Habakkuk
2
The prophet, waiting for an
answer to his expostulation, is bidden to write the oracle
in plain characters, because its
fulfillment is certain. (vs. 1-3)
1 “I will
stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to
see what He will say unto me, and what I shall
answer when I am reproved.”
Habakkuk speaks with himself, and, mindful of his office,
waits
for
the communication which he confidently expects (Jeremiah 33:3).
I will stand upon
my watch (Isaiah 21:6, 8). As a watchman goes to a
high place to see all around and discern what is coming, so the prophet
places himself apart from men, perhaps in some secluded height,
in
readiness to hear the voice of God and seize the meaning of the
coming
event. Prophets are called “watchmen” (compare Ezekiel 3:17; 33:2, 6;
Micah 7:4). The
tower; i.e. watch tower, either literally or metaphorically, as
in the
first clause. Septuagint, πέτραν – petran - rock. What He
will say unto me;
quid dicatur mihi
(Vulgate); τί λαλήσει
ἐν ἐμοί - ti lalaesei en emoi - what He will
speak in me (Septuagint). He watches for the inward revelation which
God makes
to his soul. When I am reproved; ad arguentem me (Vulgate); ἐπὶ τὸν ἔλεγχόν μου –
epi ton elegchon mou - (Septuagint); rather, to my complaint, referring to
his
complaint concerning the impunity of sinners (ch.
1:13-17). He waits till
he
hears God’s voice within him what answer he shall make to his own
complaint, the expostulation which he had offered to God. There is
no
question here concerning the reproofs which others leveled against
him, or
concerning any rebuke conveyed to him by God — an impression given by
the
Anglican Version.
2 “And the
LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make
it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” Jehovah answers the
prophet’s expostulation (ch.1:12, etc.). Write. That it may
remain permanently
on
record, and that, when it comes to pass, people may believe in the prophet’s
inspiration (John 13:19;
compare Isaiah 8:1; 30:8; Jeremiah 30:2; Revelation 1:11).
The vision (see ch. 1:1: Obadiah
1:1). The word includes the inward revelation as
well as the open vision. Upon tables; upon
the tables (Deuteronomy 27:8); i.e.
certain tablets placed
in public places, that all might see and read
them (see Isaiah,
loc. cit.); Septuagint, εἰς πυξίον – eis puxion
- a boxwood tablet. The
summary of
what was to be written is given in v. 4. This was to be “made plain,”
written large
and legibly. Septuagint, σαφῶς – saphos. That
he may run that readeth it. The
common explanation of these words (unfortunately perpetuated by
Keble’s
well known hymn, “There is a book, who runs may read”), viz. that even
the
runner, one who hastens by hurriedly, may be able to read it, is not
borne out by the Hebrew, which rather means that every one who reads it
may run, i.e. read fluently and easily. So Jerome, “Scribere
jubetur planius,
ut possit lector currere, et nullo impedimento velocitas ejus et legendi
cupido teneatur.”
to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,” interprets the clause to
signify that whosoever reads the announcement might run and
publish it to
all within his reach. “‘ To run,’” he adds, “is equivalent
to ‘to prophesy’ in
Jeremiah 23:21,” on the principle that those who were
charged with a
Divine message were to use all dispatch in making it known.
In the
passage of Daniel, “to
run to and fro,” is explained to mean “to peruse.”
3 “For the
vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall
speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait
for it; because it will surely
come, it will not tarry.” For. The reason is given why the oracle is to be
committed to writing. Is yet
for an (the) appointed
time. The vision will not be
accomplished immediately, but in the period fixed by God
(compare Daniel
8:17,19; 11:27,35). Others explain, “pointeth
to a yet future time.” But at the
end it shall speak. The verb is literally “breathes,” or “pants;” hence the
clause
is better rendered, and it panteth
(equivalent to hasteth) towards the
end. The
prophecy personified yearns for its fulfillment in “the
end,” not merely at the
destruction of the literal
the Messianic age, when the world power, typified by
overthrown (see Daniel, loc cit.). And not lie; it deceiveth not; οὐκ εἰς
κενόν –
ouk eis kenon - not in vain (Septuagint). It will
certainly come to pass.
Wait for it. For the vision and its accomplishment. Because it will surely come.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (10:37) quotes the
Septuagint Version
of this clause, applying it to the last coming of Messiah - Ὅτι (plus ὁ, Hebrew)
ἐρχόμενος ἥξει
καὶ οὐ
μή χρονίσῃ
(οὐ χρονιεῖ
Hebrew); hoti erchomenos haexei
kai ou mae chronisae
– it surely will come – it won’t delay - so the Vulgate,
Veniens veniet, et non tardabit. The original passage does not primarily refer to
the coming of Messiah, but as the
full and final accomplishment of the prophecy
doubtless belongs to that age,
it is not a departure from the fundamental idea to
see in it a reference
hereto. It will not tarry; it will not be behindhand; it will
not fail to arrive (Judges
5:28; II Samuel 20:5).
The Prophet upon His Watch Tower (vs. 1-3)
- THE OUT LOOKING PROPHET. (v. 1.)
Having spread out before
Jehovah
his complaint, Habakkuk, determined to stand upon his watch
tower or station
himself upon his fortress, and to look forth to see what
Jehovah
would speak within him, and what reply in consequence he should
give to
his own complaint. The words indicate the
frame of mind to be
cherished
and the course of conduct to be pursued by him who would hold
communion
with and obtain communications from God.
There must be:
Ø
Holy resolution. No soul can come to speaking terms
with God without
personal
effort. Certainly God may speak to men who make no efforts to
obtain
from Him either a hearing or an answer, but
in general those only
find
God who seek Him with the whole heart
(Psalm 119:2). Prophets
frequently
received revelations which they had not sought (Genesis
12:7;
Exodus 3:2; 24:1; Isaiah 6:1; Ezekiel 1:1; Daniel 7:1),
but
as often the Divine communications were imparted in answer to
specific
seeking (Genesis 15:13; Exodus 33:18-23; Daniel 9:2;
Acts 10:9) In the same way may God discover Himself,
disclose His
truth,
and dispense His grace to individuals, as He did to Saul of Tarsus
(Acts
9:1-6), without their previous exertions to procure such
distinguished
favors; but in religion, as in other matters, it is the hand
of
the diligent that maketh rich (II Peter 1:10).
Ø
Spiritual elevation. He. who would commune with God must, like
Habakkuk,
“stand upon his watch tower, and station himself upon his
fortress,”
not literally and bodily, but figuratively and spiritually. It is not
necessary
to suppose that Habakkuk went up to any steep and lofty place
in
order the better to withdraw himself from the noise and bustle of the
world, and the more easily to fix his mind on heavenly
things and direct
his soul’s eye Godward. Abraham certainly was on the summit
of Moriah
when
Jehovah appeared to him; Moses was called up to the top of Sinai to
meet
with God (Exodus 24:1; 34:2); Jehovah revealed Himself to Elijah
upon
the mount of Horeb (I Kings 19:11); Balaam went to “an
high
place” to look out for a revelation from God (Numbers 23:3); the
disciples
were on the crest of Hermon when Christ was transfigured
before
them (Matthew 17:1); and even Christ Himself spent whole
nights
in prayer with God among the hills (John 6:15). Local elevation
and
corporeal isolation may be usefully employed to aid the heart in
abstracting
itself from mundane things; yet this only is the elevation
and
isolation that brings the soul in contact with God (Matthew 6:6-7).
When
David prayed he retired into the inner chamber of his heart
(Psalm
19:14; 49:3) and lifted up his soul to God (Psalm 25:1).
Ø
Confident expectation. Habakkuk believed that his prayers and
complaints
would not pass unattended to by God. He never doubted
that
God would reply to his supplications and interrogations. So he
that
cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the
Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). It was
David’s
habit, after directing his prayer to God, to look up expecting
an
answer (Psalm 5:3), and it ought to be the practice of Christians first
to
ask in faith (James 1:6), and then to confidently hope for an answer
(Matthew
21:22; Mark 11:24;
I John 5:14).
Ø
Patient attention. Though Habakkuk had no doubt as to
the fact that
God
would speak to him, he possessed no assurance either as to the time
when
or as to the manner in which that speaking would take place.
Hence
he resolved to possess his soul in patience and keep an attentive
outlook. So David waited on and watched for God with
patient hope
and
close observation (Psalm 62:5; 130:5). So Paul exhorted Christians
to
“continue
in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving”
(Colossians
4:2). Many fail to obtain responses from God, because they
either
are not sufficiently attentive to discern the tokens by which God
speaks
to His people, or lack the patience to wait till He chooses to break
silence.
Ø
Earnest introspection. The want of this is
another frequent cause of
failure
on the part of those who would but do not hear God speak.
Habakkuk
understood that if God answered him it would be by His Spirit
speaking
in him, and that accordingly he required not to watch for “signs”
in the firmament, in the earth, or
in the sea, but to listen to the secret
whisperings
that he heard within himself. So David exhorted others to
commune
with their own hearts upon their bed (as doubtless he himself
did),
if they would know the mind of God (Psalm 4:4); and Asaph,
following
his example, observed the same godly practice (Psalm 77:6).
While
God has furnished lessons for all in the pages of nature and
revelation,
it is in the domain of the inner man, enlightened by His
Word
and taught by His Spirit, that His teaching for the
individual
is
to be sought.
- THE IN-SPEAKING GOD. (v. 2.)
Habakkuk had not long to wait
for the
oracle he expected; and neither would modern petitioners be long
without
answers were their waiting more like Habakkuk’s. Three things
were
announced to the prophet.
Ø
That he should receive a vision. Jehovah would not
leave his dark
problem
unsolved, would afford him such a glimpse into the future of
the
Chaldean power as would effectually dispel all his doubts and fears,
would
unveil to him the different destinies of the righteous and the
wicked
in such
a way as to enable him calmly to endure
until the end;
and exactly so has
the Christian obtained in the Bible such
light upon
the
mystery of
for its full solution. The vision about to be granted to Habakkuk was:
o
definite, i.e. for an appointed time, and so is the vision
now
granted
to the Christian for a time as well known to God
(though
not to the Christian) as any moment in the past has been;
o
distant, i.e. to be fulfilled after a longer or shorter
interval, and so
has
the day of the clearing up of the mystery of providence for
the
Christian been “after a long time;” but still
o
certain, i.e. it would surely come
to pass, and so will all that God
has revealed in Scripture concerning the
different destinies of the
righteous and the wicked come to pass. Heaven and earth may
pass away, but not God’s
Word (Matthew 24:35).
Ø
That he should write the vision. Whether a literal
writing upon a tablet
was
intended, as Isaiah (Isaiah 8:1; 30:8) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30:2)
were
directed to write down the communications received by them from
God;
or whether it was merely a figurative writing that was meant, as in
the
case of Daniel (Daniel 12:4); the intention manifestly was that
Habakkuk
should publish the vision he was about to receive — publish
it
in terms so clear and unambiguous that persons who only gave it a
casual
glance would have no difficulty in understanding
it. This has
been
done, not with reference to Habakkuk’s vision merely, but as
regards
the whole Bible, which is not only “all plain to him that
understandeth”
(Proverbs 8:9), but is able to “make wise the
simple” (Psalm 19:7), and guide in safety “the wayfaring man,
though
a fool” (Isaiah 35:8). The object
contemplated by the writing
(literal
or
figurative) of Habakkuk’s vision was:
o
the comfort of God’s
people in
waiting
that should intervene between then and the day of
their
enemy’s overthrow; and
o
the interpretation of
the vision when the incidents occurred to
which
it referred. The same purposes are subserved by the
Word
of God, and especially by those prophetic parts which
foretell the destruction of the enemies, and the salvation
of
the people, of God.
Ø
That he should wait for the vision. It might be delayed,
but it should
come. Hence he should possess his
soul in patience. So should
Christians
wait patiently for the coming of the Lord for their
final
redemption and for the overthrow of all the Church’s foes
(James
5:8; Luke 21:10-19). The contents of the vision are narrated
in
the verses which follow.
- LESSONS.
Ø
The dignity of
man, as
a being who can converse with God; the
condescension
of God in that He stoops to talk with
man.
Ø
The duty and the
profit of reflection and meditation; the sin and loss
of those
who never commune with their own hearts.
Ø
The simplicity of
the Bible a testimony to its divinity;
had it been man’s
book
it would not have been so easy to understand.
Ø
The certainty that
Scripture prediction will be fulfilled; the
expectation
of
this should comfort the saints; the realization of this will vindicate
God.
Waiting for
the Vision (vs. 1-3)
In this chapter we have set forth the doom of
given to him glimpses of the future as affecting the adversaries
of his
people. The Divine voice within him gave assurance that the power
of the
oppressor should at length be broken. He saw the solution of the
dark
problem which had perplexed him so much concerning the victory to
be
gained over his people by the Chaldeans. The triumphing of the wicked
should be short, and should be followed by their UTTER COLLAPSE. Yet
there would be delay ere this should come to pass. The darkness
which
brooded over the nation should not be at once dispersed; indeed,
it should
even become more dense in the working out of the Divine purposes. Defeat
must be experienced, the Captivity must be endured, and the faithful and
true must suffer in consequence of sins not their own. Still, ultimately,
“light should arise,” and meanwhile, so long as the gloom continued, it
behoved him and his people to trust and not be afraid, assured
that in
God’s time the vision of peace and prosperity should dawn
upon them.
“Though it tarry, wait for it,” etc. (v. 3). The truth suggested is that even
the
best of men have to experience seasons of darkness — times when
everything appears adverse to them, but that it shall not be ever
thus with
them, that brighter scenes are before them, and that hence their duty in the
present is tranquilly and trustfully to wait the development of
God’s all-wise
and
gracious purposes. This teaching admits of various applications.
- TEMPORAL CIRCUMSTANCES. These are not always easy and
prosperous. Sources of perplexity may at any moment arise.
There may
come slackness of trade; new rivals may appear, causing
sharp and severe
competition; losses may have to be sustained; and in this
way, from a
variety of causes, “hard
times” may have to be passed through.
And under
such circumstances we should trust and not be afraid, knowing that all our
interests are in our loving Father’s keeping. He has promised us a
sufficiency. His mercies are not the swift, but they are the sure, mercies of
David. (Isaiah 55:3) We must not be less
hopeful and trustful than the little
robin red breast chirping near our window pane, even in the
wintry weather.
“Behold the fowls of the air,” etc.
(Matthew 6:26). Then, “though the vision,”
etc.
- LIFE’S SORROWS. These have
fallen upon men at times with a
crushing weight. All has appeared dark; not a ray of light
has seemed to
penetrate the gloom. Yet
still they have found that, whilst the vision of
hope has been deferred, it has been realized at last,
filling their hearts with
holy rapture. Jacob
lived long enough to see that neither Joseph nor
Benjamin
had been really taken from him, and that those circumstances
which he regarded as being against him were all designed to
work out his
lasting good. Elijah cast himself down in the wilderness and
slept. And, lo!
angel guards attended him and ministered unto him, new
supplies of
strength were imparted, the sunshine of the Divine favor
beamed upon
him, and he who thought he
ought to die under a lonely tree in the desert
was ultimately altogether delivered from experiencing the
pangs of the last
conflict, and was borne in
triumph to the realms of everlasting peace.
II Kings
2:11) The Shunammite had her lost child restored; the exiled
returned at length with songs unto
unmoved and unruffled by the tempests which arise in the sea
of life,
assured that there awaits us a peaceful and tranquil
haven. “Though the
vision tarry, wait for it,” (v. 3).
