Key Truth: What and how we gain, build, and worship in this life affects those around us and will be judged against the knowledge of the glory of God that will one day fill the earth.

Introduction:

Q: What constitutes justice? Who gets to decide?

“Justice is the outgoing of God’s holiness with reference to moral (or immoral) creatures. If the creature were entirely harmonious with God’s holiness, it would follow from God’s justice that the creature would be in perfect fellowship with God; but if the creature is, as we know he is, fearfully self-corrupted, it follows that God must be hostile to his corruption. Since the creature is unholy and unjust, it follows that God in His justice must vindicate His holy character and maintain His creation as an expression of that holy character.”

James Oliver Buswell, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion

Those Who Plunder Will Be Plundered and the Glory of the Lord Will Fill the Earth:

Habakkuk 2:6-14

“The certitude of vanity, the pointlessness of people’s oppressive ways that build seemingly stable and worthwhile communities rests on the unchanging word of God that Habakkuk now quotes. Their consumption in the fire of God’s judgment is not guaranteed simply by the rise and fall of many previous civilizations. Instead, it is the oath of Yahweh himself that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh that guarantees the vanity and futility of all efforts to the contrary. Beauty in song, in dance, in literature, in architecture- all to the glory of God- shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.”

O. Palmer Robertson, The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah

Q: What are you gaining / building in this life? How are you gaining / building it? What will remain when it is tried by the glory of the Lord?

(see 1 Cor 3:10-15)

Those Who Expose Will Be Exposed and All Fall Silent Before the Lord:

Habakkuk 2:15-20

“Look up to God. Look at the ultimate and the absolute. Then let us put our hands upon our mouths that are so ready to speak foolishly. Let us realize that He is there in the temple of the universe, God over all. Let us silently humble ourselves and bow down before Him and worship Him. Let us magnify His grace, His might, His power, His goodness, and in quiet peace of heart and mind and soul wait for Him.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, From Fear to Faith: Studies in the Book of Habakkuk

Q: What is being exposed in and through your life? What does your worship reveal about what is primary in your life?

Application:

“To be a responsible person is to find one’s role in the building of shalom, the re-webbing of God, humanity, and all creation in justice, harmony, fulfillment, and delight. To be a responsible person is to find one’s own role and then, funded by the grace of God, to fill this role and to delight in it.”

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin

God’s response in 2:6-20 teaches us that:

• how and what we gain and build has a significant impact on us and our neighbors
• how and what we gain and build should be consistent with the knowledge of God's glory given that it will one day fill the earth
• how and what we worship exposes who we really are before the Lord

Benediction:

Psalm 11:4-7