God came from Teman! We left Habakkuk dazzled by the glory of the vision; God rising up to the deliverance of his people in a blaze of light which eclipsed all other light. "His glory covered the heavens . . . his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power." (ch.3.3-4). That last phrase is badly translated; the meaning is that of rays of light streaming from his hands as though held in a clenched fist, and his hidden power "veiled" as though concealed in that hand ready to be let loose upon the earth in judgement. Certain mythological gods have been depicted in ancient sculptures holding flashing lightnings in their hands in the same fashion; here the thunderbolts of Jehovah are about to be rained down upon a world ripe for judgment. Since in this third chapter of Habakkuk's prophecy we have been carried forward to the last great day of this present world, the day when God stands up to intervene in human affairs once more and bring in his Kingdom of everlasting righteousness, this judgment is the one that is to terminate this day and age in which we live, a judgment the beginnings of which we already see in our generation, a judgment which is none the less of God though it be the direct fruit of men's own selfishness and wickedness leading man to the fearful impasse which at this present time confronts him.

"Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet" (vs.5).

This is the first hint of the gathering storm. In front of the advancing Lord go pestilence and disease, bred by man and taking their revenge upon man, decimating the hosts who would oppose the onward progress of God's Plan. Here is a fit symbol of war, the great desolator of mankind, war which breeds pestilence and throws fire upon earth.

And now it is as though the Most High, arising to "shake terribly the earth", has paused for a moment to take stock of the position. "He stood, and measured (i.e. took the measure of) the earth. He beheld, and drove asunder the nations, and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow (before him) whose ways are everlasting" (vs.6). This is not the coming forth of God to actual judgment. It is preparation for that judgment, and as such corresponds very well to this last Century when the nations struggle in a morass of tumult and strife, war and revolution, famine and disease, distress and disaster which is effecting the scattering of the symbolic mountains, the kingdoms of this world, and the driving asunder of the nations. God has not yet come forth in judgment. He is yet in the day of his preparation, calling the nations to Armageddon and gathering them into the valley of threshing. "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles," He Commands, "prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near...let the weak say, 'I am strong'. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen (nations), and gather yourselves together round about: thither the LORD will bring down thy mighty ones...." (Joel 3.9-14 margin). This is how God measures the earth, drives asunder the nations, scatters the everlasting mountains, and brings low the perpetual hills. We in our lifetime are seeing this very thing come to pass; today this gathering of the nations to judgment seems to be all but completed and the stage set for the final act in the drama.

Men sense that fact, and they are afraid, just as afraid as were the inhabitants of Arabia and Canaan when they beheld the advancing hosts of the Most High coming out of the desert with the Shekinah glory cloud at their head. Habakkuk knew of their fear, and described it in moving words. "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." (vs.7). "Upon the earth" said Jesus there will be "distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." (Luke 21.25 & 26). The time in which we live is such a time of fear, and the fear is well founded, for the sword of the Lord hangs in the sky above this doomed social order. How long before it descends, as Isaiah said it would descend, "upon the people of my curse, to judgment" (Isa.34.5)?

The evidence of Divine displeasure with the earth increased as Habakkuk continued to behold the vision. He broke off his account for a moment to ask two questions—rhetorical questions. "Was the LORD displeased against the rivers?" he asks "was thine anger against the rivers? Was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?" (vs.8). In the Exodus story, the Red Sea and the river Jordan were barriers to the onward progress of God's people into their inheritance. The Red Sea was driven back, and the Jordan was restrained from flowing, to give the people free passage. In our day there are symbolic rivers and a symbolic sea which alike oppose the onward progress of the Divine Plan and they too will experience the Divine displeasure. The river symbolises human autocracy and the sea human democracy, both playing a prominent part in the affairs of nations today but both destined to give way before the triumphant march of the King of Kings. That the sea symbolises "the people" in prophetic lore is demonstrated by Isa.17.12-13 (margin) "Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of' the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like thistledown before the whirlwind ". Of the great host that is to be raised up from the north parts to invade the land of Israel at the end of the Age it is said "their voice roareth like the sea" (Jer.6.23) an indication that their savage onslaught has behind it the irresistible force associated with a mighty overwhelming flood of waters sweeping over the land and carrying away everything in its course. "In that day" says Isaiah, speaking of this same great host that will invade the Holy Land at the end "they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea". (Isa.5.30). The picture is that of a tumultuous host of people recognising no authority save that which proceeds from their association together; the roaring is the roaring of "mob rule", of government by the masses, of democratic government without God; and God is against it. "Was thine wrath against the sea?" asks Habakkuk. God's anger at the time of the end will most assuredly be against the sea.