- SPIRITUAL DEPRESSION. The Christian life is not all shadow. It
has its sunny as well as its shady side. The good have their
seasons of joy
— seasons
in which, believing, they can rejoice with joy unspeakable and
full of glory. Yet they have also their seasons of
depression. There is “the
midnight of the soul,” when the vision of spiritual light
and peace and joy
tarries; and it is then their
truest wisdom to trust and to wait, assured that
in due time God will make them glad by lifting upon them
“the light of His
countenance.” “Who
is among you that feareth the Lord?” etc.
(Isaiah
50:10); “Though
the vision tarry, wait for it,” (v.
3).
- CHRISTIAN WORK. The great
purpose of this is the deliverance of men
from the thraldom of sin. The vision we desire to
behold an accomplished
reality is that of the dry bones clothed afresh, inspired
with life, and standing
upon their feet, an exceeding great army (Ezekiel 37),
valiant for God
and righteousness. But the vision tarries! Spiritual death
and desolation
reign! What then? Shall we despair? Shall we express doubt
as to whether
the transformation of the realm of death into a realm of
spiritual life shall
ever be effected? No; though
the vision tarry, we will wait for it, knowing
that it will surely come; for
“the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” So
Robert
Moffat labored for years without gaining any converts from
heathenism, but at length a few were won, and he
commemorated with
these the death of Christ. “Our feelings,” he wrote, “were
such as pen
cannot describe. We were as those that dreamed while we
realized the
promise on which our souls often hung (Psalm 126:6). The
hour had
arrived on which the whole energies of our souls had been
intensely fixed,
when we should see a Church, however small, gathered from
amongst a
people who had so long boasted that neither Jesus nor we His
servants
should ever see Bechuanas worship
and confess him as their King.” And so
shall the faith and patience of all workers for God be
rewarded, since the
issue is guaranteed and the
harvest home of a regenerated world shall be
celebrated amidst rapturous joy.
Man’s Moral Mission to the World. (vs. 1-3)
“I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and
will watch to
see what he
will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and
make it plain
upon tables, that he may run that readeth
it. For the vision is yet for an
appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though
it tarry,
wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” The prophet, after
his
supplicatory cry, receives a Divine command to write the oracle in plain
characters. because it was certain, although
it would not be immediately
fulfilled. The first verse is a kind of monologue. The prophet holds
conversation with himself; and he resolves to ascend his watch tower,
and
look out for a Divine revelation. It is thought by many critics that the
watch tower is not to be regarded as something external, some
lofty place
commanding an extensive view and profound silence, but the recesses
of
his
own mind, into which he would withdraw himself by devout
contemplation, I shall use the words of the text to illustrate man’s moral
mission to the
world. Wherefore are we in this world?
Both the theories
and
the practical conduct of men give different answers to this all important
problem. I shall take the answer from the text, and observe:
- OUR MISSION HERE IS TO RECEIVE COMMUNICATIONS
FROM THE ETERNAL MIND. “I will stand upon my watch,
and sot me
upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto
me.” That man
is constituted for and required to receive communications
from the Infinite
Mind, and that he cannot realize
his destiny without this, appears evident
from the following Considerations.
Ø
From his nature as a spiritual being.
o
He has an instinct for it. He
naturally calls out for the living God.
As truly as the eye
is made to receive light, the soul is made to
receive thought from God.
o
He has a capacity for it. Unlike the lower creatures around us,
we can receive the ideas of God.
o He has a necessity
for it. God’s ideas are the quickening powers
of the soul.
Ø
From his condition as a fallen being. Sin has shut out God from the
soul, created a dense cloud between us and Him.
Ø
From the purpose of Christ’s
mediation. Why did Christ come
into the
world? To bring the human soul and God together, that the Lord might
“dwell amongst men.”
Ø
From the special manifestations of God for the purpose. I say special,
for nature, history, heart, and conscience are the natural
orders of
communication between the human and the Divine. But we have
something more than these — the
Bible; this is special. Here He speaks
to man at sundry times and in divers manners, etc. (Hebrews
1:1)
Ø
From the general teaching of the Bible. “Come now, and let
us reason
together,” (Isaiah 1:18); “Behold, I stand at the door,” (Revelation
3:20)
But how shall we receive these
communications? We must ascend the
“tower” of quiet,
earnest, devout thought, and there must “watch to see
what He will say.”
- OUR MISSION HERE IS TO IMPART
COMMUNICATIONS
FROM THE ETERNAL MIND. “Write the vision,
and make it plain upon
tables, that he may run that readeth
it.” From this we may conclude that
writing is both an ancient and a divinely sanctioned art. Thank
God for
books! That we have to
impart as well as to receive is evident:
Ø
From the tendency of Divine thoughts to express
themselves. It is of the
nature of religious ideas that they struggle for utterance. What we have
seen and heard we cannot but speak. (Acts 4:20)
Ø
From the universal adaptation of Divine thoughts. Thoughts from God
are not intended merely for certain individuals or classes, but
for all the
race in all generations.
Ø
From the spiritual dependence of man upon man. It is God’s plan,
that
man shall be the spiritual teacher of man.
Ø
From the general teaching of the Bible. What the prophets and
apostles
received from God they communicated. “When it pleased God to reveal
His Son in me,
immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood,” etc.
(Galatians 1:16).
- OUR MISSION HERE IS TO PRACTICALLY REALIZE
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE ETERNAL MIND. “Though it tarry,
wait for it,” etc. The
Divine thoughts which we receive we are to realize in
our daily life, practically to work out. Here, then, is our
moral mission. We
are here, brothers, for these three purposes; not for one of
them only, but
for all. God is to be everything to us; he is to fill up
the whole sphere of
our being, our “ALL IN ALL.”
Ø
we are to be His auditors, hearing His voice
in everything;
Ø
we are to be His organ, conveying to others what He has
conveyed to us;
Ø
we are to be His representatives, manifesting him in
every act of
our life. All we say and
do, our looks and mien, are to be rays
reflected from the Father of lights.
- CONCLUSION. From
this subject we may learn:
Ø
The reasonableness of religion. What is it? Simply to
receive,
propagate, and develop communications
from the Infinite Mind.
What can be more sublimely
reasonable than this?
Ø
The grandeur of a religious
life. What is it? The narrowness,
the
intolerance, the bigotry, the selfishness of many religionists lead
skeptics to look upon religion with derision. But what is it? To
be:
o
a disciple of the All-knowing,
Omniscient God,
o
a minister of the All-ruling God,
o
a representative of the All-glorious God!
Is there anything grander?
Ø
The function of Christianity. What is it?
o
To induce,
o
to qualify, and
o
enable men to
receive, communicate, and to live
THE GREAT
THOUGHTS OF GOD!
4 “Behold,
his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the
just shall live by his faith.” The great principle is taught that the proud shall not
continue, but the just
shall live by faith. The prophecy commences with a
fundamental thought, applicable to all God’s dealings with
man. Behold,
his soul which is
lifted up is not upright in him; literally, behold, puffed
up, his soul is not upright in him. This is a description of an evil character
(especially of the Chaldean) in opposition to the character
delineated in the
following hemistich. One who is proud, presumptuous, thinks
much of
himself, despising others, and is not straightforward and
upright before
God, shall not live, shall
not have a happy, safe life; he carries in himself
the seeds of destruction. The result is not expressed in the first hemistich,
but may be supplied from the next clause, and may be inferred
from the
language in Hebrews 10:38-39, where, after quoting the
Septuagint rendering
of this passage, Ἐὰν ὑποστείληται
οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ
ἡ ψυχή μου
ἐν αὐτῷ - Ean
huposteilaetai ouk eudokei hae
psuchae mou en auto – behold,
his soul is
puffed up - the writer
adds, “But we are not of them that shrink
back (ὑποσταλῆς –
hupostalaes – of
shrinking back) unto perdition.”
Vulgate, Ecce, qui
incredulus est, non erit
recta anima ejus in semetipso,
which seems to
confine the statement to the case of
one who doubts God’s word. But the
just shall live by
his faith. The “faith” here
spoken of is a loving trust in
God, confidence in His promises, resulting in due
performance of His will.
This hemistich is the antithesis to the former. The proud and perverse,
those who wish to be
independent of God, SHALL PERISH, but, on the other
hand, the righteous shall live and be saved through his
faith, on the
condition that he puts his trust in God. The Hebrew accents
forbid the
union, “the just by faith,” though, of course, no one can
be just, righteous,
without faith. The passage may be emphasized by rendering,
“As to the
just, through his faith he shall live.” This famous
sentence, which Paul
has used as the basis of his great argument (Romans 1:17;
Galatians 3:11;
compare Hebrews 10:38), in its literal and contextual
application
implies that the righteous
man will have perfect trust in God’s promises
and will be rewarded by being safe in the day of
tribulation, with reference
to the coming trouble at the hands of the Chaldeans. When
the proud,
greedy kingdom shall have sunk in ruin, the faithful people
shall live secure.
But the application is not confined to this circumstance.
The promise looks
beyond the temporal future of the Chaldeans and Israelites,
and unto a
reward that is eternal. We see how naturally the principle here enunciated
is applied by the apostle to teach the doctrine of
justification by faith in
Christ. The Septuagint gives, Ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεώς
μου ζήσεται – Ho
de
dikaios ek pisteos mou zaesetai
- i,e. by faith in me. The
Speaker is God.
Paul omits μου. Habakkuk gathers into one sentence the
whole principle of
the Law, and indeed all true religion.
Dark Problems and Man’s True Attitude in
Relation to Them.
(ch. 1:13-15, 17; vs.
1-4.)
- THE MYSTERY CONNECTED WITH THE DIVINE
OPERATIONS.
(ch.
1:13-15, 17.) The prophet in these words expressed the perplexity of
his mind and the consequent
sadness of his heart. He had bitterly mourned
over the prevailing guilt of his
people, and had earnestly appealed to
Heaven to vindicate the right.
The Divine response, however, filled him
with distress. That Divine
chastisement should be inflicted upon his country
he understood and approved, but
that the Chaldeans, who were still greater
transgressors, should be
permitted to run over the land, and to lead his
people into captivity, baffled
and perplexed him. Yea, more; whilst the
good in his land were but few,
yet there were to be found such; and how
could it be that these should
suffer, and suffer at the hands of the heathen
who were so gross and
iniquitous? Surely, thought he, this scarcely
accorded with the thought of the
Divine purity, and of the rectitude of
God’s providential government.
And hence he cried in his perplexity,
“Thou art,” etc. (ch. 1:13,15,17) There is
mystery in the Divine
operations; dark problems
confront us as we reflect upon the Divine
working. “How unsearchable are His
judgments, and His ways past finding
out!” (Romans 11:33); “Thy way is in the sea;” i.e.
“far down in secret
channels of the deep is his
roadway;” “Thy footsteps are not known;” i.e.
“none can follow thy tracks”
(Psalm 77:19). One man enjoys the
endowment of reason; another is left
a helpless lunatic. One has all things
and abounds; another is well
nigh destitute of the common necessaries of
life. One has “no changes;”
another is being continually subjected to
adverse influences. We see the
mother dying just after she has given birth
to her child; we behold the
young and the beautiful passing “out of
sunshiny life into silent
death;” we behold the earnest toiler stricken down
in the very prime of life,
whilst useless and injurious lives are preserved and
“burn to the socket.” The
skeptic asks us to reconcile all this with the
thought of God’s wise and loving
rulership, and, failing this, to join him in
his indifference and practical
atheism; but to do so would be to go contrary
to the deepest convictions of
our hearts, and to the clearest testimony of
our consciences. We will rather
seek to cherish a faith which will pierce the
mists, and enable us, despite
such anomalies, to recognize the
goodness
and the love of
God.
- THE TRUE ATTITUDE IN RELATION TO THESE
DARK
PROBLEMS.
Ø
The attitude of prayer. The seer took all his
fears and forebodings, his
difficulties
and discouragements, his doubts and perplexities, to God
in
prayer (ch. 1:13-15, 17). As we pray light often is
cast upon the
hidden
path.
Ø
The attitude of expectancy. “I will stand upon
my watch,” etc. (v.1).
We
are to “wait patiently for the Lord,” and there is ever to enter into this
waiting
the element of watchfulness. We are to look for further light, even
here,
upon the works and ways of our God, and we shall assuredly miss
this
unless we cherish the spirit of holy expectation. “Many a proffered
succour from heaven goes past us because we are not
standing on our
watch
tower to catch the far off indications of its approach, and to fling
open
the gates of our hearts for its entrance” (Maclaren).
Ø
The attitude of trust. “The just shall
live by his faith” (Jeremiah 2:4).
It
is not in the process, but in the issue, that the wisdom and rightness of
the
Divine operations will be fully manifested, and for the issue we must
trustfully
wait. Tennyson sings —
“Who can
so forecast the years,
And find
in loss a gain to match?
Or reach a
hand through time to catch
The
far off interest of tears?”
In God’s economy there is a gain to match every loss. Tears
do bear
interest; only we cannot “forecast the years,” and see the
gain; we cannot
reach forth and seize in advance “the interest of tears.” But however far
off, it is there. We shall know more and more, even in the present life, as
God’s purposes concerning us develop, that all things are working together
for our good
(Romans 8:28), whilst at length standing upon the heights
of eternity, and gazing back upon the past and seeing in
the perfect light,
the perfect wisdom,, and the perfect love, we shall cry
with adoring
gratitude, “He hath done all things well!” (Mark 7:37)
The
Life of Faith (v. 4)
There are two forms of life referred to in Scripture — the
life of sense, and
the
life of faith. These differ in their bent (Romans 8:5), and also in the
issues to which they tend (ibid.
v.13). The sincerely righteous man,
“the just,” has tested both these. Time was when he lived the former,
but,
satisfied as to its unreality, he now looks not at the things which
are seen,
but
at those which are unseen (I Corinthians 6:11; II Corinthians 4:18). His motto
is
Galatians 2:20. “The just shall live by his faith.” These words are
quoted by
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (10:38). The New Testament
writers
were diligent students of the Old Testament, and we may learn from their
example not to treat those more ancient writings as being of
comparative
unimportance They, however, use this expression of the Prophet Habakkuk
in
a somewhat different sense from that in which he employed it, and apply
it
to the exposition and enforcement of the important doctrine of
“justification by faith.” The thought possessing the mind of the seer was
that the righteous man exercises an implicit confidence in God; and
adopting this course is preserved and protected, and experiences
tranquility and happiness under every circumstance of life. In reflecting
upon his words our attention may appropriately be directed to some of the
circumstances in which “the just”
may be placed, with a view to indicating
how
that, under these, their faith in God strengthens and sustains them, and
enables them truly to live.
- “The just shall live by
their faith” IN TIMES
OF DECLENSION IN
RELIGION. Such declension
prevailed in the age to which this prophet
belonged. The
mournful words with which his prophecy commences
indicate this (ch.1:2-4). Many similar times of declension
have
risen among the nations, and when the falling away from the
true and the
right has been widespread. So also has it been with
Christian communities.
Watchfulness has been neglected, and prayer has been
restrained; there has
been a lack of the spirit of Christian unity and concord;
there has been the
fire upon the altar, but, alas? it
has been in embers; the lamp has been
burning, but it has given only a flickering light. “The just,” under such
circumstances, are grieved as they view the state of religion
around them,
but whilst sad at heart in view of such declension and of
the way in which it
dishonors God, they are
also inspired with confidence and hope.
