If you have
been in this situation then I believe you have some idea of how Habakkuk felt
as he penned the words to the third chapter of his book. Whereas our experience was physical and we
basked in the warmth of sunlight Habakkuk’s was spiritual and he basked in the
light of the glory of God. In only two
chapters the prophet has been through a journey of confusion, frustration,
worship, and understanding that must have been very much like an emotional
roller coaster. He began with dismay and
righteous anger over the distortion of God’s law and reputation among the Jews. The Lord responded by assuring His servant that
He was going to raise up the Chaldeans to mete out justice upon the wayward
nation of Israel. This revelation was
particularly distressing to Habakkuk, as Babylon was a cruel, pagan, and
godless nation. He became frustrated by
his lack of understanding of how God in His holiness could use such an evil
people to accomplish His purposes. The
prophet understood that his exasperation was not good and that it stemmed from
a failure to see reality from God’s perspective. Because of this awareness of his own
shortcomings as a man he asked for instruction and correction. God obliged Habakkuk by laying out a six
point outline of how the Babylonians were in violation of His character and the
laws He had established at creation.
Furthermore, full assurance was given that the guilty would be met by
justice and punishment would be handed down wherever appropriate. This had to have been a remarkable and eye
opening experience for our confused prophet.
He was given a front row seat to the tapestry of God’s design in the
world. In spite of the depravity of
human nature that was presented to him through the introductory word picture
and the five woes that followed it, what emerges triumphantly over the
sickening corruption is a pulsing, pounding thread of truth that is nothing
less than the awesome power and wisdom and righteousness of God Almighty. It is as if Habakkuk has stepped out of a
frozen wasteland into the glorious morning of the Lord with the light of God’s
glory shining full upon his face. And in
response he bursts forth now in chapter three with an amazing, jaw dropping
response to everything he has seen and heard.
It begins quite slowly and softly but will rapidly build into a
crescendo:
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet,
according
to Shigionoth.
Immediately we
see the heart of this man. His response
is formed as a prayer to God. A prayer
is a solemn address to the Supreme Being consisting of adoration, thanksgiving,
and supplication. By its very nature a
prayer is a vertical form of communication in the sense that it rises from the
creature, who occupies a position of subservience, upward to the creator who
occupies a position of supremacy. So by
characterizing his response as a prayer Habakkuk qualifies and categorizes
everything that he is about to say. Not
only that, but notice the phrase “according to Shigionoth”. Scholars are unclear exactly what this Hebrew
phrase meant. It appears only one other
time in the Old Testament as part of the title of Psalm 7. The most probable connotation is that of a
musical instruction or a reference to the musical style that was to be used
when the text was sung. From this we can
infer that not only did Habakkuk intend for his prayer to be lifted up to His
God but he desired for his countrymen to have this song as a treasured
possession that they could refer to in the future in times of despair and
discouragement. And so in an effort to
help them recall the tender mercies and loving kindnesses of God the prophet
repeatedly draws on the Jews’ own history as a series of reminders. In light of the fact that Habakkuk had inside
information on exactly what was going to happen to his fellow Jews this makes
the poignancy of his prayer all the more striking.
The prayer
divides neatly into four movements or expressions of thought. He begins with a plea, continues with a
vision of the Lord triumphantly coming to earth, expands with praise and
thanksgiving for salvation, and concludes with a determined statement of
stalwart intent. We will cover the first
three pieces in this chapter and then look at the conclusion next chapter.
The opening of
this four part song is a statement that is utterly astonishing coming from the
mouth of a sinful man:
Lord, I have heard the report about You and
I fear.
O
Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years,
In
the midst of the years make it known;
In
wrath remember mercy.
What is the
prophet saying here? And what is so
astonishing about it? Notice that he
says that he has heard the report about the Lord. This mirrors his statement at the beginning
of chapter 2: “I will keep watch to see
what He will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved.” He waited for the Lord’s answer and now the
prophet acknowledges that he has heard it.
And in the hearing he “fears”.
