How Many Times Can God Forgive Me for Lust?

[wayfaring man]

Repentance is to forgiveness as laundering is to whitening .

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. <-----> Isaiah 1:16-18

 

[wayfaring man]

Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts thy bottle to him, and makes him drunken also, that thou may look on their nakedness!
Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. <-----> Habakkuk 2:16+17

shameful spewing -

H7022
&#1511;&#1497;&#1511;&#1500;&#1493;&#1503;
qi&#770;yqa&#770;lo&#770;n
kee-kaw-lone'
From H7036; intense disgrace: - shameful spewing.

H7036 -
&#1511;&#1500;&#1493;&#1503;
qa&#770;lo&#770;n
kaw-lone'
From H7034; disgrace; (by implication) the pudenda: - confusion, dishonor, ignominy, reproach, shame.

pudenda - &#9656; noun: human external genital organs

H7034 -
&#1511;&#1500;&#1492;
qa&#770;la&#770;h
kaw-law'
A primitive root; to be light (as implied in rapid motion), but figuratively only (be (causatively hold) in contempt): - base, contemn, despise, lightly esteem, set light, seem vile.

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[Peripatetic]

Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts thy bottle to him, and makes him drunken also, that thou may look on their nakedness!
Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. <-----> Habakkuk 2:16+17

Isn't this passage more of a condemnation of the Babylonians' inhumane method of conquest? Here's an excerpt from the Bible Knowledge commentary:

The fourth woe turns back to the sordid scene of the Babylonians&#8217; barbaric actions. The focus here is on the inhumanity and the indignity of the conqueror to his subjects. He is pictured as a drunkard giving his neighbors wine to intoxicate them so that he may indulge in some evil wantonness and expose his victims to shame. So the Babylonians added lust to their violence and drunkenness. Such action is severely condemned by God (Gen. 9:21-25). An alternate rendering of the phrase pouring it from the wineskin is &#8220;joining (to it) your wrath.&#8221; In other words the Babylonians poured out more than wine. With the wine they mixed &#8220;wrath,&#8221; a word related to &#8220;heat,&#8221; signifying any violent passion. This was indeed a &#8220;mixed drink.&#8221; Hate and passion were poured out together. The nations that were enticed, or more often forced, to partake of the Babylonians&#8217; poisonous mix fell like drunks and lay prostrate in shame and subjugation.

and...

2:16. Those who gloated over the shame of their drunken victims would someday be filled with shame (cf. &#8220;shaming&#8221; in v. 10). Their glory was their shame. This perverted &#8220;glory&#8221; of the Babylonians contrasted sharply with God&#8217;s preeminent glory (v. 14). Far from glory, the Babylonians reveled in shame and soon they would drink, fall down intoxicated, and be exposed as one who is &#8220;uncircumcised&#8221; (literal Heb.). To be uncircumcised was, to the Jews, to be scorned. The Babylonians had caused others to drink and be shamefully exposed (v. 15); later the tables would be turned (cf. v. 7) and they would be drunk and naked.
The cup that they must drink was from the LORD&#8216;s right hand, a figure of divine retribution (cf. Isa. 51:17-23; Jer. 25:15-17; Lam. 4:21). On drinking God&#8217;s judgment, Babylon would be covered with disgrace. &#8220;Shame&#8221; in the first line of Habakkuk 2:16 and &#8220;disgrace&#8221; in the last line translate similar Hebrew words, but the second of these is in an emphatic form in Hebrew (used only here in the OT). It signifies extreme contempt. The once-glorious Babylon was pictured as a disgraceful, contemptible drunk.

Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (Hab 2:16). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.


It's always hard to draw meaning from a passage without the context of the rest of it, especially when metaphor is used for emphasis. Given the liquid nature of the Bible, I guess it is possible that certain verses could work in more than one way: by itself and in context of what is around it. It's just not easy to know when it does and when it doesn't (a great tool for non-Christian debaters of our faith).

Anyway... back to the topic at hand.