Today I am writing something different for a friend, a commentary on Prophet’s Prayer for Revival. Let’s look at Habakkuk Chapter three.
CHAPTER THREE
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. 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. 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. 8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? wasthy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? 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. 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. 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. 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.
Habakkuk lived in the Kingdom of Judah at the time that the Babylonians were overrunning the country in stages. Much of what he says in his prophesy is often dismissed as applying only to the time and place where he lived. The danger in dismissing any part of a prophesy is that all prophesy of God has manifold fulfillment. What Habakkuk said and what he prayed is as applicable to us today as it was in the days of King Zechariah, if not more so.
The prophet announced that his prayer is a rambling lyric (upon Shigionoth). Apparently Habakkuk was a Levite, one of the family charged with assisting in worship with music and labor, especially since he addressed the lyric to the chief singer on his (Habakkuk’s) stringed instruments. That would explain his qualifications for God to miraculously transport him to Babylon to comfort Daniel, as some of the oldest hagiography suggests he did (see Bel and the Dragon 33-37).
The prophet heard God speak, and he became afraid, even terrorized, by the pronouncement of the Lord. Thus, he prays for a revival, a sort of resurrection, of the work of God in Israel, especially God’s mercy. The King James Version renders the Hebrew word queren as horns, when a better translation from the context would be rays of light. So in the best rendering, God is seen by Habakkuk as having rays of light proceeding out of His hands. The word translated hiding in regards to God’s power is also poorly rendered. It should be rendered revealing or uncovering. The phrase before Him went… should have been rendered away from Him fled…. Making the passage read, Away from Him fled pestilence, and burning coals extended from His feet.
The rays of light extending from God’s hands could be misconstrued by the neo-heathen as lasers or some other sort of science fiction weapon. But God doesn’t need science fiction technology to emit light. God has been compared to light. The rays are the extension of God’s wrath upon the unrepentant rebels against His faith. The word rendered measured in verse 6 may better be rendered as surveyed. So it would read, He stood and surveyed the ground, or, He stood and surveyed the planet Earth. Either rendering is correct in the Hebrew, and both make sense in the context, but the latter one may fit better. The word translated as nations in verse 6 is goyim, an interesting word. The Hebrew word for person is yid, and goyim is literally those who are not yid. So taking it in its literal definition, the phrase in verse 6 would read, He drove all the non-Israelites apart. But it probably means, He drove all the unbelievers apart. The rest of the verse is a reference to earthquakes.
Cushan is a part of Arabia where the tribes of Esau lived and were always siding with the enemies of Israel and Judah. Midian is the land of Western Jordan that abuts Israel from Jerusalem to the Red Sea. Both of these places harbored enemies of Israel and Judah, and we can see them today as an allegory for any enemy of the faith in God, or for the Arab people who place themselves at enmity with Israel.
In prophetic symbology, the term sea is an allusion to the mass of humanity, Israel included. A river is a branch of the sea. So when Habakkuk asked God, Are you angry with the rivers? he was asking God if He was angry with certain nations or ethnicities. The horses and chariots are implements of war. That they are “of salvation” means that it’s a war of rescue for Israel and all believers. The bow is the primary symbol of war, the weapon that can reach out and touch someone. When God’s bow is naked, exposed, there is a war instigated by God. The oaths of the tribes refers to the joint defense pact that the tribes of Israel made at the end of the Book of Joshua. It could also refer to mutual defense treaties made in the modern era. Beware the people with whom you make a pact, they could draw your nation to its destruction on the plain of Jezreel.
The last part of verse 9, after the pause, is probably an allusion to the dividing of the world into nation states. It fits better with verses 10 and following than in verse 9. The beginning of verse 10 refers again to earthquakes, but the overflowing of water, especially waters that lift up their hands, must be referring to masses of people. Verse 11 talks of signs in the sky. The arrows of God are meteors falling to the ground, and the spear is a particularly large one, or perhaps a comet.
Verse 12 uses an interesting choice of words. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words that are translated with the English word tribulation refer to a narrow passage, a tight spot, or a group of people crowding one into a tight cluster. But the English word comes to us from the Latin language where it literally means threshing with the flail called a tribulum. The image of God threshing the sinners with a flail is one repeated often in modern prophetic utterance, but this is the earliest image of that I have found. Basically we can say this verse is predicting tribulation. The reference to God’s anointed in verse 13 is an obvious reference to the Messiah, the One Enoch referred to as the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. So with Jesus on the battlefield, Habakkuk is seeing the Battle of Armageddon. Striking the foundation of the neck may refer to the removal of the leadership of the resistance to God’s rule, or it could refer to simply decapitating God’s enemies.
The reference to the head of villages in verse 14 is obviously the leaders. Boy, Habakkuk definitely describes modern politicians well, secretly devouring the poor. The greed of those who put themselves up for office is well noted, and they have to do their avaricious activities in secret to get reelected. Once again, verse 15 is talking of God wading through the mass of humanity. I am unsure of the alliteration to horses in this verse, could be angels or human soldiers who fight on God’s side. But the horse is always a symbol of military power. Verses 16 and 17 are a good description of the fear the tribulation brings upon the prophet, and the desolation and famine that result from it. But the highest form of faith is expressed in verses 18 and 19. Oswald Chambers wrote a devotional that drew its title from verse 19, Hind’s Feet on High Places. The image is classic, of a deer on the mountainside or ridge top. And with that we come to the end of the prayer where Habakkuk gives instructions to the musicians.
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