| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Habakkuk
Chapter Two
Habakkuk 2
Chapter Contents
Habakkuk must wait in faith. (1-4) Judgments upon the
Chaldeans. (5-14) Also upon drunkenness and idolatry. (15-20)
Commentary on Habakkuk 2:1-4
(Read Habakkuk 2:1-4)
When tossed and perplexed with doubts about the methods
of Providence, we must watch against temptations to be impatient. When we have
poured out complaints and requests before God, we must observe the answers God
gives by his word, his Spirit, and providences; what the Lord will say to our
case. God will not disappoint the believing expectations of those who wait to
hear what he will say unto them. All are concerned in the truths of God's word.
Though the promised favour be deferred long, it will come at last, and
abundantly recompense us for waiting. The humble, broken-hearted, repenting
sinner, alone seeks to obtain an interest in this salvation. He will rest his
soul on the promise, and on Christ, in and through whom it is given. Thus he
walks and works, as well as lives by faith, perseveres to the end, and is
exalted to glory; while those who distrust or despise God's all-sufficiency
will not walk uprightly with him. The just shall live by faith in these
precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. Only those made
just by faith, shall live, shall be happy here and for ever.
Commentary on Habakkuk 2:5-14
(Read Habakkuk 2:5-14)
The prophet reads the doom of all proud and oppressive
powers that bear hard upon God's people. The lusts of the flesh, the lust of
the eye, and the pride of life, are the entangling snares of men; and we find
him that led Israel captive, himself led captive by each of these. No more of
what we have is to be reckoned ours, than what we come honestly by. Riches are
but clay, thick clay; what are gold and silver but white and yellow earth?
Those who travel through thick clay, are hindered and dirtied in their journey;
so are those who go through the world in the midst of abundance of wealth. And
what fools are those that burden themselves with continual care about it; with
a great deal of guilt in getting, saving, and spending it, and with a heavy
account which they must give another day! They overload themselves with this
thick clay, and so sink themselves down into destruction and perdition. See
what will be the end hereof; what is gotten by violence from others, others
shall take away by violence. Covetousness brings disquiet and uneasiness into a
family; he that is greedy of gain troubles his own house; what is worse, it
brings the curse of God upon all the affairs of it. There is a lawful gain,
which, by the blessing of God, may be a comfort to a house; but what is got by
fraud and injustice, will bring poverty and ruin upon a family. Yet that is not
the worst; Thou hast sinned against thine own soul, hast endangered it. Those
who wrong their neighbours, do much greater wrong to their own souls. If the
sinner thinks he has managed his frauds and violence with art and contrivance,
the riches and possessions he heaped together will witness against him. There
are not greater drudges in the world than those who are slaves to mere wordly
pursuits. And what comes of it? They find themselves disappointed of it, and
disappointed in it; they will own it is worse than vanity, it is vexation of
spirit. By staining and sinking earthly glory, God manifests and magnifies his
own glory, and fills the earth with the knowledge of it, as plentifully as
waters cover the sea, which are deep, and spread far and wide.
Commentary on Habakkuk 2:15-20
(Read Habakkuk 2:15-20)
A severe woe is pronounced against drunkenness; it is
very fearful against all who are guilty of drunkenness at any time, and in any
place, from the stately palace to the paltry ale-house. To give one drink who
is in want, who is thirsty and poor, or a weary traveller, or ready to perish,
is charity; but to give a neighbour drink, that he may expose himself, may
disclose secret concerns, or be drawn into a bad bargain, or for any such purpose,
this is wickedness. To be guilty of this sin, to take pleasure in it, is to do
what we can towards the murder both of soul and body. There is woe to him, and
punishment answering to the sin. The folly of worshipping idols is exposed. The
Lord is in his holy temple in heaven, where we have access to him in the way he
has appointed. May we welcome his salvation, and worship him in his earthly
temples, through Christ Jesus, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Habakkuk》
Habakkuk 2
Verse 1
[1] I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower,
and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I
am reproved.
Upon my watch — I will stand as a watchman on my
watch-tower.
He — The Lord.
Reproved — Called to give an account of the mysteriousness of
providence; either to satisfy doubters, or to silence quarrellers.
Verse 2
[2] And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision,
and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Upon tables — What was of publick concern, and
therefore to be published, was anciently written or engraven upon tables,
smooth stones, or wood, and then hung up in a publick place to be read.
May run — That none may need to stop, but every one may plainly
and clearly discern what is written.
Verse 3
[3] For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the
end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will
surely come, it will not tarry.
At the end — When the period appointed of God
shall come.
Shall speak — Be accomplished, and not
disappoint your expectation.