Their
trust is in Him. They know that with Him is the residue of
the Spirit. Whilst
praying the prayer of this prophet, “O Lord, revive thy work” (ch.3:2),
they
can also, like him, express this confident assurance,
“For
the earth shall be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the
waters cover the
sea.,” (ch. 2:14). And so it
comes to pass that in the season of declension
in religion, when many around have lost the fervor of
their love and loyalty to
God and to righteousness,
“the
just shall live by his faith.” (see Ezekiel 9:4)
- “The
just shall live by their faith” IN TIMES OF NATIONAL
CALAMITY. Chastisement follows transgressions to nations as well as
to
individuals.
fall into the hands of the Chaldeans; and it was the mission
of Habakkuk to
foretell the approaching Captivity. National calamities have
been
experienced by our own people. Sometimes it has come to us
in the form
of war. The appeal has been made to the arbitrament of the sword; and
even although we have been victorious, the triumph has been
secured at an
enormous sacrifice of life, with all the bitter suffering to
survivors thus
involved. Or pestilence has
prevailed. The destroying angel has swept over
the land, sparing neither the old nor the young, and
numbering thousands
among his victims. And in
the midst of these faith grasps the rich promises
of God and RESTS UNSWERVINGLY ON HIM! Let the Chaldean
warriors come on horses swifter than the leopards and more
fierce than the
evening wolves, let them in bitterness and haste traverse the
breadth of the
land, resolved to possess the dwelling places that are not
theirs, let them
scoff at kings and scorn princes and gather the captivity as
the sand, still
the hearts of the faithful shall be borne upward, for in the
time of national
calamity, and when hearts not centered from God are
breaking, “THE
JUST
SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH!”
- LEAVING THE EXACT CONNECTION OF THE TEXT, THE
TRUTH CONTAINED IN IT RECEIVES
ILLUSTRATION FROM THE
VARIED CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THE
GOOD ARE PLACED
HERE. Take the two extremes of prosperity and adversity.
Ø
Some enjoy great temporal prosperity. The temptations of such are
o
pride,
o
worldliness,
o
indolence,
o
selfishness,
and yielding to which they lack those higher joys and nobler
aspirations in which consists the true life! Walking by faith,
the good man is preserved from yielding to the influence of
these
temptations. Strong in faith, he will see that all his
prosperity is to
be ascribed to Him who giveth power to get wealth, and thus
pride
will be laid low. Strong in faith, he will realize that
there are other
treasures, incorruptible and unfading, and with mind and heart
directed to the securing of these, he will think less of
this world’s
pomp and vanity and show. Strong in faith, he will feel that he has
a work to do for God, and that the additional influence
prosperity
has secured to him ought to be held as a sacred trust to be used to
God’s
glory, and hence he will be preserved
from seeking merely his
own ease and enjoyment. And strong in faith, he will view himself
as a steward of all that he has, and will therefore seek to
be God’s
almoner to the needy around him. So
shall he live BY HIS FAITH!
o
Others have to pass
through adverse scenes; and the faith that
strengthens in prosperity wilt also sustain amidst life’s
unfavorable
influences. Resting in the
Lord and in the glorious assurances of His
Word,
His servants can outride the severest storm, quietly acquiescing
and bravely enduring.
Ruskin remarks that there is good in everything
in God’s universe, that there is hardly a roadside pond or pool
which
has not as much landscape in it as above it, that it is at our own
will that
we see in that despised stream either the refuse of the street or the
image
of the sky, that whilst the unobservant man knows simply that the
roadside pool is muddy, the great painter sees beneath and behind the
brown surface what will take him a day’s work to follow, but he follows
it, cost what it will, and is amply recompensed, and that the great
essential is an eye to apprehend and to
appreciate the beautiful which
lies about us everywhere
in God’s world. And this is what we want
spiritually — the eye of
faith, and then shall we see,
even in the most
opposite of the experiences which meet us in life, God’s gracious
operation, and the vision shall thrill us with holy joy. “The
just shall
live by his faith.” This life of faith
is a life characterized
by true
blessedness. There can be no real happiness whilst we are opposing
our will to the will of God; but if our will is renewed by His grace, if
we are trusting in the Saviour and
following Him along the way of
obedience to the Divine authority and of resignation to the Divine
purpose, then amidst all the changing scenes of our life our peace
shall flow like a river, and we shall experience joy LASTING
AS
GOD’S THRONE!
The Portraiture of a Good Man. (v. 4)
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him:
but the just shall
live by his faith.”
Whether the man whose soul is represented as “lifted up”
refers to the unbelieving Jew or to the Babylonian, is an
unsettled question
amongst biblical critics; and a question of but little practical
moment. We
take the words as a portraiture of a good man.
- A GOOD MAN IS A HUMBLE MAN.
This is implied. His soul is not
“lifted up.” Pride is not only no part of moral goodness, but is
essentially
inimical to it. It is said that St. Augustine, being asked, “What
is the first
article in the Christian religion?” replied, “Humility.” “What is
the second?”
“Humility.” “And the third?” “Humility.” A proud Christian is a solecism.
Jonathan Edwards describes a
Christian as being such a “little flower as
we
see in the spring of the year, low and humble in the ground,
opening its
bosom for the beams of the sun, rejoicing in a calm rapture,
suffusing
around sweet fragrance, and standing peacefully and lowly in
the midst of
other flowers.” Pride is an
obstruction to all progress and knowledge and
virtue, and is abhorrent to the Holy One. “He resisteth
the proud, but
giveth grace to the humble.”
(James 4:6)
“Fling
away ambition,
By that
sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
The image
of his Maker, hope to win by ‘t?”
(Shakespeare.)
- A GOOD MAN IS A JUST MAN. “The
just shall live by his faith.” To
be good is nothing more than to be just.
Ø
Just to self. Doing
the right thing to one’s own faculties and affections
as the offspring of God.
Ø
Just to others. Doing unto others what we would that
they should do
unto us.
Ø
Just to God. The kindest Being
thanking the most, the best Being loving
the most, the greatest Being reverencing the most. To be just to
self,
society, and God, — this is religion.
- A GOOD MAN IS A CONFIDING MAN. He lives “by his faith.”
This passage is quote! by Paul in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11;
it is also quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews
10:38). What
is faith? Can you get a better definition than the writer of
the Hebrews has
given in the eleventh chapter and first verse? — “Faith
is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This definition replies
three things.
Ø
That the things to which faith is directed are invisible. “Things
not seen.”
These things include things that
are contingently unseeable and things
that are essentially unseeable, such
as thought, mind, God.
Ø
That some of the
invisible things are objects of hope. “Things hoped
for.” The invisible
has much that is very desirable to us — the society of
holy souls, the presence of the blessed Christ, the
manifestations of the
infinite Father, etc.
Ø
That these invisible
things faith makes real in the present life. “The
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The
realization of the hopeable. Now, it is only
by this faith that man can live
a just life in this world; the man who lives by sight must
be unjust. To be
just, he must see Him who is
invisible.
5“Yea
also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud
man,
neither keepeth
at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as
death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations,
and heapeth unto
him all people:” The character of the Chaldeans in some
particulars is here intimated. The general proposition in the former hemistich of
v. 4 is here applied
to the Chaldeans, in striking contrast to the lot of the just in
the latter
clause. Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine. This should
be, And moreover, wine is treacherous. A kind of proverbial
saying
(Proverbs 20:1). Vulgate, Quomodo
vinum potantem decipit. There is
no word expressive of comparison in the original, though it
may be
supplied to complete the sense. The intemperate habits of
the Babylonians
are well attested (see Daniel 5:3-4; Quint. Curt., 5:1, “Babylonii
maxime in vinum et quae
ebrietatem sequuntur effusi sunt;” comp. Her.,
1:191; Xen., ‘Cyrop.,’
7:5. 15). They used both the fermented sap of the
palm tree as well as the juice of the grape, the latter
chiefly imported from
abroad. “The wealthy Babylonians were fond of drinking to
excess; their
banquets were magnificent, but generally ended in
drunkenness”
(Rawlinson, ‘Anc. Men.,’ 3:450, edit. 1865). Neither the
Septuagint, nor
the Syriac, nor the Coptic
Version has any mention of wine in this passage.
The Septuagint gives, ὁ δὲ κατοιόμενος
καὶ καταφρονητής – ho de katoiomenos
kai kataphronaetaes – the
arrogant and the scorner. He is a proud man, neither
keepeth he at home; a haughty man, he resteth not. His pride
is always impelling
him to new raids and conquests. This is quite the character
of the later Chaldeans,
and is consistent with the latter part of the verse. The comparison,
then, is
this: As wine
raises the spirits and excites men to great efforts which in the
end deceive them,
so pride rouses these men to go on their insatiate course
of conquest,
which shall one day prove their ruin. The
verb translated
“keepeth at home” has
the secondary sense of “being decorous;” hence the
Vulgate gives, Sic erit vir superbus, et non decorabitur; i.e. as wine first
exhilarates and
then makes a man contemptible, so pride, which begins by
exalting a man,
ends by bringing him to ignominy. Others
take the verb in
the sense of “continueth not,”
explaining that the destruction of
here intimated. But what follows makes against this
interpretation. The
Septuagint gives, 'Ανὴρ ἀλαζὼν οὐθὲν μὴ
τεράνη – Anaer alazon outhen
mae teranae – a haughty man who doesn’t stay at home - which Jerome,
combining with it his own version, paraphrases, “Sic vir superbus non
decorabitur, nec voluntatem
suam perducet ad finem; et juxta Symmachum,
οὐκ εὐπορήσει
– ouk euporaesi - hoc est, in rerum omnium
erit penuria.”
Who enlargeth his desire as hell; Hebrew, Sheol. Hell is called insatiable
(Proverbs 27:20; 30:16; Isaiah 5:14). Is as death, which seizes all
creatures and
spares none. People;
peoples.
The Unjust Man and the
Just: A Contrast. (vs. 4-5)
- THEIR CHARACTERS.
Ø The unjust
man.
o
Proud or “puffed
up” in soul. The heart the seat and
source
of
all sin (Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:21-23); pride its origin and
essence
(Psalm 10:4; 52:7; Proverbs 16:5; Malachi 4:1). Arrogant
haughtiness
and self-sufficiency characteristic of the carnal heart
(Romans
1:30; Ephesians 4:17). These qualities had marked the
Assyrian
(Isaiah 10:12), and were to distinguish the Chaldean
(v.
5) conqueror. They discover themselves in all who oppose or
decline
from the spirit of Christ (I Corinthians 5:2; Philippians
2:3;
III John 1:9). They will eventually
culminate in antichrist
(II
Thessalonians 2:4).
o
Wicked or ungodly
in life. His soul, being thus puffed
up with
pride,
is not “upright” or “straight” within him; is not free from
turning
and trickery; does not in its thoughts, feelings, words,
and
actions adhere to the straight path of integrity, but loves
“crooked
ways” and devious roads, and thus turns aside unto
iniquity
(Psalm 125:5). Again true of the Chaldean,
whose
iniquities — drunkenness, boasting, restless ambition,
insatiable
lust of conquest, relentless oppression — are
specifically
enumerated (v. 5), it holds good also of the
natural
heart and carnal mind (Jeremiah 13:10; II Timothy 3:2).
o
Rejected or “condemned”
by God. This implied in the fact that
he is not a just or “justified” man.
Ø The just
man.
o
Believing in
soul. As pride or trust in self is the
animating
principle
of the wicked, so is faith or trust in God that of the
good.
Faith the root of all moral and spiritual excellence in
the
soul. As the proud soul stands aloof from God, the
humble heart cleaves to Him, as “that which is straight,
being
applied to what is straight, touches and is touched
by
it everywhere.”
o
Upright in life. As pride leads to disobedience, faith leads
to
obedience. Hence Paul speaks of “the obedience of faith”
(Romans
1:5), i.e. such obedience as is inspired by faith. The
soul
that trusts God, walks in His ways, avoids sin, and
endeavors
to order his conversation aright (Psalm 50:23;
I
Peter 2:5). Faith and holiness are in the gospel scheme
inseparably
connected (John 15:8; Romans 2:13;
Ephesians 2:10; Titus 3:8).
o
Accepted by God. Paul in Romans (Romans 1:17), and the
writer
to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:38), by quoting this
statement
from Habakkuk, teach that the “just” and the
“justified” are
one — that the just in the Scripture sense of
that
expression are those legally and spiritually righteous
before
God.
- THEIR DESTINIES.
Ø
That of the unjust — death. Though not stated,
this may be inferred.
o
The soul of which the
inward essence is pride and self-sufficiency
is
destitute of spiritual life, is dead. “Swollen with pride, it shuts
out
faith,and with it the presence of God; and “without faith it is
impossible
to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).
o
The man who lives in
sin is dead while he liveth (I Timothy 5:6);
dead
in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), and so long as he
remains
a stranger to the principle of faith which the
breath of
God’s
Spirit alone can awaken in the unrenewed, he must
continue
“DEAD” - i.e. incapable of actions spiritually good.
o
The sinner not
accepted before God is of necessity condemned
by
God; and to be under condemnation is to be “legally dead.”
Ø
That of the just — life. Not necessarily life physical and temporal,
because
the “justified” die no less than their neighbors (Hebrews
9:27);
but:
o
life legal and
judicial — “he that believeth shall never
come
into
condemnation” (John 3:18; 5:24; Romans
8:1);
o
life moral and
spiritual, which Scripture connects
with faith
in
God and in His Son Christ Jesus as a stream with its fountain,
as
a tree with its root, as an effect with its cause (Acts 15:9; 26:18;
II
Thessalonians 1:11; Galatians 2:20); and
o
life indestructible
and eternal, this being always a
quality
ascribed
to the life which the justified man receives through
his
faith (John 3:36 5:24; 11:25-26; I John 2:25; 5:11; I Timothy
1:16;
6:12; Titus 1:2; 3:7).
All other life BUT THAT WHICH
CHRIST BESTOWS is temporal and perishing!
Moral Wrong: Some of its National
Phases. (v.5)
“Yea also, because he transgresseth
by wine, he is a proud man, neither
keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire
as hell, and is as death, and
cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto
him all nations, and heapeth unto
him all
people.” No doubt Habakkuk was reviled
like the other prophets on
account of his terrible predictions, as recorded in the preceding
chapter
(vs. 6 and 11). From this verse to the nineteenth the prophet unfolds new
visions concerning the national crimes committed by
consequent national calamities approaching. This verse gives some of the
national phases of moral wrong as they appeared in
good, is one in essence, but it has many forms and phases. The branches
that grow out of the root, whilst filled with the same sap, vary widely in
shape and hue. In this verse we have three of its forms.
- DRUNKENNESS. “He transgresseth
by wine;” or, as some render it,
“moreover, the wine is
treacherous.” This is one of the most
loathsome,
irrational, and pernicious forms which it can assume. Drunkenness puts the
man or the woman absolutely into the hands of Satan, to do whatsoever
he
wills — lie, swear, rob, murder, and luxuriate in moral mud.
“A drunken man is like a fool, a madman, a
drowned man;
one
draught too much makes him a fool,
the
second roads, and the third drowns him”
(Shakespeare).
It is the curse of England. It
fills our workhouses with
paupers, our hospitals with patients, our jails with prisoners,
our mad
houses with lunatics, our cemeteries with graves. Moral wrong
took this
form in ancient
appalling extent. Woe to our legislators, if they do not put it down
by the
strong arm of the law! Nothing
else will do it.
