his love and forgiveness. To all those who repent and resolve to live a life that is obedient to his will, God says, “Woe, be gone!” They will not drink the cup of God’s wrath that the Babylonians are forced to drink.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to his disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Then he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” After finding his disciples asleep, he prayed again, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
You see, our woe is gone because Jesus bore all of God’s wrath for our sin. Jesus drank the cup for us. God’s anger for all of our pride, all of our abusive acts, all of our acts of injustice, all of our sinful worship, all of our dishonesty, all of our wretchedness, despair, and misery – Jesus endured it all.
And because Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath, we are redeemed from all the peril that sin may cause. God, in his grace and mercy, works all things for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And we may be assured that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
We also know that God will not tolerate wickedness. God will surely punish evil. Even when it may seem that the sovereignty and grace of God is lost in the depths of human pessimism and despair, God is at work. Even when we look at all the evil that exists in our nation and throughout the world, God will still accomplish his purpose in his own way and in his own time.
God’s eternal covenantal character and holiness are not diminished by his working his will through good and evil alike. God is holy, even when wickedness is all around us. God is righteous, even when he disciplines us. God is loving, even when we experience pain. And because of his holiness, righteousness, and love, God says to us, “Woe, be gone!”
God’s promise to us is sure. The righteous will live by his faith. The righteous are those who have a right standing with God. The righteous are those who have been declared innocent by the heavenly Judge through faith in Jesus Christ.
God gives us the gift of faith. And that faith expresses itself in faithfulness. And so, the righteous person will remain steadfast and faithful to God’s law and standards. His deeds will conform to God’s revealed will. He will trust in the Lord, rely on him, and be faithful to him.
This steadfastness in faith manifests itself outwardly in our praise, worship, and godly works. It is evident when we demonstrate principles of honesty and integrity. It proves itself when we persevere during those times in which we are publicly exposed to insult and persecution.
God assures us that he will preserve us by our godly lifestyle whenever we face oppression and judgment, for God ultimately rewards this type of conduct. And so, in trying times, we can trust God to handle the situation appropriately. We can live by an unwavering trust in God that remains firm in spite of trials.
God will punish evil, but in his own way and in his own time. We can be confident of this, for our faith rests in the sovereignty of God’s righteous rule in this world. We can expect wickedness to continue for as long as we live on this earth. But in the end the proud and violent will receive their due. They will be cut down. As for the righteous, they will continue to live by faith.
God’s gift of faith provides us with stability. When our lives are characterized by faith, God enables us to trust him enough to be obedient, even when life doesn’t make sense. When we feel like we have been betrayed, God enables us to trust him enough to be able to forgive like he has forgiven us. When somebody else gets ahead by doing wrong, God enables us to trust him enough to give us the courage we need in order to continue to do what is right, knowing that he will reward our obedience. When we are being controlled by a habit that is overpowering us, God enable us to trust him enough for the strength we need to exhibit self-control. Through God’s gift of faith, he says to us, “Woe, be gone!”
God’s promise to us is sure. Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. And the day is coming when the King of kings will reign on earth with perfect justice. And the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. God intends to fill the earth with his everlasting glory, not with monuments of the proud and violent.
In the midst of darkness and woe comes a promise of light and hope for those who trust in God. While the kingdom of darkness is frustrated in its attempt to expand throughout the earth, the kingdom of God quietly extends its boundaries.
When the plans of the wicked have been finally frustrated, and the proud have received their just reward, then the knowledge of God’s glorious splendor and holiness will completely fill the earth. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will be worldwide. Everyone, whether they are wicked or righteous, will know the glory of the Lord. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Through the preaching of the Gospel, the knowledge of the true God as revealed in his Son Jesus Christ is gradually spreading across the earth even today. Ultimately the wicked will fail and the gospel will triumph throughout all the earth. And the King of Glory – the LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle, Jesus Christ himself – will reign eternally.
Then we will ascend the hill of the LORD. We will stand in his holy place. We will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God our Savior. And God will say to us, “Woe, be forever gone!”
That is ultimately the appointed time that God revealed to Habakkuk and said would come. That day will come beyond a shadow of a doubt. And though that day may linger, we are to wait for it in faith and hope. That day will certainly come and will not delay.
God’s promise to us is sure. He promises to give us abundant life. He promises to give us a life of security, protection, and fullness, in spite of the evils around us. Even though God sometimes works in ways that astound us, even though God sometimes works in ways that we do not understand, the LORD is in his holy temple.
Jesus Christ is now exalted at God’s right hand. He is the Lord of history. Jesus Christ is the God of every circumstance. Through Jesus Christ, nothing can happen that does not flow in the channel that God has dug for it. No event can ever occur outside of God’s plan. Our world belongs to God. Our ruler is Jesus Christ, not dumb idols that cannot even speak.
In the midst of everything that happens, Jesus Christ is Lord. And so, let all the earth be silent before him. Stand in silent awe and worship before his throne. Submit to his glorious majesty. God is in control, and Jesus Christ has given us the victory. God has said to us, “Woe, be gone!”
Conclusion:
Lake Wobegon may be a town where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” But when God declares to us, “Woe, be gone!” he pronounces us righteous before him. He gives us the gift of faith so that we may trust and righteously obey him. He displays his glory in our lives and in his church and throughout the whole wide world for all to see. And he rules over us and all his creation from his heavenly throne.
That is the message that we, like Habakkuk, must write down. And so, let’s write the message of the Gospel on our hearts and minds so that we may run with it and proclaim it wherever we go.
