CRITICAL NOTES.]
Habakkuk 3:12.] Acts of judgment connected with the salvation of Israel. March] Solemn and majestic proceeding (Judges 5:4; Psalms 68:8). Thresh] Tread down the enemy (Micah 4:13).
Habakkuk 3:13.] The end of Divine manifestation. Salvation] Rescue. Anointed] Not any particular king, “but the Davidic King absolutely, including the Messiah, in whom the sovereignty of David is raised to an eternal duration” [Keil]. Head] wounded. Neck] bared; the injury from above and from below; the very foundation destroyed. The necks of princes were trodden under the foot of Israel’s leaders, and the first-born of Egypt cut off.
Habakkuk 3:14.] Warlike nations meet the same fate as royal houses. Staves] The sword of the foe himself, the instrument of destruction to his armies and villages. Some, “that the hostile troops will slay one another in confusion” (cf. 1 Samuel 14:20; 2 Chronicles 20:23-24). Came] with swiftness and violence, like a storm to destroy me. Scatter] The figure of dispersing chaff (Isaiah 41:16; Jeremiah 13:24). Rejoicing] i.e. directed to swallow the poor in secret (Psalms 10:9).
Habakkuk 3:15. Sea] To destroy these enemies like Pharaoh’s hosts. No obstacle prevented God’s progress.
HOMILETICS
THE ROYAL MARCH.—Habakkuk 3:12-15
To march, is used of the solemn and majestic proceeding of Jehovah before the Hebrews (Judges 5:4; Psalms 68:8 cf. Henderson). The defeat and extermination of the Canaanites and the planting of Israel were the doings of Jehovah.
I. A benevolent march. “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people.” We speak of “the wanderings of Israel,” but they were an appointed, well-ordered march, designed for victory. God, as Commander-in-chief, went with them. With his anointed instruments—Moses, Joshua, and David, types of the Messiah—he delivered them from their enemies. Salvation is the design, and will be the result, of all the doings of God for his people. The Church will never lack leaders, but in each we have a pledge of eternal deliverance by Jesus Christ. “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.”
II. A terrible march. The march was not only in royal dignity, but in judicial power.
1. Terrible in its aspects. “Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses.” In majesty, power, and splendour, the Exodus was the type of all victories present and future. Waters stand on heap, and the deep becomes a path for his people. “Dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name” (Isaiah 63:12-13).
2. Terrible in its consequences. The foes, princes, and peoples, were overthrown, exterminated, and supplanted. He slew great kings and famous (Psalms 136:17-18). Much more will God display his power to exalt Christ and overthrow his enemies. “The Lord is the saving strength of his anointed.”
III. A triumphant march. No obstacles impeded the march. Mountains shook, waters fled, and the lofty bowed before God’s presence in his Church. 1. Royal houses were destroyed. “Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked.” Each head and prince which sprung from the family was cut off, in cities and villages. The neck, an emblem of dignity and power (Song of Solomon 4:4); stubbornness and pride (Deuteronomy 31:27; Psalms 75:5) was laid bare. The head and foundation, high and low, were completely destroyed. “I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and son, and nephew (grandson), saith the Lord.”
2. Warlike nations were defeated. “They came out (were tempestuous) as a whirlwind to scatter me.” Violent, powerful, and insatiable ware the enemies. Pharaoh and Sennacherib came out as a storm, to sweep everything before them, like chaff in the wilderness (Jeremiah 13:24; Jeremiah 18:17; Isaiah 41:16). “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.” (a) Defeated in their secret purpose. “Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.” The poor are not a match for the powerful. Hence their pride and confidence of success. But God frustrated their intentions. Their boasting made their fall more disgraceful, and God’s care for his people more glorious. (b) Defeated with their own weapons. He struck through “with his staves.” The destruction was not only upon himself, but upon the multitude of his subjects, and through an act of Divine might by his own weapons. The mischief which he had prepared for others fell upon himself. This has always been the case. With the Midianites and Amalekites (Judges 7:22); with the Philistines (1 Samuel 14:16-20); and the inhabitants of Seir (2 Chronicles 20:22-23); in the case of Haman and Daniel those who made the pit fell into it. Heathens declared that there was “no juster law than that artificers of death by their own art should perish.” Fearful will be the future illustrations of this principle (cf. Ezekiel 38:21; Isaiah 9:20; Zechariah 14:13).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
1. God’s anger.
2. The report of God’s anger. “Through the land.” Not the mere land of Canaan, but the whole earth.
3. The fearful consequences of God’s anger. “Thou didst thresh,” a word indicating the ease and power with which this was done, and the complete subjugation of the enemy (Micah 4:13).
Habakkuk 3:13. Head. “He shall destroy at once, from above and below; overthrowing his kingdom from the foundation. From above, his head was crushed in pieces; from below, the house was razed from its very foundations” [Pusey]. The power, pride, and wisdom, the very life of evil to be conquered by God. “He smites his foes on the crown of their pride,” says one. “The seed of the woman crushes the serpent’s head. There is no defence against the Lord, he can in a moment smite with utter destruction the lofty crests of his haughty foes” (cf. Psalms 68:21; Psalms 110:6).
1. The end in view—“devour the poor.”
2. The method of accomplishing the end—“secretly.”
3. The feeling with which the end is pursued. “Their rejoicing.” The rich boast in wealth, the mighty in power; but the cruel exult in mischief. The ferocity, craft, and activity of the oppressor, and the danger, snares, and helplessness of the oppressed, are described.
“Do not insult calamity;
It is a barbarous grossness to lay on
The weight of scorn, where heavy misery
Too much already weighs men’s fortunes down” [Daniel].
Habakkuk 3:15. A second glance.
1. In time of ease we are satisfied with a cursory glance, a time of trouble promotes a deeper view of God’s works. We seek relief, and find that we never dwell enough on them. Particularly, extraordinary works would be oftener remembered, so much doth the prophet’s practice of looking over again on this act teach us.
2. It is worthy of our second and serious thought—both to honour God and confirm our faith—to consider that God’s people are so dear unto him that he will change the course of nature to save them; that he can make them go safely, like conquerors, through affliction and danger [Hutcheson]. Take the verse as emblematic of God’s ways.
1. Deep as the sea.
2. Swift and orderly, as horses yoked in a chariot.
3. Safe, though threatened by the “heap of great waters” boiling up as in a storm. “The immediate connection, however, shows that what the prophet has in view is not the Red Sea, but the hostile army of the Canaanites, which presented a furious and impenetrable aspect to the Hebrews. Through this army Jehovah is represented as walking with his warriors, as if a general were coolly to march his cavalry through the thickest of a proud and vaunting foe, which he knew would prove utterly powerless in the attack” [Henderson].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Habakkuk 3:10-15. The whole passage depicts God’s descent to help his people, attended by earthquake, splendour, and power. So tremendous was the shock of God’s assault in arms that the order of nature was changed, and the bottoms of rivers and seas were laid bare. What will not Jehovah’s rebuke do? Vain are the attempts of men to conceal anything from him whose word unbars the deep, and lifts the doors of earth from their hinges! Vain are all hopes of resistance, for a whisper of his voice makes the whole earth quail in abject terror [Spurgeon].
The volcanic phenomena of Palestine open a question of which the data are, in a scientific point of view, too imperfect to be discussed; but there is enough in the history and literature of the people to show that there was an agency of this kind at work. Their traces on the permanent feeling of the nation must be noticed. The writings of the psalmists and prophets abound with indications which escape the eye of a superficial reader. Like the soil of their country, they actually heave and labour with the fiery convulsions which glow beneath their surface [A. P. Stanley].