And the rivers? The great rivers of the Bible—the Nile in Egypt, the Euphrates in Babylonia and the Tigris in Assyria—became the centre of each nation's life and the source from which each drew wealth and sustenance. To the river the nation owed everything, fertility of land, food, facilities for trade; all came from the river. So "the river" very easily becomes a symbol of kingly power and rule, contrasting with the sea, general or mob rule. Ezekiel alludes to this, identifying Pharaoh king of Egypt with the river Nile "Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself ". (Ezek.29.3). Jeremiah, seeking for a simile to describe the coming of Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt to do battle with the Babylonians at Carchemish, cried "Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers? Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers;" Jer.46.7-8). Just as the sea pictures or symbolises the restless masses of humanity seeking to evolve their own system of government, so do the rivers symbolise the more autocratic rule of kings and princes, of military powers and commercial interests; and the anger of the Lord is against them all. God comes forth upon his horses, to war—and the chariots of salvation are following him.

What are these chariots? They are the forces of heaven, coming forth to bring Millennial blessings to mankind immediately the judgment is ended. "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place." (Psa.68.17). Elisha's servant was permitted, for an instant, to see the chariots of God in the mountains, sent to defend the prophet of God (2 Kings 6.17). Daniel saw the angelic messengers around the throne in his great vision of the inauguration of the Kingdom (Dan.7.10), and John the Revelator, seeing something of the same in his vision, said of the heavenly ones with the returning Lord "the armies which are in heaven followed him" (Rev.19.14 ASV).

The next verse marks the completion of God's day of preparation. "Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word—SELAH." (vs.9). This is a poor translation and the meaning is obscure. The word for "tribes" also means an instrument of chastisement, and it is thought that the most likely rendering of the passage is "Thy bow shall be bared, even the chastisements sworn by thy word". Now if that is the true rendering—and it is certainly more intelligible and more closely connected with the context than is the A.V. rendering—we have a picture, from verse 4 to verse 8, of the "day of his preparation", the gathering of the forces that are to play their part in the closing scenes of this "battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev.16.14) and then, in verse 9, all things being ready, God, as a great warrior, as it were, draws back his bow and lets loose the winged shaft that will bring judgment, swift and decisive, upon the forces that have arrayed themselves in determined opposition to his incoming Kingdom.

This conception of the swift descent of judgment upon the evil host is illustrated by allusions in other parts of the Scriptures. "For my sword shall be bathed in heaven" says God through the prophet Isaiah, "behold, it shall come down upon ldumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment" (Isa.34.5). The prophetic song of Moses recorded in Deut.32 has a similar strain when the Lord promises that at the end of time He will remember the sorrows of his ancient people and deliver them, inflicting judgment upon their enemies. "For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment... I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh…" (Deut.32.40-42). "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed" says the Psalmist, but "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." (Psa.2.2-5). Perhaps the most biting, burning, moving words of all are those of Jeremiah, directed, it is true, to the Philistines of his own day and having no prophetic application, but in their impassioned eloquence a fitting commentary on what has already been said. "O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? There hath he appointed it?" (Jer.47.6-7). How can it be quiet, indeed, when all the sin and iniquity of the long millenniums of human history has filled up the measure of human guilt and the earth cries to high heaven for judgment? How can it be quiet, when the outraged holiness of God will brook no further delay, and the seventh angel is raising his trumpet to sound (Rev.11.15), and the nations are angry, and the time of judgment is come, and of reward to the faithful saints and prophets, and of destruction to the corrupters of the earth? (Rev.11.18). "He gathered them together" says the Revelator "to a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon". (Rev.16.16). "After many days" says Ezekiel, addressing this same great evil host "thou shalt be ordered forward" (Ezek.38.8 Leeser).

Thus the stage is set; the world in general, exhausted from its experiences in the "Day of His Preparation", passively beholding the welding of every power for evil in the world into one great striking force, gathering and setting itself in array, against the Prince of Peace and all that is inherent in truth and righteousness; and on the other side, unseen and unknown to men, the raising of that sword of the Lord, that terrific spiritual power which is to descend and in one swift blow annihilate for ever the greatest confederation of evil forces the world will have ever known. Ezekiel and Zechariah have vied with each other in finding words in which fitly to describe the overwhelming disaster which will descend from the heavens upon those who have dared to fight against God.

And at this point the prophet, overawed by the solemnity of the situation, breathes a reverent "Selah". In the Temple service there was a pause, a hush, as for a full minute the worshippers contemplated that gleaming sword upraised in the heavens, poised that in a moment it might strike down.

Just so, it may be, shall Christian workers in a day yet future realise, as did Habakkuk, that the "gathering to Armageddon" is complete, the armies in position, the "land of unwalled villages" encompassed on every side, and wait with bated breath for that fearful maelstrom of Divine judgment which will demonstrate to all men without possibility of doubt that "verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth".

AOH

(To be continued)