WHAT WILL BECOME OF OUR STUFF?

Habakkuk 2:12-14

INTRODUCTION:

In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a fable from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability.

Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned.

“I have mastered a magic,” said the first, “by which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it.”

“I,” said the second, “know how to grow that creature’s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.”

The third said, “I am able to create its limbs if I have flesh, the skin, and the hair.”

“And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete.”

Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties.  As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion’s.  One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life.

Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators.  He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle.

We too have the capacity to create that which can devour us.  Goals and dreams can become obsessions and consume us.  Possessions and property can turn and destroy us unless we first seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness.

The prophet Habakkuk needed to learn the lesson about the danger of materialism so God taught him by showing him what was going to happen to the ravenous and rapacious Babylonians who had been consuming other countries to satisfy their own appetites.

Habakkuk 2:12-14:

^12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!

^13 Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?

^14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Last week we looked at what will become of those who pursue dishonest gain.  This week, we will look at what happens to that which they leave behind.  We need to learn the truth about materialism.

Materialism has been defined as, “a desire for wealth and material possessions with little interest in ethical or spiritual matters.”  In essence, materialism says “only matter matters.”

As I said before, we need to learn the truth about materialism and we will use Habakkuk 2:12-14 as the basis for our study.

I.                    THE FOOLISHNESS OF MATERIALISM (2:12)

^12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!

The Hebrew term translated “woe” is “an impassioned expression of grief and despair.”  It often implies a denunciation or condemnation. 

God is expressing grief and despair over the condition and the future of those who take advantage of others for the sake of lining their own pockets.  The very people that some of us look upon with envy, God regards with loathing.

In God’s economy, to misuse people to acquire things is a fool’s transaction.  

Perhaps you saw an illustration of this recently on television.  A wife lashed out at her husband in a downtown Houston courtroom Friday as he was sentenced for trying to hire someone to kill her.

40 year old John Sheroke pleaded guilty to solicitation of capital murder in a plea bargain and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Investigators said he tried to hire a co-worker to kill his wife, Dr. Shelley Ferrill, but the co-worker told police.  Sheroke was arrested when he was caught on tape meeting with an undercover officer to finalize the $10,000 murder-for-hire plot in October.

Sheroke wanted the murder to happen during a carjacking of his wife’s Mercedes Benz.  He provided details about her schedule, route and medical practice.  Sheroke even said the killer should take the Rolex off his dead wife's wrist, according to authorities.

At his sentencing on Friday, Ferrill gave an emotional victim impact statement concerning herself and the couple’s two children, an 8-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son.

"What have you done to me, your wife?  What have you done to your children?  What need -- what desire could possibly be more important than our basic right to breathe?" Ferrill said.  "You've turned our lives into some really bad made-for-TV movie."

Prosecutors said the motive was to collect on an insurance policy.

Perhaps this is an extreme example but it illustrates in stark relief the principle that in God’s economy, to misuse people to acquire things is a fool’s transaction.  

The Babylonians were fierce and wicked people.  They were ruthless to nations they conquered, and to the captives they brought home.  God said that He would allow the nations to store up wrath for themselves with each life lost.  Within this denunciation is a powerful reminder that God is large and in charge and that he values people far more than things.

II.                  THE FRAILTY OF MATERIALISM (2:13a)

Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire.

I want to read for you an extended excerpt from the book of II Peter.  This is from chapter 3, verses 8 through 13.

^8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ^9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

^10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

^11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ^12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ^13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

We have the sure and certain word of Scripture to tell us that the earth and the entire material world will be destroyed by fire in the Day of Judgment.  God’s word to Habakkuk puts the priority of the materialist into perfect perspective: he is spending his life gathering fuel for the fires of judgment.  Now doesn’t that put a little different slant on the pursuit of treasure as the focus for a life?

III.                THE FUTILITY OF MATERIALISM (1:13b)

“The nations exhaust themselves for nothing.”

The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes begins with the pathetic whine of the top dog.

¹ The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

^2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.  “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

The Biblical description of the author as, 'Son of David, in Jerusalem’ led early scholars to believe that Solomon wrote this book.  Now Solomon was the richest man in the world in his day.  In fact, taking inflation into account, he is still regarded as the richest man who ever lived. 

When he describes his life as empty and meaningless, doesn’t it make you want to go, “Well waah, waah, waah!  I’m sorry you had to live with such hardship and deprivation as being the son of a king and the wealthiest man in the world in your own right.  If you think being a prince is so tough, Solomon, you should try being a pauper for a while.”

But before we are too hasty to dismiss Solomon’s words, we ought to consider that he might have known what he was talking about.  Since he had lots of money and found himself still wanting for something else, maybe he has something to tell us.  Maybe a full bank account doesn’t mean a full life.

God told Habakkuk “The nations exhaust themselves for nothing.”

After John D. Rockefeller died, a reporter asked his accountant, “How much money did he leave?”  The accountant is said to have replied, “All of it.”  That is one of the few things Bill Gates and I have in common.  When we die, we’ll take the same amount of material wealth with us: NOTHING.

Knowing that, can you not see the futility of spending your life in pursuit of that which is empty, pointless, purposeless and worthless? 

IV.               THE FINISH OF MATERIALISM (2:14)

^“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

Since all material wealth will be consumed by fire and those who spent their lives acquiring it will be left with nothing, God saw fit to tell us about what will last: the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

Let’s see a show of hands: how many of you are tired of hearing about Anna Nicole Smith?  Doesn’t it seem as if the media have given disproportionate coverage to her death?  One day, Anna Nicole Smith will not be news any more and one day all the coverage will be about the glory of the Lord.

Today, the world’s richest man is Bill Gates and the second richest is Warren Buffet; you’ve probably become familiar with both of those names.  Among the top ten richest people in the world, four have the last name “Walton” and we all know who Sam Walton was.  But one day, no one will know or care who Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Paul Allen or any of the Waltons were but everyone will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

While for today, it may seem that the rich and famous, the moneyed and the mighty are more prominent than the Lord is, it will not always be like that.  One day, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14) and it would behoove us bone-up on that which is of enduring importance.

In Exodus 24, while God was giving Moses stone tablets with the Law and the other commands He had written for them, the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai.  While Moses was on the mountain, the people stayed below and watched.  Exodus 24:17 reads, “To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.”

II Peter says that the earth and all that is upon it will be destroyed by fire.  Just as in the time of Moses, the consuming fire will be that which reveals the glory of the Lord.  In fact, the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

CONCLUSION:      

The old bumper sticker read, “He who dies with the most toys wins.”  But since we know that this earth and everything material will be consumed by fire in The Day of the Lord, the truth is that he who dies with the most toys merely leaves the most fuel when he goes.  Then, the glories of the rich and famous of this age will be seen for the cheap kindling that they are and the glory of the Lord will be recognized for its surpassing value.

Back to Sermons