11* Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.

The rise to power of Babylon was something that changed things dramatically in the Middle East of the time of Habakkuk, who lived in the last days of the old kingdom of Judah, just before its collapse. So that makes him around roughly at the same time as the prophet Jeremiah.
 

The Babylonians hardly seemed to be the most likely people to take over as the leading empire-builders of the world from the Assyrians who had reigned over so much of the world with an army that seemed almost invincible. The Babylonians had quite a reputation for being learned people in a theoretical sort of way -- there were a great many clever scientists among them. They were very good with technology. They had an interest in spiritual things, though certainly not in a God-honouring way -- they were into astrology and such like.
 

But whether people expected it or not, it was the Babylonians who would decide that they weren't going to be subject to the Assyrian overlords of most of the Middle East. And the Babylonians certainly wouldn't stop with ensuring their own freedom from Assyrian rule, they would act in an extremely determined fashion to make sure that they would take over from the Assyrians as the major world power of their era, and in order to do that would take over as many countries as it lay within their power to do.
 

There would be an insatiableness about the greed for power of Babylon. They wouldn't be satisfied with achieving their own freedom. They wouldn't be satisfied with taking over a country like Judah, either. The greed of the Babylonians would increase, rather than be satisfied.
 

There would be a pride very much in evidence among the leaders and people of Babylon. There would be an ambitiousness that would keep driving them on. And there would be a cruelty that would lead them to behave in a way that was nothing short of vicious. Any resistance to the will of the Babylonians would be met by the most cruel of repression, out of all proportion to the resistance.
 

In the initial stages of the rise of Babylon it might appear that there was something to be said for their rebellion against Assyrian power, but that would rapidly pass.
 

The change would be pretty obvious -- there would be no way at all that you could describe what the Babylonians were doing as worthwhile, once their territorial and military ambitions really got under way.
 

It even seemed that basic humanity was lacking in the way they would wield their power. There would be no sort of recognition that people of other nations had any sort of humanity or deserved to be accorded even a basic minimum of human dignity.
 

The Babylonians would be very full of themselves -- and indeed they would act in such a way as to demonstrate that they were putting themselves and their false god very firmly into the position in their way of thinking that should have been reserved for God.
 

Now, what the Babylonians would do would be utterly wrong. Not wrong because it offended the sensitivities of the Jews or other nations, but because it was utterly dishonouring to God. And they would offend even more by attributing their success to their form of false worship. Their idea would be that Babylon and everything associated with it was the greatest, they would argue that there was something innately superior about Babylon and that Babylon was the ultimate reality beyond which no-one need look.
 

And of course, in reality, you know that nobody every fulfilled this prophecy as much as Nebuchadnezzar did -- he was quite convinced that Babylon and everything to do with it was more wonderful than any city had ever been and that Nebuchadnezzar himself had been responsible for the success of Babylon. But Nebuchadnezzar had to learn a lesson and it took a desperate reversal of his circumstances to make him learn it -- he had to learn that the Most High rules in the realm of mankind and he had to be reduced to the level of living like a mere animal for a considerable time before he came to his senses and was prepared to acknowledge that very basic truth. It wasn't Nebuchadnezzar himself, or the Babylonian people, or Babylonian technology or Babylonian god who was in ultimate control of things; the reality is that it's the God of Israel who's sovereign over all things.
 

N.B. here:

 
 
