Habakkuk 3

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. SelahHis 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. SelahYou 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. Selah¹⁴ 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.

One of the more haunting and unsettling films I have ever seen is Werner Herzog’s 1972 “Aguirre, The Wrath of God,” starring the eccentric and explosive actor Klaus Kinski. These selections from the Wikipedia article on the film give a good sense of what is happening and of Kinski’s character’s (Aguirre’s) descent into madness:

In 1560, several score of Spanish conquistadors, and a hundred Indian slaves, march down from the newly conquered Inca Empire in the Andes mountains into the jungles to the east, in search of the fabled country of El Dorado…

…[After leading a successful mutiny] Aguirre proves to be an oppressive leader, so terrifying that few protest his leadership…

…On the raft again, the group of slowly starving, feverish men begin disbelieving everything they see, even when shot with arrows. The group stares in disbelief at a wooden ship perched in the highest branches of a tall tree, which Aguirre orders be brought down and refurbished, but Brother Carvajal refuses. In a series of final attacks by unseen assailants, the remaining survivors including Aguirre’s daughter are killed by arrows. Aguirre alone remains alive on the slowly drifting raft. The raft becomes overrun by monkeys. The crazed Aguirre tells them: “I, the Wrath of God, will marry my own daughter, and with her I will found the purest dynasty the world has ever seen. Together, we shall rule this entire continent. We shall endure. I am the Wrath of God… who else is with me?” The final shot is of him waiting for the monkeys to respond.[1]

Throughout the film, Aguirre becomes increasingly mad, referring to himself as the wrath of God and, in general, evidencing a complete lack of attachment to reality. Earlier in the film Herzog has Kinski stare directly into the camera and say, “I am the wrath of God. The earth I walk upon sees and quakes.”

There are things that only God can say. There are things that can only be said ofGod. These same things are evidence of insanity when put in the mouth of man. The words that for Aguirre were a sign of madness are for a God a true description and, in fact, reason for worship. In Habakkuk’s prayer from Habakkuk 3, he says something worshipfully of God that Aguirre’s says madly of himself: that God has great wrath and that the earth sees and quakes before Him.

Once again we see the two themes of the wrath of God and the mercy of God: wrath toward the wicked and mercy toward His people. This time these themes are voiced in a powerful prayer of faith and of acceptance on the part of Habakkuk. There is, for the first time in the book, no note of protest here. Habakkuk simply accepts what God says He is going to do. In so doing, Habakkuk extols God’s righteous anger against evil but calls too for God’s mercy.

1. The wrath of God.

Habakkuk 3 is a prayer. It is closer to a poem or a hymn than to a calm and reasoned exposition. In this prayer, Habakkuk employs powerful imagery, praise, metaphors, and a sense of awe at who God is.

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.

Verse 2 is very important, especially the last phrase: “in wrath remember mercy.” David Baker calls verse 2 “an encapsulation of the message of the book, and…a prayer all today need to make to the ever-just but ever-compassionate God.”[2]That is correct. That phrase is indeed a summary of the book, and, in the rest of the prayer, Habakkuk speaks of both of these divine attributes in the order mentioned in that phrase: “in wrath remember mercy.”

³ God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. SelahHis 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.

One almost hates to attempt to dissect the various components of this prayer. It should be seen as a startling and awesome tapestry of praise to God for His many attributes. Habakkuk recognizes God’s “splendor” and how the earth itself is “full of his praise.” This tells us that all that follows in this prayer is an expression of worship and awe. You can see this in the imagery of verse 4: “brightness…light…rays flashed…power.” For many years (some would say too many years!) churches would sing Rich Mullins’ “Awesome God.” Parts of the song are kitschy, and apparently Mullins himself did not much care for the song, but the reason it caught on like wildfire was because it offered an expression of the greatness of God that was often lacking in the Christian music of the time. Some of the better parts are worth remembering to be sure. It is noteworthy how portions of the song sound so very much like Habakkuk’s prayer. Here are a few selections:

There’s thunder in His footsteps
And lightning in His fists
(Our God is an awesome God)

Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power, and love
Our God is an awesome God

And when the sky was starless
In the void of the night
(Our God is an awesome God)

He spoke into the darkness
And created the light
(Our God is an awesome God)

Judgment and wrath He poured out on the Sodom
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross
I hope that you have not
Too quickly forgotten that
Our God is an awesome God[3]

“Judgment and wrath…Mercy and grace.” Here we see the content of Habakkuk’s prayer of praise. One of the strong notes in the prayer is a note of God’s sovereignty over creation.

