Lesson 11A
FOR NO OTHER PURPOSE
This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, missions, building, holding services. Just as it is easy to think that the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not.
But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and protect and prolong the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and a wife chatting over a fire. A couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub. A man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden--that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, etc. are a waste of time.
In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them into Little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.
It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.
--From Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis
Lesson 11
The 3rd Woe
Violence
Habakkuk 2:12-14
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!
Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, and the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
From greed to injustice to violence. Not content with the wealth they could obtain from cheating people they now have to use violence to procure even more.
It all starts with greed.
The same progression is characteristic in our own time, too. Sounds like our own morning edition of TV news.
His topic here is about building a city. Nebuchadnezzar at this time was rebuilding his capital city of Babylon, including a complete reconstruction of the imperial gardens. And, according to many records, building the famous Hanging Gardens as a gift for his wife.
It would appear, then, that God’s condemnation was directed at Nebuchadnezzar’s grandiose plans for his own capital city. It involved forced labor of thousands of war captives, Jews and Gentiles, driven by heartless taskmasters. The building costs were paid for by stripping conquered lands of their wealth.
Woe to him who builds such a city!
There is a good reminder here, too, (verse 13) that the things man builds will crumble and fall away – people and nations spend their labor trying to achieve something that they think will endure. (Remember Augustine’s City of God?)
But nothing man does will endure. What will? Verse 12: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
A beautiful golden picture of the future -- placed right here in the middle of the picture of Babylon’s destruction – a reminder to all of us throughout the last 2600 years that death and destruction of earthly empires is not the final chapter -- a glorious Kingdom will finally prevail – isn’t it just like our God to remind us of that right in this particular section? Just where we needed to stop and think about His eternal plan!
We used to say a verse – I think it was written by the missionary, C.T. Studd.
It went like this:
Only one life, will soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Jesus cautioned us to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:29).
God’s safety box is the strongest.
KEEPING THE MAIN THING AS THE MAIN THING
It’s even possible to build a grand new church without spiritual tools. Embellishing the grounds with coffee shops, gifts shops, parks and bowling alleys and gyms…..just find out what people want and provide it … and then the crowds will come….so where is God in all this?
Isn’t the purpose to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever”?
Why do we select music and special video presentations to bring crowds in? Just get lots of people in. Just for their entertainment. Maybe we should have door prizes – maybe some do!
Into what? A garish theater? To do what? Make us look grand and important? To make us popular? To make us look up-to-date and “oh so hip” and on the inside track?
Why not just set up our services with the intention for us to worship God? (Now that would be a novelty!)
No worry about building a Christ-honoring community of believers who spiritually shape each other into becoming “little Christs” to minister in the cold, dark world. No concern about being “salt” and “light.”
That job is a whole lot harder than just getting crowds in – helping each other conform to the image of Christ – is anything more difficult than that?
We are so fortunate at FBC Bay City to belong to a community of believers who put God’s priorities first.
Keeping the main thing as the main thing….
GOD’S PURPOSE IN CREATION
Verse 14 gives another reason for overthrowing evil empires. Their pursuit of establishing an everlasting monument to themselves, through cruel domination of others, is a denial of God’s purpose in creation.
God’s purpose in creation is that the knowledge of His glory should fill the earth, not man’s pride.
Someday there will not be enough room on earth for both the City of Man, built on violence and oppression, and the City of God, built on peace and righteousness.
It is crowded right now. Someday the City of Man will shatter and fall. But the City of God will endure forever.
I did not see a temple in this city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut for there will no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 21:22-27).
The City of God – The Kingdom of God – is eternal!
THE 4th WOE
EXPLOITatION
Habakkuk 2:15-17
Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies.
You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed!
The cup from the LORD’S right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory.
The violence you have done in Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed man’s blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
This 4th “woe” judges Babylon for its exploitation – of people and of nature. There is brutal and harsh language in this section.
Exploitation is the use of people and things for your own profit without regard for their welfare. It is the highest form of selfishness. It has a myriad of forms in society, then and now.
