HABAKKUK 3
The prophet’s prayer in chapter 3 sets forth what may be known by those who draw near to Jehovah in His holy temple. His first exercise is marked by fear as realising that the state of the people was such as to deserve wrath. But he looks for revival on the ground of mercy “in the midst of the years” of departure. And his prayer indicates that revival comes about by returning to that which was from the beginning. For verse 3 alludes very distinctly to Deuteronomy 33: 2, which refers to how Jehovah moved at the beginning for the blessing of His people. As it is said in verse 13 of the chapter before us, “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation of thine anointed”. The full result of this will be that “his glory covereth the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise”, verse 3. In coming out for the blessing of His people God has the heavens and the earth before Him. He may seem to be operating in a limited sphere, but what He does will have universal results. In considering Habakkuk’s prayer we must bear in mind that what he dwelt upon was the deliverance of Israel, and the destruction of their enemies, but their deliverance was only a typical one; there was no redemption wrought for them, save in type. We have to bring what is said here into the present period to get the divine reality of what was done for Israel in a typical way. I have no doubt the Spirit of God had in mind in verses 3 and 4 [p. 61] what has come to pass now through God having sent His only begotten Son into the world. God has truly come in now for the salvation of His people. “And his brightness was as the light; rays came forth from his hand; and there was the hiding of his power”. When the Word became flesh He was the true Light; God’s glory and praise were brought in in the fullest way. Rays of glory were effulgent in every movement of His hand. The word rays is really horns, and horns in Scripture are symbolical of power. Divine power acting in grace was seen in every movement of Jesus. It became the joy of faith, and yet all the time “there was the hiding of his power”. It was hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes. Indeed, in view of the condition of Israel and the world, and in view of God’s glory in redemption, it was necessary that there should be “the hiding of his power”. He could have called upon His Father, and had more than twelve legions of angels to overpower His adversaries, but “how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?”
The pestilence and the burning flame show, I think, the solemn consequences of man’s rejecting God’s light and salvation. If men love darkness rather than light, after light has shone upon them, they are “already judged”; the day of judgment has already come for them. Hence Jesus said, “For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not may see, and they which see may become blind”. “He stood and measured the earth; he beheld, and discomfited the nations”, verse 6. In a moral sense everything here has been measured by the coming of the Son of God; its exact dimensions are known. Man’s religion, his philosophy, his science, his schemes for human progress, are all measured and found to come short. God has brought in His standard, and all is really measured by the One who is “God’s power and God’s wisdom”. What is it all now to those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s beloved Son? For faith, Christ and His cross have brought down all the greatness of man, and all that is pretentious because of its antiquity. In that sense “the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting hills gave way”, verse 6. But in blessed contrast it is said, “his ways are everlasting”. The stability and permanence of God’s ways in Christ, as seen in the holy temple, are the confidence and joy of faith.
Verses 7 - 15 review Jehovah’s actings on behalf of Israel. They present Him as acting against all the powers that were opposed [p. 62] to His people, or that stood in the way of their possessing the inheritance which He had assigned to them. We consider these things as having in mind what they represent typically. The most terrible enemy of all is referred to symbolically in verse 8. “Was Jehovah wrathful with the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers? Was thy rage against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thy horses, thy chariots of salvation?” There can be no doubt that the reference here is to the Red Sea and the Jordan. Both represent, as believers know, the power of death. It was God who imposed the sentence of death upon the disobedient man, and death reigned many centuries before the law was given; it is the gravest of all questions. If men are to be delivered from the power of evil and brought into blessing, death must be met and overcome. The supreme wonder is that the One who in His righteous government passed the sentence of death upon the fallen creature has undertaken in His grace and love to deal with death on behalf of His poor creature. From the standpoint of His thoughts of love and blessing death has become His enemy as well as ours, and He has ridden upon His horses and chariots of salvation to meet and set aside its power. He has taken our side against death, just as He took the side of Israel against the Red Sea and Jordan. God’s purpose and grace “has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”, 2 Timothy 1: 10. Jesus took part in blood and flesh “that through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil; and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage”, Hebrews 2:14, 15. The Spirit of God had this in mind when He inspired the words, “The sea saw it and fled, the Jordan turned back ... . What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back?” Psalm 114: 3, 5. The Red Sea is a type of the death of Christ for us, and the Jordan typifies our death with Him. But Habakkuk is not occupied with how the people availed themselves of the way made for them through the sea or the river, but with the fact that Jehovah acted for them in dealing with what barred their way out of Egypt or into Canaan. He had before him the acting of God viewed objectively, and therefore in its divine completeness. Death no longer bars the way to man’s salvation or to the blessing of God’s people. Indeed, in the death of Christ it has become the way of deliverance, the way into life. Faith must take that way,
but on God’s part the sea has fled, the river has turned back. Death is not annulled publicly in this world, but the resurrection of Christ is the proof to believers that in relation to Him death is annulled, and this for man’s benefit through the great favour of God. There is a way out by the death of Christ from the world as under judgment. This is what baptism to the death of Christ signifies.