- HAUGHTINESS. “Is a proud
man.” Babylon became inspired with a
haughty insolence. She regarded herself as the queen of the world,
and
looked down with supercilious contempt upon all the other nations
of the
earth, even upon the Hebrew people, the heavenly chosen race.
Nebuchadnezzar expresses the
spirit of the kingdom as well as his own,
when he says, “Is not this great
the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my
majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).
It is suggested that the Chaldeans’ love of
wine had much to do in the developing of this haughty spirit. We
read
(Daniel 5.) that
Belshazzar at his feast drank wine with the thousands of his
lords, his princes, his wives, his concubines. “Wine
is a mocker;” it cheats a
beggar into the belief that he is a lord. “Strong drink is raging;”
(Proverbs 20:1);
it lashes the passions into furious insolence. It is fabled
that Aceius the poet,
though he was a dwarf, would be pictured a giant in stature.
Pride is an evil that
leads to ruin. “Pride goes before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a
fall.” (Proverbs 16;18)
- RAPACITY. Two things are suggested concerning the rapacious
form
it assumed in
Ø
It was restless. “Neither keepeth at home.” Not content with its own
grandeur, wealth, and luxuries, it goes from home in search of
others;
goes out into other countries to rifle and to rob.
Ø
It is insatiable. “Who enlargeth his desire as hell [that is, ‘as Sheol, the
grave’], and is as death, and cannot be
satisfied.” “Hell and destruction,”
that is, the grave and death, says Solomon, “are
never full.” The grave
cries for more and more, as its tenants multiply by millions.
The earth
seems to hunger and to gape for all the dust that enters into
the frames
of men. So it was with the Babylonian despot, though he
gathered unto
him all nations and heaped unto him all peoples, his greed and
ambition
remained unsatiated and insatiable.
“This,” says an old writer, “is one of
the crying sins of our land, insatiable pride. This makes dear
rents and
great fines; this takes away the whole clothing of many poor to
add one
lace more in the suits of the rich; this shortens the laborer’s
wages, and
adds much to the burden of his labor. This greediness makes the
market
of spiritual and temporal offices and dignities, and puts well deserving
virtue out of countenance. This corrupts religion with opinions,
justice
with bribes, charity with cruelty; it turns peace into schism and
contention, love into compliment, friendship into treason, and sets the
mouth of hell yet more
open, and gives it an appetite for more souls.”
Such are some of the forms that
moral wrong took in
indicated in these words. But these are not the only forms, as we
shall
see in proceeding through the chapter. Does not moral wrong assume
these very forms here in
these fiends show their hideous shapes everywhere, and work
their
demon deeds in every circle of life.
The destruction of
the Babylonians is announced by the mouth of the vanquished
nations, who utter five woes
against their oppressor. The first woe: for their rapacity.
6 “Shall
not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting
proverb against him, and say, Woe to him
that increaseth that
which is not his! how long? and to him that
ladeth himself with
thick clay!” All these. All the nations and peoples who have been
subjugated and barbarously treated by the Babylonians
(compare Isaiah 14:4).
A parable. A sententious song
(see note on Micah 2:4). A taunting proverb.
The Anglican Version combines the two Hebrew words, which
stand unconnected,
into one notion. So the Vulgate, loquelam
aenigmatum. The latter of the two generally
means “riddle,” “enigma;” the other word (melitzah) is by some translated, “a derisive
satirical song,” or “an obscure, dark saying;” but is
better understood of a bright, clear,
brilliant speech. So the two terms signify “a speech
containing enigmas,” or a song
which has double or ambiguous meanings (compare Proverbs
1:6). Septuagint,
Πρόβλημα εἰς
διήγησις, αὐτοῦ
- Problaema eis duaegaesis
autou – a taunting
proverb against him. Woe (Nahum 3:1). This is
the first of the five “woes,”
which consist of three verses each, arranged in strophical form. Increaseth that
which is not his.
He continues to add to his conquests and possessions, which
are not his, because they are acquired
by injustice and violence. This is the
first
denunciation of the Chaldeans for their insatiable rapacity. How long? The
question comes in interjectionally — How long is this state
of things to continue
unpunished (compare Psalm 6:3; 90:13)? That ladeth
himself with thick clay;
Septuagint, βαρύνων τὸν
κλοιὸν αὐτοῦ στιβαρῶς – barunon ton kloion autou
stibaros - who loadeth his yoke heavily; Vulgate, aggravat contra
se densum lutum.
The renderings of the Anglican and Latin Versions signify
that the riches and spoils
with which the conquerors load themselves are no more than
burdens of clay, which
are in themselves worthless, and only harass the bearers.
The Greek Version
seems to point to the weight of the yoke imposed by the
Chaldeans on
them; but Jerome explains it differently, “Ad hoc tantum saevit ut
devoret
et iniquitatis et praedarum onere quasi gravissima torque se deprimat.”
The
difficulty lies in the ἄπαξ λεγόμενον apax legomenon (one
time use) abtit,
which forms an enigma, or dark saying, because, taken as
two words, it might
pass current for “thick clay,” or “a mass of dirt,” while
regarded as one word it
means “a mass of pledges,” “many pledges.” That the latter
is the signification
primarily intended is the view of many modern commentators,
who explain the
clause thus: The quantity of treasure and booty amassed by
the Chaldeans
is regarded as a mass of pledges taken from the conquered
nations a
burden of debt to be discharged one day with heavy
retribution. Pusey, “He
does in truth increase against himself a strong pledge, whereby
not others
are debtors to him, but he is a debtor to Almighty God, who
careth for the
oppressed (Jeremiah 17:11).”
7 “Shall
they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that
shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for
booties unto them?”
That shall bite
thee. As
thou hast cruelly treated others, so
shall they, like fierce vipers (Jeremiah 8:17), bite thee.
Delitzsch, Keil, and others see in the
word a double entendre connected
with the meaning of “lending on interest,” so the “biting”
would signify
“exacting a debt with usury.” Such a term for usury is not
unknown to
classical antiquity; thus (quoted by
“By the expenditure deep bitten,
And
by the manger and the debts”
Lucan, ‘Phars.,’ 1:181,” Hinc usura vorax,
avidumque in tempore faenus.”
The “biters” rising up suddenly are the Persians who
destroyed the
Babylonian power as quickly and as unexpectedly as it had
arisen. Vex;
literally, shake violently, like διασείσητε – diaseisaete – ye
should be
intimidating - (Luke 3:14), or like
the violent arrest of a creditor
(Matthew 18:28); Septuagint, οἱ ἐπίβουλοί σου – oi epibouloi sou - thy plotters;
Vulgate, lacerantes te. So of the mystic
(Revelation 18:10, 17-18).
8 “Because
thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the
people shall spoil thee; because of men’s
blood, and for the
violence of the land, of the city, and of
all that dwell therein.”
The law of retaliation is asserted. All the remnant of the
people (peoples) shall
spoil thee. The remnant of the nations subjugated
and plundered by the Chaldeans shall rise up against them.
The downfall of
that Nebuchadnezzar, at one period of his reign, conquered
and annexed
Media (see Jeremiah 25:9, 25; Judith 1:5, 13, etc.); and
doubtless many
of the neighboring tribes, which had suffered under these
oppressors,
joined in the attack. Because of men’s blood. Because of
the cruelty and
bloodshed of which the Babylonians were guilty. For the
violence of (done
to) the land, of the city (see v. 17). The statement is
general, but with
special reference to the Chaldeans’ treatment of Judaea and
in Isaiah 43:14; 45:4; Jeremiah 51:4, 11. Jerome takes “the
violence
of the land,” etc., to mean the wickedness of the Jews
themselves, which is
to be punished. He is led astray by the Septuagint, which
gives, διὰ... ἀσεβείας γῆς –
through… the
iniquity of the land.
A Parable of Woes: 1. Woe to the
Rapacious! (vs. 6-8)
- THEIR PERSONS IDENTIFIED.
Ø
The Chaldean nation, in its kings and
people, who were animated by a
lust
of conquest, which impelled them upon wars of aggression.
Ø
The enemies of the
or
individual, in whom the same spirit dwells as resided in the Babylonian
power.
God’s promises and threatenings in the Bible have almost
always a
wider
sweep and a larger reference than simply to those to whom they
were
originally addressed.
- THEIR SIN SPECIFIED. Spoliation,
robbery, theft, plunder. A
wickedness:
Ø
Unjust; as all theft is. In heaping up the spoils of plundered nations,
the
Chaldean
was increasing what was not his; and the same is done by those
who
store up money or goods gotten by fraud or oppression. What men
acquire
by violence or guile is not theirs. How much of the wealth of
modern
nations and of private persons is of this character may not be told;
to
assert that none is may be charity, but is not truth. The practices
complained
of by James (James 5:4-6) have not been unknown since his
day.
Ø
Insatiable; as the lust of possession is prone to be. The plundered
nations
are depicted as asking — How long is this devastating power
to go
on
despoiling peoples weaker than himself? Is his career of rapine never
to
be arrested? Will his thirst for what belongs to others never be
quenched? So “he that loveth
silver shall not be satisfied with silver,
nor
he that loveth abundance with increase” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
The
passion for heaping up ill-gotten gains grows by what it feeds on.
Those
who determine to enrich themselves at the expense of others
seldom
know when to stop. Almost never do they
cry, “Enough!”
till
retribution, overtaking them, strips them of all.
Ø
Vain; as all sin will ultimately prove to be. The foreign
property taken by
the
Chaldean from other nations, the prophet characterizes as “pledges”
exacted
from them by an unmerciful creditor, perhaps intending thereby to
suggest
that the Chaldean would be compelled to disgorge them in due
time.
The idea, true of all man’s earthly possessions (Job 1:21)
“Whate’er
we fondly call our own
Belongs to heaven’s great Lord;
The
blessings lent us for a day
Are soon to be restored,”
—
is much more applicable to wealth acquired by fraud or oppression
(Jeremiah
17:11). The day will come when, if not by the robbed
themselves,
by God the rightful Owner of the wealth (Haggai 2:8) and
the
strong Champion of the oppressed (Psalm 10:18), it will be
demanded
back with interest (Job 20:15).
- THEIR PUNISHMENT DESCRIBED.
Ø
Certain. “Shall not all these take up a parable against him?” The
overthrow
of the Chaldean is so surely an event of the future that the very
nations
and peoples he has plundered, or the believing remnant amongst
them,
will yet raise a derisive song over his miserable and richly merited
fall;
and just as surely will the rapacious plunderer of others be destroyed,
and
his destruction be a source of satisfaction to beholders (Proverbs
1:18-19).
Ø
Heavy. The wealth
he has stolen from others will be to him as a “burden
of
thick clay” that will first crush him
to the earth, making the heart within
him
wretched and the spirit sordid and groveling, and finally sink him into
a
hopeless and cheerless grave (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23; 6:2; Psalm 49:14).
Ø
Sudden. Retribution should fall upon the Chaldean in a moment —
his
biters
should rise up suddenly, and his destroyers wake up as from a sleep
to
harass him (v. 7); and in such fashion will the end be of “everyone that
is
greedy of gain and taketh away the life of the owners thereof”
(Proverbs
1:19); he may “spend his days in wealth,” but “in a moment
he
shall go down to the grave” (Job
21:13); he may “heap up silver as
the
dust, and prepare raiment as the clay,”
but he shall “lie down and
not
be gathered;” he shall “open
his eyes, and behold! he is not”
(Job
27:16, 19).
Ø
Retributive. The Chaldean should be spoiled by the nations he had
spoiled.
So will violent and rapacious men reap what themselves have
sowed.
How often is it seen that money goes as it comes! Acquired by
speculation
or gambling, it is lost by the same means. He who robs others
by
violence or fraud not unfrequently is himself robbed by another
stronger
or craftier than he. “Whatsoever a man soweth,”
(Galatians 6:7).
- LESSONS.
Ø
“Provide things honest in the
sight of all men” (Romans 12:17).
Ø
“Do violence to no
man” (Luke 3:14).
Ø
“If thou do that
which is evil, be afraid” (Romans
13:4).
Covetousness. (vs. 6-8)
In the remaining portion of this chapter the prophet dwells
upon the sins
prevailing amongst the Chaldeans, and indicates the misery these
should
entail. His utterances, taken together, form a satirical ode
directed against
the
Chaldeans, who, though not named, are yet most clearly personified. In
the
general statement respecting them in v. 5 allusion is made to their
rapacity, and the first stanza in the song is specially directed to
this greed,
which was so characteristic of that nation. The words of the prophet
suggest to us respecting the sin of covetousness, that:
- IT IS UNSATISFYING IN ITS NATURE. It is compared (v. 5) to
Hades and
death, that crave continually for more. “The covetous
man is
like Tantalus, up to the chin in water, yet thirsty.” Necessarily
it must be
so, for “a man’s life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things that he
possesseth” (Luke 12:15). Wealth can only yield satisfaction in
proportion as it is acquired, not for its own sake, but to
be consecrated to
high and holy purposes. George Herbert sings —
“Be
thrifty, but not covetous. Get, to live;
Then
live and use it: else it is not true
That
thou hast gotten.”
- IT LEADS TO INJUSTICE AND OPPRESSION.
The covetous man
“increaseth that which is not his” (v.
6). He disregards the rights of
others. He uses all who come within his power with a view to
his own
aggrandizement. Self is the primary consideration with him,
and influences
all his movements. “He oppresseth
the poor to increase his riches,” and out
of their grinding poverty and want he grows fat. He is ready
to take any
mean advantage so as to add to his own stores. He demands
heavy security
of the debtor, and exacts crushing interest, and “ladeth himself with thick
clay” (v. 6), i.e.
“loadeth himself with the burden of pledges.”
- IT INCURS SURE RETRIBUTION. Whether this sin is
committed
by individuals or nations, it is alike “woe” unto such; for there shall
assuredly follow Divine judgments. Habakkuk represents the Chaldeans as
one who had gathered men and nations into his net
(ch.1:14-17),
and as having “spoiled many nations” (v. 8), and
Jeremiah confirms
these representations of their rapacity by describing them
as “the
hammer”
(Jeremiah
50:23) and the destroyer (ibid. ch. 51:25) of the whole
earth; and they also declare that there should overtake them
certain
retribution for the wrongs they had thus done and the
sorrows they had
thus occasioned, and that the spoiler should be at length
spoiled (vs. 7-8).
In the
destruction of the Chaldean empire by the Medes and Persians
we have the fulfillment of the threatenings,
whilst, at the same time, we
hear the voice of God speaking to us in the events of
history and saying,,
“Take heed, and beware of covetousness!” (Luke 12:15)
National Wrongs Ending in National Woes. No. 1. (vs. 6-8)
“Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a
taunting proverb
against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth
that which is not his! how
long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! Shall they not rise up
suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and
thou shalt
be for
booties unto them?” etc. In these
verses, up to the nineteenth
inclusive, the prophet denounces upon the Chaldeans and Babylonians
five
different woes.
1. One for their pride and insatiableness (vs. 6-8);
2. Another for their
covetousness, etc., which would
become the cause of their
corruption (vs.
9-11);
3. Another for the bloody
and cruel means which they had
employed for gratifying
their thirst for acquiring
possessions not their own (vs. 12-14);
and
4. fourth, for their wickedness, etc., which would be
recompensed to them (vs. 15-17); and
5. the fifth, for their trust in
idols, which would redound to their
shame (vs. 18-19).
We shall take each of the five sections separately under
the title, National wrongs ending
in national woes. Notice:
- THE NATIONAL WRONGS.
