The old saying, “What
goes around comes around” registers with us when we study the
fate of the Chaldeans in depth. We have watched as Habakkuk wondered
why God wasn't intervening in the wickedness of his own people
Israel, and then when God told Habakkuk that He was going to use the
Chaldeans to judge them, Habakkuk couldn't believe God's plan. Lately
we have read the reciprocation of judgment that will come upon the
Chaldeans for their behavior, and after learning that the Chaldeans
would exploit and expose their neighbors by getting them drunk, today
we find God's words through Habakkuk even more indicting of the
Chaldeans for their actions. Habakkuk wrote in chapter two and verse
sixteen:
You are filled with
shame for glory: you drink also, and let your foreskin be uncovered:
the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned unto you, and
shameful spewing [shall be] on your glory.
The
Chaldeans thought themselves smug and impervious to outside judgment,
but God says, “You are filled with shame for glory: you drink
also,”. By making others drink, the Chaldeans have drunk
themselves, and without even realizing it, the drink has taken its
tole on them as well.
God
says, “and let your foreskin be uncovered:” Where the
Chaldeans brought exposure to their neighbors on one hand, they
failed to realize they themselves were being exposed as on the other.
Nothing is hidden from the eyes of God. When people treat others with
disregard and ill favor, God is watching, and such was the case with
the Chaldeans.
God
continues, “the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned
unto you...” The power and might of the LORD'S hand of
authority will be against the Chaldeans. This is not an enviable
position. Having the favor of the Lord is one of the greatest
benefits we can ever have, however, having Him in opposition to us is
the total opposite. The Chaldeans were greatly mistaken to believe
themselves immune to the very treatment that they gave others, and
they forgot about the LORD'S right hand.
The
result of the Chaldeans' behavior is “and shameful spewing shall
be on your glory.” In other words, all the glory of the
Chaldeans will be shamefully vomited upon. Where they were filled
with pride from their accomplishments, they will now be disgorged
with the emission of their own behavior. This is perhaps one of the
grossest examples of what happens with those who are drunken with the
drunkenness they have put upon others.
So
in light of this verse, how are we to be? Job said in chapter four
and verse eight of his book, “Even as I have seen, they
that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same,” and
Solomon wrote in Proverbs chapter twenty-two and verse eight, “Be
not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that
shall he also reap.” Finally
Paul the apostle wrote in Galatians chapter six and verse seven, “Be
not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that
shall he also reap.” Maybe
these verses are too difficult to remember, and if so perhaps the
vomiting in our verse from Habakkuk today will be one that stays in
our minds, “and shameful spewing shall be on your glory.”
Next
time we will discover how Lebanon and wild beast will affect the
Chaldeans, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites,
www.amazon.com
; www.barnesandnobles.com
; download
to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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