The Pulpit Commentary — Habakkuk — Section 63

1dorious manifestation of J8hovah was rendered possible, and even probable, by what had in the past occurred at Sinai; that it would proceed in the line of that earlier theophany, and be a carrying out of the Divine policy therein revealed-a policy of mercy and judgment, of salvation and destruction; and that in it, as in the ancient Apocalypse, both the power and the holiness of God would be signally displayed. True of the Divine advent iu the overthrow of Babylon, these thoughts were also realized in the advent of the fulness of the times, and will be conspicuous in the final advent at the close of human history. 2. The purpose for which he comes. To execute judgment upon the ungodly world, and so to effect the deliverance of his people. This was to be the object of his interposition in the overthrow of Babylon, as it had been in the destruction of Egypt; this was the end ainied at in the first coming of the Saviour, the redemption of his Church by the annihilation of her foes; this will be the purpose of his appearing at the ead of the world, to complete the redemption of his people by completing the punishment of the ungodly. 3. The attendants lYy whom he is served. Pestilence in front, and fiery bolts in the rear, signifying that God will be accom- panied with sufficient instruments to effect his purpose. "Death and destruction of a.II sorts a.re a great army a.t bis command" (Pusey). Learn: 1. The certainty of a. future manifestation of Jehovah in the Person of the glorified Christ. 2. The double object for which that glorious manifestation of Christ will take place. Vers. 6, 7.-.An- ideal, theophany: 2. The wonderful acts of the Deity. I. MEASURING THE EARTH, AND DRrvING ASUNDER THE NATIONS. 1. Measuring the earth j i.e. either surveying it with bis all-seeing glance whereat there is universal consternation ( F"usset ), or measuring it out among the peoples oa its surface, as Joshua partitioned the Holy Land after its conquest among the tribes (Pusey). Both ideas are historically true, no Divine interposition of any magnitude occurring among earth's inhabitants without bringing with it to thoughtful minds a conviction that the hand and eye of God are at work, and 'leaving after it, as e. result, e. rearrangement of the map of the globe. The marginal reading, "shaking the earth," causing it to reel (Delitzsch, Keil), as David says it trembled on the occasion of Jehovah's coming down on Mount Sinai (Ps. lx.viii. 8), presents also a valuable truth that the Divine providential government of tl,e world, especially when it takes to deal with long-established iniquity for the purpose of punishing and destroying the same, is calculated to inspire awe among earth'~ inhabitants (Ps. xcix. 1), as it did when it broke the pride of Egypt (Exod. xv. 14), as it was to do when it overthrew the Cha.ldean power, and as it will do when it hurls the mystical Babylon to the abyss (Rev. xviii. 19). This the thought contained in the parallel clause. 2. Driving asunder the nations. "He beheld and drove e.sunder [or, 'm.ade to trcm ble '] the nations." He so paralyzed them with fear the.t he drove them asunder, rendering combination amongst them impossible. II. SoATTERING THE MOUNTAINS AND BOWING THE HILLS, Not the lesser heights of compe.ratively recent formation, but the ·primeve.l altitudes, whose hoary peaks have witnessed the passing by of millenniums, and whose roots go down amid the granite bars of the earth (Ps. xc. 2). These by his encampment on their summits he causes to crumble, resolve themselves into dust, and vanish into nought (Nah. i. 5; Micah i. 4). The image may point to" the convulsions on Mount Sinai and to the earthque.ke which announced the descent of the Most High" (Adam Clarke), but it signifies the utter impossibility of even the strongest forces of nature, whether in matter or in man, resisting the advance of God, ond that because his ways are older than even the ever- lasting hills (Ps. xo. 2), are the only things on earth to which everlastingness belongs. "'l.'hc everlasting ways of the everlasting God are mercy and trnth" (St. Bernard, quoted by Pnse_v). Ill. 'fEllnIFYIKO TIIE HEATHEN ANO PUKISHlt-0 THE ADVERSARIES OF llIS l'J;;OPLE, 60 TRE BOOK OF RABAKKUK. [on. m. 1-l!l.