Habakkuk 3:1-19
If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed.
If you look within, you’ll be depressed.
If you look at God you’ll be at rest.
Corrie Ten Boom
The past several weeks we have been studying the words
of the prophet Habakkuk. In the first chapter Habakkuk
asks God how long he will have to cry out to God for
help.
He also asked God why he has to look at the sin of his
people.
God answers his questions and tells Habakkuk that He is
already at work. He has a plan.
Habakkuk asks God at the end of chapter 1 why God will
use such an evil nation as Babylon to discipline Judah.
Chapter 2, God tells Habakkuk He is going to discipline
Judah, but he will not let Babylon go unpunished.
The evil will receive God’s wrath.
Habakkuk’s third chapter marks a drastic change in the
tone of the prophet.
What started with worry will end with worship!
Habakkuk will live out his statement from the previous
chapter that the righteous will live by faith.
Habakkuk 3:1-2
Habakkuk Petitions God
This final chapter of Habakkuk reads like a Psalm.
Notice the use of Selah in verses 3,9,13.
Selah indicates a pause in the text.
Here, I believe the purpose is to pause and reflect on
God’s attributes and acts.
Also notice the reference to the choirmaster in the last
verse.
Here in verse one we see the word shigionoth.
The meaning of this word is uncertain
It is likely some musical direction.
In verse 2 Habakkuk petitions God for two items.
Revival – Habakkuk’s prayer is that God will use His
discipline to spark a revival among the people of Judah.
The word revive means to restore life.
Leonard Ravenhill said,“In revival God is not concerned
about filling empty churches, He is concerned about filling
empty hearts.”
Habakkuk desperately wants his people to turn
back to the Lord.
This is what Christians should be praying for today. That
our nation would turn back to God and seek His face and
follow His ways. Lord, Revive us again.
Mercy – Habakkuk knows they don’t deserve revival, so
he also asks for God to have mercy on them. Habakkuk
knows that God will keep His word and use the Chaldeans
to discipline Judah, but he is humbly requesting mercy.
Mercy is when we don’t get what we deserve.
We deserve punishment for our sin, mercy is God sending
His Son to take that punishment for all who trust in Him.
Habakkuk 3:3-15
God Reveals Himself
These verses describe a Theophany.
Some believe this to be only a description of past history,
while others believe it to describe past history along with
a prophecy to be fulfilled at the second coming of Christ.
I believe it to include both.
Habakkuk mentions Teman and Mount Paran.
Teman likely is a reference to Edom as a whole. Mount
Paran is located southwest of Judah. This was probably
the area that Israel wandered through for 40 years.
This is also the supposed place of Christ’s second coming.
We see the first occurrence of selah in the middle of the
verse.
This should help us understand the significance of the
presence of God. We should pause and consider His great
love and His forgiveness.
God is called Holy One in verse 3.
His splendor covered the heavens.
The earth was full of His praise.
Not only was God’s glory in the OT, it will also cover the
whole earth.
Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.
Verse 4 describes God’s radiance.
His brightness was like the light.
Remember when Moses asked to see God.
God told him you cannot see my face and live.
But God put him in the cleft of the rock and passed by
him and let Moses see His back.
This is a description of the Shekinah glory when God
protected Israel throughout the wilderness.
Habakkuk also describes rays coming from God’s hands.
This is to help us understand God’s power.
Yet, God didn’t show all of His power.
He veiled it here.
Verse 5 describes God’s judgment.
God used plagues on Egypt when Pharaoh would not let
God’s people go.
Verse 6 and 7 describes God’s presence.
God looks out on the earth and the earth trembles.
The mountains scattered and the hills sank.
This reminds me of Nahum 1:5 “The mountains quake
before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before
him, the world and all who dwell in it.”
The verse closes by mentioning God’s everlasting ways.
The world will be destroyed one day, but God will never
fade away.
He is the Alpha and Omega.
Nations that don’t obey God will experience His wrath.
In verse 8 Habakkuk asks God a rhetorical question.
Did you come to punish the waters?
The chariot of salvation refers to God’s deliverance of His
people. More on that in a moment.
Verse 9 describes God’s Omnipotence.
He used His bow when necessary, but He also used the
rivers to cut the mountains.
Verse 10-11 describes nature’s response to God.
Nature has always had to obey God because He is the
creator and they are created.
The sun and moon standing still may refer to the day
when Joshua asked God to have the sun stand still.
Also, remember Jesus calming storms.
God also appointed a storm to rock Jonah’s boat, sent a
fish to swallow him up and spit him out.
Nature obeys its creator.
Verse 12 describes God’s righteous wrath.
God’s anger is not like man’s anger.
The Bible tells us to be angry and do not sin.
That’s easier said than done.
Jesus did it when the merchants were selling in the
temple. He threw the tables over and drove them out
because they were making God’s house of prayer into a
den of thieves.
God’s anger is always righteous.
Verse 13 describes God’s mercy.
Habakkuk asked for it, and God gave it.
God’s purpose is for all people to be saved.
Because He gives us a choice, not all people will be
saved. Some will reject His mercy and grace and continue
to live in their sin. They will face the wrath of God one
day at the White Throne judgment.
Verse 14 is very difficult to interpret.
It has an element of you reap what you sow in it.
This could be referring to what is going to happen to
Babylon in God’s appointed time.
Verse 15 seems to refer to the exodus when God allowed
the water to go back over the Egyptians that were
chasing Israel through the Red Sea.
Habakkuk 3:16-19
Habakkuk’s Response
Verse 16 is Habakkuk’s response to God’s revelation.
This sounds very similar to Isaiah in the temple when he
realized his sinfulness compared to the holiness of God.
Notice his response, which is the fulfillment of his earlier
statement that the righteous will walk by faith.
Here he is content to quietly wait for the day of trouble to
come upon the Chaldeans.
Habakkuk’s doubt has turned into trust!
This is how we should view our times of trouble.
Patiently waiting on God to rescue us.
Warren Wiersbe writes:
Over the years, I’ve often leaned on three verses
that have helped me wait patiently on the Lord.
“Stand still” (Ex. 14:13),
“Sit still” (Ruth 3:18), and
“Be still” (Ps. 46:10).
Whenever we find ourselves getting “churned up”
within, we can be sure that we need to stop, pray,
and wait on the Lord before we do some stupid
thing.
Habakkuk listed several things that could cause him and
his people to worry; no figs, no grapes for wine, no olive
oil, the flocks and herds being cut off from them.
None of that compares to being apart from God.
We must cling to God’s word in times of trouble.
Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or
sword?
As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day
long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us. For I am sure that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
APPLICATION
Habakkuk’s response should be our response to our
trials.
Rejoice in God in the midst of our circumstances.
God saved us, we can rejoice in that.
No one can take our salvation from us.
We should not be afraid of those who can kill our physical
bodies only, but we should fear the one who can destroy
both soul and body in hell.
Rest in God’s Strength
We don’t have to fight battles that God is going to fight.
Doubting is ok, but we should follow Habakkuk’s lead and
take it to the Lord. If we leave our doubt unchecked it
can turn into unbelief.