In this enriching episode, our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee unfolds the deep layers of Habakkuk, exploring themes of faith versus pride, the eternal covenants with Israel, and the dire consequences of Babylon’s choices. Listen in as we connect these scriptural insights to modern life’s spiritual journey and reflect on the unchanging nature of God’s promises.
How firm a foundation, ye saints, of the Lord is laid for your faith.
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Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m your host, Steve Schwetz, and we’re traveling through the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, a minor prophet who had a major conflict with God. That’s right. When other people only think when God allows difficult things to happen, Habakkuk actually says something. And you know what? God didn’t strike him down. In fact, God bent down and listened. To set the stage, here’s a special introduction by our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
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And we saw last time that there were four covenants that God made with the nation Israel. And those covenants that God made with the nation Israel were unconditional covenants. The covenants actually depended upon the integrity of God. upon the word of God. And there was one, however, that was a conditional covenant. We’ll see that when we get to it, the Mosaic covenant. But we were talking last time about the covenant with Abraham. And God had promised him a land, a nation would come from him, and actually nations, and he would become a blessing to all nations. Now the covenants that God made were eternal covenants, absolute covenants, and nothing could break these covenants at all. Now God has made two-thirds of this covenant good. He promised him he’d make a nation from him. Well, he certainly did that. They’re scattered now in every nation under the sun, and many of them are back in the land of Israel right now. That’s a very tenuous sort of a living that they are enjoying, or I should say maybe not enjoying. God also promised to make them a blessing to all nations. And it was through Abraham that God sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world and through this nation. So they were to be a blessing to all nations. And that’s the blessing the world has today, although some would like to call it something else other than a blessing. Now, God made this great covenant with Abraham. Now, he added something to it. I mean by that, he added to it and widened it out by giving Abraham an explanation of some things that were to take place. For instance, we come to the 15th chapter, the book of Genesis, and we find there Abraham is returned from the first warfare that’s mentioned in the word of God. And it was Abraham going and recovering the people and the booty that had been taken by the kings of the east. And Abraham salvaged all of that. And the king of Sodom offered him all the booty. And he made a tremendous statement. He said, you couldn’t give me a shoestring or a piece of thread. And so Abraham is on pretty noble ground. And God immediately appeared to him and said, I’m thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. I’m your protection. And you thought you might lose the battle and be killed, but I was your shield. And I’m your exceeding great reward.
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What a timely word from God. He once told Abraham, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. Do you need to be reminded of that? God is good and he keeps his promises. That’s something that we can trust in and rejoice over, especially as we study the book of Habakkuk. As you find your seat on the Bible bus, we got just enough time to hear from a fellow traveler who writes, because of disability and circumstances, I don’t get to church as often as I’d like. So this program is a great help. It also is fantastic to hear how God is working in places like Turkey and Bangladesh. That’s what I want to hear as a Christian, knowing that the love of God is being spread all over the world. But I look around in America and I see it as a great wasteland, a mission field. I’d love to start a home group here. Do you have any tips? Well, you know, that’s a great question, and yes, we do. One simple and powerful way to begin is by downloading our free Bible Companions. Now, whether you gather in your home or you connect on Zoom, meet at a church or in a coffee shop, you can listen to Dr. McGee’s teaching. You can do that individually, and then you can read the short summary and reflect together on the discussion questions provided. Finally, end with prayer. It’s what’s happening all around the world, and people are listening and sharing and praying together. So go to ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE to get your free download or order printed copies of the New Testament Bible Companions. Let’s pray together now. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your word, a steady light in dark days and an anchor for our weary hearts. As we open the book of Habakkuk, Lord, we ask that you would meet us right where we are. Like the prophet, many of us are burdened with questions, wondering why evil seems to prosper and why justice feels so delayed, and asking where you are in the chaos. So remind us, Lord, that you are still on the throne as you strengthen our faith and renew our hope. In Jesus’ name, amen. We’re off to Habakkuk 2 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
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Now, last time, friends, we were introduced to a verse that we spent most of the hour on. In fact, practically all of our time period on radio, we spent on verse 4. And I’m really not through with it. I guess we’ll never be through with it exactly because it runs through the Scripture and it puts down the great scriptural language. basis of God’s salvation. It begins, “…behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith.” Now, it presents to us here two streams of humanity. Or, this is the verse that divides humanity into two great groups. One group are living by their own sufficiency, their own strength. They own ability. They walk by pride. They feel like that they are acceptable to God. In fact, some of these folk give me the impression that God’s really lucky to get them, and he doesn’t really have them, but they think that he does. And this is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. It’s a way of destruction. And here, he just leaves it as the man lifted up in pride, his soul’s not upright in him, and it leads to destruction. The Lord Jesus Christ presented these two ways, and the other is the way of faith, the just shall live. He receives life by faith, he walks by faith, and he moves into eternity by faith. And not by his own ability, but on the strength and ability of another. Now, the Lord Jesus put it like this. