CRITICAL NOTES.]
Habakkuk 2:9. Woe] the second, against establishing a permanent settlement by godless gain. Evil] Covetousness surpassingly evil and fatal to itself. House] Not the palace but the dynasty (Habakkuk 2:10). High] As eagles build nests on high to protect from harm (cf. Job 39:27); “so does the Chaldean seek to elevate and strengthen his rule by robbery and plunder, that it may never be wrested from his family again.”
Habakkuk 2:10. Shame] the result instead of glory.
Habakkuk 2:11.] Personification. Cry] For the injustice they had suffered (cf. Luke 19:40). Answer] the stone, i.e. join in its crying.
HOMILETICS
THE EVIL COVETOUSNESS.—Habakkuk 2:9-11
The second woe is now pronounced against coveting still more, and aiming still higher. The desire to build stately palaces, to be exempt from common misfortunes, and to perpetuate human greatness, is condemned. It is an evil covetousness or gain.
I. The design of this covetousness. “That he may set his nest on high,” &c.
1. To enjoy the comforts of life. The covetous seek ease and comfort, make their nest in their acquisitions, and feather it for their offspring, as the eagle builds on high to save its young from destruction. They think their prosperity can never change, and believe they have enough to secure perpetual comfort. “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease,” &c.
2. To escape the calamities of life. “That he may be delivered from the power of evil.” He fears evil from those whom he has injured, and builds on high, and fortifies himself against dangers. But what avails the height, when sin is in the foundation? Babylon was built on high, encircled by walls which no invader could scale or shatter. But it was levelled to the dust, and its proud king ranked with the brutes. God can overthrow the strongest tower, and terror invade the proudest conscience. “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down” (Obadiah 1:4: Jeremiah 49:16).
II. The proofs of this covetousness. The very buildings which they rear cry out against their conduct. God’s works speak of his wisdom, power, and glory. So man’s works declare his skill and his guilt. Works of mercy are memorials before God, and plead there; works of cruelty and wrong cry out for vengeance upon the oppressor.
1. The stones in the wall cry out.
2. The beam out of the timber responds to the cry. Here are strange witnesses, woeful antiphonies in sin. If everything else is silent, their houses built by oppression and blood shall testify against them. The whole creation groans beneath the bondage of their corruption. “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work.”
III. The results of this covetousness. The covetous man takes a wrong course for his wealth, his family, and his posterity. With all his pains and schemes he cannot preserve himself from utter ignominy and ruin.
1. He inflicts personal injury. “And hast sinned against thy soul.” Men neglect their souls in pursuit of the world, and find their gain in the end to be a poor bargain. “The covetous man heaps up riches not to enjoy them, but to have them; and starves himself in the midst of plenty, and most unnaturally cheats and robs himself of that which is his own; and makes a hard shift to be as poor and miserable with a great estate as any man can be without it” [Tillotson]. In the present world he disquiets himself, pierces himself through with many sorrows; and in the world to come he will lose what the whole world cannot redeem—
“Some, o’er-enamour’d of their bags, run mad,
Groan under gold, yet weep for want of bread” [Young].
2. He brings social disgrace. “Thou hast consulted shame to thy house.” By cutting off many people, he gained disgrace not safety. Mighty conquerors who destroy others do not secure their own throne. Those who scandalise, undermine, or impoverish their neighbours to make room for themselves, turn their own glory and that of their posterity into shame (Proverbs 15:25-27; Proverbs 14:11). “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall; but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Habakkuk 2:9. Evil covetousness not a good covetousness. “Covet earnestly the best gifts,” &c. The desire itself was evil in its nature. Its results were evil, from which he sought to deliver himself. Covetousness is always evil when joined with ambition, infidelity, and confidence in earthly wealth. On high.
1. The foundation of the building: pride, ambition, and earthly power.
2. The fate of the building. Overthrown by Divine power. “He who builds his house with other people’s property, collects stones for his grave” [Cramer]. What the world calls protection, cannot protect against God’s judgments; death mounts over all rocks [Diedrich]. A nest imports two things: first, warmth, or a fence against cold: secondly, safety, or a fence against danger. Nests are builded close, and so they are warm, and they are built either on high, or out of the way in some secret place, and so they are safe [Caryl].
Habakkuk 2:10. Thou hast consulted. Holy Scripture overlooks the means, and places us at the end of all. Whatever the wicked had in view, to satisfy ambition, avarice, passion, love of pleasure, or the rest of man’s immediate ends, all he was doing was leading on to a further end—shame and death. He was bringing about not only these short-lived ends, but the lasting ends beyond, and these far more than the others, since that is the real end of a thing which abides, in which it at last ends [Pusey].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Habakkuk 2:9-10. House. How few houses have you that those that are now in them can say, “My ancestor dwelt here, and these were his lands?” Go over the whole country, few can say so. Men when they build have conceits. Now I build for my child, and for my child’s child. God crosses them. Either they have no posterity, or by a thousand things that fall out in the world, it falls out otherwise [Rd. Sibbes]. Consulted shame—
“Sin and shame are ever tied together
With Gordian knots, of such a strong thread spun,
They cannot without violence be undone.” [Webster.]