[This week I was reminded of these words written by J.I. Packer in 1958:

“If the human mind is set up as the measure and test of truth, it will quickly substitute for man’s incomprehensible Creator a comprehensible idol fashioned in man’s own image; man wants a god he can manage and feel comfortable with and will inevitably invent one if allowed…. Once people reverse the proper relationship between Scripture and their own thinking and start judging biblical statements about God by their private ideas about God, instead of vice versa, their knowledge of the Creator is in eminent danger of perishing.”

I elaborated on these ideas in a September 2003 sermon on Habakkuk 2:18-20. Here is an edited, shortened version of that sermon – Coty]

Imagine that you are two years old. If you haven’t spent much time with two-year-olds, let me remind you of some characteristics of this age:

• Two-year-olds believe the world revolves around them (one doesn’t have to be two to believe this! But virtually all two-year-olds think this way.)
• Two-year-olds have a hard time confusing needs with desires. “I want those gummy bears!” becomes “I need those gummy bears!”
• Two-year-olds’ desires quickly become commands: “I need those gummy bears!” becomes “Give me those gummy bears right now!”
• Two-year-olds don’t have a clue about what they really need. During my six years of parenting two-year-olds, I never heard one say, “Daddy, I really need a good night’s sleep tonight. Could I go to bed early?”

With these reminders, now imagine that you are two years old. And imagine that you can choose whatever type of parent you want – a Designer Parent. What type of parent will you choose?

Let’s assume that as two-year-olds go, you are quite wise. So you identify that you need a parent who will provide food, shelter, and care.

As a rare, wise two-year old, you also recognize that you don’t know everything. You choose a parent who will be able to teach you.

Third, you definitely want a parent you can trust – a reliable parent who will never let you down.

So far this doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

But every two-year old would choose this fourth characteristic: You want a parent you can control. You choose a parent who does what you want. Yes, you do want a parent who can teach you facts – when and if you want to learn. But you don’t want a parent who will control you, who will override your will.

What would be the outcome of allowing two-year-olds to design their parents?

Disaster would result.

But we live in a culture that encourages spiritual two-year olds to design their own gods. And when given that opportunity, most people act exactly like the physical two-year olds: they design a god who will work for their good, who can teach them something about the future, whom they can trust – but most of all, whom they can control.

But, friends, the God of the universe – the One and Only Living and True God – is not controllable! He promises to work for the good of His people, He is entirely trustworthy, He leads us into all truth – but our God does whatever HE pleases. He is not our genie, He is not at our beck and call – instead, He is sovereign, He rules over all.

The second chapter of Habakkuk addresses this issue. The chapter begins by contrasting the proud one with the righteous one who lives by faith. God then pronounces five woes on the proud one, in each case giving us an example of how not to live by faith. The first four lessons are:

• True satisfaction comes from God alone;
• True security comes from God alone;
• True accomplishment comes from God alone;
• True honor comes from God alone.

All these “woe’s” have a common structure: the proud one aims to fulfill a good, God-given desire, but he goes about pursuing that desire through evil means. God then issues an appropriate punishment, leading to a lesson about living by faith.

The fifth woe, Habakkuk 2:18-20, brings us to two-year-olds. We will first look at the proud one’s goal and means, then his punishment, and finally the lessons for living by faith.

18 “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols. 19 “Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it. 20 “But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” (New American Standard)

The Goal: To Know the Unknowable, to Control the Uncontrollable; the Means: Idolatry 

Why does the proud one want to have anything to do with an idol?

Because the proud one knows that some things are out of his control. He thinks, “Disease, natural calamity, or my revengeful opponents may be around any corner.  I don’t know what tomorrow might bring! I’ve managed pretty well so far in accomplishing my objectives – but I need some additional power to ensure my position.”

And so he turns to an idol. This is the means he uses to accomplish his purpose. What is an idol?

An idol is any person, power, or spirit that you rely on instead of God for satisfaction, security, accomplishment, and honor.

Note: these are the goals of the first four woes! In effect, the proud one is relying on himself in pursuing those goals – thereby making an idol of himself. Here in the fifth woe, he realizes he needs some additional power to secure his position, and so he turns to a physical idol. But we commit idolatry whenever we rely on something other than God to meet these objectives.

What are the goals of the proud one in verses 18 and 19? There are four:

• Profit: He wants a “god” who will be on his side, who will work for his benefit.
• Teaching: The Hebrew word used in verses 18 and 19 has the same root as “Torah”, the word for God’s teaching to Israel, the Law. The proud one wants a “god” who will explain confusing things in this world, who will predict the future, who will instruct him on the best way to live in this world.
• Trust: The proud one wants a “god” who is reliable, who will never leave him unprotected, who is powerful enough to preserve him from harm.
• Control (note the proud one calls to the idol, “Awake! Arise!”, or as the NIV renders those verbs: “Come to life! Wake up!”): He wants a “god” who is at his beck and call, a “god” who will act as the proud one wants, a “god” who will profit him according to his desires.

Do you see the inherent contradiction here?

In order to profit us in all circumstances, in order to be worthy of our trust, this “god” must be all-powerful.

In order to be our teacher, this “god” must know more than us – particularly about the future, things unknowable to us. Indeed, if we are to trust him in all circumstances, he must be able to predict the future with complete accuracy.

