The Glory of Fools -- Woe to the Proud Seducers -- The Striking Contrast Between the Proud and the Righteous (Part 5) -- Habakkuk Lesson 12

Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness! You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you and utter disgrace will come upon your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants. (Habakkuk 2:15-17) 

While contemplating what to write regarding the next portion of our text in Habakkuk 2, I did a casual google search regarding 'the glory of the world'. Let me save you some grief and just say: Don't do it! How on earth did I come up with that? Going back one verse helped me put the passage into context. 

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14) In Numbers 14:20-21, the Lord said to Moses after pleading for his people because of their sin: "I have pardoned them according to your word, but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord." Isaiah 11:9 says that the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's a promise. God is not looking at the world and wringing His hands hoping that one day the earth will be filled with His glory in the knowledge of who He is. God's glory is seen in the salvation of His people, but it is also seen in judgment. Either way, one day the whole earth will know that He alone is God!

As believers, this is what we long for even if we occasionally, for brief moments along the way, get caught up in what the world glorifies. Christians can't stay there, and it is not the desire of their hearts. The glory of this world is to glorify the god of 'self'. That God be glorified is the innermost and deepest longing of every true believer. Because God is God, there can be no other who shares His glory. To do so robs Him of glory that belongs to Him alone. 

We don't really need a google search to know the answer to the question: What is the glory of the world? Think to yourself (as one whose passion is to glorify our Lord in this world) what 'glory' means to an unbeliever living in this world. What does it look like? Anyone who tries to weed through the slim pickings to find something decent to watch on television knows what is glorious to the world. It is a vile, wicked, self-indulgent, facade that is meant delude and deceive. What the world sees as glorious the Bible calls foolish. 

Philippians 3:17-21 says this: Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

The fruit of the Spirit glorifies God. Walking in the Spirit is the pattern God gave us to follow. Galatians 5 says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The deeds of the flesh, on the other hand, are what the world has gloried in sprinkling this rotten fruit with all sorts of bling and glitter meant to entice and deceive. These deeds are evident, Scripture says. The world is not ashamed of these outward displays of depravity, but rather takes great pride in them. They include immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which Paul forewarns that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

The world would have looked upon Babylon in all her splendor as glorious. God assured Habakkuk that one day the world would see who she really was when He exposed her! She was literally a city of gold filled with temples and altars to Ishtar. She was a proud, wealthy, strong kingdom glorying in all she believed she had accomplished in her own strength. She didn't give a thought to the fact that there was a sovereign God who allowed the false glory of her kingdom for a time...for His purposes. She paid no mind to the way in which she became all these things...being built upon the exploitation of others...because her end always justified her atrocious means. In order for the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, all the kingdoms and rulers of this world who attempt to usurp God's glory must be judged and destroyed.  

The fourth woe uses the words drink, mix in your venom, drunk, nakedness, disgrace, and cup. We must remember that drunkenness was the special sin of the proud Chaldeans back in verse 5. Certainly drunkenness falls into the category of sin mutually incompatible with self-control--one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. While we're not focusing on the dangers of sinful drunkenness directly in our passage, anyone who is familiar with someone characterized as a drunkard knows the image that brings to mind. 

When the U.S. Marshals came to lead me off in handcuffs to begin my sentence, they took me directly to County Jail. While waiting to be processed, and several times in my 'diesel therapy' from one jail or prison to another, I got familiar with the term 'holding cell'. This is a vivid picture that comes to mind when meditating on this passage for me. The filth could only be eclipsed by the smell of vomit mixed with other stale body odors. The scene was as degrading and undignified as one can imagine.

Let's break down our text beginning with verse 15--Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness.

First, what jumps out at me is the motive seen by the preceding words 'even to' and 'so as'. Some versions use the words 'in order to' which signifies purpose or intent. The proud Chaldeans made their neighbors drink in order to gaze (look intently) at their neighbor's nakedness. Barnes states that they gaze on their neighbors "with devilish pleasure". This brings to our minds the episode in Genesis 9 of Noah and his son Ham making jest of his father's exposure. 

In order for the proud man to keep the focus on his supposed 'glory', he (who believes he is superior) must keep those he deems 'less than' underneath him. The methods of doing so are the grossest form of abuse. By flattery and feigned affection, the exceedingly proud lure and trap those whom they target as weaker prey.

Those neighbors of the Chaldeans--those whom they were called to love altruistically--were deceived by those whose only motive was to bring them to their most vulnerable state of shameful degradation. I've recently studied the book of Obadiah in which it is clearly seen how much God hates the abuse of the proud toward weaker neighbors. Also having a false sense of pride and security, Edom was treating her own family members with contempt and gleefully rejoicing in Judah's downfall She stood aloof in her superiority--withholding help and even adding to her burdens. 

The Chaldeans would 'wine and dine' their neighbors to get something from them. To gain advantage over them, they pretended to offer friendship and alliance just like some today who gain advantage of others by enticing them to drink too much. Using flattering words and feigned affection, the morning- after-shame is the furthest thing from their victims' minds. Mixing poison under such alluring persuasions helps the tonic go down smooth before it turns bitter. 

