Habakkuk 3:11 Study Bible: The sun and moon stood still in the sky, at the light of your arrows as they went, at the shining of your glittering spear.

◄ Habakkuk 3:11 ►

Sun and moon stood still in their places at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.

Sun and moon stood still
This phrase evokes a powerful image of divine intervention, reminiscent of the miraculous event in Joshua 10:12-13, where the sun stood still to allow Israel to achieve victory. The Hebrew words here, "שֶׁמֶשׁ" (shemesh) for sun and "יָרֵחַ" (yareach) for moon, symbolize the cosmic order and the natural laws established by God. The stillness of these celestial bodies signifies God's supreme authority over creation, emphasizing His ability to alter the natural world to fulfill His purposes. This imagery serves as a reminder of God's omnipotence and His active role in the affairs of humanity.

in their places
The phrase "in their places" underscores the idea of divine control and order. The Hebrew word "זְבוּל" (zebul) can be translated as "dwelling" or "habitation," suggesting that the sun and moon have designated roles and positions within God's creation. This reflects the biblical worldview that the universe is not chaotic but is governed by a sovereign Creator who maintains order and purpose. It reassures believers of God's stability and reliability, even when the world seems uncertain.

at the flash of Your flying arrows
The imagery of "flying arrows" conveys swiftness and precision in divine judgment. The Hebrew word "חִצֶּיךָ" (chitzekha) for arrows is often associated with God's judgment and warfare. This metaphor illustrates God's ability to execute His will with accuracy and speed, reinforcing the theme of divine intervention. The "flash" suggests suddenness and brilliance, indicating that God's actions are both unexpected and awe-inspiring. This serves as a reminder of God's justice and the certainty of His plans.

at the brightness of Your shining spear
The "brightness" and "shining spear" further emphasize the majesty and power of God. The Hebrew word "נֹגַהּ" (nogah) for brightness implies radiance and glory, often associated with God's presence. The "שִׁבְטְךָ" (shivtekha) for spear symbolizes authority and might. Together, these images portray God as a divine warrior, whose presence is both illuminating and formidable. This depiction encourages believers to trust in God's protection and to stand in awe of His glorious power.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Habakkuk
A prophet in the Old Testament who dialogues with God about the justice and sovereignty of God amidst the suffering of His people.

2. Sun and Moon
Celestial bodies that symbolize the natural order and the power of God over creation.

3. God's Arrows and Spear
Metaphorical representations of God's power and judgment, illustrating His might in battle and His ability to control the elements.

Teaching Points

God's Sovereignty Over Creation
The imagery of the sun and moon standing still highlights God's supreme authority over the natural world. Believers can trust in God's control over all circumstances.

Divine Intervention in Human Affairs
Just as God intervened in battles for His people, He is actively involved in the lives of believers today. We can seek His guidance and expect His help in our struggles.

The Power of Prayer and Faith
Habakkuk's vision encourages believers to pray with faith, knowing that God hears and responds to the cries of His people, sometimes in miraculous ways.

God's Judgment and Deliverance
The imagery of arrows and spears signifies God's judgment against evil and His deliverance of the righteous. This serves as a reminder of the ultimate victory of good over evil.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the imagery of the sun and moon standing still in Habakkuk 3:11 enhance our understanding of God's power and authority?

2. In what ways can we see God's intervention in our personal lives, similar to His intervention in the battles of Israel?

3. How does the concept of divine judgment and deliverance in Habakkuk 3:11 relate to the New Testament teachings on salvation and the end times?

4. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's power in a situation that seemed beyond your control. How did this impact your faith?

5. How can the assurance of God's sovereignty and intervention encourage us to pray more fervently and live more faithfully?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Joshua 10:12-13
This passage recounts the event where Joshua commands the sun and moon to stand still, demonstrating God's intervention in battle and His control over creation.

Psalm 18:14
Describes God sending out arrows and scattering enemies, similar to the imagery in Habakkuk, emphasizing God's power in delivering His people.

Revelation 6:12-14
Speaks of cosmic disturbances during the end times, reflecting God's ultimate authority over the universe.

Sermons

God Poetically Portrayed and Practically Remembered	Homilist	Habakkuk 3:3-15
God Poetically Portrayed and Practically Remembered	D. Thomas	Habakkuk 3:3-15
God in History	S.D. Hillman	Habakkuk 3:3-18

People

Habakkuk, Teman

Places

Cushan, Lebanon, Midian, Mount Paran, Teman

Topics

Arrows, Brightness, Flash, Flashing, Flying, Forth, Gleaming, Glint, Glittering, Habitation, Heavens, Lightning, Moon, Places, Polished, Radiance, Shining, Shot, Sky, Spear, Sped, Stand, Stood

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Habakkuk 3:11

     1454   theophany
     4284   sun
     4834   light, natural
     4838   lightning

Library

September 7. "I Will Joy in the God of My Salvation" (Hab. Iii. 18).
"I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Hab. iii. 18). The secret of joy is not to wait until you feel happy, but to rise, by an act of faith, out of the depression which is dragging you down, and begin to praise God as an act of choice. This is the meaning of such passages as these: "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice"; "I do rejoice; yes, and I will rejoice." "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." In all these cases there is an evident struggle with sadness and …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Spiritual Revival, the Want of the Church
NOTE: This edition of this sermon is taken from an earlier published edition of Spurgeon's 1856 message. The sermon that appears in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 44, was edited and abbreviated somewhat. For edition we have restored the fuller text of the earlier published edition, while retaining a few of the editorial refinements of the Met Tab edition. "O Lord, revive thy work."--Habakkuk 3:2. All true religion is the work of God: it is pre-eminently so. If he should select out of his …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 44: 1898

