"Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken"(Ezek.39.8). There is a ring of finality about those words. Well may there be, for they speak of the most comprehensive and spectacular judgment against evil that will ever be witnessed upon the earth, not even excepting the judgment of the Flood. The sword of the Lord will descend, and things on the earth will never be the same again. It is this final arising of God to judgment in Armageddon that is prefigured in the remainder of Habakkuk's vision.

That "Selah" in the middle of ch.3 verse 9 divides the "Day of his Preparation" from Armageddon, or as it is sometimes called, "Jacob's Trouble". The preparation is ended; the nations have been gathered together in the symbolic "Valley of Jehoshaphat" and God is ready to reveal himself for the salvation of his people. To this time belong the events of Zechariah's vision recorded in the last three chapters of his prophecy. Israel has been regathered and is settled in prosperity and faith in the land of promise; the forces of evil have laid their plans and set out to crush this new power for righteousness which has arisen in the earth with its centre at Jerusalem; there is a temporary and partial success—"half of the city shall go forth into captivity"  (Zech.14.2) — probably a cleansing of the land from fainthearted and faithless elements; and then, with the people and their governors waiting in faith and assurance the further onslaught of their enemies, the unbelievable thing happens—God intervenes. Habakkuk in his vision saw the breaking of the storm which had been gathering, and all the forces of Nature joined together in one great onslaught against the earth. Behind the storm he saw the majestic figure of the God of Israel, coming forth to judgment. "Thou didst cleave (asunder) the rivers of the earth" (vs.9 margin) cried the prophet in wonder, as he saw the earth rent by the breaking forth of mighty waters from its depths. "The mountains saw thee, and they trembled; (swept along); the deep (abyss) the overflowing (inundation) of the waters passed by uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high." (vs.10) Habakkuk saw a repetition of the Flood of Noah's day, sweeping all the enemies of God away and overwhelming them in its depths. "Upon the wicked he shall rain burning coals, fire and brimstone, and a burning tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." (Psa.11.6 margin). The word which is rendered "deep" in the A.V. is the Hebrew tehom, the primeval chaotic abyss which harks back to the waste and void condition of the earth described in Gen.1.2, the condition in which it stood before God began to prepare it for human habitation. The use of the same word here seems to indicate that Habakkuk witnessed a gigantic upheaval of the earth and the bursting forth of the waters of the abyss, destroying completely all the works of man. "The deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high" (vs.10) as though with a roar like thunder the earth opened to permit the uprush of a giant waterspout from its depths. That is the picture, and it fitly describes what may yet prove to be one salient feature of the Last Days, an uprising of the peoples which will shake and destroy the symbolic mountains, the autocratic kingdoms of earth.

But the storm is not finished at this—it increases in fury. The sky grows darker and the sable curtain of clouds overcomes the sun and moon so that they seem to withdraw themselves and retire from the scene. "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." (vs.11). "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood" says Joel referring to the same happenings. The sixth chapter Revelation, describing the breaking of the "sixth seal" uses a very similar expression in connection with the same events. In Habakkuk's vision it is as though the brilliancy of the lightning (the "light of the arrows" and the "glittering spear"—the darting flashes being likened to the celestial arrows and spears of the Almighty shooting down upon his enemies) has so outshone the heavenly luminaries that they have ceased from their onward progress across the sky and gone into the storm clouds out of sight. There is an allusion here to the day that the "sun stood still" when the Lord fought for Joshua against the Canaanites.

Now the Lord is pictured coming forth at the head of his legions. "Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the nations in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, (even) for salvation with thine anointed" (RV) and then, following Rotherham, "thou hast crushed the Head out of the house of the lawless one, baring the foundation up to the neck". (vs.12-13). Here is depicted the active intervention of God to the physical scattering of the invading host, an assertion that God has gone forth in order to effect the salvation of his people, regathered Israel, and the intimation that He is accompanied in this onward march by those who are described as his "anointed". The New Testament gives the clue to the fulfilment of this vision by describing the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ at his Second Advent accompanied by his saints, the Christian Church of this Age, to establish the earthly Messianic Kingdom. The Church—the assembly of true Christians everywhere irrespective of denominational affiliation—is that "anointed", associated with the Lord Christ in the rulership and administration of the Kingdom. "They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years(Rev.20.4).

