AS A WHIRLWIND TO SCATTER ME

I wonder whether you have ever felt as Habakkuk did when he penned the first words of his prophecy: ‘O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!’ 1. 2. How puzzling and, at times, dis­tressing the silence of heaven can be!

Here, in chapter 3, Habakkuk acknowledges, ‘O Lord, I have heard thy speech’, v. 2. God was at work and now the cry of the prophet is, ‘in wrath remember mercy’.

What Habakkuk had to learn in the first part of this chapter was that God remains the same and ‘his ways are everlasting’, v. 6. In the exodus from Egypt God had demonstrated that He heard the cry of His people and that He had the power to deliver them, vv. 3-6. Had not God enabled His people to enter the promised land and possess it? ‘Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger’, v. 12. How many had sought to oppose the will of God and had fallen as a consequence of their haughty spirit!

How awesome is the power of God! Habakkuk saw it in the natural realm, affecting the mountains and perpetual hills, v. 6, the rivers and waters, vv. 9, 10, and the sun and the moon, v. 11. For what purpose was all this might and majesty displayed? ‘Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people … thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked’, v. 13. These two principles remain and provide assurance for the people of God in every day.

Part of Habakkuk’s vision has a fulfilment which is yet future. At the end of the great tribulation period the beleaguered nation of Israel will stand relatively insignificant and, to the world’s eyes, friendless. The forces of evil will come out ‘as a whirlwind to scatter’ that remnant of God’s people. Such will be the magnitude of the opposing force that all will seem lost before its might. But, the One who has the salvation of His people fore­most in His thoughts will come and will deliver. The ‘head of the house of the wicked’ will be fatally wounded. What was Habakkuk’s response? ‘I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation’, v. 18. What is ours?