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. Our Lord really put the climax on it. And he says, and many there be which go in thereat. Now, this is called the broad way. But if you’ll notice, what you have here is a funnel. It’s wide where you enter, but you come out in just one place. That’s destruction. And that’s the story of the sinner. It’s like going down a canyon. And here in the West… I’ve been hunting in quite a few places where you start up a very wide spot in the desert, and you begin to move up into a canyon. And as you move up into the canyon, it gradually gets narrower and narrower and narrower. And that is the picture here. It’s wide at the entrance, but it narrows down to destruction. Now, the Lord Jesus, though, said concerning the other, because straight is the gate. That gate is very narrow. It’s narrow in the sense that the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Now, it’s narrowed down to him, to a person. He is the way. He doesn’t show the way. He is the way. You either have Christ or you don’t have him. You either trust him or you don’t trust him. It hasn’t anything in the world to do with going through a ceremony or making pledges or going forward in a meeting or that type of thing at all or even joining the church. It has to do with your relationship with Jesus Christ. And that’s the reason it’s a pretty straight gate, by the way. God has the world shut up to a cross, and he says, what will you do with my son that died for you? And straight is the gate. And narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Now, wait just a minute. This now is an inverted funnel. You go in at the small end. Christ is the way. But as you enter, it doesn’t narrow down, it widens out. The Lord Jesus said, I’ve come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly, wide, and the liberty that there is for the Savior. Take today two classes of folk. Here is a man, and we’re coming to that in this particular passage of Scripture. He begins to take a drink. He says to his Christian friend, you’re narrow-minded. You’re quite limited. I can drink or I can let alone. That’s what my dad used to say. My dad died when I was 14. He was a heavy drinker. Well, he was never an alcoholic, but he sure did drink heavily. And as a boy, I talked to him and I asked him why he didn’t give it up. He said, son, I can give it up anytime I want to. You know what his problem was? He didn’t want to. That was it. And had he lived, I’m confident the day would have come when he’d found himself in a pretty narrow canyon and he would have only one alternative, and that’s to take another drink. Now, the Christian that was so narrow, he went in a narrow gate. He trusts Christ as his Savior. But did he get to the place where it narrowed down? No, he’s living, friends. If you really want to live, you come to Christ. That is the wonder and the glory of this verse here. No wonder the foundation under Romans, it’s the foundation under Galatians, it’s the foundation under the epistle to the Hebrews. Now, this is the thing that God had said to this man. He said to Habakkuk, you have certain questions and I’ve answered them for you. Hasn’t been quite satisfactory to you. But you can trust me. You can trust me that what I’ve done in the past has been right. What I’m doing right now is right. And you can trust me that what I’m going to do in the future is going to be right. And that I am in control. Now, friends, with that in mind, I’ll be very frank with you. Let me ask the question, who can lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Who can bring a charge against us if we’ve trusted Christ? And all things do work together for good to those that love God, to those called according to his purpose. Now, he says, therefore, to this man Habakkuk, I will take care of the Babylonians in time. Now, he puts down the basis on which he’s going to judge them. God says, you just give me time and I’ll take care of them. I’m going to use them to judge my people. But then I will judge them, and I will judge them on a righteous, holy basis. And I will be justified in what I do. Now, we have given to us here five woes. And this is just about as systematic and as orderly as anything that you’ll find in the Scripture. And I’m told that the next two chapters, this chapter and chapter three, are like a psalm. Each one of them is a psalm. In fact, it could be set to music. Now, will you listen to him? Verse 5, he says, Yea, also, because he transgressed by wine, he’s a proud man. Now, he’s talking about the Babylonians. And they, at this moment, are not the great nation that they became later on at the time of Daniel. Now, his first charge is they transgress by wine. And the Babylonian, he’s a proud man. Neither keepeth at home. who enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto himself all nations, and heapeth unto himself all peoples.” Now, Babylon became the first great world power. That was what they were after, and that’s what they became. That’s been the philosophy of great many nations of the world. They’ve worked on that basis, that they could rule the world. And I’m afraid that after World War II, we got that insane notion also. And we stuck our nose into several countries where we should have kept our nose at home, where it belonged. But nevertheless, this has been the fallacy of the nations of the world. And this was the fallacy of Babylon. They had a philosophy that they intended to rule the world. They felt they were capable of doing it. They were lifted up by pride. And they were guilty of this sin of drunkenness. Now, I’ve had this up several times before. It was in Amos and Joel. And it was in Nahum, and now here again it’s in Habakkuk, that this is what brings nations down. Nahum makes it clear that it was drunkenness that brought Assyria down. It was drunkenness that caused God to send the northern kingdom into captivity. Now, Habakkuk says it’s drunkenness that will cause God to destroy, absolutely destroy, the great Babylonian kingdom. In other words, drunkenness works out its own destruction when they become a nation of drunkards. Now, that is the thing that characterized Babylon. And if you would read the fifth chapter of Daniel, we were there not too long ago. You remember, Belshazzar made a feast. And that was the night that Babylon fell. Why? They were drunk. It was a night of revelry and drunkenness. They felt perfectly safe. That is the thing that brought Rome down. I took a group of people into a place many of them said they’d never even heard of before, Ostia. That’s down about 15 miles from Rome. It’s on the seacoast, down by the Tiber River. That was the playground of the Romans. And the ruins there reveal that the Romans gave themselves over there to revelry. And drunkenness was the important thing that brought them down. It was the main thing. And this is