The Pulpit Commentary — Habakkuk — Section 22

II. 1T WAS TO DE WROUGHT WITH REBISTLESS VIOLENCE. 1. The violence would be uncontrolled. "Their jndgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves." They recognize no authority, and proudly spurn the dictates of others. "They recognize no judge savt1 themselveB, and they get for themselves their own dignity, without needing others' help. It will be vain for the Jews to complain of their tyrannical judgments, for whatever the Chaldeans decree they will do according to their own will: they will not brook any one attempting to interfere n (Fausset). 2. The violence would be rapid and fierce. " Their horses are swifter than the leopards." A naturalist says of the leopard that it runs most swiftly, straight on, and you would imagine it was flying through the air. "More fierce than the evening wolves." These ravenous beasts, having skulked all the day away from the light of heaven, get terribly hungry by the night, and come forth with a fierce voracity. Like the swift leopards and the ravenous wolves, we are here told, these Chaldeans would come forth. Yes, and swifter and more ravenous than the wolves, like the hungry eagle on its pinions that "hasteth to eat." What a terrible description of their doom! Alas I into what a monster sin bas transformed man ! he becomes leopard, wolf, eagle, etc. III. 1T WAS TO DE WROUGHT WITH IMMENSE BA voo. "Their faces shall sup np as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them : they shall deride every strong- hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it." As the east wind, they would sweep through the country, iike the simoo'm, spreading devastation wherever it passed; and like that wind would bear away tbe Jews into captivity, thick as the sand. "They shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a. scorn unto them." They would regard all the great magnates of Ju9aaa with a haughty contempt, and treat them with derision. And so would they be in their bloody expedition. They would regard their very conquering power as their god, and worship their success. CONCLUSION. All this was-to come upon a nation of conventional reglionista. All peoples whose religion is that of profession, letter, form, ceremony, are exposed to a. doom as terrible as this.-D. T. Vers. 12, 13.-The eternity, providence, and holiness of Jehovah. "Art thou not from everlasting, 0 Lord my God, mine Holy One ? we shall not die. 0 Lord, thon hast ordained them for judgment; and, 0 mighty God, thou hast established them for correction," etc. In this passage the prophet refers to the eternity, the providence, and the holiness of the Jehovah of the Jewish people. l. HE REGARDS HIS ETERNITY AB AN ARGUMENT FOR THEIR PRESERVATION. "Art thou not from everlasting, 0 Lord, my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die." " However terrible and prostrating the. Divine threatenings may sound, the prophet draws consolation and hope from the holiness of the faithful covenant God, that Israel will not perish, but that the judgment will be only a severe chastisement" (Delitzsch). " Art thou not from everlasting?" The. interrogatory does not imply doubt on his pa.rt. The true God is essentially eternal; he "inhabiteth eternity." He is without beginning, without succession, without end. 'l'he loftiest thoughts of the loftiest intelligence are lost in the idea of his eternity. From his eternity the prophet argues that his people will not perish; " We shall not die." There is force in this argument. His peoplEl live in him. Their life is hid in God, and so long as he endures they may hope to continue. Christ said to his disciples, "Because I Jive, ye shall live also:" Man's immortality i8 not in himself, but in God. If he has purposed that we shall live for ever, he is eternal, and will never change his mind or die. II. HE REGARDS HIS PROVIDEN0E AS A SOURCE 01!' COMFORT. "0 Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment ; and, 0 mighty God, thou hast established them for correction." "Jehovah, for judgment thou hast appointed it, and, 0 Rock, thou hast founded it for chastisement" (Delitzsch). Whatever evil of any kind, from any quarter, comes upon the loyal &ervants of God, comes not by accident; it is under the direction of the All-wise and the All-beneficent. These Chaldeans could not move without him, nor could they strike one blow without his permission ; they were but the rod in his hand. All the most furious fiends in the universe are under his direction. He says, concerning the mighty tide of wicked passions," Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further." Is nut this a source of comfort under suffering and oppression ? What-  20 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK. [OH, I, 1-17,