WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GREEDY?

Habakkuk 2:4-8

^4 “See, he is puffed up;

his desires are not upright—

but the righteous will live by his faith —

^5 indeed, wine betrays him;

he is arrogant and never at rest.

Because he is as greedy as the grave

and like death is never satisfied,

he gathers to himself all the nations

and takes captive all the peoples.

^6 “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,

“‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods

and makes himself wealthy by extortion!

How long must this go on?’

^7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise?

Will they not wake up and make you tremble?

Then you will become their victim.

^8 Because you have plundered many nations,

the peoples who are left will plunder you.

For you have shed man’s blood;

you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

INTRODUCTION:   

One day a couple by the name of Herman and Mary were riding along in their shiny new car.  Mary spoke up and said, “You know, Herman, if it weren’t for my money, we probably wouldn’t have this wonderful new car.”  And Herman just sat there and didn’t say anything.

As they pulled into the driveway, Herman shut off the motor and they both sat and quietly admired their new Home.  Then Mary spoke up and said, “You know, Herman, if it weren’t for my money, we probably wouldn’t have this large new house.”  And, again, Herman just sat there and he didn’t say anything.

They got out of the car and walked in just as the deliveryman finished setting up their new furniture.  “You know, Herman,” said Mary once more.  “If it weren’t for my money, we probably wouldn’t have this new carpet and all of this new furniture.”  And still Herman didn’t say a word.

It happened again as they sat down in their new den and propped their feet up and watched the big screen TV in their new entertainment center.  “You know, Herman,’ said Mary.  “If it were not for my money, we probably wouldn’t have this huge entertainment center.”

And with that, poor Herman had had enough.  He turned to Mary and said, “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, honey, but you know, if it weren’t for your money, you probably wouldn’t have me, either.”

Greed can make a man do what he otherwise would not.  Greed is defined as an excessive desire for acquiring or having.  It may be a desire to have money, wealth, food, goods or anything else more than one legitimately needs.

The Roman Catholic Church lists greed as one of the “seven deadly sins”.  The "Seven Deadly Sins" are a classification of vices that were originally used in early Christian writing to teach new Christians about fallen man’s tendency to sin.

Greed has been called “the mother of all sins” because it is considered the raw material of which all other transgressions are made.  I am not wise enough to know if that is true but I know that greed is a big problem in our society.  In fact, in some ways, greed is the fuel that powers our economy, our institutions and our politics.  Advertisers know that people must WANT more so they will CONSUME more so we can PRODUCE more so we can EARN more so we can CONSUME more so we can PRODUCE more and so on. 

But the cycle has to begin with a desire for more.  If people do not desire more, the cycle does not start.  Contented people stunt commercialism.

The apostle Paul told Timothy, ^“But godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Timothy 6:6). 

Like Americans, the Babylonians of Habakkuk’s time were neither godly nor content.  In their greed, they sowed the seeds of their own ruin.  In this, there is a lesson for the greedy of any age and that is that sin brings consequences.  Let’s see that principle played out in the experience of the Babylonians.

I.                    THE CONSEQUENCE OF PRIDE IS OFTEN HUMILIATION

If you have been with us in this series of sermons from the book of Habakkuk you will remember that the prophet, Habakkuk, had questioned Lord’s decision to bring punishment on the people of God by means of the wicked Babylonians. 

In God’s response to Habakkuk’s challenge, He told the prophet that ultimately the Babylonians were going to have to face the consequences for their sins, too.  And in Habakkuk 2:4-5, we read that one of the sins of the Babylonians is pride.  God says that the Babylonians are “puffed up” and he calls them “arrogant”. 

 

Pride is another of the seven deadly sins cataloged by the Catholic Church. 

The synonyms for the word pride are not pretty; they are conceit, arrogance, and boastfulness.

Pride is puffed up and stuck-up.

The book of Proverbs has much to say on the subject of pride…and most of it is not very good.  For instance, according to the book of Proverbs:

§         God says, I hate pride and arrogance (Proverbs 8:13b)

§         Pride only breeds quarrels (Proverbs 13:10a)

§         The proud and arrogant man—“Mocker” is his name; he behaves with overweening (or pompous) pride. (Proverbs 21:24)

And the book of Proverbs also tells us the natural consequence of pride:

§         When pride comes, then comes disgrace (Proverbs 11:2a)

§         A man’s pride brings him low (Proverbs 29:23a)

And, perhaps, most familiar and the most telling of all:

§         Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18)

There is no reason to believe that the prophet, Habakkuk, had ever read the book of Proverbs.  He didn’t need to; God told him that the consequence of the pride of the Babylonians would be humiliation.  And it was.  In 730 BC, Babylonia fell to the Assyrians and became a part of their empire.  In 689 BC, King Sennacherib of Assyria had the city of Babylon destroyed and the ruins flooded.  Once proud Babylon had been humiliated.

