Habakkuk 3:16-19
Notes
Transcript
Habakkuk 3:16-19
Habakkuk 3:16-19
Historical Context
- 931 BC - Kingdom is Divided
- 722 BC - Northern Kingdom is carried into Exile by Assyria
- 640 BC - Josiah becomes King of Judah
8 Years Old
- 622 BC - “book of the covenant” is found
They weren’t looking for it
Probably the Torah, Pentateuch, the first 5
- 622 BC - Judah affirms covenant, Passover celebrated
Not since the days of Samuel
- 612 BC - Nineveh Falls to the Babylonians and the Medes
Capital of Assyria
Northern Kingdom pulled into Babylonian Exile
- 609 BC - Josiah dies, Jehoahaz/Jehoiakim become kings
Jehoahaz reigns 3 months
Jehoiakim reigns 11 years
Flip Flop of alliances with Egypt and Babylon
- 609-605 BC - Judah practices the sin of Manasseh
This is the timeframe of Habakkuk
Literary Context
- Author - Habakkuk the Prophet
Hab 1:1 and Hab 3:1 clarify this
- Date - 609-605 BC
- Location - Judah
- Form - Poetry/Hymn/Wisdom
Narrative Context - The book of the 12
- Hosea - Micah tells of Israel/Judah’s Sin
- Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah - Punishment
- Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi - Hope
Outline of Habakkuk
16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us. 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls,
18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.
Let’s Pray
16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.
Habakkuk 3:2 was a summary statement of Habakkuk’s response, here is the full response
Hab 3:2 - I heard and I fear
Hab 3:16 - I heard and I tremble
Habakkuk’s response is the same as that of Cushan and Midian from Habakkuk 3:7.
The book has gone back and forth between singular and plural forms regarding Habakkuk and Judah, here Habakkuk’s response is almost entirely singular.
In this verse alone, there are 6 singular references to/by Habakkuk
I heard
My inward parts
My Bones
My Place
I Tremble
I must wait
Habakkuk’s fear is not a marker of poor/weak faith, quite the contrary:
Isa tells us quite the opposite
2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.
There is also anatomy listed
Inward Parts - belly/stomach
These can mean innermost thoughts and motives
Lips - Speech, yet nothing is said, they are quivering
4 “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 “Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice, and I will add nothing more.”
16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.
Transition for Habakkuk. These physical markers for Habakkuk speak to the inward transition of his perspective at the seeing and hearing of the oracle of the Lord.
Varying translations of the last portion of this verse
Habakkuk 3:16 (NIV)
16 Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.
Habakkuk 3:16 (NKJV)
16 That I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, He will invade them with his troops.
Habakkuk 3:16 (NLT)
16 I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us.
16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.
Two ideas that I want to point out
Who is the object of the invasion?
“To come upon the people who will invade us”
Wait - Rest
TWOT - “Our root signifies not only absence of movement but being settled in a particular place (whether concrete or abstract) with overtones of finality, or (when speaking abstractly) of victory, salvation, etc.”
Habakkuk is resting in the Lord’s coming deliverance.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls,
6 Consequences coming from the invasion of Babylon
Pleasure
Fig Tree
Fruit of the vines
Olive
Need
Food
Flock
Cattle
Fig Tree, the Vine, and Olive are all used to represent Israel in different capacities in the Old and New Testaments
Whether symbolic of Israel, or literal resources of Israel’s delicacies and needs, they are laid waste in the coming days.
18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
Despite the calamity in verse 17, the prophet will exult and rejoice
Nevertheless, I myself! Habakkuk is stating with emphasis
This is Habakkuk’s choice
This is Habakkuk singling out his participation in what the Lord is doing!
In 3:16 we saw reverential fear and silence, and now we have moved to exultation and rejoicing
Exult - Rejoice or Be Jubilant
Rejoice - Be Glad
Exult in Yahweh
Rejoice in Elohim
God of my deliverance
2 How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save.
18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The change from Hab 1:2 to 3:18 is remarkable
19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.
The Adonai Yahweh!
The Lord Yahweh!
3:3 - Eloah - Power and Authority
3:8 - Yahweh - Covenant Relationship, personal name
3:19 - The Lord God - Submission to the Master (Covenants)
Affirmed by my strength
Separating Habakkuk from those whose “strength is their god” from God’s words in Hab 1.11.
Signals submission to the appropriate response of Habakkuk 2:4.
