Habakkuk 3:3-15 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.… God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah, etc. The Bible contains many grand songs and odes. There is the song that Moses taught Israel to sing (Exodus 15:1). There is the triumphant song of Deborah and Barak (Judges 5.). There is the song of Hannah, the mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1). There is the song of David bewailing the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:19), and his song of thanksgiving after the communication of Nathan respecting the building of the temple (2 Samuel 7:18). There is the song of Hezekiah after he had received comfort in his sickness and recovered his health (Isaiah 38:9-20). There is the song of the blessed Virgin, Magnificat; the song of Zacharias, Benedictus; the song of Simeon, Nunc dimittis. But this song of Habakkuk stands in peerless splendour amongst them all. Here the majesty of God in Jewish history is poetically portrayed and practically remembered. I. POETICALLY PORTRAYED. God is here presented, not as he is in himself - the Absolute One, whom "no one hath seen or can see," nor as he appears to philosophical or logical minds, but as he appears to a lofty imagination divinely inspired. To the prophet's imagination he appears as coming from Teman and Mount Paran, which refers to the visible display of his glory when he gave the Law upon Mount Sinai amidst thunders and lightnings and earthquakes. Then, indeed, his glory covered the heavens. People at a distance witnessed the splendour of his appearance and shouted his praise. He seemed encircled in surpassing radiance; his brightness was as the light; he "had horns coming out of his hand," and there was the "hiding of his power." Henderson renders it, "Rays streamed from his hand, yet the concealment of his glory was there." The idea, perhaps, is that the brightness that was seen was not his full glory, but mere scintillations or emanations of those infinite abysses of his unrevealed and unrevealable glory. What is revealed of God is as nothing compared with the unrevealed. "Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet." Or, as Keil renders it, "Before him goes the plague, and the pestilence follows his feet." The reference is, perhaps, to the plagues which he brought upon the Egyptians in order to obtain the deliverance of his people. "He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting." "He stands, and sets the earth reeling: he looks, and makes nations tremble, primeval mountains burst in pieces, the early hills sink down: his are the ways of the olden time" (Keil). "While," says Henderson, "Jehovah is marching forth to the deliverance of his people, he stops all of a sudden in his progress, the immediate effects of which are universal consternation and terror." "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." "When he drove asunder the nations of Canaan," says an old writer, "one might have seen the tents of Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian trembling, and all the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries taking alarm. He struck consternation into the heart of his enemies." "Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? The bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word? Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers." "'Was it against rivers, O Jehovah, against the rivers, that thy wrath was kindled? that thou ridest hither upon thy horses, thy chariots of salvation? Thy bow lays itself bare. Thou splittest the earth into rivers.' The ode, taking a new turn, now passes from the description of the coming of God to an address to God himself. To the mental eye of the prophet God presents himself as Judge of the world, in the threatening attitude of a warlike hero equipped for conflict, so that he asks him what is the object of his wrath. The question is merely a poetical turn given to a lively composition, which expects no answer, and is simply introduced to set forth the greatness of the wrath of God; so that in substance it is an affirmation. The wrath of God is kindled over the rivers, his fury over the sea" (Keil). The riding upon horses is a figurative representation of the celerity of his triumphant progress. "The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high." "The mountains saw thee, they were in pain: the inundation of water overflowed; the abyss uttered its voice, it raised its hands on high." "The mountains being the most prominent objects on the surface of the globe, Habakkuk reiterates in a somewhat prominent form what he had expressed in the sixth verse in order to preserve the impression of the tremendous character of the transactions to illustrate which they had been figuratively introduced" (Henderson). "The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear" (see Joshua 10:12, 13). Some, however, suppose that the reference here is to the surpassing splendour of the Divine manifestation, that the heavenly orbs withdraw altogether from the fear and horror that pervade all nature, which are expressed in the mountains by trembling, and in the waters by roaring, and in the sun and moon by obscuration. God is here viewed