Wednesday Bible Study- the end of all things- Habakkuk

The third chapter of Habakkuk (which we hit also in the 3:16s) reads as a Psalm, with notations as to instruments needed and the 'selah' pauses, as good an indication as any that Habakkuk was a 'professional' prophet.  But this was no mere psalm- it was an end-of-days prophecy, combined with what the events meant to HIM, even though he lived thousands of years before US, and we haven't got to those days yet.  And it's in his application that we take our greatest meaning from it.

From the beginning to the first 'selah', we get a simple message.  That Habbie heard the report- that is, he received the prophecy, and it starts with God- as the returned Christ- touching down on earth in His Glory.

The next section talks of the effects of that landing- landmarks of the earth thought to be 'eternal' crumbling before His approach.  3:6 basically tells you the answer to the age-old question- the irresistible force or the immovable object-  it's the force:   His were the everlasting ways. But the section goes on asking, did God come down just to change the real estate?

Hab 3:8  Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? 
Hab 3:9  You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah 

No, the purpose, revealed right at the pause, is war.  The next section tells of the purpose of the war:

Hab 3:13  You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah 

But before we get there is an interesting phrase which then leads into the next section:

Hab 3:11  The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. 

His weapons so awesome that even the heavens stopped to watch.  But those He attacked weren't even worthy of them:

Hab 3:14  You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 

Hab 3:15  You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. 

While God's presence wracked the earth itself, it was man's own weaponry- whether this is literal, or figurative of his weapons of sin, you decide- that destroyed him.  Then comes the verse we studied so long ago:

Hab 3:16  I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 

That study, from nearly two years ago (which I didn't realize I had been doing these so long!) can be found here.  And at this point the prophecy ends, and the application begins.  Speak on, Habakkuk:

Hab 3:17  Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 

Hab 3:18  yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 

Hab 3:19  GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. 

A good lesson for these days- no matter what the trouble, rejoice in the Lord!  Those who are faithful are NOT abandoned.