There is a lesson for us to learn.

II.                  THE CONSEQUENCE OF EXPLOITATION IS OFTEN RETRIBUTION

The seed of pride grows into the tree of exploitation.  Pride says, “Me first” and then takes advantage of others to make it happen.

Have you ever watched John Stossel on ABC television?  A few years ago, he televised an experiment he conducted.  He put a bowl in the center of a group of people.  In the bowl, he placed 10 hardware washers: you know, nuts-and-bolts washers.  He told the participants that the winner of this contest would be the one who took the most washers out of the bowl and put them in front of him.  Stossel explained that every ten seconds, the number of washers left in the bowl would be doubled.  Players were not permitted to speak and the game would be finished after two minutes.

Obviously, it would have worked to everyone’s advantage not to take any washers from the bowl until one minute and fifty seconds had elapsed.  By then there would be an overflowing supply of washers.  But in 67% of the cases, the bowl was empty within the first 10 seconds.  Each participant wanted to grab up the washers before someone else got them. 

It is a simple little game but it illustrates what happens in real life: we tend to want more for ourselves even at the expense of others.  If happens in out homes; it happens at our places of work; it happens nationally and internationally: we exploit others for the sake of our own gain.  That is why we purchase cheap foreign goods even if we know that they may be manufactured by exploited workers under harsh conditions.  We don’t want the workers to be mistreated but we do want our bargain prices.

God told Habakkuk that the Babylonians, who had exploited others, would become targets of retribution.  God said: 

‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods

and makes himself wealthy by extortion!

How long must this go on?’

^7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise?

Will they not wake up and make you tremble?

Then you will become their victim.

III.                THE CONSEQUENCE OF GREED IS OFTEN LOSS

Of the Babylonians God had said:

^8 Because you have plundered many nations,

the peoples who are left will plunder you.

The consequence of greed is often loss.  The desire to have more and more leaves us with less and less.  More overtime leaves us with less leisure time.  Hollywood stars have learned that more fame leads to less peace.  More money can leave us feeling less secure, rather than more secure, because we worry about how to protect it, preserve it and multiply it.

Some, foolishly, have sacrificed that which is truly precious because of their greed for money.

James Patterson and Peter Kim joined forces to write a shocking book about the hearts of Americans. The results of a massive nationwide poll were put into a book that was published in 1991 called "The Day America Told the Truth."

Probably the most striking thing to me was the poll that asked, “What are you willing to do for $10,000,000?”  Two-thirds of Americans polled agree to at least one of the following. Some agreed to do more than one of these:

§         Would abandon their entire family (25%)

§         Would abandon their church (25%)

§         Would give up their American citizenships (16%)

§         Would leave their spouses (16%)

§         Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)

§         Would kill a stranger (7%)

§         Would put their children up for adoption (3%)

For 10 million dollars, 25% of those surveyed would abandon their entire family.  And for 10 million dollars, 3% would actually put their children up for adoption! 

Most of us find all of that scandalous – until we realize what we have sacrificed because of our greed.  For the sake of more money, we’ve let a stranger raise our kids.  For the sake of time-and-a-half we’ve abandoned our church.  For the sake of the trinkets of the world, we’ve sacrificed the treasures of heaven.  People, learn the lesson of the Babylonians: greed exacts a price.  The consequence of greed is loss.

CONCLUSION:

Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it's simple. They've been catching this agile little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can't get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him.  The hunter catches him by throwing a net over him, and the monkey's greed is his downfall.

Lest we laugh too loudly at the foolish monkey, is it not true that many of us are trapped by our greed?  In our desire to have more, we work more so we can spend more so we can have more - - but pretty soon, we don’t have the time or the serenity to enjoy what we have gathered.  Like the other greedy monkey, we are trapped by our greed and unwilling to let go.  The monkey won’t let go to save his life and we won’t let go to save our souls.  Now, you tell me who is the more foolish of the pair.

In Matthew 7:1-2, Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  That is another way of saying that the things that turn us on, will often turn on us.  So beware of the danger of misplaced priorities.  You cannot go wrong if you “seek first (as a matter of top priority) His kingdom and His righteousness.”

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