Sermon Tone Analysis

Woe to the Chaldeans

Recap of Habbakkuk thus far:

Pronunciation of Habakkuk: Hahv a kook

Habakkuk’s conversation with God is recorded.

First, a complaint, “How Long?”

He is tired of seeing iniquity, destruction, violence, strife and contention.

He feels God is letting things slide, that he is allowing His people to sin without consequences.

Habakkuk wants to see God deal with the sin of his people.

And certainly we can identify with this.

Perhaps even you have seen sin in God’s church, and wondered how he lets it go like that.

Or maybe in your own family, you see family members sinning, and even seeming to flout it, and you wonder how they have the nerve, and how they are not struck down immediately by a holy God.

Well, this is how Habakkuk felt.

He saw people all around him sinning, and he was indignant.

How long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?

So God give to him an answer.

God’s answer is, just wait and see.

You are going to be astounded at what I am about to do.

I am going to raise up the Chaldeans (Babylonians) and as you know, Habakkuk, they are vicious.

They have no mercy.

They drag people away from their homes, and enslave them.

They treat people like property, like animals.

They are proud, they laugh at kings, they think they can conquer any people.

These Chaldeans, these brutal ones, Habakkuk, are going to be my instrument of judgment on Israel for all the sin you are complaining about!

To which Habakkuk replies, “Now wait just one stinking minute!”

That’s not right, how could you use an evil people like the Chaldeans to punish Israel.

“why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

These are the worst kind of pagans!

They drag people like they are fish, and rejoice in the capture of people as a hunter or fisherman rejoices in his catch!

Are you going ot let these people continue they way they have?

I know I complained about Israel, but this is way worse, I mean, come on!

And the Lord answers Habakkuk a second time and says, to Habakkuk, but my justice will come to the Chaldeans as well.

And I want you to write this down: My judgment is surely coming to Babylon, the Chaldeans.

My justice may seem delayed by you, but its timing will be perfect.

The Chaldeans live according to their arrogance, trusting in their own strength, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Now we get to todays reading, where we see the woes.

We don’t hear the word woe all that much, it isn’t Whoa, like you tell a horse when it is supposed to stop, it isnt Whoa, like wow, that’s really cool!.

No, this is woe, like woe is me.

A biblical woe is a warning, a punishment.

So let us look at the Woes that the Lord tells Habakkuk to record about the Chaldeans:

Who is all these?

The nations.

They will take up a taunt song against him.

Him is the Chaldeans, or Bablylonians.

And what is a taunt song?

Well, just what it sounds like.

It is a mocking.

It is sneering, in a sense, a song that is intended to insult and cause the one it is aimed at to get rattled, to feel offended.

You know, like sports team rivals will often do.

If your team wins, you don’t just say we won, “we destroyed them!

We kicked them up and down the field.

Where’s that fancy quarterback you were bragging about?

Huh?

He could hardly throw?

Where’s that unbeatable defense that no one could get through?

A bunch of sixth graders could have done better!” Imagine though, the taunt song at a school yard, when a guy who had been an undefeated bully, ruining the days for students, and no one ever dared challenge them, but suddenly a new kid comes, and he isn’t putting up with the bully.

So after school, it is arranged, and the new kid goes out and beats the bully, and the bully slinks away, and now all those who had been bullied by that guy are so relieved.

And the relief comes on two fronts.

There is the relief of not having to be bullied anymore, but also the relief of knowing that there was justice in store for that bully.

Even though for a time it seemed nothing would ever happen to hi, now you can see that in the end, all was made right.

Now imagine the taunts the entire schoolyard makes towards the bully: “Who’s the big man on campus now?

Oh, is that tears we see in your eyes?

How sad!”.

The Taunt song.

And the Lord is telling Habakkuk that the nations shall take up a taunt against the Chaldeans, and here is what they will say:

Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own - This refers to the Chaldeans plundering, stealing what they did not earn.

And for how long? and loads himself with pledges.

This means they would get pledges from other nations, basically a pay-off to leave them alone.

Protection money.

The Chaldeans would say to other nations, “Nice place you got there.

Would be a shame if something happened to it” and out of fear, other nations would pay them off.

So the tables are going to turn.

You made all these nations your debtors, but they will rise up and come against you.

There is always a point where people finally get tired of being mistreated by a tyrant.

Sometimes they have to go through a lot of pain to get to this point, but usually there is a breaking point.

When the people realize they have the numbers and power to overthrow the bully, they will organize and even shed blood to see that the bully can harm no one else.

When this happens to Babylon, it will be a result of, and a punishment for, what they have been doing.

Those who gain money and power through illegitimate means always find a need to protect themselves.

They set their house on a high hill, and they are constantly worried about someone coming to steal what they stole.

Many novels and movies have a plot that involves some master villain who has amassed a great wealth, and all they can think about is how their cohorts are going to try and take it.

This is interesting.

I’m reminded of the Edgar Allen Poe story, the telltale heart.

It is the story of a man guilty of murder, and he has buried his victim beneath the floor, but he continues to hear the heartbeat, or at least he imagines this.

He is tormented, and as he is interrogated about the missing person, he hears the heart beating again, and he imagines it getting louder, and he thinks the policemen must hear it too, and finally, the pressure of it all causes him to confess.

The story ends like this: “They heard!

--they suspected!

--they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!

--this I thought, and this I think.

But anything was better than this agony!

Anything was more tolerable than this derision!

I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer!

I felt that I must scream or die! --and now --again!

--hark!

louder!

louder!

louder!

louder!

--

    "Villains!"

I shrieked, "dissemble no more!

I admit the deed!

--tear up the planks!