Ø
Dishonest accumulation. “Woe to him that increaseth that which is not
his!” Babylon grew
wealthy. Its treasures were varied and all but
inexhaustible. But whence came they? Came they by honest industry? Were
they the home produce of diligent and righteous labor? No; from
other
lands. They were wrested from other countries by violence and
fraud. Even
the golden and silver vessels used at the royal feast were
taken out of the
temple which was at
we have is to be reckoned ours than what we came honestly by.
Nor will it
long be ours, for wealth gotten by vanity will soon diminish.”
Take away
the ill-gotten wealth of the nations of
and violence — and how greatly will they be pauperized! How
much of our
national wealth has come to us honestly? A question this worth the
impartial investigation of every man, and which must be gone into
sooner
or later.
Ø
Dominant materialism. “And to him that ladeth himself
with thick clay.”
Although some render this “ladeth himself with many pledges,” our
version, which gives the word “clay,” will cover all. The burning and
insatiable desire of
nation who succeed in this, only lade themselves with “thick clay” It is a
bad thing for moral spirits to be laden with “thick clay.” See the individual
man who so pampers his animal appetites until he becomes a
Falstaff. His
spirit is laden with “thick clay.” See the nation whose
inspiration is that of
avaricious merchandise, and whose god is mammon; its spirit is laden
with
“thick
clay.” Ah me! what
millions are to be found in all civilized countries
who are buried in “thick clay”! Clay
is everything to them.
Ø
Extensive plunder. “Thou hast spoiled
many nations.” The first
monarchy we read of in Holy Scripture is that of the Assyrians,
begun by
Ninus, of whom Nineveh took name, and by Nimrod, whom histories
call
Belus, and after him succeeded Semiramis
his wife. This monarchy grew,
by continual wars and violences on
their neighbors, to an exceeding
height and strength; so that the
exaltation of that monarchy was the ruin
of many nations, and
this monarchy lasted, as some write, annos 1300.
Ø
Ruthless violence. “Because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the
land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.” “The terms
‘men,’ ‘land,’
‘earth,’
‘city,’” says
restricted to the Jews, their country and its metropolis.” What
oceans of
the blood of all countries were shed by these ruthless tyrants
of
- THE NATIONAL WOES. All these wrongs, as all other wrongs, run
into woes. Crimes lead to
calamities. What are the woes
connected with
these wrongs, as given in these verses?
Ø
The contempt of the injured. “Shall not all
these take up a parable
against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to
him
that increaseth that which is not
his! how long? and to him
that ladeth
himself with thick clay!” The
woe comes out in a derisive song, which
continues to the end of the chapter. Dishonesty
and low animalism must
ever sink the people amongst whom they prevail
into bitter contempt.
Scarcely can there be
anything more painful than the contempt of others
when it is felt to be deserved. To be sneered at, laughed at,
ridiculed,
scorned,
— is not this bitterly affictive? Jeremiah
predicted that one
part of the punishment should be that he should be
laughed to scorn.
Ø
The
avenging of the spoiled. “Because thou hast spoiled many nations,
all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee.” Here is retaliation —
plunder for plunder, blood for blood. Divine retribution often
pays man
back in his own coin. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured
to you again.” (Matthew
7:2)
- CONCLUSION. Ever
under the righteous administration of Heaven woes
tread closely on the heel of wrongs. More certainly than
the waves of the
ocean follow the moon must
SUFFERING ollow SIN. To every crime there is
linked a curse, to every sin a suffering, to every wrong a woe. Be sure that
“your sins will find you out.” (\Numbers 32 :23)
The second woe: for their
avarice, violence, and cunning. (vs.
9-11)
9 “Woe to
him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house,
that he
may set his nest on high, that he may be
delivered from the power
of evil!”
That coveteth an evil covetousness
to his house; better,
gaineth evil gains for his house. The “house” is
the royal family or
dynasty, as in v. 10; and the Chaldean is denounced for thinking to
secure its stability and permanence by amassing godless
gains. That he
may set his nest
on high. This is a figurative
expression, denoting security
as well as pride and self-confidence (compare Numbers
24:21; Job 39:27-30;
Jeremiah 49:16; Obadiah 1:4), and denotes the various means
which the
Chaldeans employed to establish and secure their power
(compare Isaiah 14:14). Some see in the words an allusion
to the
formidable fortifications raised by Nebuchadnezzar for the
protection of
Rawlinson, ‘
Nebuchadnezzar and other monarchs, after successful
expeditions, turned
their attention to building and enriching towns, temples,
and palaces (see
Josephus, ‘Cont. Ap.,’ 1:19, 7, etc.). From the power of evil; from the
hand of evil; i.e. from
all calamity.
10 “Thou
hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and
hast sinned against thy soul.” The very means
he took to secure his power shall
prove his ruin. Thou hast
consulted shame to thy house. By thy measures thou
hast really determined upon, devised shame and disgrace for
thy family;
that is the result of all thy schemes, By cutting off many people (peoples).
This is virtually correct. The verb in the present text is
in the infinitive, and
may depend upon the verb in the first clause. The versions
read the past
tense. So the
Chaldee and Syriac. This
may be taken as the prophet’s explanation
of the shameful means employed. Hast sinned against
thy soul (Proverbs 8:36; 20:2).
Thou hast endangered thy own life by provoking retribution.
The Greek and Latin
Versions have, “Thy
soul hath sinned.”
11 “For
the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the
timber shall answer it.” Even inanimate
things shall raise their voice to denounce
the Chaldeans’ wickedness. The stone shall cry out of the wall. A proverbial
expression to denote the horror with which their cruelty
and oppression
were regarded; it is particularly appropriate here, as
these crimes had been
perpetrated in connection with the buildings in which they
prided them.
selves, and which were raised by the enforced labor of
miserable captives
and adorned with the fruits of fraud and pillage. Compare
another
application of the expression in Luke 19:40. Wordsworth sees a literal
fulfillment of these words in the appalling circumstance at
Belshazzar’s
feast, when a hand wrote on the palace wall the doom of
5.). And the beam
out of the timber shall answer it. “The tie beam out
of the timber work shall” take up the refrain, and “answer”
the stone from
the wall. The Hebrew word (Kaphis)
rendered “beam” is an ἄπαξ
λεγόμενον
–
apax legomenon (one time use) It is explained as
above by
referred to a verb meaning “to bind.” Thus Symmachus and Theodotion
translate it by σύνδεσμος – sundesmos – band;
bond. Henderson and others
think it means “a half brick,” and
baked. But we have no
evidence that the Babylonians in their sumptuous edifices
interlaced timber and half bricks (see Pusey, p. 419, note
23). The Septuagint gives,
κάνθαρος ἐκ ξύλου – kantharos ek xulou
- a beam out of the
woodwork. Hence,
referring to Christ on the cross, St. Ambrose (‘Orat. de Obit. Theod.,’ 46)
writes,
“Adoravit ilium
qui pependit in ligno, illum inquam qui sicut scarabaeus clamavit,
ut
persecutoribus suis peccata condonaret.” St. Cyril
argues that tie beams
were called κάνθαροι – kantharoi - from their clinging to and supporting wall
or roof. Some reason
for this supposition is gained by the fact that the word
canterius, or cantherius, is used in Latin in the sense of
“rafter.”
A Parable of Woes: 2.
Woe to the Covetous! (vs. 9-11)
- THEIR AIM.
Ø
Personal comfort.
Suggested by the term “nest,” which for the
Chaldean
meant
mansion
or dwelling place (Job 29:18). Josephus (‘
that
Nebuchadnezzar built for himself a palace “to describe the vast
height
and immense riches of which would be too much for him
(Josephus)
to attempt;” and Nebuchadnezzar himself tells us in his
inscription
that he constructed “a great temple, a house of admiration
for
men, a lofty pile, a palace of his royalty for the
“a
large edifice for the residence of his royalty,” and that within it
were
collected as an adornment “trophies, abundance, royal treasures”
(‘Records
of the Past,’ 5:130, etc.). Men who set their hearts on
riches mostly do so under the impression that these will add
in
their
comfort and increase their happiness —
to them comfort
and
happiness being synonymous with large, beautiful, and well
plenished houses (Psalm 49:11).
Ø
Social distinction. Pointed at by the
word “high,”
in which notions of
elevation
and visibility are involved. For one
rich man that covets
wealth
to augment his bodily comfort or mental gratification, then
seek
it for the luster in others’ eyes it is supposed to give. The upper
classes
in society are the wealthy; the under or lower classes are the
poor.
None notice the wise man who is poor (Ecclesiastes 9:16);
the
rich fool stands upon a pedestal and receives the homage of
admiring
crowds (Proverbs 14:20). The same delusive standard is
employed
in estimating the greatness of nations. Wealth
is commonly
accepted
by the world as the true criterion of rank. Rich nations take
precedence
of poor ones. In God’s sight
money is the smallest
distinction
that either country or person can wear.
Ø
Permanent safety.
Stated by the clause, “that he may be delivered from
the
power [or, ‘the hand’] of
evil” The Babylonian sovereigns as
individuals
and as rulers held the delusion that the best defense against
personal
or national calamity was accumulated treasure (Proverbs
10:15;
18:11). Nebuchadnezzar in particular used his “evil gain” for the
fortification
of his metropolis, building around it “the great walls” which
his
father Nabopolassar had begun but not completed, furnishing
these
with
great gates of ikki and pine woods and coverings of
copper, to keep
off
enemies from the front, and rearing up a tall tower like a mountain,
so
rendering it, as he supposed, “invincible” (‘Records of the Past,’ 5:126,
etc.).
In a like spirit men imagine that “money is a defense”
(Ecclesiastes
7:12), and that he who has a large balance at his banker’s
need
fear no evil. But “riches profit not in the day of wrath” (Proverbs
11:4);
and just as certainly as Nebuchadnezzar’s “eagle’s nest” was not
beyond
the reach of the Persian falconer, so neither will the wicked man’s
silver
and gold be able to deliver him when his end is come (Jeremiah
51:13;
Ezekiel 7:19; Zephaniah 1:18).
- THEIR SIN.
Ø
Against God. This evident from the nature of the offence, which God’s
Law
condemns (Exodus 20:17), as well as from the evils to which it
leads
— oppression, pride, self-sufficiency, and self-destruction.
Ø
Against others.
In carrying out its wicked schemes
covetousness usually
involves
others in ruin. It impelled the Chaldean to cut off many peoples.
It
drives those whom it inspires to deeds of violence, robbery, oppression,
and
murder (Proverbs 1:19; I Timothy 6:10).
Ø
Against themselves. The covetous burden
their own souls with guilt; and
so,
while professing to seek their own happiness and safety, are in reality
accelerating
their own misery and destruction.
- THEIR FATE.
Ø
Disappointment.
Whereas the covetous man expects to set
his house on
high,
he usually ends by involving it in shame (Proverbs 15:27); instead
of
promoting its stability, as the result of all his scheming he commonly
accomplishes
its overthrow (ibid. 11:28).
Ø
Vengeance. Likening the covetous nation or man to a house builder, the
prophet says that “the stone shall cry out of the wall, and
the beam out
of the timber shall answer it,” as it were uniting their voices in a solemn
cry to Heaven for vengeance on the
avaricious despoiler. Almost literally
fulfilled in the history of Belshazzar
(Daniel 5:24-28), the words are often
verified
in the experiences of communities and individuals who are
destroyed
by that very prosperity in which they have trusted (Proverbs
1:32).
LESSON, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness”
(Luke 12:15).
Corrupt
Ambition. (vs. 9-11)
Ambition may be pure and lofty, and when this is the case
it cannot be too
highly commended. It is “the germ from which all growth of
nobleness
proceeds.” “It is to the human heart what spring is to the earth,
making
every root and bud and bough desire to be more.” Headway cannot
be
made in life apart from it, and destitute of
this spirit a man must be
outstripped in the race.
Ambition, however, may take the opposite form,
and
it is to ambition corrupt and low in its nature that these verses refer.
Observe indicated here concerning such unworthy ambition.
- ITS AIM. The concern of the rulers of
supremacy, to reach an eminence where, secure from peril and
in the
enjoyment of ease and luxury, they might, without restraint,
exercise
despotic control over the nations. “That he may set his nest on
high, that he
may be delivered from the power of evil” (v. 9). False ambition,
whether
in individuals or nations, is directed to the attainment of
worldly
distinction, authority, and power, and has its foundation in
pride and
self-esteem.
- ITS UNSCRUPULOUSNESS. “They coveted an evil covetousness to
their house” (v.
9), totally disregarding the sacredness of property and
the rights of man. Their acts were marked by oppression,
plunder, and
cruelty; they impoverished feebler nations and even “cut
off many people”
(v. 10) in seeking the accomplishment of their selfish purposes. So is it
ever that such ambition breaks the ties of blood and forgets the
obligations
of manhood.”
- ITS ISSUE. The prophet indicates that all this self-seeking and
self-glorying
must end in disgrace and dishonor.
Ø
The very monuments
reared thus in the spirit of pride should bear
adverse testimony. In the language of poetry he represents
the
materials which they had obtained by plunder and which they
had
brought from other lands into
of their stately edifices, as protesting against the way in
which they
had been obtained and the purposes to which they had been
applied
(v. 11).
Ø
Shame and ruin should
overtake the schemers and plotters themselves.
“Thou hast sinned against thy soul” (v. 10). Whatever their material
gain, they had become
spiritually impoverished by their
course of action.
They had degraded their
higher nature and had incurred guilt and
condemnation.
Ø
All connected with them
should share in the disgrace and dishonor.
“Thou
hast consulted shame to thy house” (ver.10); “God visits the
iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third
and fourth
generation of them that hate him” (Exodus 20:5); “He that is greedy
of gain troubleth his own house” (Proverbs 15:27). Men who have
sought, by grasping and extortion, or by war and conquest,
to establish
and perpetuate a high reputation, have, through their
unrighteous deeds,
passed away in ignominy, leaving to their posterity a
tarnished and
dishonoured name. “The
house of the wicked shall be overthrown;
but thetabernacle of the upright
shall flourish” (Proverbs 14:11).
National Wrongs Ending in National Woes. No. 2. (vs. 9-11)
“Woe to him that coveteth
an evil covetousness to his house, that he may
set his
nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! Thou
hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people,
and hast
sinned against thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall,
and the
beam out of the timber shall answer it.” Notice:
- THE NATIONAL WRONGS HERE INDICATED.
Ø
Coveting the possessions of others. “Woe to him that coveteth an evil
covetousness to his house!” “An evil covetousness!”
There is a good
covetousness. We are commanded to “covet earnestly the best gifts”
(I Corinthians 12:31). But to
hunger for those things which are not our own,
but the property of others, and that for our own gratification
and
aggrandizement, is the sin which is prohibited in the Decalogue, which is
denounced in the Gospel as a cardinal sin, and which is represented as
excluding from the kingdom of heaven.
The covetous man is a thief in
spirit and in reality.
Ø
Trusting in false securities. So “that
he may set his nest on high, that he
maybe delivered from the power of evil.” The image is from an eagle
(Job 39:27). The royal citadel
is meant. The Chaldeans built high
towers like the
They sought
protection, not in the Creator but in the creature, not
in
moral means but in material. Thus foolishly nations have always acted
and are still acting; they trust to armies
and to navies, not to
righteousness, truth,
and God. A moral character built on
justice, purity,
and universal benevolence is the only right and safe defense of nations.