EXPLOITATION OF PEOPLE
Sexual child abuse is exploitation, as well as other sexual perversions.
The king of Babylon is being compared to a man who gives intoxicating drink to his neighbor. He does this, not as a friendly gesture, but in order to take advantage of (exploit) their vulnerability.
Today we talk much about “date rape.” That idea is part of what is involved here. Alcoholism and drug abuse is a slippery slope down the road to immorality. It was true then and it is true today.
Alcohol dulls the sense and clouds judgment. During the days of the Nazi atrocities, there is often mention of the Gestapo preparing their soldiers to commit their torture and unspeakable assignments. The Gestapo would provide unlimited alcohol and wait until the men were drunk to issue the commands to throw the children into the fire and gun down the parents who were screaming and trying to save their children. It must have taken a lot of alcohol to get the soldiers to do that.
The punishment of the Babylonians was that they should be forced to drink from the cup of the Lord’s wrath until they are overcome by it and their earlier glory is covered by shame.
“What goes around comes around,” we might say.
EXPLOITATION OF NATURE
The “violence done to Lebanon” probably refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s stripping of their famous cedar forests, taking the valuable wood for use in his building programs. Some historians say that Lebanon’s forests have never recovered from the Babylonians ruthless destruction.
When the trees were removed, wild animals lost their habitats and were wiped out. God’s creatures were destroyed, along with that delicate balance of nature we talk about, but understand only in a limited way.
These are words of great condemnation that the Babylonians could not deny nor offer excuses for. They had recklessly destroyed much of God’s natural world, its beauty and its home for many of His creatures.
We are not to destroy this earth. We are to take what we need, replenish what we take, using all for God’s glory. He does not tell us not to cut trees, but He tells us to display our reverence for Him by respecting His providential care and by thanking Him for what He has provided for us.
God created our planet with the ability to renew itself. Seedtime and harvest, year in and year out.
We need to restore what we take.
The Egyptians knew when the Nile would flood and deposit its fruitful soil for the farmers. The prosperity of the Babylonian Empire was possible because they were located in that area we now call the “Fertile Crescent,” the rich valley arc between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
We are to be God’s Guardians of His creation. Christians should be the “tree huggers” of the world! (Bro Mike sometimes refers to this in his messages – he, too, is a ‘tree hugger’!)
A look back in Deuteronomy gives us insight into God’s thoughts about His creation:
But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD our God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. Deuteronomy 11:11-12.
God loves the land. He claims it for His own. He is the Master Gardener. We are merely workers in His field.
In Egypt, farmers who lived a distance from the Nile, had to have aqueducts to obtain water, and use slaves to carry water by hand. God is saying in the verses in Deuteronomy that in the land He is giving His people, He will make rain to fall and they will not have to worry about water.
I took a quick count and found that there are about 175 references to land in the Book of Deuteronomy – in that one book!
And it is always about how good the land is and how it is a special gift to His people.
At Thanksgiving we sing a song:
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin
God, our Make, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied
Come to God’s own temple, come
Raise the song of harvest home.
What a great song! Every time our farmers bring in their crops, they are picturing for us the way God will reap His final harvest.
Even so, Lord quickly come
Bring thy final harvest home;
Gather thou thy people in
Free from sorrow, free from sin
There, forever purified
In Thy presence to abide
Come, with all thine angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home!
Notice how the same joyous words are used for both harvests.
(Why do we sing this only at Thanksgiving? This is such a great song! Let’s sing the last verse again…..Gather thou thy people in…free from sorrow…free from sin….in thy presence to abide…. Come with all thine angels...come…
come…bring Your angels…come quickly, Lord Jesus!)
Wow, I think I followed a wild rabbit there…but anyway, God is telling the Babylonians that what they did to their neighboring nations, the raping and pillaging of their land, was but a foreshadowing of what would happen to Babylon itself.
And if you go to Babylon today, you will witness God’s judgment on evil empires, because you will see before you nothing but rubble and desert wilderness. (Don’t you wish we could see those famous Hanging Gardens?) Habakkuk himself never saw what happened to Babylon – but he had God’s Word that it would happen!