Then at the Jordan the people saw the ark of the covenant move before them at a time when the river was full over all its banks, and they went after it on dry ground because the river had turned back. This is one of the most striking types in Scripture. It shows how Christ has gone into death in its fullest power, and has so turned it back that all the people of God can go over into the fulness of spiritual blessing in association with Him in life. They can go into the abundant life of John 10: 10. The death of Christ in its full power is available, though it is only by the attraction of His Person and love that any pass over with Him into the land.
“Thy bow was made naked, the rods sworn according to thy word” (verse 9) would connect with Deuteronomy 32: 23 and Psalm 45:5. Rods is the same word as sceptre in Psalm 2: 9 and Psalm 110: 2. God has the means by which to deal with everything that is adverse to Him. This was seen when Jesus was here by His binding the strong man and spoiling his goods, and by His casting out demons. It was seen, too, when His enemies went backward in the garden and fell to the ground. All the power was there by which He will eventually subjugate all opposition, but it did not act then for men’s destruction because God was in Christ reconciling, not judging. The “mountains” were there, indeed, and the “torrents of waters”; great powers represented by the chief priests and rulers, and those under their influence; the Roman power also lending itself to be the instrument of their wickedness. But none of them could hinder the Lord from completing the work which His Father had given Him to do, or from bringing in the kingdom of God in spiritual power, or securing His own for the assembly which He was about to build. Neither the prince of this world, nor any of his instruments or agents, could stand in the way of what God was doing. “The floods lifted up, O Jehovah, the floods lifted up their voice; the floods lifted up their roaring waves”, but this only brought to light that “Jehovah on high is mightier than the voice of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea”, Psalm 93: 4.
[p. 64] The sun and moon standing still (verse 11) evidently refers to Joshua 10: 12 - 15. It suggests typically the present prolonged day during which dispensational movements are arrested. Things continue in a certain fixed relation. Christ is at the right hand of God, and the assembly is in her place of witness here. But it is a time of spiritual conflict, of which the “arrows” and the “glittering spear” and Jehovah marching through the land in indignation are expressive; verse 12. Jehovah dispossessed the nations of Canaan that it might be the inheritance of His people, and these nations represented the spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies. These are spiritual powers which are active to darken the mind and imagination of men so that God may not be known by them. It is not simply that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, as we know it is, but there are great supernatural powers behind the scenes operating against the knowledge of God. Paul was in conflict with those powers, for he speaks of having arms of warfare which were “powerful according to God to the overthrow of strongholds; overthrowing reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God”, 2 Corinthians 10: 4, 5. The powers in question are no insignificant enemies; they are described as being principalities, authorities, and universal lords of this darkness. Saints would be no match for them if they were not strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength, and also invested with “the panoply of God”. But it is unspeakable comfort to know that God has gone forth against them. He has taken up the challenge, and “having spoiled principalities and authorities, he made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph by it”; that is by the cross. The fact that He has done this by the cross shows that it is by setting aside the man on whose mind and imagination those powers could act that they are spoiled, and exposed in their true character, and triumphed over. In the mighty acting of God it is completely done. And Christ as the ascended One has “led captivity captive”; He has overcome every power in the universe that could have stood in the way of God’s making Himself known in grace to men.
