CHAPTER TWO (Verses 9-20).
(Continued from Dec., 1907.)
The woes that follow have their application not only to the king of Babylon, and his cruel, relentless armies, but they declare the mind of God regarding any who are in the same unholy ways.
"Woe to him that coveteth! " The sentence, uncompleted, causes the special sin to which attention is drawn to stand out all the clearer. It was covetousness that drew the hordes of Chaldea to the gates of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar would add "an evil gain to his house " (literal rendering), that he might magnify himself and "set his nest on high." But though he might build a costly and magnificent palace by means of the spoils he should take, the very stones would cry out of the wall, and the beam of the timber would answer, exclaiming, "Woe unto him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity" (vers. 9-12).
Covetousness is unquestionably the crying sin of the present day. Insidiously it creeps in and lays hold of the people of God as well as of men of the world. Yet it is a sin against which the word of God warns with fearful solemnity. It has proven the undoing of many an otherwise valiant man, and has destroyed the pilgrim character of thousands.
What, then, is covetousness ?And how is it to be distinguished from honorable thrift and a proper use of opportunities whereby to provide things honest in the sight of all men ? In our English Bibles four words are used to express the one sin-"covetous-ness," "concupiscence," "lust," "desire."
The believer is exhorted to be content;" as we read, "having food and raiment, let us be therewith content."Covetousness is the very opposite of this. It is the unsatisfied craving of the heart for more than God has been pleased to give."Covetous-ness," we are told, "is idolatry"!Then it is plain that the covetous man is the one who puts gain between his soul and God. Anything that turns us from heart-occupation with Him is an idol. By this we may readily test ourselves as to where we stand. The sluggard and the shiftless are not commended by the word of God, but rigorously condemned, and exhorted to thrift and energy. But to run to the other extreme, and to set the heart upon business and the accumulation of wealth, is equally fatal to spirituality. The happy medium is that laid down by the Holy Ghost, who bids us be "not remiss in zeal, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."When He is served all else will fall into place. I shall then use this world "not disposing of it as my own," but shall hold all committed to me as His steward.
One cannot but feel that, had we a single eye as to this, we should hear less of pilgrims embarking in doubtful (not to say shady) business schemes and speculations, because of possible large profits; the failure of which ofttimes brings grave dishonor on that holy name by which we are called. It may be laid down as an axiom, that no saint should be in way connected with any business, however profitable, that could not bear the searching inspection of Him "whose eyes are as a flame of fire."
If it be otherwise, there may seem to be present success and assured prosperity, but it shall turn out at last as Habakkuk has written, " 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 ?" (ver. 13). Another passage says:" Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks:walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of My hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow" (Isa. 50:n). How many, alas, have had to prove this to the full! Laboring in the very fire, they have wearied themselves in the search for vanity; kindling their own fire, and walking in the light of its sparks, they have had to lie down in sorrow, because of their neglect of the word of the Lord.
But however great the apparent triumph of sin in the present time, the outlook is all bright for the man of faith. When the present evil age is passed away, "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (ver. 14). Who that has part in the coming day of glory but would gladly surrender all present gain, were it his to live once more a life of faith during the rejection of his Lord and Redeemer! But it will then be too late to be faithful. For all self-seeking we shall "suffer loss" in the time when those who have held all here in view of the coming of the Lord shall have an entrance ministered unto them abundantly into His everlasting kingdom.
The next woe is pronounced upon him that giveth his neighbor drink in order to encompass his destruction and manifest his shame. It is that wretched hypocrisy that speaks fair, while hatred fills the heart; that unholy dissimulation which leads one to proffer a soothing but brain-intoxicating drought to another in order to accomplish his ruin (vers. 15-17). Terrible shall be the recompense of Jehovah when He makes inquisition for blood! To put an occasion of stumbling in the way of another is to draw down judgment on one's own head. He who causes one of Christ's little ones to fall, might better have had a millstone tied to his neck, and be thrown into the depths of the sea!
The final woe is against idolatry, the making and worshiping of the idols in which Babylon boasted. But the idol and its worshiper shall perish together in the hour of Jehovah's fury (vers. 18, 19). He alone is God over all, blessed forever, now manifested in flesh in our Lord Jesus Christ.
" The Lord is in His holy temple:let all the earth keep silence before Him" (ver. 20). When He speaks, it is for man to hear, and to bow in subjection to His word. Thus has Habakkuk heard His voice, and His anxious questionings vanish. His heart is at rest and his soul awed before the majesty of Jehovah's glory. May we too be of the same chastened and humbled spirit. H. A. I.
(To be continued, D. V.)