This is not terror or fright. The
Hebrew word can be taken as such. But
the context of both what came before in chapter two and what immediately
follows in chapter 3 makes it clear that Habakkuk is fearing in the sense of
being in awe of God. He is amazed at the
report he has been given about God’s work.
Rather than being filled with dread or dismay over the revelation of
exceedingly painful experiences to come he is filled with a triumphant sort of
astonishment at how the divine plan will ultimately come together.
And so the
prophet asks His heavenly Father to do it.
“Do that which You have prophesied to me” he cries out to God. Habakkuk desires for God to make His plans
come to fruition. Not only that but he
wants these plans to happen soon. There
is some disagreement over exactly what “in the midst of the years” means. The most probable explanation is that
Habakkuk has in view the Babylonian exile and captivity. As I have said a major concern for him is his
countrymen. He is distressed over how
long they will be held in a foreign land with foreign gods. The fear is undoubtedly that they will become
depressed and sink into despair out of a conviction that their God has
forgotten them. So Habakkuk is hopeful
and asks God to perform His work of justice and grace and to “make it known in
the midst of the years” of the Babylonian exile. He closes this supplication with a plea to
remember mercy. In spite of God’s great
wrath over the sinfulness of His people Habakkuk is asking Him to be gentle
with them. The prophet shudders in
dreadful anticipation of the punishment to come and his heart goes out to his
fellow Jews. Compassion rises to the
surface of his mind and he casts this burden upon the Lord, knowing from the
scriptures that God will never permit the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22).
Observe that in
all of this God’s judgment is a foregone conclusion for Habakkuk. By asking the Lord to perform His work of
justice even in the midst of the exile to come he is implying an acceptance of
that exile. By requesting the
application of mercy to his people the understanding is that there will be
wrath poured out on them from which to beg for that mercy. Nowhere does Habakkuk give the impression
that he is arguing with God about what is going to happen. In a marvelous parallel with Habakkuk 1:12 (We will not die. You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge;
and You, O Rock, have established them to correct) he simply accepts what
God says and proceeds with that as his basis of reality. The prophet’s track record of this sort of
single minded devotion to the Lord has already been well documented. But this passage serves to both remind us of
the commitment he personifies in his writings as well as to cement that
character trait firmly in stone on the off chance that there was any doubt
after reading Habakkuk chapter 1.
Suddenly, as if
out of nowhere, a vision bursts forth.
This revelation is astounding in its scope and power. As a boy I enjoyed fantasy stories. Swords and dragons and wizards filled me with
wonder. Descriptions of fanciful and
unbelievable feats of amazing power in books like “The Lord of the Rings”
trilogy fired my passions such that I would read them over and over again. Even as an adult I find great enjoyment in these
types of tales. But what I have found in
the word of God is a jaw dropping tapestry of the fantastic that simply cannot
be equaled by the mind of mortal man.
The next thirteen verses of Habakkuk chapter 3 are just such an instance
of divine reality instead of fantasy.
Rather than an imaginary powerful wizard or fearless knight stepping
into view what we have is nothing short of the truth of Jesus Christ presented
in all His glory as the very image and exact representation of the invisible
God as He explodes off the pages of scripture in a fiery campaign of justice
and wrath that will shake the foundations of the earth. Let’s take a look. We begin with the second act of Habakkuk’s
prayer/song, covering verses 3 to 7, which is a description of the Lord God
coming to earth:
God comes from Teman,
And
the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.
His
splendor covers the heavens,
And
the earth is full of His praise.
His
radiance is like the sunlight;
He
has rays flashing from His hand,
And
there is the hiding of His power.
Before
Him goes pestilence,
And
plague comes after Him.
He
stood and surveyed the earth;
He
looked and startled the nations.
Yes,
the perpetual mountains were shattered,
The
ancient hills collapsed.
His
ways are everlasting.
I
saw the tents of Cushan under distress,
The
tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.
The first thing
we notice is the reference to Teman and Mount Paran. Teman was a city in southern Edom. Mount Paran’s precise location is unknown,
but it was to the southeast of Israel.