All this gives the present spiritual application to us of what Habakkuk expresses in such energetic language, full of striking figures and symbols. It is all included in the greatness of that salvation for which God has gone forth; verse 13. It covers in spiritual suggestion all that has come to light for us in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. And [p. 65] it is presented as known in relation to God’s “holy temple”; that is, as known in the power of the Holy Spirit. Habakkuk speaks of these things as being “heard” by him when he addressed himself to Jehovah as known in His holy temple; verse 16. The greatness of it all made him realise, as he had never done before, what a wretched thing he was in himself. His belly trembled, his lips quivered, rottenness entered into his bones. It is ever thus when God vouchsafes light as to Himself and His wondrous actings for men. Job experienced it in his day, Daniel in his day (Daniel 8: 27; Daniel 10: 8), and John falling as dead at the feet of the Son of man has somewhat the same character. If God is really to fill the soul it is certain that all of self must go out. The end in view is that God fills the soul without any subtle admixture of self-righteousness or self-commendation in any form. It is a humbling experience, but those who have gone through it never regret it, for it leads to confidence in God alone, and thus to fulness of joy in Him which is independent of all circumstances. One who has gone through this exercise has “rest in the day of distress, when their invader shall come up against the people”, verse 16. He has reached a resting-place in God upon which no distress or invader can intrude. If we tremble as searched out inwardly by the light of God we shall not tremble in the day of outward trial; we shall have rest then, and not only rest, but profound joy in God. All that the Jew looked for as the sign of God’s favour might utterly fail, but Jehovah remained as the Source and Crown of His people’s blessing. We cannot be sure that privileges which have comforted us in the past will continue; many have been deprived of them in greater or lesser degree. But what we know of the Father and the Son in the power of the Spirit will abide.
“Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength, and he maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places”. It would be well if our prayers took more the form of Habakkuk’s prayer. His prayer, strictly speaking, is limited to the latter part of verse 2. All the rest is a recital of what Jehovah had already done for the salvation of His people. We sometimes ask God to do many things for us when we should be more profitably occupied in considering what He has done through and in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us give more attention to this; it will relieve our anxieties and fill us with joy. Because what He has done, and how He has made Himself known in doing it, is an [p. 66] unchangeable blessedness. Even if we think of it in the setting of Habakkuk’s prayer it is most wonderful. Habakkuk’s prayer is mainly occupied with the setting aside of adverse powers; it is the God of salvation who is celebrated. But “my high places” suggest an elevation where the positive thoughts of divine love are known and enjoyed. And the “feet like hinds’ feet” show that as in Christ and by the Spirit we can be sure-footed even there. “My high places” has, for us at any rate, a heavenly significance; it speaks of what is unfolded in Ephesians as connected with love’s eternal purpose.
It is delightful to see that, after all the experiences and exercises through which Habakkuk had passed, he finished on the highest possible level. “The chief Musician” and the “stringed instruments” are in keeping with the whole order of divine service as set up by David. Fifty-five of the Psalms are headed “To the chief Musician”. And here is a man, representing a faithful remnant, in the darkest day of Israel’s history, just on the eve of the captivity, able to indite an utterance that corresponded in quality with what was possible in the brightest day of that history. There could hardly be a greater triumph of faith. Whatever service was going on publicly in Jerusalem at that day must have been extremely formal; indeed, as we know, it was offensive to God. But to Habakkuk’s faith there was a spiritual temple where wonderful things could be seen and heard, and where Jehovah could be praised in the same lofty notes as when His service was first inaugurated. The “chief Musician” implies the presence and accompaniment of others, and “my stringed instruments” shows that faith has its own equipment for the service of praise, and this in a collective way.
The application of all this to our own times is obvious. Christendom is in as sad a state as Israel was. But in a day of extreme departure a remnant have cried to God to revive His work, and He has done so. He has brought the great actings of His grace and love in Christ in a fresh and living way before the hearts of His people. He had enabled many to rejoice in Himself, and in His great salvation, and in what He has brought to pass for the satisfaction of His love. He has caused them to walk upon “their high places” in His eternal purpose. Now He intends that all this shall come out in assembly service, to His praise and glory. It is not to be merely a personal experience, however blessed this might be, but it is to give character to the collective worship of His sons as assembled. Our “chief Musician” is the One who has said, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praise”, Hebrews 2:12. It is still possible for saints as stringed instruments to blend harmoniously in praise under the touch of the hand of the chief Musician. We must not think of this as a beautiful, but unrealisable, conception, or that it can only be true in heaven. It is what may be realised down here as the result of such exercises as are set out in this part of the Holy Scriptures. This prophecy was given to encourage and support faith, in a difficult time, lust such a time as we are passing through now.