Verse 4
[4] Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in
him: but the just shall live by his faith.
Which is lifted up — That proudly contests
with the justice and wisdom of the Divine Providence, and provides for his own
safety by his own wit.
The just — The humble and upright one, who adores the depth of
divine providence, and is persuaded of the truth of divine promises.
Shall live — Supports himself, by a firm
expectation of the deliverance of Zion.
Verse 5
[5] Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a
proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as
death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth
unto him all people:
He — The king of Babylon.
Wine — Hereby Belshazzar, his city and kingdom of Babylon
fell a prey to Darius and Cyrus.
At home — Is ever abroad warring upon some or other.
Unto him — To his kingdom.
All nations — That are round about him.
Verse 8
[8] Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant
of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of
the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
Of the land — Of the whole land of Chaldea.
The city — Babylon.
Verse 9
[9] Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his
house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the
power of evil!
To his house — His family which he would enrich,
and raise high.
Delivered — Kept secure and out of danger
from all below him.
Verse 10
[10] Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off
many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.
Thou — Nebuchadnezzar.
Verse 11
[11] For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam
out of the timber shall answer it.
Shall cry out — As if it had a voice, it cries to
God for vengeance.
Answer it — Confirm the charge against thee.
Verse 13
[13] Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people
shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very
vanity?
Is it not of the Lord — Is it not a judgment
from God? Shall labour - That men go thro' the most painful labour.
For very vanity — For nothing; without any reward
of their labour.
Verse 16
[16] Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also,
and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD's right hand shall be
turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.
Thou — O king of Babylon.
Shall be turned — They turned the cup of pleasure
about, God will carry the cup of indignation about also, and make them drink
deep of it.
Shameful spewing — Thou shalt be as much
loathed as a shameful drunkard is in his vomit.
Verse 17
[17] For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the
spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the
violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
The violence — The violence thou hast done to
Judea shall overwhelm thee.
The spoil of brass — Such spoil as by
hunters is made among wild beasts, when they endeavour to destroy the whole
kind.
Verse 20
[20] But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth
keep silence before him.
The Lord — He is Jehovah, the fountain of being, life, power, and
salvation to his people.
Keep silence — Fear, submit, and depend on him;
let his enemies be silent, reverence, hope, pray and wait for him, who will
arise and have mercy on them, who will make it to be well with the righteous,
and ill with the wicked, who will fully and satisfactorily solve the doubts,
and unfold the riddles of his providence.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Habakkuk》
Hab. 2.4
Precepts of the Law
The Jews in the Talmud have the saying, ‘The whole law was given to Moses at Sinai, in six hundred and thirteen precepts.’ David, in the fifteenth Psalm, brings them all within the compass of eleven. Isaiah brings them to six (Isa. 33.15); Micah to three (Micah 6.8); Isaiah again to two (Isa. 56); Habakkuk to this one, ‘The just shall live by faith’. ── Archibald Naismith《Outlines for Sermons》
The Just shall Live by his
Faith (2.4)
I.
The Place of Trust—the Watchtower (v.1)
II.
The Pledge of Trust—‘it will surely come’ (v.3)
III.
The Power of Trust—‘live by his faith’ (v.4)
Verse
4 is quoted three times in the New Testament, with the emphasis as follows:
1. Who shall live by his faith?—the
Justified (Rom. 1.17)
2. By what shall the just live?—by
his Faith (Gal. 3.11)
3. What shall the just do by
faith?—live for God (Heb. 10.38 as did those whose faith god honored in Heb.
11)
── Archibald Naismith《Outlines for Sermons》
02 Chapter 2
Verses 1-4
Verse 1
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower.
Awaiting the Lord’s message
Nothing definite is known of this man Habakkuk. In the text we see
him preparing himself for his holy task--ascending his tower, that he may see;
secluding himself, that he may hear; making his bosom bare, that he may feel
the message of the Unseen.
I. The secret of
life is to realise the unseen. To this man the world is full of an unseen,
majestic presence. The very air he breathes throbs with the pulse of God, and
the silence may be broken at any time by God’s voice. So he spends life
watching, listening, waiting. Is not every life noble and grand and true just
in proportion as it realises this, as it seeks the Unseen? This is indeed the
Gospel--that God is now reconciled to us, and that His presence broods over us
in unutterable love. To realise this and enter into its blessedness is not only
the secret of life, but it is the whole duty of man.
