Bible Study Notes: Habakkuk Chapter 3: The Just Shall Live by Faith !

Overview: When Habakkuk initially sees how evil the nation of Judah has become and cries out to God for justice he is overwhelmed with God’s response. How could God send a nation worse then His nation to judge His people. Then God responds by showing Habakkuk that ultimately even the Babylonian nation would be judged for their wickedness. When Habakkuk realizes that God is in total control he finishes this letter with a beautiful psalm of praise but asks God to please show mercy. We will not or cannot understand the thoughts or ways of God but we can rest assured that in spite of what we see, even today, that God is in total control. Isaiah 55:5-9 “Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, And nations who do not know you shall run to you, Because of the LORD your God, And the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.” 6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “ For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Key Verse: Habakkuk 3:2 “O LORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.”

 

Habakkuk 3:1-3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth. 2 O LORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, The Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of His praise. (See Notes 1: God’s Mercy!

Habakkuk 3:4-7 His brightness was like the light; He had rays flashing from His hand, and there His power was hidden. 5 Before Him went pestilence, and fever followed at His feet. 6 He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered, 7 The perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; The curtains of the land of Midian trembled. (See Notes 2: God’s Sovereingty)

Habakkuk 3:8-16 O LORD, were You displeased with the rivers, Was Your anger against the rivers, Was Your wrath against the sea, That You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation? 9 Your bow was made quite ready; Oaths were sworn over Your arrows. Selah You divided the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw You and trembled; The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice, And lifted its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; At the light of Your arrows they went, At the shining of Your glittering spear. 12 You marched through the land in indignation; You trampled the nations in anger. 13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For salvation with Your Anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked,By laying bare from foundation to neck. Selah 14 You thrust through with his own arrows. The head of his villages. They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me; Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. 15 You walked through the sea with Your horses, Through the heap of great waters. 16 When I heard, my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; And I trembled in myself, That I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, He will invade them with his troops. (See Notes 3: God’s Power!)

Habakkuk 3:17-19 Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls— 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills. To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.

Notes 1: God’s Mercy !

Exodus 34:6-8 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

Psalm 86:3-7 Be merciful to me, O Lord, For I cry to You all day long 4 Rejoice the soul of Your servant, For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul 5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You. 6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; And attend to the voice of my supplications 7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, For You will answer me.

Isaiah 40:12-23 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? 14 With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. 16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. 17 All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? 19 The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains. 20 Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter. 21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.

Exodus 14:24-29 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the LORD looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. 25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.” 26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” 27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. 29 But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Personal Application: God is merciful, sovereign and powerful in His character and actions toward mankind. It can be difficult to reconcile the tremendous evil that surrounds us today and ask as Habakkuk did, “God, why are you letting this happen?” One thing we can be absolutely sure of is that God has a plan for mankind and is in the process of extending mercy to all before Jesus returns to rule the new heaven and the new earth. It is all a matter of time and all in God’s time. Our job is to be ready and to live our lives in a manner that the mercy that God has shown us would draw men and women to Jesus Christ. Romans 11:30-36 “For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 “ For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? (Isaiah 40:13; Jeremiah 23:18) 35 “ Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?”36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.