“Though thou exalt
thyself as the
eagle, and though thou set thy nest
against the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord”
(Obadiah 1:4).
Ø
Sinning against the
soul. “And hast sinned against thy soul,”
or against
thyself. Indeed, all wrong is a sin against one’s self — a sin
against the
laws of reason, conscience, and happiness. “He that sinneth
against me
wrongeth his own soul.”
(Proverbs 8:36) Such are some of the
wrongs
implied by these verses. Alas! they are
not confined to
any of the ancient kingdoms. They are too rife amongst all the
modern
kingdoms of the earth.
- THE NATIONAL WOES HERE INDICATED. “Woe to him that
coveteth an evil covetousness to his house!” etc. What is the woe
connected with these evils? It is contained in these words, “The
stone shall
cry out of the wail, and the beam out of the timber shall
answer it.” Their
guilty conscience will endow the dead materials of their own
dwellings
with the tongue to denounce in thunder their deeds of rapacity
and blood.
Startling personification this! The very stones of thy palace and the beams
out of the timber shall testify. “Note,” says Matthew Henry, “those that do
wrong to their neighbor do a much greater wrong to their own
souls. But
if the sinner pleads, ‘Not guilty,’ and thinks he has managed
his frauds and
violence with so much art and contrivance that they cannot be
proved upon
him, let him know that if there be no other witnesses against
him, the stone
shall cry out of the wall against him, and
the beam out of the timber in
the
roof shall answer it,
shall second it, shall witness it,
that the money and
materials wherewith he built the house were unjustly gotten (v. 11).
The
stones and timber shall cry to Heaven for vengeance, as the whole
creation
groans under the sin of man,
and waits to be delivered from that bondage
of corruption.”
(Romans 8:22) Observe:
Ø That mind gives to all the objects that once impressed it a
mystic power
of suggestion. Who has not
felt this? Who does not feel it every day? The
tree, the house, the street, the lane, the stream, the meadow,
the mountain,
that once touched our consciousness, seldom fail to start
thoughts in us
whenever we are brought into contact with them again. It seems as
if the
mind gave part of itself to all the objects that once impressed
it. When we
revisit, after years of absence, the scenes of childhood, all the
objects
which impressed us in those early days seem to beat out and
revive the
thoughts and feelings of our young hearts. Hence, when we leave a
place which in person we may never revisit, we are
still tied to it by
an indissoluble bond.
Nay, we carry it with us and
reproduce it in
memory.
Ø That mind gives to those objects that impressed us when in the
commission of any sin a terrible power to
start remorseful memories.
This is a fact of which, alas! all are conscious. And hence those stones
and timbers, stolen from other people, that went to build the
palaces,
temples, and mansions in
to the guilty consciences of those who obtained them by
violence or
fraud. No intelligent personal
witness is required to prove a sinner’s guilt.
All the scenes of
his conscious life vocalize his guilt.
(vs.
12-14) The third woe: for founding their
power in blood and devastation.
12 “Woe to
him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city
by iniquity!” The Chaldeans
are denounced for the use they make of the
wealth acquired by violence. That buildeth a town with blood (Micah
3:10,
where see note). They used the riches gained by the murder
of conquered
nations in enlarging and beautifying their own city. By iniquity.
To get means for these buildings, and to carry on their
construction, they
used injustice and tyranny of every kind. That mercy was not an attribute
of Nebuchadnezzar
we learn from Daniel’s advice to him (Daniel 4:27).
The captives and deported inhabitants of conquered
countries were used as
slaves in these public works (see an illustration of this
from Koyunjik,
Rawlinson’s ‘Anc. Men.,’ 1:497). What was true of
true of
misery and almost entire ruin of subject kingdoms. Not only
are lands
wasted, cattle and effects carried off, the people punished
by the beheading
or impalement of hundreds or thousands, but sometimes
wholesale
deportation of the inhabitants is practiced, tens or
hundreds of thousands
being carried away captive. “The military successes of the Babylonians,”
he
says (3:332), “were accompanied with needless violence, and with outrages
not unusual in the East, which the historian must
nevertheless regard as at
once crimes and follies. The transplantation of conquered races may,
perhaps, have been morally defensible, notwithstanding the
sufferings
which it involved. But the mutilations of prisoners, the
weary
imprisonments, the massacre of non-combatants, the
refinement of cruelty
shown in the execution of children before the eyes of their
fathers, — these
and similar atrocities, which are recorded of the
Babylonians, are wholly
without excuse, since
they did not so much terrify as exasperate the
conquered nations, and thus rather endangered than added
strength or
security to the empire. A savage and inhuman temper is
betrayed by these
harsh punishments, one that led its possessors to sacrifice
interest to
vengeance, and the peace of a kingdom to a tiger-like
thirst for blood…we
cannot be surprised that, when final judgment was denounced
against
blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and
of all that dwelt
therein.’”
13
“Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in
the very fire, and the people shall weary
themselves for very
vanity?” Is it not of the
Lord of hosts? Hath not God ordained that
this, about to be mentioned, should be the issue of all
this evil splendor?
That the people
shall labor in the very fire; rather, that the peoples
labor for the fire; i.e. that
the Chaldees and such like nations expended all
this toil on cities and fortresses only to supply food for
fire, which, the
prophet sees, will be their end (Isaiah 40:16). Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 51:58)
applies these and the following words to the destruction of
when it was finally taken, was given over to fire and sword
(compare
Jeremiah 50:32; 51:30, etc.).
14 “For
the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea.” The prophet now
gives the reason of the vanity of
these human undertakings. For
the earth shall be filled, etc. The words are from
Isaiah 11:9, with some little alterations (compare Numbers
14:21).
This is cue of the passages which attests “the community of
testimony,” as
it is called, among the prophets. To take a few out of many
cases that
offer, Isaiah 2:2-4 compared with Micah 4:1-4; Isaiah
13:19-22
with Jeremiah 50:39, etc.; Isaiah 52:7 with Nahum 1:15;
Jeremiah 49:7-22 with
Obadiah 1:1-4; Amos 9:13 with Joel 3:18. All the earth is to be filled
with, and to recognize, the glory of God as manifested in
the overthrow of
ungodliness; and
therefore
type, must be subdued and perish. This announcement looks
forward to the
establishment of Messiah’s kingdom, which “shall break in pieces and
consume all these kingdoms, and shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). We
must remember how intimately in the minds of Eastern
heathens the
prosperity of a nation was connected with its local
deities. Nothing in their
eyes could show more perfectly the impotence of a god than
his failing to
protect his worshippers from destruction (compare I Kings
18:40).
The glory of Jehovah and His sovereignty over the earth
would be seen and
acknowledged in the overthrow of
nation. As the waters cover the sea. As the
waters fill the basin of the sea
(Genesis 1:22; I Kings 7:23, where the great vessel of
ablution is called
“the sea”).
A Parable of Woes: 3.
Woe to the Ambitious! (vs. 12-14)
- THE CRIMINALITY OF THEIR AMBITION.
Ø
The object aimed at. To build towns and
establish cities. Not necessarily
a
sinful project, unless the motive or the means be bad. City building may
have
originated in a spirit of defiance against Jehovah (Genesis 4:17),
though
this is not certain; but cities may be, as they often are, centers and
sources
of incalculable blessing to mankind. If they help to multiply the
forces
of evil, they also serve to intensify those of good. Cities promote
the
good order of society, stimulate intellectual life, increase the
privileges,
opportunities, and comforts of individuals, and so tend to
accelerate
the march of civilization, by quickening movements of reform
and
combining against public evils. Hence, though “God made the
country,”
and “man made the town” (Cowper), it need not be assumed
that
city founding is against the Divine will — it can hardly be, since
He Himself has prepared for us a city (Hebrews 11:16). Only as there
are
cities and cities, so are there diversities in the modes of their
construction.
Ø
The means resorted to. Blood and iniquity.
Murder, bloodshed,
transportation,
and tyranny of every kind the Babylonian sovereigns
employed
to enrich their capital and strengthen their empire; and one is
not
sure whether in modern times cities are not sometimes built and
kingdoms
strengthened by similar methods, viz. by wars of aggression
against
foreign peoples, and by the enforcement of sinful treaties upon
unwilling
but weak governments. With regard to individuals, there is
no
room for doubt that often they build the houses of which a city
consists
in the way here indicated, if not by bloodshed exactly, at
least
by iniquity, paying for them by ill-gotten gains, and erecting
them
by means of under paid labor.
- THE VANITY OF THEIR AMBITION.
Ø
The fact of it.
They, i.e. the peoples (nations or
individuals), who build
towns
and cities as above described, “labor for the fire” and “weary
themselves
for vanity;” i.e. exert
themselves to erect buildings that the
fire
will one day consume, and weary themselves in producing structures
that
will one day be laid in ruins. What is here said about
of
all earthly things (II Peter 3:10), and ought to moderate the strength
of
men’s desires in running after them.
Ø
The certainty of it. It is already
determined of the Lord of hosts. It is
part
of His counsel that permanence shall not attach to anything here
below
(I John 2:17), and least of all to the productions of iniquity.
Individuals
may be allowed to wait for their ultimate overthrow till
the
day of death or the end of the world, but cities and nations, having
no
future, are usually visited with doom in the present. The overthrow
in
time of nations and empires that are built up by bloodshed and
iniquity
may be safely counted on.
examples.
Ø
The reason of it.
“The earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the
glory
of God.” That is to say, because this
is the destiny of the world,
the
goal towards which all things terrestrial are moving, it is impossible
that
the ambitious projects of man should be allowed permanently to
succeed. All superstructures, however solidly built,
must be overthrown,
all
organizations, however compactly formed, must be broken up, that
hinder
the advancement of that happy era which Jehovah has promised.
Hence
the triumph of
glory
of Jehovah will shine forth with a brighter degree of effulgence.
Men
will see in that a display of Jehovah’s character and power never
witnessed
before. The knowledge of His glory will take a wider sweep
and
extend over a larger area than before. The same principle demanded
the
overthrow of
enemies,
that the knowledge of His glory may cover
the earth as the
waters
cover the sea.
- Learn:
1. The sin and folly of ambition.
2. The beauty and
wisdom of humility.
The Two Kingdoms: A Contrast. (vs. 12-14)
Reference is made in these verses to two kingdoms — the
kingdom of
several points of contrast.
- THE GLORY OF THE KINGDOMS OF THIS
WORLD IS
MATERIAL; THE GLORY OF
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS
SPIRITUAL. The
glory of
of treasure it contained, its greatness consisting thus in
its material
resources; but the glory of the
of the Lord” that
constitutes its excellence — all moral beauty and spiritual
grace abounding therein.
- THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD HAVE OFTEN BEEN
FOUNDED AND ESTABLISHED BY MEANS OF WRONG DOING;
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS FOUNDED AND ESTABLISHED IN
PURE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND TRUE HOLINESS. The Chaldeans, by
their superior might and powers, conquered other tribes, and
with the
spoils of war and the forced labor of the conquered they reared
their
cities. They “built a town with blood, and established a
city by iniquity”
(v. 12); but “a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre
of God’s kingdom.”
(Psalm 45:6; Hebrews 1:8)
- HUMAN TOIL IS INVOLVED IN THE INTERESTS OF BOTH;
yet notice, by way of contrast;
Ø
Toil in the
interests of earthly kingdoms is often compulsory and is
rendered reluctantly — aliens
who had fallen as captives into the power of
the Chaldeans were made to labor and serve; but toil in the interests of
God’s kingdom is
ever voluntary and is rendered lovingly and without
constraint.
Ø Toil in the interests of earthly kingdoms is often toil
for that which shall
be destroyed, and which shall come to nought. “The people shall
labor in
the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity”
(v.13), i.e. they should
labor in erecting edifices which should be
consumed by fire, and thus their toil prove in vain; but toil in the
interests
of God’s
kingdom shall prove abiding and
eternal in its results.
Ø
The workers of
iniquity, no matter how earnest their toil, should be
covered eventually with dishonor and shame — “Woe
to him!” etc.
(v.12) — but all true toilers for God and righteousness shall be
divinely approved and honored.
- THE PROSPERITY OF MATERIAL KINGDOMS IS
UNCERTAIN; WHEREAS THE
TRIUMPH OF GOD’S SPIRITUAL
KINGDOM IS ASSURED. “The
knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall
cover the earth.”
- EARTHLY
KINGDOMS ARE LIMITED IN EXTENT; BUT THE
SPIRITUAL KINGDOM OF OUR GOD SHALL ATTAIN UNTO
UNIVERSAL DOMINION. “The earth shall be filled with the
knowledge
of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
National Wrongs Ending in National Woes. No. 3. (vs. 12-14)
“Woe to him that buildeth a town
with blood, and stablisheth a city by
iniquity! Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people
shall labor
in the
very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? For
the earth
shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the
waters cover the sea.”
Notice:
- THE NATIONAL WRONGS INDICATED IN THESE VERSES. The
great wrong referred to in these verses is the accumulation of gain by
wicked means. “Woe to him that
buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth
a city by iniquity!”
In itself there is nothing improper in building towns,
establishing cities, and accumulating wealth. Indeed, all these things are
both
legitimate and desirable. But it is stated that these Babylonians did
it:
Ø
By violence. “With blood.”
Men’s lives were sacrificed for the purpose.
“By
iniquity.” Justice was outraged
in the effort.
Ø
By cruelty. “Labor in the very fire.” These wrongs we have already
explained in the preceding sections. (But see a different
explanation of
“labor in the fire” in the Exposition.)
- THE NATIONAL WOES INDICATED IN THESE WORDS. What is
the woe? Disapprobation of God.
Ø
These wrongs are contrary to His nature.
“Is it not of the Lord of
hosts?” or, as Keil renders it, “Is it not beheld from Jehovah of hosts
that the people weary themselves for fire, and nations exhaust
themselves
from vanity?” He does not desire it. Nay, it is hostile to His will, it is
displeasing to His nature. The
benevolent Creator is against all social
injustice and cruelty. His will is that men should “do unto others as
they would that men should do unto them.”
Ø
These wrongs are contrary to His purpose for the world.
His purpose is
that the “earth shall be filled with the knowledge of
the glory of the
Lord.” To this end the
kingdom of the world which is hostile to Him
must be destroyed. This promise involves a threat directed
against the
Chaldean, whose usurped glory must be destroyed in order that the
glory
of the universe may fill the whole earth. What a glorious prospect!
o
This
world, in the future, is to enjoy the greatest blessing.
What
is
that? The knowledge of the glory of God.
Knowledge in itself
is a blessing. The
soul without it is not good (Proverbs 19:2). It is
not the mere knowledge of the works of
God. This is of
unspeakable value. Not
merely the knowledge of some of the
attributes of
God. This is of greater value still. But
the knowledge
of the glory of God, which means the knowledge of God
Himself,
“whom to know is LIFE ETERNAL!”
o This world, in the future, is to enjoy the greatest
blessing in the
greatest abundance.
“As the waters
cover the sea.” He shall
flood all souls with its celestial and transporting radiance.
(vs.
15-17) The fourth woe: for base and degrading treatment of subject nations.