First greed, then injustice to create more wealth, then violence to fill that insatiable appetite for more and more, and now exploitation of mankind and nature – a list of great atrocities.
“What goes around, comes around.”
Other Thoughts
Lesson 11B
T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland turns into
a Rose Garden
Probably in high school you read The Wasteland, by T. S Eliot.
He had it published in 1922. It is a sad, dreary account of our lives on this planet. Here are some lines….
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of Man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.
A solemn picture of desolation. It could be a picture of the ruins of Babylon, but it is also the image of a man’s heart without God.
Then, in 1927, T. S. Eliot converted to Christianity.
Later (late 1930’s and early 1940’s) he wrote Four Quartets, and guess what – the wasteland had become a rose garden-- a perpetual Garden of Eden, with delightful images that transforms the landscape of grief and loss to a landscape of God’s mercy and grace.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for the work.
He had many critics. George Orwell claimed T. S. Eliot had ruined his artistry by becoming “religious.” Many of Eliot’s old admirers agreed. But as the years go by, Four Quartets becomes more popular.
Too bad we were not told that in school – about his conversion, I mean. It surely would help understand his work. (Secular academia wants to downplay the importance of spirituality in all the arts – so they just ignore it! Awfully silly, don’t you think?)
I mean that the difference in the two works was not that the world had changed -- he wrote Four Quartets in the 1940’s during the catastrophic events of World War II and the disclosures of the horrors of Nazism, and so the world was in even worse shape than Eliot had pictured it in the 1920’s.
The dramatic difference in his writing and outlook on life was because he himself had changed when he began to see the world through the eyes of faith and hope when he placed his trust in our Savior Jesus Christ.
The just shall live by faith – and those who live by faith see all of humanity and world history differently. No longer a hopeless, empty wasteland, but a vibrant, luscious rose garden.
Some lines from Four Quartets:
If you come this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same; you would have to put off
Sense and motion. You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or to carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more than an order of words….
To Eliot, the wasteland reflected the desolate landscape of man’s emptiness and meaninglessness. But the purpose of the life in the garden is to reveal Christ.
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is
Incarnation.
….Sudden in the shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage…
The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility; humility is endless.
Have you allowed the Holy Spirit to transform your landscape?
FUN PROJECTS FOR LESSON 11
1. To think about.
When I was a teenager we all read a book by Richard Llewellyn titled How Green Was My Valley. The main character grew up in a small coal-mining town in Wales. Years later he returned and reflects on his childhood and the beauty of the valley he grew up in and the tragedy that remained.
Everything I ever learnt as a small boy came from my father and I never found anything he ever told me to be wrong or worthless. The simple lessons he taught me are as sharp and clear in my mind as if I had heard them only yesterday. In those days the black slag – waste of the coal pits – had only begun to cover our side of the hill, not yet enough to mar the countryside nor blacken the beauty of our village. The slag had only begun to poke its skinny black fingers through the green…
Now the slag heap had encroached on all but a few distant hollows. He yearned for the loss of the luscious green valley he had known as a child.
It’s a sentimental story and made a great movie! But the tragedy of what happened to that beautiful valley in Wales, due to reckless coal mining practices (exploitation of nature) is what remains with me.
2. Look at I Kings 5:1-6. How is Solomon’s use of the cedars of Lebanon different than the Babylonians? (Tyre and Sidon were coastal cities of Phoenicia, just north of Palestine. They were famous wealthy trading centers and friendly toward their southern neighbor.)
The Phoenicians could easily cut timber inland, transport it to the coast and then float it down the coast for the Israelites to bring ashore. Cedar logs could be bound together into huge rafts.
In the same way our ancestors on the frontier moved wood and logs downstream to customers building settlements near the mouths of the rivers.
Frontiersmen could build their rafts, load it with food crops, pelts and their on crafted furniture, then float the raft downstream, sell their products, and then disassemble the raft and sell its wood.
Then they would hike happily upstream and do it all over again!
Who was Solomon going to pay for the work of getting the cedar logs to him?
