Habakkuk 3:1–16 (ESV)—1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. 5 Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. 6 He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? 9 You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. 12 You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. 13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah 14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 15 You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. 16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

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Songs impact us. Some music can aid concentration. Some music is great for relaxation. Some music is perfect for a road trip, while other music belongs in a gym. There's a reason we play Reggae at the beach and don't play Mozart during CrossFit. Songs impact us.

The prayer before us is a song about God. It includes three moments of musical pause and reflection called a "Selah" (3, 9, 13). Habakkuk said it was meant to be played according to Shigionoth, which seems to relate to a word meaning "reel to and fro" (1). The musical clues mean this song might've been played to a chaotic beat, perhaps to reflect the swirling impact of God's words on Habakkuk's mind.

But, as wild as this song might've sounded to the original hearers, it ends with calm hope and trust in God. Though Habakkuk didn't understand everything, he hoped in God. How can this hope develop? How did Habakkuk go from a tumultuous song to a soothed spirit? How did the raging sea within him turn to calm waters? For Habakkuk, there was a prayer to pray, a sight to see, and a confession to confess. Let's consider all three.

1. A Prayer To Pray (1-2)

Revival Amid Rebellion

The prayer he prayed is found in the second verse. After telling God he'd understood God's promise to discipline Israel with the terrors of a Babylonian invasion and captivity, and that he knew God would eventually judge Babylon, Habakkuk prayed, "In the midst of years revive it" (2).

What was Habakkuk asking God to do? What did he want God to revive or renew? Habakkuk was no longer concerned with his own plans but now prayed for God's will to unfold. He wanted God to do a fresh work of chastening and reviving his people. Even though invasion, destruction, and captivity were coming for God's rebellious people, Habakkuk wanted to see revival amid their rebellion. During the years of captivity, Habakkuk prayed God would preserve and produce a holy remnant who were all about God and his kingdom (2).

In a similar way, I believe the chaos and upheaval of our time can be God's instrument to revive his people. We live in a time where God's word and God's church cannot be taken for granted. We must press into both, and the rapidly changing viewpoints of our culture should encourage us to do so. We need the church!

Knowledge Amid Confusion

But Habakkuk also prayed for knowledge to increase during confusing times. He prayed, "In the midst of the years make it known" (2). What he wanted here was for God to make believers more knowledgeable about his plans. Many in Israel would stumble at God's plan, just like Habakkuk did, so he wanted God to give them knowledge of his sovereign plans.

In J.K. Rolwing's first Harry Potter novel, while Harry is still living with the Dursley family, Mr. Dursley begins seeing strange signs of magic all throughout his day. As a man who hates and disbelieves such things, he is deeply troubled. When he went to sleep that night, he worried Harry's parents were somehow involved, but then comforted himself that he and his wife were safe. Rowling wrote that Mr. Dursley knew that "it couldn’t affect him. How very wrong he was" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, page 8).

In the same way, how very wrong we are if we think God's discipline could never affect us. It can and often does. And as long as Habakkuk and the people of his day felt they were superior to the Babylonians—and that they could not be affected by God's judgment—they would have a hard time imagining God would discipline them with the Babylonians. So Habakkuk wanted them to have knowledge of their need for God's correction—judgment had to begin at the household of God (1 Peter 4:17).

Mercy Amid Chaos

And the last part of Habakkuk's prayer was for God to give them mercy during such chaotic times. He prayed, "In wrath remember mercy" (2). The word he used for wrath indicates agitation, excitement, or disturbance. The times they were entering into—invasion, captivity—would be tumultuous. So Habakkuk wanted God to give them his mercy amid all that chaos.

One example of this mercy amid chaos is found in Daniel's three friends. While in Babylon, they were forced to choose between bowing to Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue or burning in a fiery furnace. They told Nebuchadnezzar that they didn't know if God would deliver them from the flames or not, but that they did know they could never bow (Daniel 4:17). And when they were thrown into the furnace, God walked with them and indeed preserved their lives. They were given mercy amid chaos.

We, too, can ask God for mercy in tumultuous times. God said, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you" (Isaiah 43:2). Let's pray for that grace to help us endure the times we are in.

A Sight To See (3-15)

The Past

The sight Habakkuk saw is in the bulk of the song (verses 3-15). The bottom line of this part of the song is that Habakkuk had a vision of God, a theophany, a visible manifestation of God's presence. With appropriate veils and imagery, he saw God.

It is a difficult section to interpret with a high level of certainty. One reason for this challenge is that Habakkuk used poetry. Writing with artistic flair, it is sometimes hard to know what events Habakkuk is alluding to with each verse. Is he talking about God's past victory over Egypt? Is he talking about Babylon's future judgment? Or did he have a vision of the ultimate judgment of Babylon in Revelation 17-18?