15 “Woe
unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest
thy bottle
to him, and makest
him drunken also, that thou mayest look on
their nakedness!” Not only do the
Chaldeans oppress and pillage the peoples, but
they expose them to the vilest derision and contumely. The
prophet uses
figures taken from the conduct
produced by intemperance. That giveth his
neighbour drink. The Chaldeans behaved
to the conquered nations like
one who gives his neighbor intoxicating drink to stupefy
his faculties and
expose him to shame (compare v. 5). The literal drunkenness
of the
Chaldeans is not the point here. That puttest thy bottle to him. If
this
translation is received, the clause is merely a
strengthened repetition of the
preceding with a sudden change of person. But it may be
rendered,
“pouring out, or mixing, thy fury,” or, as Jerome, “mittens
fel suum,”
“adding thy poison thereto.” This last version seems most
suitable,
introducing a kind of climax, the “poison” being some drug
added to
increase the intoxicating power. Thus: he gives his
neighbor drink, and
this drugged, and in the end makes him drunken also. For
the second
clause the Septuagint gives, ἀνατροπῇ θολερᾷ - anatropae tholera –
subversione turbida and the versions collected by Jerome are only
unanimous in differing from one another. That thou mayest
look on their
nakedness. There
seems to be an allusion to the case of Noah (Genesis 9:21-24);
but the figure is meant to show the abject state to which
the conquered nations
were reduced, when, prostrated by fraud and treachery, they
were mocked and
spurned and covered with ignominy (compare Nahum 3:5, 11).
So the
mystic
(Revelation 14:8; 17:2; 18:3).
16 “Thou
art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy
foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the
LORD’s right hand shall be
turned unto thee, and shameful spewing
shall be on thy glory.”
Just retribution falls on
for glory. Thou art satiated,
indeed, but with shame, not with glory. Thou
hast reveled in thy shameless conduct to the defenseless,
but this redounds
to thy dishonor, and will only add to the disgrace of thy
fall The
Septuagint joins this clause with part of the following: Drink
thou also
fullness of shame for glory. Drink thou also the cup of
wrath and
retribution. Let
thy foreskin be uncovered. Be thou in turn treated with
the same ignominy with which thou hast treated others, the
figure in v.15
being here repeated (compare Lamentations 4:21). It is
otherwise
translated, “Be thou,” or “show thyself,
uncircumcised.” This, in a Jew’s
eyes, would be the very climax of degradation. The Vulgate
has consopire,
from a slightly different reading. The Septuagint, Καρδία σαλεύθητι
καὶ
σείσθητι - Kardia saleuthaeti
kai seisthaeti - Be tossed, O my heart, and shaken.
The present text is much more appropriate, though the Syriac and Arabic follow
the Greek here. The
cup of the Lord’s right hand. Retributive vengeance is often
thus figured (compare Psalm 60:3; 75:8; Isaiah 51:17, 22;
Jeremiah 25:15-16).
Shall be turned
unto thee. God Himself shall bring round the cup of suffering and
vengeance to thee in thy turn, and thou shalt be made to
drink it to the dregs, so
that shameful spewing (foul shame) shall be on thy
glory. The ἄπαξ
λεγόμενον
–
apax legomenon (one time use) kikalon is regarded as an
intensive signifying
the utmost
ignominy (ἀτιμία - atimia - indignity, (objective) disgrace;
dishonor,
reproach, shame, vile; Septuagint), or as two words,
or a compound word, meaning vomitus ignominiae
(Vulgate). It was
probably used by the prophet to suggest both ideas.
17 “For
the violence of
beasts, which made them afraid, because of
men’s blood, and for
the violence of the land, of the city, and
of all that dwell therein.”
For the violence of
ἀσέβεια τοῦ
Λιβάνου – asebeia tou Libanou
– violence on
iniquitas Libani (Vulgate). It would be plainer if translated, “the violence
against,” or “practiced on,
inflicted by the
Chaldeans on the forests of
Jerome confines the expression in the text to the
demolition of the temple at
understood literally. The same devastation which the
Chaldeans made in
shall “cover,” overwhelm, and destroy them. And the spoil of
beasts, which
made them afraid. The introduction of the relative is not required, and the
passage may be better translated, And the destruction of
beasts made them
(others read “thee”) afraid. Septuagint, “And the
wretchedness of the
beasts shall affright thee.” Jerome, in his commentary,
renders, “Et vastitas
animalium opprimet te.”
The meaning is that the wholesale
destruction of
the wild animals of
Chaldeans, shall be visited upon this people. They warred
not only against
men, but against the lower creatures too; and for this
retributive
punishment awaited them. Because of men’s blood, etc. The reason
rendered in v. 8 is here repeated. Of the land, etc., means
“toward” or
“against” the land.
A Parable of Woes: 4.
Woe to the Insolent! (vs. 15-17)
- WANTON WICKEDNESS.
Ø
Symbolically set forth. The image employed is
that of giving to one’s
neighbor
drink from a bottle with which “vengeance,” “fury,” or
“wrath,” or, according to another interpretation, “poison,” has
been
mixed,
in order to intoxicate him, that one might have the devilish
enjoyment
of looking on his nakedness, as Ham did on that of Noah,
or
generally of glorying in his shame. To infer from this that the bare act
of
giving to a neighbor drink is sinful, is not warranted by Scripture
(Proverbs
31:6; Ecclesiastes 9:7; I Timothy 5:23), and is going beyond
the
intention of the prophet, who introduces the “picture from life,”
not
as an instance of one sort of wickedness in itself, but as a symbol
of
another sort of wickedness on the part of the Chaldean. Still, the
action
selected by the prophet has in it several elements of wickedness
which
are worthy of consideration. If the mere giving of drink to
another
is not sinful (Proverbs 31:6), the doing so out of malice
(“adding
venom or wrath thereto”) is, while the sin is aggravated
by
practicing deception in connection therewith (“mixing poison
therewith”
— “drugging the wine,” as the modern phrase is), and
intensified
further by the motive impelling thereto (to be able to gloat
over
the neighbor’s degradation), and most of all condemned by being
done
against a neighbor to whom one owes not wrath but love, not
casting
down but lifting up, not exulting in his shame but rejoicing
in
his welfare. The words can hardly be
construed into a condemnation
of
those who give and take wine or other drinks in moderation and to
the
glory of God; but they unquestionably pronounce him guilty in God’s
sight
who deliberately and maliciously makes his fellow man drunk in
order
to enrich or amuse himself at that fellow man’s expense.
Ø Historically
acted out.
o
By the Chaldean, who drew the nations of the earth into his
power
by means of poisoned flatteries. Enticed
to place
themselves
beneath his tutelage, these nations ultimately fell
into
his power, and were by him oppressed, degraded, and
insulted.
o
By modern nations, who to enrich themselves enforce upon
weaker
tribes treaties and traffic (whether of opium or of
strong
drink) which lead to their moral enfeeblement.
o
By private
individuals, who for their own gain or
pleasure hurl
their
neighbors with sublime indifference into gulfs of misery
and
shame.
- APPROPRIATE PUNISHMENT.
Ø
Of Divine sending. Jehovah’s goblet, of
which He had caused the nations
to
drink, should be handed round to the Chaldeans and other guilty nations
and
individuals, who should all be compelled to drink of it (Psalm 75:8).
Ø
Of terrible severity. It should be as
shameful as that which the
Chaldeans
had inflicted upon the nations. It should cause him also to be
drunken,
and should expose his foreskin to others (compare Isaiah 47:3).
It
should cover his glory with shame as when the
attire of a drunken man
is
bespattered with his vomiting. Of sinners
generally it is written that
“shame
shall be the promotion of fools” (Proverbs 3:35).
Ø
Of retributive character. The wickedness of the
Chaldean should return
upon
his own pate. The violence he had done to
or
the fair regions of the earth generally) should rebound upon himself.
The
destruction of the beasts, i.e. practiced upon wild animals which, by
their
incursions, cause men to assemble against them, should crush the
Chaldean
who had become as a ferocious beast; or the destruction
inflicted
by the Chaldean on the wild beasts of
districts
by cutting down the wood thereof for military purposes or for
state
buildings, should return upon them with avenging fury. The same
law
of retribution obtains in the punishment of sinners generally
(Matthew
7:2).
- Learn:
Ø
The sin of
drunkenness.
Ø
The greater sin of
making others drunk.
Ø
The acme of sin,
exulting in the moral overthrow of others.
Ø
The certainty that
none of these acts of sin will go unpunished.
Ø
The fitness that this
should be so.
God’s Retributive Justice. (vs. 15-17)
It is a Divine law that “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap”
(Galatians 6:7). God is just, and hence will cause
retribution to be
experienced by evil doers. A striking illustration of the operation of
this
great law is presented in these verses. Consider:
- THE COURSE THE CHALDEANS HAD ADOPTED TOWARD
OTHERS. (v. 15.) The reference in this verse is not to the sin of
drunkenness. That sin is a distressing and degrading one, and they are
true
lovers of their kind who seek to lessen its ravages, to deliver
men from its
thraldom. It
has proved a blight to the children of men all down
the ages.
The Chaldeans were notorious for
it; revelings, banquetings,
excess of
wine, marked them all through their history, and specially
signalized the
close of their career. The prophet, however, here simply used
this vice as a
symbol in order to set forth vividly the course the Babylonians
had adopted
towards others, and specially to indicate their deceitfulness. Drink drowns
the reason, and places
its victim at the mercy of any who are mean enough
to take advantage of him. And the thought the prophet wished
to convey
here (v. 15) seems to be that as a man, desiring to injure
another,
persuades him to take stimulant, and thus, whilst professing good
intentions, effects his evil purpose, so had the Chaldeans
intoxicated feebler
powers by professions of friendship and regard, drawing them into
alliance,
and then turning upon them to their discomfiture and ruin. And
he
proceeds to indicate:
- THE COURSE GOD WOULD ADOPT TOWARDS THEM. (vs.
16-17.)
And in this he traced the
Divine retribution of their iniquity. He saw
prophetically that:
Ø
As they had taken
advantage of others, so others should in due course
take advantage of them (v. 16) and bring them to shame.
Ø
As they would lay
waste his country and take his people into captivity,
so subsequently they should themselves be brought to naught,
and their
empire pass out of their hands (v. 17; compare Isaiah 14:8, in
which the
fir trees and cedars are made to rejoice in the overthrow of
prophet had been perplexed at the thought of the Chaldeans as
being the
instruments of the Divine justice in reference to his own sinful
people, but
the mystery was clearing away, and in the final overthrow of
here foreshadowed, he traced another token that “the Lord is righteous in
all His ways.”
National Wrongs Ending in National Woes. No. 4. (vs. 15-17)
“Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to
him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest
look on their
nakedness! Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also,
and let
thy
foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord’s right hand shall be turned
unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory,” etc. This is the
commencement of the fourth stanza. Though the idea of
the
shameless conduct of drunkards here depicted may have been
borrowed from the profligate manners of the Babylonian court, yet
the
language is not to be taken literally, as if the prophet were
describing such
manners, but, as the sequel shows, is applied allegorically to the
state of
stupefaction, prostration, and exposure to which the conquered nations
were reduced by the Chaldeans (see Isaiah 51:17-20; and compare
Psalm 75:8; Jeremiah 25:15-28; 49:12; 51:7; Ezekiel
23:31-32;
Revelation 14:10; 16:19; 18:6). Notice:
- THE NATIONAL WRONGS. What are the wrongs referred to in this
passage?
Ø
The
promotion of drunkenness. “Woe unto
him that giveth his neighbor
drink!” The Babylonians
were not only drunkards, but the promoters of
drunkenness. The very night on which this prophecy was fulfilled,
Belshazzar drank wine with a
thousand of his lords. (Daniel 5) More
than
once in these homilies we have had to characterize and denounce
this sin.
Who are the promoters of
drunkenness? Brewers,
distillers, tavern keepers,
and, I am sorry to add, doctors, all of whom, with a
few exceptions,
recommend intoxicating drinks. In doing so these men inflict a
thousand
times as much evil upon mankind as they can accomplish good.
Ø
The
promotion of drunkenness involves indecency.
“That thou mayest
look on their nakedness.” It
is the tendency of drunkenness to destroy
all sense of decency. A drunkard,
whether male or female, loses all
sense of shame.
- THE NATIONAL WOES. “Woe unto him that giveth strong drink!,
What will come to those people?
Ø
Contempt. “Thou art filled
with shame for glory! the cup of the Lord’s
right hand shall be turned unto thee.” As the Chaldeans had treated the
nations they had conquered in a most disgusting manner, so they in
their
turn should be similarly treated. “With what measure ye mete, it
shall be
measured to you again.” (Matthew 7:2)
Ø
Violence. “For the violence
of Lebanon shall cover thee.” Stripped
of all
figure, the meaning of this is that the sufferings which
upon
is retribution. Babylon had given the cup of drunkenness, and
in return
should have the cup of fury and contempt.
(vs.
18-20) The fifth woe: for their
idolatry.
18 “What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath
graven
it; the molten image, and a teacher of
lies, that the maker of his work trusteth
therein, to make dumb idols?” The final woe
is introduced by an ironical
question. The Chaldeans
trusted in their gods, and attributed all their success to the
divine protection; the prophet asks — What good is this
trust? What
profiteth the graven image? (compare Isaiah
44:9-10; Jeremiah 2:11).
What is the good of all the skill and care that the artist
has lavished
on the idol? (For “graven” or “molten,” see note on Nahum
1:14.) And
a (even the) teacher of lies. The idol is so
termed because it calls itself
God and encourages its worshippers in lying delusions, in
entire contrast to
JEHOVAH WHO IS TRUTH!
From some variation in reading the Septuagint
gives, φαντασίαν ψευδῆ - phantasian pseudae – false fantasies - and Jerome,
“imaginem falsam”
(compare Jeremiah 10:14). Trusteth
therein. The prophet
derides the folly which supposes that the idol has powers
denied to the man
who made it (Isaiah 29:16).
Dumb idols; literally, dumb
nothings. So
I Corinthians 12:2 εἴδωλα τὰ ἄφωνα – eidola ta aphona – these dumb,
voiceless idols - (compare I Corinthians 10:19; Psalm 115:5-8). There is a
paronomasia in the Hebrew, elilim illemim.
19 “Woe
unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb
stone,
Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid
over with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in the midst
of it.” The
prophet now denounces
the folly of the maker and worshipper of idols. With this and the
following
verses compare the taunts in Isaiah 44:9-20. The wood. From which he carves
the image. Awake! Come to my help, as good men pray to the living God
(compare Psalm 35:23; 44:23; Isaiah 51:9). Arise, it shall teach! The
Hebrew is bettor rendered, Arise! it teach! i.e. shall
this teach? — an
emphatic question expressing astonishment. Vulgate, Numquid ipse docere
poterit? The Septuagint
paraphrases, καὶ
αὐτό ἐστι
φαντασία
- kai auto esti
phantasia - and itself is a phantasy. It is laid, over. “It” is again emphatic,
as if pointed at with
the finger. Hence the Vulgate, Ecce iste coopertus est;
and
in gold or silver
plates (see Isaiah 40:19; Daniel 3:1).
A Parable of Woes: 5. Woe to the
Idolatrous! (vs. 18-19)
- IDOLATRY AN ABSURDITY. It
must ever be so. The notion that any
figure
fashioned by man out of wood or stone, silver or gold, however
carved or
gilded, can either be or represent the Infinite and Eternal One,
carries
the stamp of unreason on the face of it (Psalm 115:4-8; Isaiah 44:19;
Jeremiah 10:5).
- IDOLATRY A FRAUD. Set up as gods, and worshipped as such,
graven and
molten images are a hideous imposition upon man’s credulity,
being:
Ø
lifeless, — “There is no breath at all in the midst of
them;”
Ø
speechless, — the carved wood and graven stone are alike
“dumb” (I Corinthians 12:2), and only fools would say to them,
“Arise,
and teach!”
