The Pulpit Commentary — Habakkuk — Section 12

ovorllows its hanks, sweeping across the land like a tempestuous wind over the sandy desert, it overleape all barriers and restraints both Divine and human, and stands con- victed before God as a guilty transgressor. 7. lls shameless blasphemy. The culmi- nation at once of its offence and of its guilt is that it deifies its own might, ~aying, "Lo, this my strength is my god 1" Such was the Rpirit of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iv. 30) and of Belshazzar (Isa. xiv. 14); such will be that of the future antichrist (2 Thess. ii. 4). Learn: 1. That if God's people sin they must look for chastisement (Deut. xi. 28; Ps. lxxxix. 32). 2. That. if God's people are chastised for their offences, God's enemies cannot hope to escape punishment for theirs (1 Pet. iv. 17, 18). 3. That God can o.lways lay his hand upon an instrument wherewith to inflict punishment upon his people (Isa. x. 5). 4. That wicked men and nations whom God employs in the execution of his judgments do not thereby escape responsibility for their own actions (Isa. x. 12). 5. That the deification of self is the last delusion of a foolish heart (Gen. iii. 5). Vers. 12-17.-The triumph of faith. I. HABAKKux:'s Goo. (Vera. 12, 13.) 1. Eternal. From everlasting (Ps. xciii. 2), and therefore to everlasting (Ps. xc. 1) ; hence immutable (Mal. iii. 6), without variableness or shadow cast by turning (Jas. i. 17), in respect of his being (1 Tim. i. 17), character (Isa. !xiii. 16; Ps. cxi. 3), purpose (Job xxiii. 13), and promise (Heh. vi. 17). 2. Holy. In himself the abso- lutely and the only stainless One (Exod. xv. 11 ; Isa. vi. 3), and in all his self- manifestations (Job xxxiv. 10), in his ways and works (Ps. cxlv. 17) as well as words (Ps. xxxiii. 4), equally immaculate, and necessarily so, since an unholy Divinity could not be supreme, he is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," and "cannot look upon iniquity" with indifference, and far less with favour (Ps. v. 4; Jer. xliv. 4). 3. Omniscient. Inferred from the fact that be beheld all the evil that was done beneath the sun, both in Judah by his own people (ver. 3) and among the nations by the Chaldeans (ver. 13). Omniscience a necessary attribute of the Supreme, and one much emphasized in Scripture (Prov. xv. 3; Job xxviii. 24; 2 Chron. xvi. 9; Jer. xxxii. 19; Heh. iv. 13). 4:. Omnipotent. This implied in his supremacy over the nations, raising up one power (the Chaldeans) and putting down another (Judah), giving the peoples into Nebuchadnezzar's net, and again hurling down Nebuchadnezzar's grand- son from his seat of power. Also suggested by the designation "Rock," given him by Habakkuk, who meant thereby to teach the strength and steadfastness of Jehovah in comparison with the idols of the heathen, and his ability to shelter and defend those who trusted in him (Deut. xxxii. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37; Ps. xviii. 2; xxviii. 1; xxxi.3, etc.). 5. Gracious. He was such a God BS bad entered into covenant with the prophet, who accordingly styled him" my Gcd," "mine Holy One." "My" is faith's response to God's grace in offering himself to man as a God (Exod. x.x. 2). 11. HABAKKUK'B PERPLEXITY. (Vers. 13-17.) 1. .A great mystery. (1) Concern- ing Judah. Why God, being what he was, from everlasting, holy, etc., should suffer his people, who with all their faults were more righteous than their oppressors, to be trodden down, butchered, and driven off into captivity by the Chaldeans l Why, when be saw them humiliated and destroyed, he held his peace I Strange inconsistency of the human heart, especially when touched by grace. A little before (ver. 3) the prophet had been concerned at God's silence about the wickedness of Judah; nuw, when God has spoken of raising up against that wickedness the Chaldean army, he is troubled that God should allow such cruelty to be perpetrated against the people of whom be bad complained. (2) Concerning the Cbaldeans. Why God, being what he was, unchangeably pure and just as well as resistlessly powerful, should permit the heathen warrior to work such havoc among the nations of the earth, to practise such deception towards and cruelty agaiast them (ver. 13), to angle them up like fishes out of the sea or catch them in his net (ver. 15), to deprive them of their heads by carrying away their kings, and so to make them like the finny tribes that have no rulers over them (ver. 14); and not only so, but to exult in bis conquests and depre- dations, as if these were exclusively the result of bis own power and skill; to "sacri- fice unto bis net, and burn incense unto his drag" ( ver. 16), thus making might his god (ver. 11), and practically deifying himself. 2. An old problem. Habakkuk':; 10 THE BOOK OF HADAKKUK.