The geographic location in view with these references is that of
Sinai. The Lord originally revealed
Himself to the Israelites on the mountain of God, called alternatively Sinai or
Horeb in scripture. The book of Exodus
records this incident in chapter 19 verses 18 and 19 as a terrifying encounter
for the people due to the fiery appearance and thunderous sound of the presence
of God: Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke
because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the
smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and
louder Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. This is the historical spot where God chose
to reveal Himself, first to Moses in Exodus chapter 3 and later to the whole
nation. And this is where He chooses to
make His arrival on earth. By marking
out Sinai as the location for God to touch down Habakkuk would have immediately
called to mind a wealth of racial memories in the minds of his Israelite
readers. From Moses’s initial meeting
with God to the formation of the Mosaic Law as a system of government to the
retreat of Elijah from the wrath of Jezebel, Horeb had a cultural heritage and
significance that would not have gone unnoticed. In that sense God’s appearance here is a
symbolic link to His previous acts and an affirmation of His identity
specifically to the Jews and generally to the nations of the world.
After alighting
on the mountain God begins His march, presumably toward Jerusalem because of
its significance as the holy city. The
“splendor” that Habakkuk beholds is the kingly authority and majesty with which
the Lord is crowned. His being exudes
these qualities in such an overpowering manner that they “cover” not just the
earth but the heavens. The word for
covering here is the same as that found in Genesis 7:19-20: The water prevailed more and more upon the
earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were
covered. The water prevailed
fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. There is no escape from the all-encompassing
spread of God’s splendor. It completely
inundates all of creation just as thoroughly as the flood waters covered the
earth in the days of Noah. This aura of
power radiates from God so magnificently that the entirely of the planet is
filled with praise at His appearance. An
excellent picture of the extent of this is found in Exodus 40:34-35: Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of
meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of
the Lord filled the tabernacle.
We are not talking about a partial dusting or an incomplete
presence. The majesty of God is such
that when He pulls away the veil from the face of humanity and appears in all
His glory there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide because His mighty
presence fills the entire expanse of reality as far as the east is from the
west.
After having
established His starting point God proceeds forth from Sinai. Habakkuk records that His radiance is like
sunlight. Picture the Lord with a closed
fist. Held within His fist is a visual
representation of the omnipotent power that He wields over the creation that He
brought forth by His word. This power is
partially concealed but its fullness is such that the light of it leaks between
the fingers of God’s closed fist. The
rays of light stream forth in a dazzling display of brilliance, hinting at the
terrible and awesome might inside.
The signs of
His passage are impossible to miss.
Habakkuk 1:13 taught us that God, being transcendently glorious and
matchlessly holy, is absolutely incompatible with sin. It is total anathema to Him and is the
complete antithesis of His nature.
Because of this, when the two come into contact with each other sin is
utterly destroyed. In fact, sin is wiped
out before it even gets to Him. Thus
when God touches down on earth in physical form and begins marching across the
land it is unavoidable that this discordance causes disease, plague, and death
to go before and behind Him because of the horribly corrupted state of both
mankind and even the earth itself. The
cause and effect nature of this situation is difficult for us humans to come to
grips with. But we cannot ignore facets
of the reality of who God is merely because they are perhaps less palatable to
us than others. It is much more fun and
pleasing to talk about God’s love and gloss over the sobering reality of His
stalwart opposition to sin which results in human casualties.
Next in verse 6
we see the Lord surveying the earth.
This is not merely a casual glance or hasty inspection. Much like a surveyor who carefully plots and
precisely measures distances so as to mark out parcels of land God is going to
take an exhaustive inventory of every acre, every mile, every foot of the
planet. The idea to keep in mind is that
no stone will be left unturned. No evil
will be hidden from God’s view. No deep
and dark hiding place will be sufficient to safeguard sinners from His fiery
wrath. This comprehensive inspection
will catch the nations unaware and startle them. In spite of the plentiful warnings that have
issued forth from the preaching and reading of His word, they will be totally
surprised at His appearance and their best laid plans and most strenuous
efforts will be dumbfounded. In 1
Thessalonians 5:2 Paul writes that the day of the Lord will “come just like a thief in the night.” Habakkuk’s vision correlates with Paul’s
writing and together they provide a sobering look at the impact of God’s
physical presence on humanity.