Ø
truthless, — in so far as
they can be supposed to impart instruction
being
veritable “teachers of lies;” and
Ø
valueless, — of no use or profit to any one on earth and beneath the
sun
(Jeremiah 10:5).
- IDOLATRY A RUINATION. It brings with it a woe upon all who
are
deluded by it. It entails upon them God’s curse (Deuteronomy
27:15) and
endless sorrow (Psalm 16:4) and everlasting
death
(Revelation
21:8).
LESSON. “Little children, keep yourselves from
idols” (I John 5:21).
20 “But
the LORD is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence
before Him.” The prophet contrasts the majesty of Jehovah with these dumb
and lifeless idols. His
holy temple. Not the shrine at
itself (see Psalm
11:4, and note on Micah 1:2). Let all
the earth
keep silence
before Him. Like subjects in the presence of their king,
awaiting his judgment and the issue to which all these
things tend (compare
v. 14; Psalm 76:8-9; Zephaniah 1:7; Zechariah 2:13).
Septuagint,
Eὐλαβείσθω ἀπὸ
προσώπου αὐτοῦ - Eulabeistho apo prosopou autou –
Let all keep
silent before Him.
The
- THE
Ø
Its material dimensions. The universe. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?
saith the
Lord” (Jeremiah 23:24). “The Lord of heaven and earth
dwelleth not in temples made with
hands,” but in that which his own
hands have fashioned (Acts 17:24). He “filleth
all in all” (Ephesians
1:23).
Ø
Its inner shrine.
Heaven, the habitation of His holiness
(Deuteronomy
26:15; Isaiah 63:15), His dwelling place (I Kings 8:43;
II
Chronicles 6:33), the throne of His glory (Psalm 11:4; Isaiah 66:1),
the place of His immediate presence (Psalm 16:11; 17:15),
the
abode of the redeemed (Psalm 73:24; Revelation 4:4), His
temple
proper (Revelation 7:15; 16:1).
Ø
Its distinctive designation. Holy, as being the
temple of a holy God,
which only the holy in spirit can enter, and in which holy
services
alone can be performed.
- THE INDWELLING DEITY.
Ø
His name. Jehovah, the Self-existent and Immutable One. “I am t
that I am” (Exodus 3:14).
Ø
His attributes. Omnipresence, since He is in His holy
temple (Exodus
20:24;
Jeremiah 23:24); omniscience, since all are before Him
(Psalm
66:7; Proverbs 5:21; 15:3).
Ø
His character. Gracious, since He condescends to receive the homage
of worshippers, and to hold communication and correspondence
with
them.
- THE SILENT WORSHIPPERS.
Ø
Their persons. “All
the earth;” i.e. all the inhabitants thereof, if all are
not as yet (Psalm 74:20; I Corinthians 10:20), all ought to
be
(Exodus
20:3; 34:14; Matthew 4:10), and all one day will
be
(Psalm
22:27; Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14; Revelation 15:4)
worshippers of the one living and
true God.
Ø
Their attitude. “Before Him” — in His presence, beneath His eye,
before His throne, at His footstool. God’s worshippers should
strive
to realize the immediate presence of Him whom they worship
(Psalm
51:11; 95:2; 100:2).
Ø
Their devotion.
“Silence;” expressive of reverence before His majesty
(Psalm
89:7), of submission beneath His authority (Psalm 31:2), of
trust in His mercy (Psalm 130:5), of expectant waiting for
His
utterances whether of commandment or promise (Psalm 85:8).
- Learn:
Ø
That the highest
glory of the universe is GOD’S PRESENCE
IN IT!
Ø
That man’s truest
hope springs from the vicinity of
God.
Ø
That the finest
worship may at times be inaudible.
That God oftenest speaks
to those who are waiting to hear Him.
National Wrongs Ending in National Woes. No. 5. (vs. 18-19)
“What profiteth the graven image
that the maker thereof hath graven it; the
molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth
therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith
to the wood, Awake;
to the
dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold
and
silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.” We have said that
the
prophet denounces upon the Chaldeans, in vs. 6-19 of
this chapter,
five different woes of a most terrible nature. We have noticed four of them.
This is the fifth and the last; and it is denounced on account of their
idolatry. We have seen
no translation of the text more faithful to the
original than this, the Authorized Version.These
verses expose the folly of
idolatry, to which the Babylonians were wholly addicted. It might
be
supposed, from all the other stanzas having been introduced by a
denunciatory
ywh, ‘woe!’ That a
transposition has here taken place, and that the nineteenth
verse ought to be read before
the eighteenth; and Green has thus placed them in
his
translation. But there is a manifest propriety in anticipating the inutility
of
idols, in close connection with what the prophet had just announced
respecting the downfall of
against their worshippers themselves. Now, idolatry, as it prevails in
heathen lands, idolatry proper as we may say, is universally
denounced by
the
professors of Christianity everywhere. We need not employ one word
to
expose its absurdity and moral abominations. But
its spirit is rampant in
all Christendom, is rife
in all “
is the spirit, not
the form, that is the guilty and damnable part of
idolatry.
We raise, therefore, three observations from these verses.
- THAT
MEN OFTEN GIVE TO THE WORKS OF THEIR OWN
HANDS
THE DEVOTIONS THAT BELONG TO GOD.
These old
Chaldean idolaters gave their devotions to the “graven image” and to the
“molten image” that
men had carved in wood and stone or molded from
molten metals. It was the works of their
own hands they worshipped. They
made gods of their own productions. This was all they did; and
are not the
men of the world, as a rule, doing the same thing? They
yield their devotions
to the works of their own hands. It may be wealth, fame,
fashion, pleasure,
or power. It is all the same.
Are men’s sympathies in their strong current
directed towards God or
towards something else? Do
they expend the
larger portion of their time and the greater amount of their
energies in the
service of the Eternal,
or in the service of themselves? This is the question;
and the answer is too palpable to the eye of every spiritual
thinker. Churches
may “weep and howl”
over the idolatry prevailing in
other heathen parts; but thoughtful Christ-like souls are
showering in
silence and solitude their tears on the terrible idolatry that
reigns
everywhere in their own country.
- THAT
MEN OFTEN LOOK TO THE WORKS OF THEIR OWN
HANDS
FOR A BLESSING WHICH GOD ALONE CAN BESTOW.
These old idolaters said
to the “wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise!”
They invoked the dead forms they
themselves had made, to help them, to
give them relief, to render them happy. Now, it is true that
men do not say
formal prayers to wealth, or fashion, or fame, or power; yet
to these they
look WITH ALL THEIR SOULS for happiness.
A man’s prayer is the
deep aspiration of his soul, and this deep aspiration is being
everywhere
addressed to these dead deities; men are
crying for happiness to objects
WHICH ARE AS
INCAPABLE OF YIELDING IT
as the breathless
gods of heathendom. “There is no breath at all in the midst of it.” Men
who are looking for happiness to any of these objects are like
the devotees
of Baal, who cried from morning to evening for help,
and NO HELP
CAME! (I Kings 18:26-29)
- THAT IN ALL THIS MEN ENTAIL ON THEMSELVES THE
WOES OF OUTRAGED REASON AND JUSTICE. “Woe unto him
That saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise!”
Ø
It is the woe of outraged reason. What help could they
expect of the
“molten image, and a teacher of lies”? What answer could they expect
From the “dumb
idols” that they themselves had made? What relief
from any of the idols, though overlaid with gold and silver?
“There is
no breath at all in the midst of it.” How irrational all
this! Equally
unreasonable
is it for men to search for happiness in any of the works
of their bands, and in any being or in any object INDEPENDENT
OF GOD!
Ø
It is the woe of insulted justice. What has God said? “Thou
shalt have no
other gods before me;” “Thou shalt
worship no graven image;” “Thou
shalt love me with all thy heart,” etc. All this devotion,
therefore, to the
works of our own hands, or
to any other creature, is an infraction of man’s
cardinal obligation. “Will
a man rob God?” (Malachi 3:8) Go, then, to
the men on Wall Street (CY), who are seeking happiness from
wealth —
to the men in scenes of fashionable and worldly amusements,
who are
seeking happiness from sensual indulgences and worldly applause —
and thunder, “Woe unto him that saith
to the wood, Awake; to the
dumb stone, Arise!”
“And still
from Him we turn away,
And fill
our hearts with worthless things
The fires
of avarice melt the clay,
And forth
the idol springs!
Ambition’s
flame and passion’s heat
By
wondrous alchemy transmute
Earth’s
dross, to raise some gilded brute
To fill
Jehovah’s seat.”
(Clinch.)
Silence in the
“The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep
silence before Him.”
In striking contrast with the utter nihility of idols,
Jehovah is here introduced,
at
the close of all the prophecy, as the invisible Lord of all, occupying His
celestial
temple, whence He is ever ready to interpose His omnipotence for
the deliverance
and
protection of His people and the destruction of their enemies (compare
Isaiah 26:21). Such
a God it becomes all to adore in solemn and profound silence
(Psalm 76:8-9; Zephaniah 1:7; Zechariah 2:13). We take these words as
suggesting three great subjects of thought.
- THE UNIVERSE IS THE TEMPLE OF GOD. Men practically ignore
this fact. To some the
world is only as a great farm to produce food; to
others, a great market in which commodities are to be exchanged
in order
to amass wealth; to others, a great chest containing precious
ores which
are to be reached by labor, unlocked and brought into the
market; to
others, a great ballroom in which to dance and play and revel in
sensuous
enjoyment. Only a few regard it as a temple.
But few tread its soil with
reverent steps, feeling that all is holy ground. What a temple it
is! how vast
in extent! how magnificent in
architecture! how stirring are its national
appeals! (Below is evidence
of God’s great artistry, taken Sunday
at dusk, April 19, 2015)
- THE TEMPLE IS FILLED WITH THE DIVINE
PRESENCE. “The
Lord is in his
holy temple.” He is in it, not merely
as a king is in his
kingdom or the worker in his works; but He is in it as the soul is in the
body, the fountain of its life, the spring of its activities. Unlike the human
architect, He did not build the house and leave it; unlike the
author, He did
not write his volume and leave his book to tell its own tale;
unlike the
artist, He did not leave his pictures or his sculpture to stand
dead in the hall.
HE IS IN ALL, not as a mere influence, but as AN ABSOLUTE,
ALMIGHTY
PERSONALITY! “Do not I fill the heaven and earth?
saith the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:24)
- HIS PRESENCE IN THE GREAT TEMPLE DEMANDS SILENCE.
“Keep silence
before Him.” It would seem as if the
Divine nature revolted
from bluster and noise. How serenely He moves in nature!
As spring by
universal life rises out of death without any noise, and as the
myriad orbs
of heaven roll with more than lightning velocity in a sublime
hush. How
serenely He moves in Christ! He did not cause His voice to
be heard in the
streets. His presence,
consciously realized, will generate in the soul feelings
too deep, too tender for speech. Were the Eternal to be consciously felt by
the race today, all the human sounds that fill the air and
deaden the ears of
men would be hushed into profound silence.
“Never
with blast of trumpets
And the
chariot wheels of fame
Do the
servants and sons of the Highest
His
oracles proclaim;
But when
grandest truths are uttered,
And when
holiest depths are stirred,
When our
God Himself draws nearest,
The still,
small voice is heard.
He has sealed
His own with silence:
His years
that come and go,
Bringing
still their mighty measures
Of glory
and of woe —
Have you
heard one note of triumph
Proclaim
their course begun?
One voice
or bell give tidings
When their
ministry was done?”
Worship, False and True. (vs. 18-20)
The prophet, in recounting the sins of the Chaldeans,
finally recalled to
mind the idolatry prevailing amongst them. He thought of the temple of
Bel, “casting its shadow far and wide over city and plain,”
and of the
idolatrous worship of which it was the center, and he broke forth in
words
expressive of the utmost scorn and contempt, and then closed his song
by
pointing to Him who alone is worthy to receive the devout adoration
and
adoring praise of all the inhabitants of the earth. Notice:
- HIS EXPOSURE OF THE WEAKNESS AND FOLLY OF
IDOLATRY. vs. 18-19)
Ø
He appealed to experience. His own
people unhappily had been betrayed
into idolatry, and he asked them whether they had ever profited
thereby
(v. 18). “What
fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed? For the end of
those things is death.” (Romans 6:21)
Ø
He appealed to reason.
The maker of anything must of necessity be
greater than that which he fashions with his own hands and as the
result
of his own skill; hence what greater absurdity could there be
than for the
maker of a dumb idol to be reposing his trust in the thing he
has formed
(v. 18)? (Think how great
God must be! Isaiah 55:9 – CY – 2015)
Ø
He denounced the idol
priests, who, by using dumb idols as their
instrument, made these “teachers of lies” (v. 18).
Ø
He declared the
hopelessness resulting from reposing trust in these.
“Woe unto him!” etc. (v. 19).
Ø
He indulged in
scornful satire (v. 19). This verse may be fittingly
compared with Elijah’s irony of speech addressed in
prophets of Baal (I Kings 18:27). The verse is more effectively
rendered in the Revised Version —
Woe unto
him that saith to the wood, Awake!
To the
dumb stone, Arise!
Shall this
teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver:
And there
is no breath at all in the midst of it.”
The weakness and folly of
idolatry as practiced in heathen lands is readily
admitted by us; yet we are prone to forget that the idolatrous
spirit may
prevail even amongst those who are encompassed by influences
eminently
spiritual. Love of the
aesthetical may lead us to become sensuous rather
than spiritual in worship.
(Contemporary Christianity? – CY – 2015)
Attachment to science may cause
us to slight the supernatural and to deify
nature. Desire for worldly success may result in our bowing down
in the
keep yourselves from idols” (I John 5:21).
- HIS PRESENTATION OF JEHOVAH AS BEING SUPREME AND
AS ALONE ENTITLED TO THE REVERENT HOMAGE OF HUMAN
HEARTS. “But
the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence
before Him.”
Ø
The contrast presented
here is truly sublime. From impotent idols the
seer raises his thoughts and directs attention to the living
God.
Ø
The temple in
Jerusalem was the recognized dwelling place of God. The
prophet saw looming in the distance the invasion of his country by
the
idolatrous Chaldeans, followed by the destruction of the temple and
the
desecration of all he held so sacred in association with it. Still he
was
assured that through all the coming changes Jehovah would remain the
Supreme Ruler and
Controller. Unconfined to
temples made with hands,
their overthrow could not affect His role. “His throne is in the heavens;”
He reigns there; and fills
heaven and earth, dominating the universe, and
guiding and overruling all to the accomplishment of His all-wise
and
loving purposes. “The Lord is in his holy temple.”
Ø
Our true position as
His servants is that of reverentially waiting before
Him, acquiescing in His will,
trusting in His Word, assured that, despite the
prevailing mysteries, the end shall reveal His wisdom and His love.
He says
to us, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
(Psalm 46:10) Then let no
murmuring word be spoken, even when clouds and darkness seem to be
round about Him; the processes of His working are hidden from
our
weak view, but the issue is sure to vindicate the unerring
wisdom and
infinite graciousness of His rule. Happy the man who is led from
doubt to faith, who, like this seer, beginning with the
complaint,
“O Lord, how long
shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!”
etc. (ch. 1:2),
is led through calm reflection and hallowed communion to
cherish the
conviction that “the Lord is in His holy temple, and that
all the earth
should keep silence before Him.”
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