as a warrior whose darts are so brilliant that sun and moon pale before them. "Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger." The special reference here may be to his march in leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, and smiting down his enemies. "Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck." "Having described, in language of the most sublime and terrible import, the manifestations of Jehovah in reference to his enemies, Habakkuk now proceeds to specify in express terms the end which they were designed to answer, viz. the deliverance and safety of the chosen people, and then depicts their fatal effects in the destruction of every hostile power" (Henderson). "'Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.' Thou goest out to the rescue of thy people, to the rescue of thine anointed one: thou dashest in pieces the head from the house of the wicked one, laying bare the foundation even to the neck. Thou piercest with his spears the head of his hordes which storm hither to beat me to powder, whose rejoicing is as it were to swallow the poor in secret. Thou treadest upon the seas: thy horses upon the heap of great waters. The Lord, at whose coming in the terrible glory of the majesty of the Judge of the world, all nature trembles and appears to fall into its primary chaotic state, marches over the earth, and stamps or tramples down the nations with his feet (compare the kindred figure of the treader of the wine press in Isaiah 63:1, 6). Not all nations, however, but only those who are hostile to him; for he has come forth to save his people and his anointed one. The perfects in vers. 13-15 are prophetic, describing the future in spirit as having already occurred" (Keil). Now, all this sublime representation of God is poetic, highly poetic. It is the characteristic of poetry that it ascribes to one class of objects attributes that belong to another; and in this ode we find attributes ascribed to the Creator which belong to the creature. For example, he is here represented as moving from one place to another, from Teman and from Paran; as standing, "he stood," etc.; as conquering his enemies by human weapons; as riding upon horses and driving in chariots; and as fired with indignation. All this is human. The Infinite One does not move from place to place, does not stand in any one spot, knows no rage, fury is not in him. Whilst in this ode the attributes of the creature are applied to the Creator, we find also the attributes of the living ascribed to dead and insentient existences. The mountains are here represented as writhing and in pain, the deep as uttering its voice and lifting up its hands. But whilst we take this as a poetic representation, we must not fail to notice some of the grand truths which it contains. 1. That God's glory transcends all revelations. The brightness of the Shechinah, in which he appeared on Sinai and elsewhere to the Jews, however effulgent, was but a mere scintillation of the infinite splendour of his Being, the mere "hiding of his power." All his glory as seen in nature, both in the material and spiritual universe, is but as one ray to the eternal sun. 2. That God's power over the material universe is absolute. He makes the mountains tremble, and the seas divide, and the orbs of heaven stand still. In the Apocalypse the refulgent glory of the judgment throne is represented as causing the material universe to melt away before it. And before a full manifestation of himself, what are mountains, rivers, sun, and stars? Mere vapours on the wings of the storm. 3. That God's interest in good men is profound and practical. All his operations, as here poetically described, are on behalf of his chosen people. Though he is high, he has respect to the lowly, and to that man he ever looks who is of a contrite and humble spirit. II. PRACTICALLY REMEMBERED. Why did the prophet recall all these Divine manifestations made to the Hebrew people in past times? Undoubtedly to encourage in himself and in his countrymen unbounded confidence in him at the critical and dangerous period in which they were placed. The Chaldean hosts were threatening their ruin, the political heavens were black with thunderclouds under which his countrymen might well shiver and stand aghast. Under these perilous circumstances he turns to God; he calls to mind and portrays in vivid poetry what he had been to his people in ancient times. 1. He recalls the fact that God had delivered his people in ancient times from perils as great as those to which they were now exposed. From the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Philistines, etc. 2. That God had done this by stupendous manifestations of his power. Manifestations of his power in the sea, in the mountains, in the orbs of heaven, etc. 3. That what God had done for his people he would continue to do. "His ways are everlasting," or, as Keil renders it, "His are ways of the olden times." The idea, perhaps, is that he has an eternal plan, fixed and settled. What he has done for them he will still do. Thus the prophet remembered the days of old, and took courage. - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. |
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