Habakkuk: Habakkuk 3:2b-Habakkuk Presents Three Requests to the Lord God of Israel

Habakkuk 3:2 Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. (NIV)

Habakkuk 3:2 Lord, I have heard of your fame. Lord, I stand in awe of your accomplishments. Please would you cause them to be experienced during our lifetime. Please would you cause them to be known during our lifetime. Please would you remember to exercise compassion during our lifetime while exercising righteous indignation. (Pastor’s translation)

Now, Habakkuk 3:2 contains two declarative statements which are followed by three requests which the prophet Habakkuk presents to the Lord on behalf of himself and the faithful remnant of Judah in his day.

In the first request, Habakkuk asks the Lord to cause His awesome deeds or accomplishments in the past or manifestations of His omnipotence in the past on behalf of Israel to be experienced during the lifetime of the faithful remnant of Judah living at the end of the seventh century B.C. which Habakkuk was a part of.

The second request asks the Lord to cause these accomplishments on behalf of Israel in the past or manifestations of His omnipotence on behalf of Israel in the past to be made known during the lifetime of the faithful remnant of Judah.

The deeds on behalf of the nation of Israel in the past which manifested the Lord’s omnipotence would of course include His deliverance of the nation from the bondage to Egypt.

The prophet would definitely have in mind the ten plagues that the Lord administered to Pharaoh Egypt through Moses and Aaron.

The third and final request in Habakkuk 3:2 requests that the Lord would remember to exercise compassion during the lifetime of the faithful remnant of Judah while He exercised His righteous indignation against the unrepentant, apostate citizens of Judah who were in a covenant relationship with Him as well.

This righteous indignation or wrath speaks of the Lord’s legitimate anger toward the unrepentant, apostate citizens in the southern kingdom of Judah at the end of the seventh century B.C. who were in a covenant relationship with Him.

Therefore, Habakkuk is requesting that the Lord would exercise compassion to the faithful remnant “while” exercising His righteous indignation against the unrepentant, apostate citizens in Judah.

Now, this third request that the prophet Habakkuk presented to the Lord God of Israel on behalf of himself and the faithful remnant of Judah is the direct result of the revelation he received from God, which is recorded in the first two chapters of this book which bears his name.

We noted that the Lord informs Habakkuk that He was about to discipline the unrepentant apostate citizens of Judah through the mighty Babylonian army (cf. Hab. 1:5-11).

Thus, we can understand the reason why the prophet requested that the Lord demonstrate compassion towards the faithful remnant in Judah while He exercised His righteous indignation against the unrepentant, apostate citizens in his nation who were in a covenant relationship with the Lord as was the faithful remnant.

The Lord did in fact fulfill this request as revealed by the book of Daniel which records the Lord delivering Daniel’s three friends to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, whose Babylonian names respectively were Shadrach Meshach and Abednego.

Daniel chapter three records that these three were executed by Nebuchadnezzar because they refused to bow down and worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar constructed.

The idea for this image was from the dream-vision he received as recorded in Daniel chapter two.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the head of this image in his vision-dream represented him.

Consequently, the king constructed this image so that he could be the object of worship.

The Lord God of Israel miraculously delivered all three of Daniel’s friends from death.

Daniel chapter six records the Lord God of Israel delivering Daniel from capital punishment who served the Persia king Darius in a high cabinet position.

Out of jealousy and envy, the other officials in this king’s cabinet conspired to manipulate him to issue a decree that would bring about the execution of any person in his kingdom who prayed to any god or human being except Darius for thirty days.

Darius was extremely upset when he found out about the plot and had to carry out the execution of Daniel, however, the God of Israel stopped the mouths of the lions and he was delivered.

The conspirators and their families were executed by the very same means they plotted to have Daniel executed.

The book of Esther also records the Lord demonstrating compassion for the Jews in exile not only in Babylon but while in Persia.

Haman manipulated the Persian monarch Xerxes to issue a decree to exterminate the Jews as a result of a Jew Mordecai refusing to bow down to honor him.

The Lord raised up Esther a Jew to be His instrument in resolving this crisis who persuaded Xerxes to spare the Jews and have Haman executed on the very gallows that he built for the execution of Mordecai.

Lastly, the Lord demonstrated compassion to the faithful remnant of Judah by moving the Persian king Cyrus to fulfill the prophecy He gave to the prophet Jeremiah to issue a proclamation throughout his kingdom to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies.

Haggai records the Lord promising to bless this faithful remnant as a result of obeying His command to rebuild the temple.

The book of Ezra and Haggai record the faithful remnant rebuilding this temple and the book of Nehemiah answering Nehemiah’s prayer to move Artaxerxes to let him return to Jerusalem with other Jews to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Through great adversity, the city was rebuilt.

Now, we must remember that the Lord told Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:4 that this faithful remnant of Judah must walk by faith in the Lord and His promises.

The reason for this is that faith in the Lord’s promises, commands and prohibitions would appropriate His omnipotence to deliver them and this faith was demonstrated in the lives of Daniel and his three friends as well as Esther, and Mordecai.

Habakkuk 2:4 Look! He is characterized as being proud and arrogant. His soul within him is by no means characterized as being upright. However, in contrast to him, a righteous person will live by means of their faith. (Pastor’s translation)

Now, as we noted in the third and final request in Habakkuk 3:2 the prophet Habakkuk requests that the Lord God of Israel would demonstrate compassion to the faithful remnant in Judah while He exercised His wrath or righteous indignation against the unrepentant, apostate citizens in his nation.

The fact that God informs Habakkuk that He will indeed judge the individuals in his nation who were unrepentantly disobedient to the Mosaic Law as well as the Babylonians is an expression of this righteous indignation and thus a manifestation of His holiness.

As we noted earlier, in his third and final request, Habakkuk asks the Lord to exercise compassion to the faithful remnant of Judah while He exercises His righteous indignation to those who were unfaithful in his nation.

Compassion pertains to the intense desire to act to alleviate the pain and suffering of another or remove its cause (1 John 3:16-17).

We must be aware of the fact that the Lord God of Israel manifested His attribute of love by demonstrating compassion to the faithful remnant of Judah in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. because of the unconditional covenantal promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the nation of Israel.

In other words, the Lord demonstrated compassion to Israel because He made unconditional promises to the nation of Israel in the four unconditional covenants, He established with them.

These unconditional covenants required that the Lord preserve the nation despite the fact that a majority of Jews in the nation existed in a state of apostasy throughout her history.

In Romans chapter 11, the apostle Paul makes clear that God has not totally abandoned the nation of Israel and that in the future she will as a nation accept Jesus Christ as Savior and thus experience a national regeneration and restoration to the land promised to her by God centuries ago.

This regeneration and restoration of the nation of Israel will fulfill the four unconditional covenants to Israel.

These four are the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants: (1) Abrahamic (Gen. 12:1-3; 13:16; 22:15-18; 26:4; 28:14; 35:11; Ex. 6:2-8). (2) Palestinian (Gn. 13:15; Ex. 6:4, 8; Num. 34:1-12; Dt. 30:1-9; Jer. 32:36-44; Ezek. 36:21-38). (3) Davidic (2 Sam. 7:8-17; Psa. 89:20-37) (4) New (Jer. 31:31-34; cf. Heb. 8:8-12; 10:15-17).

There are seven great features that are distinct in each of these four unconditional covenants to Israel: (1) Israel will be a nation forever. (2) Israel will possess a significant portion of land forever. (3) Israel will have a King rule over her forever. (4) Israel will have a throne from which Christ will ruler, forever. (5) Israel will have a kingdom forever.