It is not only
people that will be irreversibly impacted by the appearance of the Lord. The prophet writes that “the perpetual mountains were shattered, the ancient hills collapsed.” In the following verse we see the “tents of Cushan under distress” and the
“tent curtains of the land of Midian
were trembling.” Again we see
Habakkuk calling to mind the great history of God’s deliverance. There is some scholarly debate over exactly
what is meant by Cushan in this verse.
Some would say that it is a reference to Cush or Ethiopia. Others would call to mind the time of the
judges when Othniel overcame the Mesopotamian oppressor, Cushan-rishathaim
(Judges 3:8-10). If the latter is
accurate then it would dovetail neatly with the note about Midian and Gideon’s
defeat of their army by the hand of the Lord.
Either way the point is that the coming of God onto the earth in the
full majesty of His great and glorious power is literally an earth shaking
event. He will collapse mountains and
shatter hills. The habitations of
humanity will be brought to ruin.
Zechariah 14:4 expands upon this concept with a terrifying depiction of
the day of the Lord: In that day His
feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the
east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by
a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north
and the other half toward the south.
In a striking contrast Habakkuk makes the point when he says “His ways are everlasting” that although
these geographic features of earth seemed to us to be timeless and ancient,
when compared with the eternality of God they are as but dust in the wind.
As we finish
this segment of the prophet’s incredible vision there is a sense of
exhaustion. We feel wrung out like a wet
rag and twisted up like a knot. The
description of God’s righteous march across the earth with its pouring forth of
divine power and fundamental alteration of both land and people is of such a
compelling and guttural nature that we feel utterly awed at the breadth of
it. As Habakkuk said at the beginning of
his prayer “I have heard the report about
You and I fear.” This should be the
orientation of our thoughts at this point in the narrative. And this is precisely the frame of mind, one
of sober realization of the power of God and our insignificance next to Him,
which both we and the ancient Israelites need to be in as we come to the next
portion of the passage, verses 8 to 15.
Because only after coming to terms with the terrible majesty of our Lord
can we begin to appreciate the gravity of what it means that He will fight for
us and protect us. The prophet
continues:
Did the Lord rage against the rivers,
Or
was Your anger against the rivers,
Or
was Your wrath against the sea,
That
You rode on Your horses,
On
Your chariots of salvation?
Your
bow was made bare,
The
rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah.
You
cleaved the earth with rivers.
The
mountains saw You and quaked;
The
downpour of waters swept by.
The
deep uttered forth its voice,
It
lifted high its hands.
Sun
and moon stood in their places;
They
went away at the light of Your arrows,
At
the radiance of Your gleaming spear.
In
indignation You marched through the earth;
In
anger You trampled the nations.
You
went forth for the salvation of Your people,
For
the salvation of Your anointed.
You
struck the head of the house of the evil
To
lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.
You
pierced with his own spears
The
head of his throngs.
They
stormed in to scatter us;
Their
exultation was like those
Who
devour the oppressed in secret.
You
trampled on the sea with Your horses,
On
the surge of many waters.
Habakkuk begins
this section by establishing that God will fight for His people. He asks rhetorical questions to establish a
baseline of purpose for the Lord.
Brought into view yet again is Israel’s history. This time it is the deliverance that God
orchestrated for Israel at both the Red Sea and the Jordan River when He
supernaturally parted the waters so the people could pass through. The prophet asks the question, “Was the Lord
angry with these waters? Is that why He
sent them into turmoil? Is that why He
disrupted the usual course of their flows and the natural order of their
design?” The answer is no, of course
not. The reason God did these things was
so that He could both save His people from destruction at the hands of the
Egyptian army and facilitate their passage into the Promised Land. As stated, a part of Habakkuk’s intention is
to remind the Israelites of the history they share of the knowledge of their
God. Again we see a parallel with what
he has already communicated. In chapter
1 verse 12 he pointed out the legacy of divine action on their behalf when he
said “Are You not from everlasting, O
Lord, my God, my Holy One?” We
discussed this in depth in chapter four.
