The Final Prayer and Prophecy

Habakkuk's Prayer: “Yahweh Will Save Us” (3:1-19) 

Habakkuk Prays for Intervention (1) 

Habakkuk writes a prayer asking for Yahweh’s intervention. This prayer is turned into a song (“Shigionoth”) to be sung at the Temple (1).

The Burden of the Prayer (2)

Habakkuk began his prayer by remembering all the reports he had heard of Yahweh and all Yahweh had done. The reports not only created within Habakkuk reverence but led him to make three petitions of Yahweh:

• Revive Your saving work as in the past.

• Cause Your saving work to be experienced as in the past.

• Remember Your mercy during times of judgment as in the past (2).

Habakkuk’s Prophecy (3-7)

Habakkuk first saw Yahweh coming from Teman and Mount Paran; this would be from the south, from the direction and places where Israel journeyed from Egypt into the Promised Land (3).

Yahweh was coming again to deliver, and as He did, the heavens would come alive with color, and the earth would express awe and praise.

• His coming was the coming of the sun bursting upon the sky with a new day; flashes of deliverance and liberating power were powerfully sparking from his hands (4).

• Part of Yahweh’s deliverance was pestilence, plague, shaking of nations, shattering of powers, and the leveling of governments claiming to be eternal.

• Yahweh would first stand and survey the great battle He was about to wage; then He jumped in, delivering and judging. All of this was done so He could reveal Himself and His ways as eternal (5-6).

• Yahweh would bring Cushan and Midian great affliction and fear. Of course, these were two nations that afflicted God's people unjustly as they made their journey to the Promised Land (7).

Habakkuk Clarifies His Prophecy (8-11)

Habakkuk wanted to know if Yahweh was also, in essence, judging the ecological systems of the earth as He was coming to save the world. Habakkuk could see the clouds of salvation gathering as horses and chariots. He saw this salvation army armed with massive firepower (8).

Habakkuk then paused to take in all he had seen and had been praying.

After the short Selah, Habakkuk described the coming judgment, listing its effects on nature:

• Rivers of lava begin to flow (9).

• Mountains quake with pain and pump up more lava.

• The crashing waves are like hands lifted to God in submission and prayer (10).

• The sun and moon stand still as God’s deliverance weaponry flow, stopping time until victory is certain (11).

Habakkuk’s Explanation (12-16)

All that Habakkuk had said previously was his poetic way of saying that no natural barriers would stop Yahweh from judging those nations needing to be stopped (12). Yahweh had determined to save His chosen people, to save His anointed ones, and He would, in fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, crush the heads of the wicked and utterly destroy them. Again, Habakkuk took a break, a pause, a Selah, to contemplate all he was seeing (13).

Habakkuk was clearly seeing the Messiah, as Yahweh used His arrows in Messiah’s death and Resurrection to destroy the army of satan by taking out its head. The one who had come to scatter Christ and His people in secret ways would be forever crushed. Habakkuk was seeing all the way to the times of Christ, connecting what was going on in his day to its fulfillment when Yahweh’s New Day would arise (14).

Habakkuk took a moment to remember Yahweh’s past victory at the Red Sea, remembering Yahweh would do it again (15).

When Habakkuk thought about all he had seen, Yahweh’s great deliverance of His people, but also the awful judgment associated with His deliverance:

• Habakkuk’s body went into convulsions.

• Habakkuk became so concerned he started stuttering.

• Habakkuk became bone weary.

• Habakkuk had no strength to even stand.

Habakkuk decided, in light of all of this and in light of his own weakness, to quietly wait for the day of trouble to come, knowing Judah was sure to be invaded (16).

The language of Habakkuk is beautiful as it weaves the immediate judgment coming on Judah in Habakkuk’s day with the ultimate judgment to come when Yahweh sets His people free in Christ. 

Habakkuk Rejoices (17-19)

Habakkuk looked out toward the coming future and imagined it to be as bad as it could be.

• No sweetness to life (figs)

• No source of joy (wine)

• No healing oil (olives)

• No source of prosperity (flocks/herds)

It was as bad as it could get (17).

Yet, Habakkuk decided he would commit his heart to rejoice because he had Someone no one could take away: Yahweh. Habakkuk knew if he had Yahweh, he would ultimately experience the joy of salvation (18).

In weakness and in times of trouble, Habakkuk called on Yahweh to be his God and strength. He called on Yahweh to make his feet as sure as a deer’s so he could climb up into His presence when the ground beneath him was so uncertain. Habakkuk called on Yahweh to make him walk on the high places of victory when the earth was being ravaged by defeat.

Habakkuk then turned his prayer over to the choirmaster to chord out and make a song of it (19).