 
1. THEN SHALL HIS MIND CHANGE
 
• Then -- after the Babylonians have gained their independence and after they've taken over Judah. You'll notice -- looking at the whole thing after the event as we do -- that at the start of the rise of Babylon it might have looked as if there were some justification for their actions -- after all, couldn't they argue that they should have the right to their freedom from Assyria -- after all, the Assyrians could hardly be described as the idea overlords of the area! But it moved on from just asserting their right to an independent existence and it soon became clear that the Babylonians wanted their own sphere of influence. They didn't want to be threatened by neighbouring states which were within the sphere of influence of other world powers. So they set their ideas a bit further afield, to set up a security net around themselves and that's how Judah got drawn in, because it was in a critical location and under very definitely a frontier state between the Assyrians and the Egyptians. And at the very least, a useful territory for preventing the sudden advance of the Egyptians, if the Egyptians managed to rise to something of their former power.
• And of course, very often actions that godless people take in this world may seem very reasonable at first. In terms of human logic, it's hard to find a great deal of reason to argue against them. But human logic isn't the be-all and end-all of existence. Human logic is far from perfect. There's only one way of assessing whether something is worthwhile or not, and that's by measuring it against the standards God's given us in His Word. In them we've got the perfect benchmark that we can totally rely on.
 
 
 
 
• His mind will change. It wasn't so much that the basic mindset of the Babylonians would alter, but that things would change in the Babylonian thinking as they succeeded in conquering neighbouring nations in such a way that once they'd taken over a country as far away as Judah they would become very much more aggressive and set out on the path not to worldly security but rather to world domination. There was a pride that would become very evident indeed in their thinking and that would be evidenced time and time again -- not just in Nebuchadnezzar's Is not this great Babylon? but later on in Belshazzar's feast. And there would be an ambition evident as it would become clear that Babylon was going to go for world domination. They would show a determination not just to have secure frontiers or to be a great world power, but the greatest world power. And Babylon would show a ruthlessness and cruelty that would make it perfectly clear that they would allow nothing to stand in the way of their worldly ambitions.
• Make no mistake about it -- a nation or an organisation or an individual whose aims are merely worldly is dangerous. Dangerous, because their first and most important aim is something other than honouring God. Make sure you're not distracted from the things that are of fundamental importance!
 
 
 
• Shall -- it's a certainty. Habakkuk was talking about things that were still future to his own time -- but he was speaking with authority, for all that. He wasn't referring to things that were a possibility. Or to things that were a probability. But rather to things that were a certainty. You see, this was God's message he was delivering. And however powerful the Assyrians might be or the Egyptians might have been or the Babylonians might become, the fact is that none of them could guarantee what the course of future events might bring. But the God whose messenger Habakkuk was is the sovereign Lord God, the One whose power is supreme and who could spell out authoritatively exactly what would happen.
• Do you realise that we in our own time are also dealing with the God who's Lord of time and Lord of eternity? Do you realise that the future need hold no terrors for God's people, because God is in control? And do you realise that God has not left us ignorant regarding what we need to know about the present, in order to shape our lives in a way that'll prove in the end of the day to have been worthwhile, or about the future for time and for eternity?
 
 
 
 
2. AND HE SHALL PASS OVER
 
• The Babylonians' actions will be indefensible in that there'll be no goodness in them. Now, of course, there's a sense in which there's nothing truly worthwhile in the highest sense of the term unless it's done with a view to God's glory. But even godless people are not necessarily all behaving in a way that's equally bad -- their motives may be all wrong, but there's an element of the image of God that hasn't been wiped out of their beings. Some of the outward actions that godless people carry out -- even if they do them for wrong motives -- may be similar to the things that a Godfearing person might do in obedience to God's instruction and with a view to God's glory. But the point that's being made here is that the time would come when the Babylonians would become so wicked and depraved that there wouldn't even be any human line of defence that could be advanced to defend them, they'd be so corrupt.
• Do you realise that the only way you can have any realistic confidence that your actions are worthwhile is if you're acting in obedience to the instructions that God lays before us in His Word and doing so with a view to God's glory?
 
