Habakkuk's talking stones
Local Jewish gangsters robbed and abused their own vulnerable people, angering their God in the process. Across the Euphrates River Babylonian gangsters were checking their armour and their tools for pillage and extortion as they got ready to take on Egyptian and Judean gangsters (Habakkuk 1:1-17). They were all in the same business and used the same tools for the same reasons! The righteous and vulnerable were caught in the middle of national and international "family business" and that's precisely what made it God's business—the plunder of the righteous poor. [Trusting God (1:12-13a) the righteous looked for a day when their pain and loss would end in glory and restoration and until then they would wait (3:17-19).]
The home-grown or foreign gangsters reaped the benefits
of their crimes as their families and property became grand on robbery
and pillage and ruthless dealings. They had one heart and God lumped
them all together in 2:6-20.
"Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion…Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high, to escape the clutches of ruin! You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!" (2:6-12)The local crook loaded down with "pledges" he ruthlessly foreclosed on (see 2:6, NKJV and others) and the returning soldier, bringing back his loot from the war (2:8), are able to bring their families "up in the world" and to build grand houses to reflect their status. But they're both gangsters and all they've brought on their families is shame and while they gain the world they forfeit their lives (2:10, 13).
When the day of judgment falls for them (and it would,
and will, for all such people, because a day will come when the
recognition of God's glory will cover the world as the waters cover the
seas—2:14)—when that day comes and the "judges" are making their rounds,
fancy houses will bear witness of crimes committed. Expertly carved,
smoothed and fitted stones will speak out and say, "I was bought with
loot taken from the defenceless." Gorgeous beam-frames set in marvellous
plaster work will speak up and tell the same story (2:11). [Will
chandeliers and beautiful pictures, gleaming cars and well-stocked
exercise suites, acres of woods and lake houses have nothing to say in
that day?]
"Well, business is business and if people can't pay the
interest they shouldn't borrow the money." The trouble is that there is
much truth in that because a lot of debt is little more than another
mark of how addicted we are to "having"! To "get" can hardly be wrong
(Deuteronomy 8:18) but are there no limits to how much? must our
"getting" be only for us and ours? are there no ethical limits to how
we get? isn't "getting" an addiction that needs to be recognized? [I
have nothing to say here in criticism about the plundered poor and the
chronically desperately needy. Nothing! Nothing at all! I have the rest
of us in mind.]
It's all questions, isn't it? No answers; just
questions! That's the trouble with these prophets; they pour out
condemnation and offer no solutions. There's something close to truth in
that as well, but it isn't true that they leave us in doubt about the
cure, though they offer no spelled-out white papers for reform. They
tell God's people and everyone else to turn back to God.
"That's not a lot of help," we're constantly told.
Perhaps, but then again we'll never know if it's never tried. What we
need is more and clearer legislation "with teeth" to deal with the
transgressors. Yeah, right, that's the cure. Human history has proved that, hasn't it!
A man in a crowd shouted to Jesus one day (Luke
12:13-14) to make his brother share the inheritance and Jesus told him
he wasn't in the adjudicating business. What do you make of that?
Whatever we're to make of it Jesus goes on to speak of "getting" and the
nature of true life (12:15-34).
The man's anxious request implies that he saw Jesus as
an authority from God and wanted him to use that authority on his
behalf. There's nothing in the text to suggest the man's plea was not
just; but Jesus makes it clear that sometimes there are concerns which
transcend the resolution of specific cases. If Jesus is who the man
thinks him to be then he should see him as the bringer in of the kingdom
of God and its righteousness (12:31) and the man (and everyone else)
should get that settled first [specific cases can be examined in that
light] and trust God for the rest.
It's true that this leaves many unanswered questions but
along with the prophets Jesus makes the real problem of life crystal
clear. It isn't incorrect or unwise economic policies; it isn't foolish
foreign affairs agendas or any such thing, though these are the fruit we
see. It's the heart of a people, a nation and of the human family.
Jesus and the prophets will always frustrate us and make
us mad (even in their assuring words) because they won't agree that
human problems stem from the merely visible and quantifiable and they
won't offer solutions on that basis. To do that would be to do less than
what they were sent to do.
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