Where History Is Heading

Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled.   Habakkuk 2:2-3

God was saying, “Habakkuk, write down what I am about to say, because this is something that everybody needs to know. It needs to have a permanent record, because what I’m about to tell you will not happen until the appointed time. I am going to unveil what will happen in the end.”

Habakkuk pulled out a pen and a tablet and recorded God’s five statements. Each one began with the word woe, which indicated that something would be stopped:

• “Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion!” (Habakkuk 2:6, NIV). This person has accumulated wealth without integrity.
• “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain!” (Habakkuk 2:9, NIV). This person has lost sight of truth and justice and will do anything to build power and achieve his own ends.
• “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed!” (Habakkuk 2:12, NIV). This person has placed a low value on human life.
• “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!” (Habakkuk 2:15, NIV). Here is the abuser of drugs and the abuser of women.
• “Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’” (Habakkuk 2:19, NIV). This person is an idolater. What he has made he puts in the place of God. The greatest thing in this person’s life is achievement.

God is promising that all the dimensions of evil in the world will finally be stopped. Their destruction is assured. God will completely overthrow all evil, and “as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the LORD” (Habakkuk 2:14). That is where human history is headed: to the day when God’s glorious presence will scatter all evil, and his glory will shine like the sun all over the world.

For further reading, see Habakkuk 2