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?

The watery imagery of verse 8 has great biblical significance. Baker, commenting on these images of God subduing the rivers and the sea, observes that in scripture God “is presented as having engaged in combat with the sea at creation or at other unspecified periods (cf. Job 26:12-13; Pss 29; 89:9-10),” saves His people “in the exodus and conquest, when the Red Sea and Jordan were parted…(cf. Exod. 13:17-14:31; Josh. 3:13-17; 4:21-24; Isa. 10:26; 43:16; 50:2),” and shows “his continued power over his creation” through the eschatological imagery of “God’s control over bodies of water…(cf. Isa. 11:15; Nah. 1:4; Matt. 14:22-23; Rev. 21:1).”[4]It was no small thing to ancient people (and it should not be a small thing to modern people!) that God has control over the waters. So too, the whole earth reels at the coming of God:

⁹ You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. SelahYou 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.

Here we see the wrath of God described in shocking detail. For God’s children, this was and is a necessary word because it reminds us of how serious sin and rebellion is. Remember: Habakkuk’s original complaint was against the injustice he saw among God’s own people. The wrath of God is important for God’s people to remember. But the wrath of God is also important for Babylon, for those who have rejected God, to remember. Judgment will come upon those who have turned from God and who have rejected His way. The day will come when all things are set right, when evildoers are dealt with, when divine wrath is poured out upon the wicked.

2. The mercy of God.

But this is only part of the story, for there is also mercy. Yes, the people of God need to remember that God has righteous wrath, and the world needs to be warned of this. But this knowledge leads the people of God to call out for mercy…and Jesus Christ is there to tell us that that the mercy we cry out for is open and available to us all!Habakkuk continues:

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. Selah¹⁴ 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.

Why does God go forth in wrath? Why do the seas and the mountains and the rivers and the heavenly bodies quake before Him? He goes forth to mete out judgment, yes, but also, as Habakkuk says, “You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.” Remember: God would use Babylon to chasten His children but then He would discipline Babylon for their wickedness. And in doing that, He would save His people.

God will allow His children to be disciplined, but He will not allow His children to be destroyed.

He is faithful to His children. For this reason, God will “crush the head of the house of the wicked.” He will take the arrows of Babylon and pierce “the heads of [their] warriors” with them. Babylon’s violence and wickedness would be visited upon its own head.

This first image, that of “crushing the head of the house of the wicked,” evokes the imagery of Genesis 3 and God’s curse upon the serpent:

¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

This is considered the earliest prophecy of the coming of Jesus, the one who would come in the human race and “bruise” or “crush” the head of Satan. That Habakkuk applies it to God’s destruction of Babylon suggests that in all victories of good over evil there are eschatological overtones of the coming, ultimate, final victory of God in Christ. I am not suggesting that Habakkuk was not looking beyond Babylon to the full and future implications of their imminent demise when he made the statement. No, the prophet knew that the fall of Babylon portended the final fall of all evil in the world before a righteous God. Habakkuk did not know the name “Jesus” but He knew that God is a saving God who will ultimately topple the domain of darkness and save His people.

“In wrath remember mercy.”

Wrath and mercy.

Judgment and grace.

Our God is the God who has both attributes, but who has, through the person and work of His Son, called us away from the coming judgment so that we can be saved. Let us join Habakkuk in praising the name of our righteous and merciful God.

 

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguirre,_the_Wrath_of_God

[2]David W. Baker. Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), p.68.

[3]http://www.metrolyrics.com/awesome-god-lyrics-rich-mullins.html

[4]Baker, p.71-72.