What a Revival of Religion Is
Text.--O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.--Hab. iii. 2. IT is supposed that the prophet Habakkuk was contemporary with Jeremiah, and that this prophecy was uttered in anticipation of the Babylonish captivity. Looking at the judgments which were speedily to come upon his nation, the soul of the prophet was wrought up to an agony, and he cries out in his distress, "O Lord, revive thy work." As if he had said, "O Lord, grant …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion

The Highway
"The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places."--Hab. iii. 19. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 It is a wondrous and a lofty road Wherein the faithful soul must tread, And by the seeing there the blind are led, The senses by the soul acquaint with God. On that high path the soul is free, She knows no care nor ill, For all God wills desireth she, And blessed is His will. …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

The Believer's Sure Trust. --Hab. Iii. 17, 18
The Believer's sure Trust.--Hab. iii. 17, 18. Though the fig-tree's blossom fail, And the vines should bring no fruit; Though the olive, smit with hail, Cast its foliage round the root; Though the fields should yield no meat, And the herds forsake the stall, In the folds no flocks should bleat At the shepherd's well-known call:-- Yet will I in God rejoice, In Jehovah I will trust, And extol, with heart and voice, His salvation from the dust; He can raise my fallen head, He can all my sickness cure; …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

The Holy Spirit in Relation to the Father and the Son. ...
The Holy Spirit in relation to the Father and the Son. Under this heading we began by considering Justin's remarkable words, in which he declares that "we worship and adore the Father, and the Son who came from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels that attend Him and are made like unto Him, and the prophetic Spirit." Hardly less remarkable, though in a very different way, is the following passage from the Demonstration (c. 10); and it has a special interest from the …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

Life of Jerome.
The figures in parentheses, when not otherwise indicated, refer to the pages in this volume. For a full account of the Life, the translator must refer to an article (Hieronymus) written by him in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography. A shorter statement may suffice here, since the chief sources of information are contained in this volume, and to these reference will be continually made. Childhood and Youth. A.D. 345. Jerome was born at Stridon, near Aquileia, but in Pannonia, a place …
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

The Coming Revival
"Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?"--PS. lxxxv. 6. "O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years."--HAB. iii. 2. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me: Thy right hand shall save me."--PS. cxxxviii. 7. "I dwell with him that is of a humble and contrite heart, to revive the heart of the contrite ones."--ISA. lvii. 15. "Come, and let us return to the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us. He will revive us."--HOS. vi. 1, 2. The Coming …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

A Prayer when one Begins to be Sick.
O most righteous Judge, yet in Jesus Christ my gracious Father! I, wretched sinner, do here return unto thee, though driven with pain and sickness, like the prodigal child with want and hunger. I acknowledge that this sickness and pain comes not by blind chance or fortune, but by thy divine providence and special appointment. It is the stroke of thy heavy hand, which my sins have justly deserved; and the things that I feared are now fallen upon me (Job iii. 25.) Yet do I well perceive that in wrath …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

How to Make Use of Christ as the Life when the Soul is Dead as to Duty.
Sometimes the believer will be under such a distemper, as that he will be as unfit and unable for discharging of any commanded duty, as dead men, or one in a swoon, is to work or go a journey. And it were good to know how Christ should be made use of as the Life, to the end the diseased soul may be delivered from this. For this cause we shall consider those four things: 1. See what are the several steps and degrees of this distemper. 2. Consider whence it cometh, or what are the causes or occasions …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. -- And He shall speak peace unto the heathen. T he narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man are sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Unchangeableness of God
The next attribute is God's unchangeableness. I am Jehovah, I change not.' Mal 3:3. I. God is unchangeable in his nature. II. In his decree. I. Unchangeable in his nature. 1. There is no eclipse of his brightness. 2. No period put to his being. [1] No eclipse of his brightness. His essence shines with a fixed lustre. With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' James 1:17. Thou art the same.' Psa 102:27. All created things are full of vicissitudes. Princes and emperors are subject to …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Lord of Glory.
1 Cor. ii:8. OUR ever blessed Lord, who died for us, to whom we belong, with whom we shall be forever, is the Lord of Glory. Thus He is called in 1 Cor. ii:8, "for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." Eternally He is this because He is "the express image of God, the brightness of His Glory" (Heb. i:3). He possessed Glory with the Father before the world was (John xvii:5). This Glory was beheld by the prophets, for we read that Isaiah "saw His Glory and spake of Him" …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

Habakkuk
The precise interpretation of the book of Habakkuk presents unusual difficulties; but, brief and difficult as it is, it is clear that Habakkuk was a great prophet, of earnest, candid soul, and he has left us one of the noblest and most penetrating words in the history of religion, ii. 4b. The prophecy may be placed about the year 600 B.C. The Assyrian empire had fallen, and by the battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., Babylonian supremacy was practically established over Western Asia. Josiah's reformation, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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