Now, having
established God’s purpose here, Habakkuk begins to escalate the imagery he is
portraying. He begins by conveying the
image of God as a divine warrior, equipped and ready for battle. When he says that God’s “bow is made bare”
the idea is that the bow has been taken out of its case. The bowstring has been unfurled and fitted to
the bow stave. It is prepared for
action. Not only is the bow ready but
the Lord has arrows in His quiver. These
arrows are seen as “the rods of
chastisement”. These rods, or
arrows, are for the chastisement, or punishment, of God’s enemies. And He has had them made especially for this
purpose by having their construction sworn, or commissioned.
Then at the end
of verse 9 and into verse 10 we see the Lord begin to utilize flood waters to
quench His anger. Habakkuk says that He
“cleaved the earth with rivers” and
“the downpour of waters swept by”. God will slice into the land as if with a
giant pickaxe, forming canyons. And as
He “tramples on the sea with His horses”
floodwaters will follow. Verse 15
references the “surge of many waters.” They will sweep by with thunderous fury. The deep parts of the ocean will rise up like
a colossal titan, raising its hands high into the sky in the form of a massive
wave, the crashing of whitecaps like a great and terrible battle cry. These tsunamis of the wrath of God will fill
the chasms formed by His passing.
And now this
divine warrior, the Lord God in all His glory, transcends even the bounds of
physical creation and fractures time itself.
Verse 11 tells us that even the sun and the moon will stand still in
their places. The passage of time will
cease while God is on the march. Even
the light of these celestial bodies will be covered over and obscured by the
light of the Lord in all His gleaming finery, the “light of His arrows”, and the “radiance
of His gleaming spear.” Such is the
wrath of God against sin and His resolve to deliver His people that no element
of His creation will remain untouched by the monumental wake of His passing.
And now this
anger bursts forth onto the nations in full force. Verses 12 to 14 describe a tableau of utter
carnage being perpetrated against an evil and hostile and alien mankind. It is righteous fury that will drive God
forth across the surface of the earth.
It is His incendiary hatred of sin that will cause Him to “trample the nations”. The Lord will at long last punish Satan when
He “strikes the head of the house of the
evil to lay him open from thigh to neck”.
This is graphic imagery but it is necessary to get across to the reader
how serious the situation is. These evil
nations who are being punished are not merely innocent bystanders who are
caught between a rock and a hard place.
They are not kindhearted souls in the wrong place at the wrong time,
wedged in the middle of a supernatural war between a harsh and uncaring God and
the former leader of His angelic hosts.
These people are completely duplicitous in the hostility and antagonism
that has been directed toward the Lord for thousands of years. This is apparent for two reasons. First is the nature of man. Psalm 14:3 paints a vivid image of the state
of mankind: They have all turned aside,
together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even
one. The second piece of evidence
that convicts humanity is the reference to Satan himself. The “head
of the house of the evil” cannot be anyone other than the devil. No mere human could possibly match that
description of ultimate depravity. And
he is the one stated as the head of the nations, pictured here as a house of
evil. So man is not a bunch of innocent
lambs being unjustly oppressed. After
establishing the enemy as mankind with the devil as their leader Habakkuk
reveals that God will decisively strike the prince of demons with a mortal
wound that he will not recover from.
When the day of the Lord occurs no injustice will be left untouched and
no hidden evils will be allowed to fester.
Not only will Satan be struck down but his human accomplices as well. Even as they “stormed in to scatter” with an “exultation like those who devour the oppressed in secret” God will
turn their own weapons against them and pierce their bodies.
To further
reinforce this idea that it is not the Lord who is to blame here, notice in
verse 13 why He is striking down the nations.