 
 
 
• There'll be no humanity in their actions. What Habakkuk was envisaging, in this message from God, is that the thinking of the Babylonians would eventually become so distorted that they would sink below the level of behaviour that could be expected of humans. They would become depraved to an extent that was truly dreadful. And it would show in the way that they'd treat the people of other nations. Now, it's worth remembering that not only does the way that powerful people treat other humans show something of what's going on in their hearts, but that God makes it very clear in the Book of Genesis -- and indeed throughout the Bible -- that the place God has given to mankind in creation is special, made in the image of God, made so as to be designed for a special sort of relationship with God different from that of the whole of the rest of creation. And anyone who strikes out at mankind, or devalues mankind, or maltreats mankind is guilty of striking out at the image of God.
• To behave in a way that's inhumane is a dreadful offence. And whether that's in a Japanese prisoner of war camp or whether it's treating unfairly the people who we may have power over in a financial sense without physically injuring them directly, it's no light thing. It's an indication that something's seriously wrong with our own relationship to God.
 
 
 
 
• There'll be no modesty or sobriety in their actions. The Babylonians would act in an arrogant and extreme way. They'd throw their weight around. They'd act in an unrestrained way. Their line of approach to things would be We'll do what we like and no-one can stop us. We're the people that matter, everyone else is of no significance whatsoever. In other words, they'd act in a way that would arrogate to themselves a status based on their ability to impose their will on others.
• There's no shortage of bullies in the world in every era. Bullies at an international level, bullying power groups within individual nations and individual bullies. You'll often find them where you least expect them. You may even find them within Church organisations. But one thing sure: where you find bullying, you also find that the people who are doing it are acting in a way that's dishonouring to God.
 

1. AND OFFEND, IMPUTING THIS HIS POWER UNTO HIS GOD

• Now, of course anyone, whether it be an individual or whether it be a nation, who strikes out against God's people or the best interests of God's cause is hitting out at God. Trying to frustrate God's plan for His cause. Of course, God is sovereign and these attempts can't succeed in the end of the day in frustrating God's plans one iota, but that doesn't lessen one little bit the awfulness of what the offender is trying to do. And that's what would be true of the Babylonians -- their actions would be offending against God.

• Do you realise that the whole of history rotates around God's plan for His cause and for His people? That's what matters more than anything else. The working out of God's plan for His cause and His people is the central theme running through all history.
 
 
 
 
• The Babylonians will act on the basis that they're innately superior. That's what would be behind the increasing arrogance of the Babylonians as their campaign moved from being one of securing their own borders and a buffer zone around them into one of ruthless conquest in an opportunistic fashion. They were acting on the basis that they had an inherent right to rule because they were superior beings.
• Now, of course, the Jews had that sort of concept themselves, in a very wrong way -- an idea that they were inherently better. And in a later era you found the same sort of idea in the Stuarts with their divine right of kings. And of course in the 1930s and 1940s you had the same sort of idea with the Nazis. But any such idea is desperately wrong. Because the fact of the matter is that there's no-one, either individual or nation or ethnic grouping, has a right to think of themselves as superior. One of the things we're told about very early on in the Bible is the entry of sin into the world and the fact that every one of us is a guilty sinner and what every one of us needs is not pride in our own superiority but repentance towards God for our sins. And if it's true for individuals, it's also true for nations. Have you got that sort of repentance before God yourself? Are you concerned that those who lead us as a nation would in their public capacities show that repentance and call the nation to repentance?
 
 
• The Babylonians military actions will in effect have a religious basis to them. There was, of course, in Babylon, the worship of the idol Bel, but it seems that there was a subtle shift in outlook so that the religion really became no more than a projection of their own selves. And maybe even the great image that Nebuchadnezzar had erected was really to represent himself and to encourage the worship of the king and nation. The militaristic ambitions of Babylon would develop as a form of heathen religion, giving to the king and the people of Babylon the honour that rightly belongs to God.
• Are you awake to the danger of giving to any other the glory that rightly belongs to God?
   
Overall Application  
• Are you awake to the fact that there's only one way of assessing whether something is worthwhile or not, and that's by measuring it against the standards God's given us in His Word?

 
• Does your behaviour give evidence of a right relationship with God on your part?

 
• Are you awake to the danger of giving to any other the glory that rightly belongs to God?
 
 

Sermon by Rev. John MacLeod, Tarbat Free Church, Portmahomack, Scotland

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