Habakkuk 2:12–14 (ESV)
Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!
Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
How should we read this text?
In verses 12 to 14, we read the third woe, which specifically targets the Babylonian practice of building their empire and their cities through violence and oppression. And the language is pretty stark. They've built their towns with blood. They founded their cities on iniquity. This is more than a sort of figurative language. Ancient empires literally used forced labor from the conquered people to construct their grand cities and their monuments. People died in slave labor, probably by the thousands, to build these showcases of imperial power.
Now what's interesting is that there's a connection here between Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel, which was also located in roughly the same region as Babylon. In fact, Babylon is probably named after the Tower of Babel. In both cases, we see this human arrogance, this thinking that they are so great because of their power to build. It's human arrogance embodied in ambitious building projects. And it's arrogance that defies God's authority. In Babylon, like its ancient predecessor, the city, the town, the nation sought to make a name for itself by its architectural achievements.
And so verse 13 introduces a new thought into this. It says that all effort is ultimately futile. Is it not from the Lord of hosts that these things come? God declares through the prophet that these grand building projects are just going to end up as fuel for fire, sticks to be thrown out. And the Hebrew here carries the sense of people exhausting themselves to absolutely nothing. They're building sandcastles that are going to be washed away by God's tide of judgment, if you will.
So in verse 14, the tone shifts again. After this announcement that judgment will come, there's this beautiful, and in fact one of the most beautiful promises in scripture. And I bet you didn’t realize it came from the book of Habakkuk. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. There's a very similar verse in Isaiah chapter 11 verse 9, which shows that these prophets were prophesying the same truths. Habakkuk's message was part of a broader prophecy tradition.
Now this is a pretty remarkable contrast between the woe that's just been pronounced and what's being pronounced here. So the woe is that Babylon's glory will fade. God will eventually take it away. But instead, God's going to fill the whole earth with his glory. So where Babylon wanted to exalt itself, to hold itself up and to build this massive empire through bloodshed and oppression, God's glory instead is going to fill the earth with righteousness and with justice. This image of the waters covering the sea gives us a picture of God's glory being widespread, being comprehensive, being deep and everywhere. There's no single place on earth that's not going to be touched by the glory and the knowledge of who God is. That's something for us to really look forward to.
And the issue I think that this passage is really dealing with is that violence and oppression actually does sometimes succeed, at least for a little while. But eventually violence, injustice, oppression are all going to ultimately be futile. God's purpose will prevail. His glory will fill the earth and man's glory will pass away.
How then should the text read us?
This passage speaks, I think, pretty directly to our human tendency to pursue success and security in physical things that show our own glory. You know, most of us are not actually building a city with bloodshed, but we do trust and we are impressed by these outward pictures of power and strength. And so this passage challenges us again to examine how do we define success? The Babylonians were defining it and measuring it by the grandeur, the bigness of their buildings, the extent of their conquest. When you think of ancient other empires, it was about how much of the earth they filled, how much power they had, how much influence they had.
Now what about us? Do we measure our success by the size of our homes, by the prestige of our careers, by the luxury of our possessions? This passage reminds us that any success that's built on injustice or improper means, that's achieved by exploiting other peoples, is ultimately going to fail. Because God's glory will replace it. True and lasting success comes only when we pursue God's purposes, when we chase after His will.
Secondly, this passage calls us to consider, what are we actually building our lives on? Jesus picked up a similar theme in the parable he told about building a house upon the rock and not the sand. Are we building on the sands of wealth and status and worldly achievement? Or are we building our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ?
Now, when you visited Babylon, you would have seen the magnificent structures. It would have seemed like these things were permanent. But ultimately, they crumbled under God's judgment. Similarly, our lives too will crumble if they're built on anything other than Jesus.
And so this passage also points us forward to this incredible hope we have in God's ultimate victory. Even though all evidence often points contrary, despite all the success of people that are violent and oppressive and unjust, God promises that one day he will fill the earth with his glory. We are part of a much bigger story than our immediate circumstances might suggest.
Remember that there will come a day when God will fill the earth with his glory. And that happens, of course, when Jesus comes again, where we see in the book of Revelation that God's glory will be so bright that there will no longer be any need even for the sun to shine because God will be the light of his people. So no matter what life looks like now, whether you are feeling like you are one of the oppressed, those that have been exploited by injustice or simply hurt by the violence and actions of others, remember that a future is coming where there will be no more tear or crying or pain, for the old order of things has gone away. Thanks be to God that through Jesus this is true.
Prayer
Father, forgive us for the times when we've built our lives on things that are really the wrong foundations, where we've tried to pursue success in all the idle things of this world, through wealth, through career success, through personalities, friendships, all things that are good but are not ultimate. Help us to recognize that true success only exists when we build our lives on Jesus and pursuing your will for our lives through him. Help us to trust in that as the true glory of our lives. Thank you that you will come again to ultimately bring and fill the earth with your glory. We so look forward to that.
Amen.