If this song were a painting, it would not be like da Vinci's Mona Lisa (realist) but like Van Gogh's Starry Night (impressionism). You know it's a starry night, but its portrayal is quite different than what you see clearly with your eyes. And Habakkuk's prayer does seem to have an impressionistic or kaleidoscoping nature to it—poetic but instructional, clear but transcendent, today but tomorrow, earthly but divine.

It does, however, seem that much of the song is rooted in God's actions in the book of Exodus. In his vision, Habakkuk sees God arriving from Teman and Mount Paran, a region opposite Babylon, further south than the Dead Sea (3). This was likely a way to stir up memories of God arriving at Mt. Sinai to give Moses (and Israel) the ten commandments and the law (Deuteronomy 33:2).

And God's arrival at Sinai was a glorious moment for Israel, filled with lightning, thunder, and the glory of God. As Habakkuk said, God's brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power" (4).

Before God came to Mt. Sinai, he had delivered Israel from Egypt with numerous plagues, which is why Habakkuk said that before him went pestilence (5). And once they wandered in the wilderness, disobedience and sin sometimes released God's direct chastening, which is why Habakkuk said that plague followed at his heels (5).

Even the most immovable obstacles were removed at that original Exodus—and their eventual arrival in the Promised Land. As Habakkuk said, God measured the earth to give Israel their share and shook the nations that got in their way (6). Neighboring tribes and nations—such as Cuschan and Midian—trembled and were afflicted (7).

And on the way out of Egypt, God turned the Nile to blood, parted the Red Sea, and held back the River Jordan for his people. But Habakkuk knew that God wasn't angry with any of those bodies of water. Rhetorically, he asked, was your wrath against the rivers or the sea, O Lord? (8). Instead, Habakkuk saw that time of the exodus as a time when God took out his bow and arrows, causing the earth to writh under the intensity of his work (9-10). And once they were in the Promised Land, God still induced awe in the way he manipulated nature, causing the sun and moon to stand still during the battle of Joshua (11, Joshua 10:12-13).

But why did God fight for Israel against Egypt and the nations? (12) Habakkuk knew the reason: You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to thigh (13). He knew God had won the victory for his people, trampling the (Red) sea with his horses (15).

But remembering all this about God filled Habakkuk with hope. He is praising God for his past work. He had wondered how God could be so weak as to let the Babylonians be like a fisherman catching fish when he attacked the nations. But with stories from Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua in mind, Habakkuk remembered God's strength. God defeated Pharaoh and the nations. He is not weaker than Babylon.

Often, like Habakkuk, we need a fresh vision of God's power. He is not like a kind, old grandfather who is loving yet powerless. Habakkuk sees him here, less as a warm sunset and more like a nuclear shock wave. He sees God as the Sovereign of Sovereigns, the King of Kings.

Is Prologue

But God's past work also comforted Habakkuk about his future one. This is where the telescoping nature of his prophecy points forward to God's destruction of Babylon—both the Babylon of his day and the Babylon of this world system. God's past, in other words, is a mere prologue for what he will do one day.

Our beloved Holdridge family dog is named Max. We found him at the local SPCA about five years ago. And, though he's a mix, he seems to be mostly Jack Russel Terrier. He's got the looks and the feisty trouble-making spirit to prove it.

A few weeks ago, I had to take him in because of a little eye condition he couldn't shake. When his vet came into the room, she was reading his chart while also laughing. When he visits there, it's usually because he endangered himself. He's been there after disturbing a hornet's nest. He's been there after eating a bunch of chocolate. He's been there after eating packs of bubble gum. She was very amused at our little troublemaker.

Well, for Max, the past is prologue. The only way anyone in our house would be surprised the next time he does something naughty is if we forgot his past. But we all fully expect it again because he's done it so many times already.

And—in a much different and holy way—God's past is his prologue. Habakkuk looked back and saw how God judged Egypt and the nations in the Promised Land for their idolatry and evil, so he was comforted that God would do it again. And we can look back, not only at what God did to Egypt, but what God did to Habakkuk's Babylon, and know that God will discipline all nations and drive out all evil one day. His past is his prologue.

God The Rescuer

Habakkuk had clearly fixed his eyes on God with this poem-song of praise. And everything he saw about this Warrior-God was that he came to save us. He said, "You came out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed" (13). That is God's method—he saves us by saving the Anointed One. When Jesus, the ultimate Anointed One, died and was buried and rose again, our victory was secured. Because he rose, we rise!

And Habakkuk saw God crush the head of the hose of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck (13). That is also part of God's method of salvation—he goes after the head. Just as he promised in Genesis, God went after Satan, crushing his head under his feet at the cross (Genesis 3:15).

