Habakkuk 3:1-16 By Prince John, BD IV

Text: Habakkuk 3:1-16

As we go through this Bible verses we can see that, prophet Habakkuk is offering a prayer here. A similar prayer can be found in psalms 77. By acknowledging God’s supreme power, Habakkuk is praising God’s personality, strength, and motive. Through out this passage we can find the subjugation of creation into the creator. None of the creation can domain over the creator. The end of the second chapter is concluding with the saying “let all the earth keep silence before Him”. So according to the prophet he was praising a God who is unimaginable and unbeaten. Habakkuk's memory of Yahweh's "deeds" (v. 2) reverts to the events surrounding the Exodus, in keeping with the Lord's repeated injunction to Israel (e.g., Exodus 13:3).

Our God is a God of wrath and consumable fire, although He/She is gentle and mercy to His/Her own people and anointed, it is very clear in Exodus. There we can see the wrath, kindness and mercy of God. Through illustrating these characters of God the prophet is declaring his prayer. When God extend His/Her care and concern to his people in Exodus, at the same time God punish the wicked and sinners, God cast them into the sea. So that here the prophet also praying “In wrath may you remember mercy” (2b) Because he knows that God will keep safe and sound those who loves, even in the midst of His/Her wrath . He believes that “God looked and made the nations tremble” (3:16) the psalmist also says in 7:8 “The lord judges the people according to their righteous. The opening parallel lines of v. 8 refer to the "rivers" and "streams" both as witnessing the anger of the Lord. 

The waters of the Jordan may be envisaged but more likely the word "rivers" normally plural, as here is equivalent to "sea”. The Lord's dramatic conflict with the "sea" echoes his dominion over the waters of Creation and the Flood a complex of events that pervades Israel's literature as a pattern of future salvation and judgment, Exodus and Sinai alike are the incarnation of events with universal significance.

 In Gen 11 when people gathered to build a city and a tower for themselves and try to challenge God, but God confused their language and scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth. Because human plans was against the will of God. Neither can act nor can any creation work against the will of God.

Even the mountains, river, seas can’t impede the plan of God. That’s why the prophet says in (3:13) “You came forth to save your people, to save your anointed”. Like a pillar of cloud and by the pillar of fire God will be with them. vv9, 11 he gives the assurance that the battle is the Lords, the same faith we can also finds in David’s life. During his teenage he went to the philistines with courage and bold and he challenged by the words “(1sam 17:47) the Lord doesn’t save by sword and spear, for the battle is the Lords”. He keeps this assurance until his end, not only in David’s but lives of Abraham and Moses also. We should also submit ourselves in front of our forefathers God who will not leave us nor forsake us and His word is true. “He make us tread upon the heights” as prophet believes.

Till today God’s love continues towards us through His only begotten son Jesus Christ. God who reveals through His son is not a God of rage but a God of patience, mercy and eternal love. Because his love and mercy is everlasting and will never end. Behold our sin and unworthiness, still for us he chooses to die. He celebrates victory over the chain and bondage of wicked through the tools of patience and obedience. So let us find comfort and refuge under the shadow of that Gods rock. Amen 

[Prince John, the leader of this meditation, is a Fourth year BD student in Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India]