II. We ought to
expect messages from the unseen. To the prophet this great Unseen One is no
dumb God. The truth is, that God seems to be always seeking some heart
sufficiently at leisure from itself that lie may talk with it. He found such an
one in Abraham and in Moses. In the days of Eli we read there was “no open
vision.” God was silent, for none could hear His voice; God was invisible, for
earth-blinded eyes could not see Him. If we could but hear, He has much to say
unto us--much about His purposes of grace toward ourselves, and about His
purpose toward the world; much about the coming glory. In three ways--
1. By His Spirit through the Word.
2. By His Spirit through our conscience.
3. By His spirit through His Providence.
We need these voices from the Unseen to guide and help us in the
sorrows and perplexities of our lives. If it be a miracle for the Unseen to
speak with men, then that is a miracle that happens almost every hour.
III. How we should
dispose ourselves to receive God’s messages.
1. We should get up, up above the heads of the crowd, up above the
crush and clamour of the worldly throng, to where there is clearer air and
greater peace. It is not the new play we want, nor the most fashionable church,
but the new vision of His face. Wherever we can get most of that is the place
for us.
2. We are next to quicken our whole being into a listening and
receptive attitude.
3. Quiet is needed also; for God most often speaks in a still, small
voice. (J. C. Johnston, M. A.)
The watch-tower
Almost nothing is known about the personal history of the author
of the prophecy contained in this book. He himself retires into the background,
as one content to be forgotten if the Word of God uttered by him receives the
attention it deserves. The self-abnegation of many of those whom God employed
to do a great work among His ancient people teaches a lesson that is much
needed. It implies a whole-hearted consecration to God’s work and interests in
the world that ought to be more aimed at than it sometimes is. It is a trial
that comes to the prophet’s faith, and how he met it, that are brought before
us in the whole passage of which our text forms a part. What was the trial of
his faith? In answer to his Cry to God to interpose to put a stop to abounding
wickedness in the Covenant nation, the reply is given to him that terrible
judgment was about to fall upon it, and from an unexpected quarter--from
Babylon. The havoc that would be made by this fierce, proud, self-sufficient
world-power is made in vision to pass distinctly and clearly before him. He
sees its terrible army marching through the land--a garden of Eden before it
and a wilderness behind it. The scene that thus fills his mind’s eye, his
patriotic spirit would not allow him to contemplate unmoved. He trembles for
the safety of his people under this dark cloud of judgment. He seeks refuge
from them in God, holding fast the conviction that a righteous God would not
allow a wicked, proud nation like that of the Chaldeans to hold His people for
ever in cruel bondage. “Art Thou of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst
Thou not look upon iniquity? Wherefore lookest Thou, then, upon them that deal
treacherously, and holdest Thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is
more righteous than he?” As he contemplates the Chaldean army, conscious of its
own strength and making a god of it, ravaging the whole land, this conviction
grew doubtful to him. It seemed sometimes to slip away from his grasp. This was
the trial of his faith, and the greatness of it can only be measured by the
sincerity of his religion and the strength of his patriotism. How does he meet
this trial? The words of our text inform us. “I will stand upon my watch-tower,
and set me upon the fortress, and will watch to see what He will say in me, and
what I shall answer to my plea.” He resolves to lay his doubts before God, and
to wait upon Him--withdrawing his attention from all earthly things--for
solution. In carrying out this resolution he compares himself to one who mounts
the watch-tower--attached to ancient towns and fortresses--that he may scan the
surrounding district to see if any one might be approaching, whether friend or
foe. Like one on the watch-tower in the eager strained outlook for some
messenger, would the prophet be in relation to the expected explanation from
God. When he himself tells us that on this watch-tower he was watching to see
what God would say in him--for this is the proper rendering of the
words--waiting for an inward voice he could recognise as God’s, the spiritual
nature of the transaction is placed beyond all doubt. The revelation which came
to his soul thus waiting, of which we have an account in the subsequent part of
the chapter, solved his difficulties and strengthened his faith and hope. The
assurance was given to him, as we learn from the 14th verse, that not only
Canaan, but “the whole earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
I. The mounting of
this watchtower. This is an exercise to which we must be no strangers if we are
to have God’s light shining on our path, God’s voice saying to us: “This is the way,
walk ye in it,” and God’s hand laid upon us to strengthen us for every trial
and conflict.
1. May we not regard it as laying before God the difficulties caused
by his own dealings? There was a mystery in the events of Providence which the
prophet felt that he could not penetrate. Was it possible that God’s chosen
people--to whom pertained the adoption and the glory and the covenants--would
be overwhelmed in the disasters in which he saw them plunged? Would the ungodly
might of Chaldea be allowed to crush them altogether, and all the hopes bound
up in their life? To the eye of sense this seemed likely, but the prophet knew
that behind all events and forces there was a personal God--Jehovah the
Covenant God of Israel. He knew that they were but carrying out His will, and
he would not believe, even though the appearances of things pointed to it--that
that will was seeking the destruction of the Covenant nation. Sense was drawing
him one way, his faith was drawing him another, and the questions born of this
conflict which were agitating his mind he wisely resolves to lay before God.