Yet we want to control this “god”! Yet if we could control him, he would not be all powerful; if we could tell him how best to meet our needs, he would not be all knowing.

So the necessary conclusion: There are no gods like this.  Indeed, there cannot be gods like this. We want an all-powerful god who is under our control. That is a logical impossibility.

Thus, the proud one aims to profit himself, to have a teacher for himself, to have someone to trust – all of these goals are God-given, and God Himself is the only answer for these desires.

Yet the proud one rejects the one living and true God, because that God is out of his control. So the proud one opts instead for a pseudo-god he can control, an idol.

The Punishment: Futility

For the first four woes, God’s punishments are logical and just: the plunderer is plundered, the house the proud one builds for security cries out against the builder, accomplishment disappears, honor turns to disgrace.

For this woe, there is a twist. God does not state an explicit punishment. Instead, the punishment is implicit. What is it?

Look at the terms used to describe the idol in verses 18 and 19:

• “Speechless”
• “Mute” or “silent”

• “Teacher of falsehood.” Or “teacher of lies”. Question: How can a mute teacher teach falsehood? Such a teacher can only tell you what you already know. So the falsehood taught by the idol is actually the lie of the idol’s maker, the false promise of support and wisdom from the idol.
• “No breath at all inside it.” The Hebrew word for “breath” is also the word for “spirit,” so this phrase can be translated, “No spirit at all inside it.”

So what is the proud one’s punishment? If your teacher is speechless, if one in whom you trust has no breath, no spirit, then he also has no power – and thus you have no protection. In the end, relying on an idol is only relying on yourself. You will get no profit. As the Psalmist says,

Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them. (Psalm 115:8)

Will become like them in what sense? Dead, powerless, helpless. This is the punishment. Futility.

Lessons for Living by Faith

God gives us an explicit lesson in living by faith in Habakkuk 2:20:

But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.

Do you see the contrasts between the true God and idols?

• There is no breath or spirit in the idol, but the Lord is really present in His holy temple
• The one who makes the idol speaks to it, he commands it – yet the idol is mute. In contrast, the true God of the universe is the one who speaks – and before Him, we fall down silent.

With these thoughts in mind, let us draw out two lessons for living by faith:

(1) Living by faith means we receive commands from God; we do not give him commands.

This is a hard lesson, isn’t it? We so much want to be in control. We really do want that genie in the bottle. Like the two-year-old, we really think we know what is best for us and what is best for those we care for – and God doesn’t seem to bring that about!

As Mr. and Mrs. Beaver explain to the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

“Is [Aslan]—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver…. “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Our God is not safe. Our God is not tame. Our God is not under our control. Our God does things that we cannot comprehend, that we cannot fathom. But our God is good. He works for the benefit of His people – so let us acknowledge that we are less than two-year-olds in our understanding compared to His; let us acknowledge that He knows infinitely more than us; and let us therefore bow before Him.

(2) Living by faith means relying on the God Who is with us.

The Lord is in His holy temple. (Habakkuk 2:20)

Where is that temple today?

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)

If this is true – then why rely on any idol? God is not only with His people at the center of their country in a physical building – God Himself, Jesus Himself is in you! If you belong to Him, if you have repented and come to faith in Him, then you have the gift of God’s Spirit as a down payment of all the blessings God will give you in the future.  And Jesus lives in you.

So on whom should you rely for satisfaction, security, accomplishment, and honor? The God who is in you! And if He is in you, if He loves you more than you can imagine, if He has already given you the gift of infinite cost – His own Son’s death – then how will He not also along with Jesus freely give us all things?

As Isaiah says:

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” (Isaiah 48:17-18)

He is the one who teaches us! He is the one who profits us! Listening to Him leads to well-being that flows and flows and flows like a river, that keeps breaking over us like waves at the beach! His love and goodness toward us never end. When God offers us His very presence within us – is it really too much for Him to ask for us to yield all control to Him? Is it really too much to ask that we value Jesus, love Jesus, put Jesus first in our hearts?

Conclusion

So, my friends: Where do you place your trust during the tough times in life? To whom do you turn when

• People let you down,
• When illness strikes,
• When you lose your job,
• When death hits those you love?

The world today offers you a zillion false gods. The world today offers you ways to discern the future, whether through horoscopes or economic forecasts. And many around us have set up such idols in their hearts. But none work. All in the end are the same as relying on yourself.

So do you trust the God of the universe?

Do you give yourself completely to the One Who gave His Son completely for you?

Do you trust in Jesus Christ and in Him alone – for salvation first, and then for all good things in your life: satisfaction, security, accomplishment, and honor?

Do you turn yourself over to His hands, saying, “God, I know I can’t control you! I know I am less than a two-year-old before you. Your understanding, no one can fathom. So, Lord, I trust you; I believe you are indeed working all things together for the good of those who love you, even when that doesn’t look to be the case. God! Make me yours completely!”

So trust in God through Jesus Christ! And keep trusting in Him, turning away from idols and false hopes! For trusting in God is a never-ending task. We must turn to him day by day by day by day by day, leaning not on ourselves but on God’s goodness, power, and faithfulness.

“The Lord is in His holy temple – Be silent before Him, all the earth.”