This allusion to the "anointed" being with him at the time He is revealed in glory for the defence of Israel is particularly apt, for our Lord will have already returned and gathered his Church before these events of "Jacob's Trouble" have commenced, and hence quite logically will have his Church with him when He is revealed in judgment against the evil forces and in mercy upon those that have put their trust in him. This verse in Habakkuk therefore corresponds very well with the "opening of heaven" in Rev.19 where the rider upon the white horse emerges, followed by the "armies which were in heaven" to do battle with the forces of evil gathered upon the earth.

Here there is another "Selah", another pause in the Temple service. At the last "Selah" the worshippers were able to contemplate the vision of God arising to judgment; at this one they see him marching through the earth scattering his enemies; when the story is resumed the work is complete and the workers of evil have been utterly routed. The prophet looks back on what he has seen. "Thou didst strike through with his staves (weapons) 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." (vs.14-15). The first phrase in the 14th verse is very significant. It implies that God has turned the enemies' own weapons back upon themselves—thou didst strike through with his weapons the chief of his warriors is one rendering, thus paralleling the expression in verse 13 "the head out of the house of the lawless one". There seems to be some suggestion here that the mighty enemy of God will in part at least encompass its own destruction by means of its own weapons. The prophet permits himself one word of exultation in a minor key. "They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me" he says, identifying himself with those of his people who would be living when the great day came — "their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly" — a word reminiscent of Ezekiel 38 where the same host plans to swoop down upon an apparently defenceless people "to take a spoil and to take a prey".

There the vision ends. The evil host has been scattered. Israel has been delivered, and Habakkuk is satisfied. From what he has seen he is content; he knows now that even though the time be long and Israel suffer yet further agonies of distress and persecution, at the appointed season God will come forth and save them with an everlasting salvation, and in that knowledge he can rest.

But although Habakkuk was content, he was by no means unconscious of the severity of that final trial upon Israel. Well did he realise the horror of the situation; although his heart leapt at the prospect of Israel's final glory, it sank at the thought of the trouble that must needs precede it. And it is here, in this 16th verse, that we stumble across one of the most amazing statements to be found in any of the prophecies; amazing because it reveals Habakkuk's own knowledge that he himself was destined to live again upon earth and witness for himself the stirring events which he had just seen in vision.

"I heard" he says "...and I trembled in my place, that I should rest, in(waiting for) the day of trouble, when it cometh up against the people which invadeth him in troops." This is the Revised Version rendering. It declares in plain language that Habakkuk expected to rest in death until the events which he described come to pass. The implication is plain that he expected his period of "rest" then to end that he might share with his people the experience of that great day of invasion and deliverance. Leeser renders the passage "That I should rest till the day of distress, till the withdrawing of the people that will invade us with its troops." There seems to be no doubt that this is the literal meaning of the text, and the amazing thing is that Habakkuk saw so clearly that he, and those who, like him, were "heroes of faith" of old, were destined to be raised from the dead in order to witness the overthrow of the powers of this world and take over the reins of government on behalf of earth's new King, Christ Jesus. "I will restore thy governors as at first and thy princes as at the beginning" says God through the prophet Isaiah. Habakkuk must have known the inner meaning of those words, and looked forward in faith to the day when he should stand once more upon earth and witness Israel's final glory. "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee" (Isa.54.7).

It is this same understanding, and this same time, to which Zechariah refers when, speaking of the gathering of the nations against Jerusalem, he says "In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about" (Zech.12.6). These "governors" are the resurrected "Ancient Worthies" or "Old Testament Saints" as they are variously called, and Zechariah's words indicate that they will have returned from the grave and be in control of affairs in the regathered holy nation when the great onslaught is launched.

It is at this climax that Habakkuk has given expression to one of the finest expressions of faith to be found anywhere in the Scriptures. The confidence engendered by the vision he has seen is such that he can now regard the greatest of disasters with assurance. Even though every aspect of his people's national life be destroyed, every activity prove fruitless and the very land itself turn against them, still will he not only believe, but will even find occasion for joy. "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation."(vs.17-18)

No matter how adverse the earthly circumstances, he knew that all was well with the Plan of God, because God himself was working out that Plan. On that note he ends; a note of utter confidence and joyous confidence. His faith has progressed from a silent faith to an ebullient faith, a faith of peace to a faith of joy, and in his ecstasy of heart he set his prophecy to music that it might be used for ever afterwards in the Temple service to the glory of God, a living witness to the faith of the man who saw in vision what God will one day do in reality, and laid himself down to rest in utter confidence that so surely as God had spoken, so surely would it come to pass.

(The end)

AOH