His goal is the “salvation of His
people”. No, it’s even more than
that. It isn’t just some generic
reference to a people group in view here.
It is God’s own anointed who are to be saved by His prowess in
battle. The Lord specifically and
intentionally chose out for Himself people to be His own treasured
possession. He brought them forth and
anointed their heads with oil in a symbolic gesture that was precisely designed
to mark someone out. This oil, the
recipe for which was given straight from God to Moses in Exodus chapter 30, was
used to consecrate Levitical priests so as to set them aside for the work of
ministry. They were to be symbolically
holy and blameless before the literal holiness and blamelessness of God. Thus the anointing of someone is a direct
philosophical and theological link to that attribute in God’s own
character. The seriousness of this
cannot be overstated. And this is why
God is issuing forth here in Habakkuk’s vision with such force and vehemence to
save His “anointed ones”.
The complexity
and scope on display in the prophet’s vision is astonishing and it bears a
quick recap to bring it all together in our minds. First of all, we need to clarify just exactly
who we are discussing here. In the Old
Testament the presence of God was terrifying.
A direct look at His face would kill a man. Although the Father’s form is incorporeal He
was completely overwhelming to human sensibility as evidenced by His presence
both at Mount Sinai and at the tabernacle.
By contrast, in the New Testament we see Jesus as very
approachable. He is tender and
compassionate yet firmly grounded with truth.
He is the exact appearance of what God’s image looks like in a man. This is the mark that Adam should have hit
but fell short of. In this physical
incarnation the Lord divested Himself of some portion of His divine power and
prerogatives. So in a sense His glory that
was revealed at Sinai was hidden from view.
Now imagine the
two of those images coming together, descending through the clouds, and
touching down on Mount Sinai. He is
literally standing in front of you. A
perfect physical living breathing image of God in the flesh. John gives us a wonderful picture of this in
Revelation 1:13-16: and in the
middle of the lampstands I saw
one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to
the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were
white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow
in a furnace, and His voice was like
the sound of many waters. In
His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp
two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its
strength. The God-man is suffused
with unmatchable power and magnificence so that it exudes from His very
skin. This aura radiates outward to such
an extent that sin is immediately eradicated from His presence. He is clothed with splendor, majesty, and
authority. His armor gleams, not in the
sun, but in the light of His greater glory.
A bow is in His hand with arrows of light in His quiver. A spear of radiance is on His back. He mounts a celestial charger and begins to
march toward the holy city, Jerusalem.
The seas are whipped into a catastrophic maelstrom by His passing. Massive waves form and surge across the
land. Mountains shatter at His
footsteps, the earth quakes, broad canyons and deep gorges are gouged out of
the landscape only to become lakes and rivers as they are filled with the
raging flood waters. Even time itself
stands still and ceases to function. The
light of the sun and moon are obscured by His radiance. Nations collapse and are ground under the
heel of His righteous anger over sin.
This unstoppable warrior prosecutes His open and shut case against those
who would seek to destroy His anointed ones.
He attacks the leader of the opposition and splits his torso open while
turning the weapons of the enemy armies back against them even as they rush
forward in expectation of triumph. His
people rejoice with unchecked thanksgiving and praise as their salvation is
delivered by their God.
What we have in
this vision is the true and accurate description of the Lord Jesus Christ
unveiled in all of His greatness. The
imagery, although coming prior to it historically, is the literal fulfillment
of what the Apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians 2:9-11: For
this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every
knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
People may be allowed the freedom at this time to deny the deity and
authority of Christ. But one day He will
stride the avenues of this planet, being arrayed in all of His glory, having
been outfitted with divine weaponry, fracturing the very earth, and disrupting
time as Habakkuk has described here. On
that day tongues will cleave to the roofs of mouths, hearts will flutter, knees
will grow weak, and no one, from the staunchest Atheist to Satan himself, will
be able to deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
For those of us who are His brothers and sisters under the shared
parental authority of the heavenly Father, this is a great and glorious day to
look forward to and should be a source of supreme contentment even in the midst
of the afflictions of this life.
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