The Fifth Woe (Habakkuk 2:18-20).
‘What does it profit the graven image that his maker has graven it,
The molten image, even the teacher of lies,
That the maker of his work trusts in it,
So that he makes dumb idols?
Woe to him who says to the wood, “Awake.”
To the dumb stone, “Arise.”
Will this teach? Behold it is laid over with silver and gold,
And there is no breath at all within it.
But YHWH is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before him.'
The final woe is over men's idolatry. What profit is there for a graven image or a molten image that its maker has made it? It is a dead thing without consciousness, and remains so. It does not appreciate what has been done. And yet the maker trusts in these teachers of lies. That is indeed why he makes dumb idols. He has confidence in them (in contrast with the righteous who have confidence in YHWH - Habakkuk 2:4). And yet they are teachers of lies because men read into them what is untrue, and their priests declare falsehoods to them.
‘Woe to him who says to the wood, “Awake.” To the dumb stone, “Arise.” Will this teach? Behold it is laid over with silver and gold, and there is no breath at all within it.' The picture is one of the idol maker futilely saying to the wooden thing, ‘Awake'. And to the dumb stone. ‘Arise'. Vainly he seeks to stir them into action (compare 1 Kings 18:26-27), but there is no answer. Will they teach him? The answer is ‘no'. All he will learn through them is falsehood. The image may have been clothed magnificently in silver and gold, but it has no breath at all within it (see Jeremiah 10:14; Psalms 135:15-17; Isaiah 41:7; Isaiah 44:9-20; Isaiah 45:16; Isaiah 45:20; Isaiah 46:1-2; Isaiah 46:6-7;). For only YHWH can breathe life into His creation.
‘Woe to him.' For it can only lead him away from God into sin, meaninglessness and judgment. The New Testament makes clear that it also brings him under Satan (1 Corinthians 10:20). The folly of such images, made to represent humans, animals, fish, birds and creeping things is brought out well in Romans 1:18-23. They look to created things and not to the Creator. Modern man may pride himself that he does not indulge in such folly. Instead he looks to and worships skyscrapers, wealth, success, fame, pop idols, sportsmen and their clubs, and such like. They too are creaturely things not worthy of man's adoration.
‘But YHWH is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.' It is unlikely that Habakkuk had a lesser view of God than Solomon. He knew that God would not dwell in an earthly house, that even the heaven of heavens could not contain Him, thus how much less a house built with human hands (1 Kings 8:27; see also 1 Kings 22:19; Daniel 7:9). So this temple that he has in mind is a heavenly temple, similar to that which descended to earth on ‘a high mountain' away from Jerusalem in Ezekiel's vision, not to be seen by man, and is revealed in Revelation 4-5 and constantly.
YHWH is seated above His creation (Psalms 29:10, the flood represents the whole of creation - Genesis 1:2), unlike the gods which are simply a part of it. He sits in glorious splendour surrounded by His hosts (1 Kings 22:29) and in view of what He is, and in view of what history reveals about His actions, let all the earth keep silent before Him. Silent in awe, and worship, and reverence. This will one day be the result of what He has done.
Thus YHWH's reply to Habakkuk's questions is that through what He is doing Babylon will be judged and punished, the world will be filled with the knowledge of God, and all the earth will worship in awe and reverence before Him in His heavenly temple.