And Habakkuk saw God pierce the enemy with his own arrows (14). This is also God's way—he defeats the enemy with their own weapons. We see this in books like Daniel and Esther. Daniel's enemies plotted a way to get him thrown into a lion's den—which he survived. The king was angered by their plot and threw them into the same den—and it didn't go as well for them. Esther's enemy was a politician named Haman. He hated all Jewish people because a man named Mordecai wouldn't bow to him. So he convinced the king to legislate the persecution of Jews on a certain day while constructing gallows to hang Mordecai. Before the day came, however, Queen Esther spoke up. Haman didn't know she was a Jew, nor did he know Mordecai was her uncle! The king favored Esther, so he reversed the laws and ordered Haman's death on the very gallows he'd built for Mordecai. But we see this most in the cross of Christ—the very instrument the powers of darkness thought would defeat God was used for their own demise!

God is the great rescuer, and it was good for Habakkuk to get his eyes back on God. When he looked at Israel, he was depressed. When he looked at Babylon, he was overwhelmed. But when he looked at God, he was reminded that God has rescued, would rescue, and will rescue.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones pastored in London for many years, including after World War II, when communism was spreading throughout Eastern Europe. He chose that moment to preach Habakkuk. He said:

"It is thoroughly unbiblical and unspiritual to look only at the obviously godless. Christian people and leaders tend to give the impression that there is only one problem—communism. They have fallen into the error into which Habakkuk fell for a while, saying that 'the church isn't perfect, but look at communism; the church isn't all she ought to be, but look at THAT!' They, therefore, see no need for self-humiliation. Many see only one problem, that of the Babylonians—the communists—and so long as they are looking at them, they are not ready to humble themselves." — From Fear To Faith by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, page 59

But Habakkuk had finally humbled himself because he got his eyes back onto God. At the beginning of Habakkuk, the prophet reasoned with God on human terms. But now, he is content to let God be God.

A Confession To Confess (16)

I Don't Like It

This leads us, finally, to the confession Habakkuk confessed. We will consider his full statement next week, but in response to his vision of God, he said, "I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us" (16). Augustine once called God the doctor at the core of his being, and here Habakkuk has been shaken to the core of his being by God.

And it appears that Habakkuk has been moved by God but also doesn't like all God has said. He's reeling over God's promise to judge his people and send them into exile in Babylon. The news from God even caused physical sickness and anxiety in God's man.

But I Will Quietly Wait For It

But though he confessed that he was made sick by God's declarations, he determined to wait quietly for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invaded them (16). He has new resolve as a prophet—he’ll wait for the day of judgment to come! Though he was pained by the current reality because he had seen God, he was confident in how the story would end.

Conclusion

In 1993, Stephen Spielberg finally won an Oscar for best director. Even though his past movies—Jaws, E.T., the Indiana Jones trilogy, even Hook!—had been massive successes at the box office, his work was not recognized by the Academy. Even The Color Purple in 1985 couldn't get the prized award. But when he released Schindler's List, a sober film centered on the Holocaust, the Academy finally thought his work serious enough to receive their praise.

Many attribute his long wait to receive his Oscar to the upbeat nature and happy endings of many of his earlier films. Though the masses loved them, the critics were looking for something real and earthy, something painful and authentic, something free of syrupy sentimentalism.

But could it be that both the popular attraction to a happy ending and the critical desire for a raw story are right? Could it be that we are meant to both recognize the reality of pain and look forward to the removal of it? Habakkuk entered such a sphere in this prayer. He both recognized the pain of today and held fast to the hope of tomorrow. He saw things in the here and now that grieved him, but his vision of God helped him look forward to God's forever kingdom. Habakkuk would even work for life to be better today, all while recognizing it will take God's intervention to solve our deepest ills. He began this book in hopelessness, but he ended it with hopefulness. And he sang this song as a way to renew his hope—writing it down so future generations could use its lyrics to cultivate a hope of their own.

Jesus Christ has come with a kingdom. While on earth, Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). But though his kingdom is here, it is not yet fully here. It's like we are perpetually living life on the Saturday in between the cross and the resurrection. The greatness of his work on the cross is available to all right now. But the glory of the resurrection of his people and the destruction of every rule and authority and power is not yet (1 Corinthians 15:20-25). But, just as surely as the Friday of his cross has come, so will the Sunday of his resurrection when he will "put all his enemies under his feet," including the last enemy of death (1 Corinthians 15:26-27). So, though it sometimes feels dark on Saturday, we rejoice that Friday's cross has come, and we trust that Sunday's resurrection will arrive. Sunday is coming.