Habakkuk Chapter 3

Habakkuk's Prayer

• Habakkuk 3:1  A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. 
• 2  O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. 

Here we see a prayer of anguish but ends with rejoicing and thanksgiving. Shigionoth means a poem or a song. Perhaps a musical instrument is used here. Many of us today are crying out loud with prayers both of praise and thanksgiving but also in anguish over the things we see in our country. Sin against the word of God is at an all time high. A depart from morality, respect, modesty, compassion, love for children, especially young ones is getting worse. People protest in the streets if they think their right to abortion might be taken away. I've never seen it this bad in the many years I've lived on the earth.

Party politics has gotten so bad that if they do not like a political opponent they will go after them hard and strong even breaking the constitution and their civil rights to do so. The hate is awful. Those that do these things have no respect for God or His word yet we know that they will stand before Him one day and suffer severe judgment if they fail to repent and make things right with Him who is the judge of all the earth.

We don't have to live like that. God has such great things to give to those that love Him and choose His way of salvation through faith in Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Son of God was sent from God to redeem, save, and grant us eternal life. What profit is it to gain political power and pass laws according to their agenda and end up lost in hell forever? It is all for nothing.

When Judah and Israel departed from God, they didn't realize they would lose their nation. Israel went down first with the envasion of Assyria. Judah didn't learn from the judgment of the northern kingdom of Israel so they went under judgment by suffering 70 years of Babylonian captivity. All their sins, greed, idolatry and more was for nothing. It was lost when God's hand of protection left them and Babylon moved in with the speed of a hungry beast devouring and bringing the whole country into bondage.

• Habakkuk 3:3  God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 
• 4  And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. 
• 5  Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. 

The prophet Habakkuk is speaking here of the time when God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. He delivered them out, parted the Red Sea and brought them through the dessert, fed them with Manna, and gave them the holy law. The law was meant to bring in Christ who would deliver from sin and bring in a new covenant which would save their souls and reconcile them back to the Father in Heaven. Not only Israel but all who would believe and receive this good way.

• Habakkuk 3:6  He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. 
• 7  I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 

God used Joshua to drive out the evil nations when the sin of those nations became so full of evil after God waited over 400 years to bring judgment upon them. God knew that the Canaanites would not repent and turn away from evil. God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed but would not allow Abraham to take over that land at once but his seed took over it years later. At the time of Abraham's life their sin was not to the point of no return.

There is a time when God says enough and judgment comes swiftly. Do we think for one minute that we are going to get by with ignoring the word of God and doing what is right in our own eyes. Millions of babies are murdered with no thought of the pain they went through from saline solution or cutting their body parts to be harvested and sold like meat in the market places?

God is merciful. He gives us time but as we read of the days of Noah, we know that eventually if we do not repent, the judgment comes swiftly.

• Luke 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. 
• 25  But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. 
• 26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 
• 27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 
• 28  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 
• 29  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 
• 30  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. 

God wants to save rather than destroy. He gives nations time. He sends prophets, preachers and missionaries. Yet there comes a time when He says, it is enough. There is a point of no return. Yet now is the time, now is the day of salvation. We don't have to live in sin and bondage to this world. God has something better, greater and everlasting for all who receive His Son Jesus and turn from their sins.

• Habakkuk 3:8  Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? 

One river might have been the one that was turned to blood in the days of Moses. The other river, the river of Jordan was divided when Israel passed over it. The Red Sea was divided to allow the Israelites to pass over even before that. Pharoah and his army perished because the waters returned to their place after Israel was safely across. During the time of Moses and Joshua, we see God doing miracles to fight for His people.

• Habakkuk 3:9  Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. 

The bow here could be God's word and covenant with the tribes of Israel.

• Habakkuk 3:10  The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. 
• 11  The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. 
• 12  Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. 
• 13  Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah. 

We see here that the prophet was referring to the past when God fought for His people against wicked heathen nations. Yet now the sword of judgment is coming upon their own nation for their sins. The sun even stood still one time for Joshua when he was leading the children of Israel to victory. We see then that God brings even worse things upon those that should have known better. When we know to do good and we do not do it, it is worse than people that have not known.

• 2Peter 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 
• 21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 

We who have known the Lord, received His grace and mercy, received the indwelling of His Holy Spirit should know better than to forsake that which we have received and return to the pollutions and wickedness of the world Jesus saved us from. Yet if we return to Him and genuinely repent, there is restoration, forgiveness and everylasting life.

• Habakkuk 3:14  Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. 
• 15  Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters. 
• 16  When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. 

This passage could refer to the time when Pharoah after letting Israel go out of Egypt, changed his mind and sent his army out against them. Israel was then hemmed in between the armies of Egypt and the Red Sea. Pharoah thought he was winning for sure as he forgot all the previous plagues sent upon Egypt. Yet we see at the last minute Moses saying to the children of Israel, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."

Yet as the judgment comes from the nation of Babylon all is forgotten. For seventy years they live in captivity until God used Cyrus to free them and allow them to return to their own nation again. We must never forget God as individuals or as a nation.

Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord

• Habakkuk 3:17  Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 
• 18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 
• 19  The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. 

Even though he knows the bad times are coming because of the sin of his nation, Habakkuk rejoices and praises the Lord with instruments and singing. He was in despair but his worship of the Lord brings comfort and hope to him. DC