Habakkuk 2:15-17 - Homilies By D. Thomas

National wrongs ending in national woes. No. 4.

"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory," etc. "This," says Henderson, "is the commencement of the fourth stanza. Though the idea of the shameless conduct of drunkards here depicted may have been borrowed from the profligate manners of the Babylonian court, yet the language is not to be taken literally, as if the prophet were describing such manners, but, as the sequel shows, is applied allegorically to the state of stupefaction, prostration, and exposure to which the conquered nations were reduced by the Chaldeans (see Isaiah 51:17-20 ; and comp. Psalms 75:8 ; Jeremiah 25:15-28 ; Jeremiah 49:12 ; Jeremiah 51:7 ; Ezekiel 23:31 , Ezekiel 23:32 ; Revelation 14:10 ; Revelation 16:19 ; Revelation 18:6 ). Notice -

I. THE NATIONAL WRONGS . What are the wrongs referred to in this passage?

1 . The promotion of drunkenness. "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink!" The Babylonians were not only drunkards, but the promoters of drunkenness. The very night on which this prophecy was fulfilled, Belshazzar drank wine with a thousand of his lords. More than once in these homilies we have had to characterize and denounce this sin. Who are the promoters of drunkenness? Brewers, distillers, tavern keepers, and, I am sorry to add, doctors, all of whom, with a few exceptions, recommend intoxicating drinks. In doing so these men inflict a thousand times as much evil upon mankind as they can accomplish good.

2 . The promotion of drunkenness involves indeceney. "That thou mayest look on their nakedness." It is the tendency of drunkenness to destroy all sense of decency. A drunkard, whether male or female, loses all sense of shame.

II. THE NATIONAL WOES . "Woe unto him that giveth strong drink!, What will come to those people?

1 . Contempt. "Thou art filled with shame for glory! the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee." As the Chaldeans had treated the nations they had conquered in a most disgusting manner, so they in their turn should be similarly treated. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

2 . Violence . "For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee." Stripped of all figure, the meaning of this is that the sufferings which Babylon inflicted upon Palestine, represented here by Lebanon, would return to them. Here is retribution. Babylon had given the cup of drunkenness, and in return should have the cup of fury and contempt.—D.T.