Giving a glass of drink to a thirsty, poor neighbor is an act of love or charity, but pouring a bottle down a neighbors throat leads to a lack of self-control resulting in exposing that one to shame and degradation. Nakedness in Scripture can represent shame, exposure, and/or vulnerability.

Just like the antichrist will do, the Chaldean king, intoxicated with his insatiable desires for power, turned on the very ones he intoxicated raping them of all their dignity. "Prostrated by fraud and treachery, they were then mocked and spurned and covered with ignominy," says Pulpit Commentary.

Hollywood loves to use the art of seduction in its plots to lure its audience. The uninhibited pleasures of hedonism have ruled the "entertainment" industry because that is what the world wants. What the world calls entertainment, God calls sin. We all know the familiar script. Audience identifies villain early before the plot ever thickens. Some teen victim is tired of not fitting in with the 'in crowd' and feeling as though she does not measure up. In a moment of weakness, this one finds herself at a party she would not ordinarily attend. Approaching this victim with an offering of some forbidden drink on a platter of flattery and feigned affection (masking lust), the villain who also believes she does not measure up (to him) preys on a her weakness. In a moment, she succumbs to the tempting power of seduction. As the victim reaches for the cup mixed with unseen poison, the audience screams, "No! Don't do it!" We can see what the victim cannot. We've also seen enough of these clips to know the villain will get his due at the end of the movie, that due which is also eagerly anticipated by the audience. 

Frat boys, driven by their lust for power, pushing alcohol on naive pledges is another fitting example one commentator used. Unfortunately, in real life, the villain doesn't always get his due in this life. He will, however, in the ultimate end on judgment day.

God will expose the proud. This proud one filled with a sense of his own glory will be brought down. Shame shall cover him as a 'stupified' drunkard rather than that robe of his false glory and self-inflated dignity. True dignity can only come from a reflection of God's image. He has forced many to drink his cup. But he, too, shall drink a bitter cup--that of God's wrath or the cup of retribution in God's wrath one day. For a time, God allowed the Chaldeans to 'thrive'. They gave their neighbors the cup of idolatry and feigned alliance. For that reason, God would one day give them the cup of His fury.

Revelation 16:19; Lamentations 4:21; Jeremiah 25:8-29; Jeremiah 51

Verse 16--You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you. And utter disgrace will come upon your glory. 

Proverbs 3:35 says the wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools. See also Isaiah 47:3; and Hosea 4:7. Also see Psalm 75:8, Isaiah 49:26, and Isaiah 51:21-23. 

Literally, the text says their uncircumcision will be exposed. In essence, God was letting Habakkuk know that He sees the hearts of all men. He knows those who are outside the covenant; He knows who are His. This would be especially important to know when both sides were experiencing judgment and when those outside the covenant appeared to be prospering at the moment. 

God always saw their nakedness, the wretchedness of their proud hearts; but what He saw would be exposed for all the world to see. The righteous robe of Christ is the only robe that can cover the nakedness of men. Remember in the Garden when Adam and Eve suddenly knew they were naked, and God clothed them with the skins of animals foreshadowing the sacrifice needed not only to cover sin but to do away with it when the ultimate sacrifice was offered? 

Revelation talks about final day Babylon's ultimate fall. Revelation 14:8 says she who made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality will fall (so as to never get up again). Revelation 17:1-2 shows us a picture of the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. We know that immorality and prostitution often symbolizes idolatry or religious apostasy in Scripture. Revelation 18:3 says: All the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.

Verse 17--For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants. 

The Chaldeans were proud and characterized by their cruel violence. Here we see that they went into a land and annihilated it for their own gain. They ran roughshod, without any concern or empathy, for people, land, or animals. When Babylon is judged, there will be nothing left with which to associate her name. She, too, will be obliterated from the face of the earth by the Lord. Israel, on the other hand, will have a people, a lush land, and animals once wild and ferocious, completely tamed in the Millennial Kingdom. Israel restored will bring God glory!

God knows those who are His. As they are being sanctified, He disciplines them in order that they might bear the image of Christ to a lost and dying world. There is a cup that symbolizes God's salvation of which we gladly drink. We can drink of this cup because He drank the cup of God's wrath that was meant for us. Before Jesus' death, the mother of James and John, seeking a future promotion for them, asked Jesus whether they could sit beside Jesus in the kingdom.  His response was: "Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" (Matthew 20:22). Though they thought they could, of course they could not. That cup was marked with Jesus' name alone. 

This is why 1 Corinthians 11:29 says of the cup that symbolizes the "New Covenant in Jesus' blood": For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.  We cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons or partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. We cannot treat our neighbor with contempt and glorify God. Whoever wishes to be great in the kingdom walks the path of love, sacrifice, service, and suffering. (Piper) The disciples would drink a cup of suffering, but Jesus' cup was different because His cup contained God's wrath and fury meant for sinners He came to save (you and I). In this cup was the undiluted fury of God against all the most heinous of sins that God must judge in order for any to enter into fellowship with Him through His Son's death and atonement for sin. Believers who are part of this New Covenant will never, ever drink from the cup of God's wrath. The cup of salvation we drink is the cup we offer to all who will drink from the cup of God's wrath for all eternity unless they repent of their sin, turn to Him putting their whole trust and faith in Him to save. 

Little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.