the thing that’ll destroy any people. It’ll destroy our nation today. I have been in hotels and motels and inns across this country. And most of them depend for their existence on conventions. And a convention, as I have observed them, is a time of great revelry and drinking. I’ve been in Dallas when there were two conventions going on at one time where we stayed. And on the way to the service in the evening, we passed two big rooms, filled with a cocktail party. Now, these are two reputable companies in this country today, but that’s the way they carry on their business. Now, how long will this nation last like that? Today, with 10 million alcoholics, 50% of our accidents caused by drunkenness, how long can a nation exist like that? Now, God says that is your problem. Your drunkenness, it’s led to pride and made you like Sheol. You want to gobble up everything. You remember back in the book of Proverbs, in verse 15 of chapter 30, the horse leash hath two daughters crying, give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied. Yea, four things say not. It’s enough. The grave, and that Sheol, by the way, and the barren womb, and the earth that’s filled with water. So that here he uses that same expression that is the back it does, who enlargeth his desire as Sheol. Never satisfied. Keep expanding their borders. Keep moving out. and never, never satisfied. Today, we’re living in a country where each year, business must be a little bit better than the year before. And churches have caught up in that today. I’m not sure what those of us in radio are caught up in it. We want this year to be better than the year before. What kind of a thing is this that’s going on today? The church must take in more members this year than it did last year. The budget must be bigger than last year. And if it’s not, believe me, we’re failing. That is, we think we’re failing like Sheol, like the grave that never has enough. And today that is the thing that drives many of us on. And this is the thing that brought Babylon down. God says, I’ll judge them for these things. Now he spells out five of these woes. specifically. Will you listen to him? Verse 6. Now, shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his? How long? And to him that ladeth himself with thick clay. And that apparently has to do with signing a pledge. It’s one thing to buy property and pay for it. It’s another thing to take it by force. And this first woe is a taunting proverb against Babylon, because they were seizing by force that which was not theirs as a nation. And this is God’s taunting Proverbs against this nation for wanting more and taking that which does not belong to them. You see, God has made it today that man by the sweat of his brow is going to make his living. And friends, if you’re not earning your living by the sweat of your brow, Somebody else is doing it for you because you can’t get it any other way. And Babylon’s way was that they wanted somebody else to do the work, and they by force would take it. And that is the first woe. God says, I’ll judge you for that. And he wants you to know that he was just and righteous when he did it also. Verse 7, “…shall they not rise up suddenly?” that shall bite thee, and a weight that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booty unto them. God says, don’t you know that whatsoever man sows that he’s going to reap, you’re going to take it away from somebody else? Somebody’s going to take it away from you. In fact, the same crowd, the media Persians, became a great nation also. And then they took Babylon, Gabrius by subtlety that night, channeled the Euphrates River back out of the canal through which it was flowing through the city. And then his army flowed into the city and he destroyed it. And again you have this awful thing. You know, man is bloodthirsty. Man is covetous. And that, by the way, brings us to the next woe that we have here. God says, verse 8, “…because thou hast spoiled many nations.” All the remnant of the people shall spoil thee because of men’s blood and for the violence of the land of the city and all that dwell therein. Then here is the second woe, verse 9. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness. Now, I think that you can covet the best gift. I think that a believer ought to have a desire to want to please God. That kind of covetousness. But this is an evil covetousness. That is, covet’s that which doesn’t belong to him. Covet’s his neighbor’s property, his neighbor’s wife, his neighbor’s wealth. covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil. Thou hast plotted shame to thy house by cutting off many peoples, and hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.” Remember the Lord Jesus. When they tried to get him, the religious rulers did, tried to get him to quiet that crowd that had come from Galilee that was singing Hosanna to the Messiah. Why? He said, why, if these would keep quiet, the stones are going to cry out. And in other words, this is something that’s going to get out. You can be sure of that. That brings us to the third woe, verse 12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood and establish a city by iniquity. And this has to do with murder and pillage and slaughter and violence. That is the method that Babylon used of destruction. And it’s the method of warfare, of course. You know, mankind, if you get off and look back at him in his history, you have to come to the conclusion that he must be insane, the way that he’s lived on this earth, the way that he acts. And actually, he is insane, insane with sin, a sinful nature. so that he can’t even direct his paths. So even that which he thinks is right, and there’s never been a war fought that they didn’t think it was right, and always he comes to the conclusion that he’s doing the righteous and the right thing. May I say to you, this is God’s condemnation of Babylon. But you can stretch that out and bring it up to date and put it down on any modern nation you want to, and it’ll fit just like a glove. Now, our time is up, but we’re going to finish this chapter next time and probably move into the third chapter. This is another rich section of the Word of God. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
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There’s more in this great study, so be sure to read ahead in Habakkuk and get prepared yourself. Until then, if we can help you locate a Bible study resource by Dr. McGee, just send us a note through our app or call 1-800-65-BIBLE or email us at biblebus at ttb.org. I’m Steve Schwartz, grateful for your company as we make our way through the Bible.
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All to him I owe.
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Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
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Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?
