Doom to the one making evil gain for his own house, for putting his own nest up high, for delivering himself from the grasp of calamity. You plan shame for your own house, cutting off many peoples and sinning against your own life. A stone will cry out from a village wall, and a tree branch will respond. Pity the one building a city with bloodshed and founding a village with injustice. Look, isn’t this from the LORD of heavenly forces? Peoples grow weary from making just enough fire; nations become tired for nothing. But the land will be full of the knowledge of the LORD’s glory, just as water covers the sea. Doom to the one who makes his companions drunk, pouring out your wrath in order to see them naked. You have drunk your fill of dishonor rather than glory. So drink and stagger. The cup of the LORD’s strong hand will come around to you; disgrace will engulf you. Because of the violence done to Lebanon, he will overwhelm you; the destruction of animals will terrify you, as will human bloodshed and violence throughout the land, the villages, and all their inhabitants. Of what value is an idol, when its potter carves it, or a cast image that has been shaped? It is a teacher of lies, for the potter trusts the pottery, though it is incapable of speaking. Doom to the one saying to the tree, “Wake up!” or “Get up” to the silent stone. Does it teach? Look, it is overlaid with gold and silver, but there is no breath within it. But the LORD is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. (Hab 2:9-20 CEB)
For all you Star Wars fans will remember Jabba the Hutt was one of the galaxy’s most powerful gangsters, with far-reaching influence in both politics and the criminal underworld. He first appeared in Return of the Jedi in 1983. He sat on his throne and had a voracious appetite for all things. His character gives me a mental image of the Babylonian Empire.
In chapter 2 God speaks to Habakkuk and explains why all that is about to happen, will happen. First reason—the unfaithfulness of the Jews. They worshipped foreign gods, didn’t keep Torah, abused the poor and needy, placed their trust in their own power, might and resources. In many ways, they were a miniature version of the Chaldeans. The second reason, God had seen how the Chaldeans were greedy, prideful and never having enough. They will come into Jerusalem and plunder the temple. Taking the holy things and later using them for ungodly pleasure (Belshazzar). Their end was written in the books.
God will bring a remnant back into the land. The way of the wicked is destruction, But the just shall live by his faith. (Hab 2:4 NKJ)