Hind’s feet
like the feet of a doe
imagery of delight and confidence in where the Lord has placed Habakkuk
walk on my high places
in victory with the Lord
Habakkuk 3:18-19 parallels Moses’ song after crossing the Red Sea in Exodus 15.
2 “The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him.
Now that we’ve covered our text for today, we’re going to read all of Habakkuk with some reminders as to what we’ve studied.
Habakkuk 1:1-4 Review - Habakkuk’s Questions
- Habakkuk’s cry for the Lord to answer him (singular)
- Because of violence in Judah
- The Lord does not deliver him
- There is no justice
1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. 3 Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.
Habakkuk 1:5-11 Review
Hab 1:5 is a pivotal verse in understanding Chapter 3
- God addresses Judah (plural)
- There is no rebuke of Habakkuk
- The Lord has been patient
Possessing the Land/Fulfillment of Iniquity (Deut 9:5)
- The Lord’s response is terrifying
He has paralleled His glory in judgment with the
- Reminding them of the Covenants
Abrahamic in their identity
Mosaic in their purpose
5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told. 6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs. 7 “They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
8 “Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. 9 “All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand. 10 “They mock at kings And rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress And heap up rubble to capture it. 11 “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.”
Habakkuk 1:12-2:1 Review
- He is struggling to reconcile reality with truth
Babylon is coming?
He uses plural language, he is starting to understand
- He falls back on what he knows
God’s Character
God’s Promises/Covenants
- He has allowed his perspective to be limited by time
Fulfillment of times vs Comparison to Babylon
- Waits on the Lord
- Habakkuk expects correction
12 Are You not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. 13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
14 Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them? 15 The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net; Because through these things their catch is large, And their food is plentiful.
17 Will they therefore empty their net And continually slay nations without sparing? 1 I will stand on my guard post And station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved.
Habakkuk 2:2-4 Review
- God’s command to “make clear”
Baer
- God’s Word is understandable
- Understanding takes effort
- How we respond matters
Hab 2:4 as thematic verse for Hab
The proud one, the one who despises understanding
The Righteous shall live by his faith
2 Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. 3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. 4 “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:5-20 Review
- 5 Woes/Warnings
- Babylon Not Named
Consequences of the one who despises understanding
- Negative Consequences ~ Positive Actions
- Explanation of the Law for Exile
- Blessing comes from following the Lord
- There is safety in dwelling with the Lord
- God’s kingdom will be established
- You are to Love your neighbor
- You are to Love your God
- God has not left His people
Nor has He lost His control
5 “Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, So that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations And collects to himself all peoples.
6 “Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, Even mockery and insinuations against him And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his— For how long— And makes himself rich with loans?’ 7 “Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. 8 “Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you— Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.
9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house To put his nest on high, To be delivered from the hand of calamity! 10 “You have devised a shameful thing for your house By cutting off many peoples; So you are sinning against yourself. 11 “Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework.
12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence! 13 “Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts That peoples toil for fire, And nations grow weary for nothing? 14 “For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.
15 “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness! 16 “You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, And utter disgrace will come upon your glory. 17 “For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.
18 “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols. 19 “Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it.
20 “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”
Habakkuk 3:1-15 Review
- What the Lord has said is true
- The glory of the Lord is marvelous
Power is hidden by His glory
- God does not change
God’s Immutability of Attributes
- Historical portrayal of God’s future coming
Creation
Flood
Exodus
Sinai
Possession of the Land
Teman
Paran
Cushan
Midian
- Hope is in the coming of the Lord
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 2 Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.
3 God comes from Teman, And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is full of His praise. 4 His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, And there is the hiding of His power.
5 Before Him goes pestilence, And plague comes after Him. 6 He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered, The ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan under distress, The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.
8 Did the Lord rage against the rivers, Or was Your anger against the rivers, Or was Your wrath against the sea, That You rode on Your horses, On Your chariots of salvation? 9 Your bow was made bare, The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah. You cleaved the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and quaked; The downpour of waters swept by. The deep uttered forth its voice, It lifted high its hands. 11 Sun and moon stood in their places; They went away at the light of Your arrows, At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.
12 In indignation You marched through the earth; In anger You trampled the nations. 13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For the salvation of Your anointed. You struck the head of the house of the evil To lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.
14 You pierced with his own spears The head of his throngs. They stormed in to scatter us; Their exultation was like those Who devour the oppressed in secret. 15 You trampled on the sea with Your horses, On the surge of many waters.
This brings us to our text from today that concludes Habakkuk:
16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us. 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls,
18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.
Conclusion
Benediction:
18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
