15-16 “Woe to him who makes his neighbours drink - you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord's right hand will come round to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! 17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.”

18-19 “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, 'Awake'; to a silent stone, 'Arise'! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” Habakkuk 2:15-20 English Standard Version

The terrible act of getting someone heavily drunk, or drugged, so as to take advantage of them, is not a modern crime. Vs 15-16 show how that sort of wickedness took place over 2,500 years ago. People haven't changed. But Habakkuk's words weren't applying just to individuals. He was using that sort of behaviour to describe how God saw the Babylonians. And his grave warning was that what the Babylonians did to nations would eventually come round to them. The apostle Paul put it well when he said “Don’t be misled - you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.” (Galatians 6:7-8 Paraphrased)

In this chapter so far, Habakkuk was passing on grave warnings spoken by God to people who plundered and exploited others. In vs 18-19, however, he speaks of a wrong thing people did then (and still do today) that particularly grieved God. What was that?

It was the very foolish custom of making idols, and worshipping such idols as if they had created the heavens and earth. The writer of Psalm 115 describes just how stupid this was. Speaking of the silver and gold idols people made, he said: “They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; Nor can they make a sound with their throats.” Then he added a very sad comment, and said: “Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them.” (Psalm 115:4-8) People become like the empty lifeless idols they have invented and trusted in.

Hundreds of years after Habakkuk, the apostle Paul said of mankind: “They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.” (Romans 1:23-25) People became as corrupt as the gods they created.

Most readers of this post will probably think “Well, that's not an issue for me because I've not made and worshipped any idols”. We may also think that idol worship has all but vanished from the earth. But that isn't the case. Idolatry is still practised in many countries, and should burden our hearts for such people to hear about the true and living God. We must also take to heart the words Jesus spoke when He said: “Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

The things people treasure the most become their substitute gods! Our affections will also shape what we most prize. Yet they are inevitably things that will pass away. And against such empty and noisy pursuits of people, Habakkuk cries out: “But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” We need to be still, and know that there is only one true creator God who should have all our affection and all our praise.