What are Job’s wonderful speeches in his conversations with his friends, but a
series of impassioned reasonings with God about His dealings with him? What,
again, was Asaph’s exercise under the triumphing of the wicked as recorded in a
well-known Psalm, but a talking with God about HIS dealings? And do we not find
the plaintive Jeremiah, when his soul was sore vexed with cruel opposition,
saying, “Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead with Thee; yet let me talk
with Thee of Thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?
Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?” It is not a blind
impersonal force that the believer sees behind the events that take place,
compelling sullen submission to whatever happens? No! It is a loving Father to
whom appeal may be made about the perplexing questions that may be aroused by
His own dealings. Fatalism--in which things, are accepted simply because they
cannot be changed--is not Christian resignation, and falls far short of the
attitude in which the believing heart can find rest. Openness in our dealings
with God is what He delights in, and what will lead us to the knowledge of that
secret of His that is with them that fear Him. Faith will have its difficulties
both with the wondrous revelation God has given to us in His Word, and with the
unfolding of His purposes in the course of His Providence. The finest
natures--those touched to finest issues--are very often those who feel these
difficulties most keenly, and have to fight their way to the bright shining
shore of certainty and rest by buffeting with many a storm. And the best way of
dealing with all those difficulties is just to take them to the watch-tower and
lay them before God.
2. But this dealing with God about questions that may perplex us
implies the stilling of our souls before Him, that He may give us light and
guidance. The prophet after pleading with God, expostulating with Him on the
apparent contradiction between the Divine providence and the Divine promise,
places himself before God and waits for His voice. That he may hear it all the
better--may catch the slightest whisper of the Divine voice within him--he retires into himself,
quiets his own spirit, and intently waits. The expressive language of the Psalmist
may be used to describe his “attitude,” “My soul is silence unto God. And this
exercise, need we say, is essential to the obtaining of any deep insight into
God’s will, to our receiving those discoveries of Himself as a God of grace and
love, that will give us rest even under the most trying dispensations. It is by
the Divine voice within us that the Divine voice without us in His written Word
is clearly, distinctly understood, and is made to throw its blessed light upon
Divine Providence. Without the inward revelation that comes to us by the
teaching of God’s Spirit, the outward revelation given in our Bibles will
remain dark and unintelligible. If we do not withdraw now and again from the
bustle and noise of the world, and commune with our own hearts, the Divine
voice will be lost to us. It will remain unheard, as the bell striking the hour
above some busy thoroughfare is often unheard by those in the throng. It is the
calm lake which mirrors the sun most perfectly, and so it is the calm soul that
will catch the most of the heavenly glory that shines upon the watch tower, and
reflect it on the world around. But we must not think of this calmness or
silence of the soul toward God as a mere passive attitude. “It requires the
intensest energy of all our being to keep all our being still and waiting upon
God. All our strength must be put into the task; and our soul will never be
more intensely alive than when in deepest abnegation it waits hushed before
God.” Though it may involve an apparent contradiction, the silent soul will be
one full of the spirit of prayer. The prophet had been pleading with God for
light to guide him in dark days, and it is with a longing pleading soul that he
mounts the watch-tower and waits for an answer. He has directed his prayer to
God, and he looks up expecting an answer. There is really as much prayer in
this silent submissive waiting for an answer to his cry as there was in the cry
itself. The expectant look of the beggar after his request has been made has
often more power to move the generous heart than the request itself. And the
mounting of the watch-tower after prayer to maintain an outlook for the
promised answer puts beyond all doubt that we have been sincere and earnest in
the exercise, and will have power with God. The place on the watch-tower may
have to be maintained for a time before the answer comes, but it is sure to
come in some form or another.
4. But last of all here, this standing upon the watch-tower has been
regarded by some as the prophet’s continuance at his work notwithstanding the
difficulties that encompassed it. Not unfrequently in the Old Testament is the
prophet’s office compared to that of a watchman. What the watchman in the tower
did in the earthly sphere--keeping an outlook for the people and warning them
of coming danger--the prophet was to do in the spiritual sphere. And so when
the prophet here says:
“I will stand upon my watch-tower,” he is regarded as meaning, “I will not
leave my post--the place in which God has put me, but will wait in the faithful
discharge of every commanded duty for the solving of my doubts and the removal
of my difficulties.” Certainly in acting in such a way he took the very best
plan of getting his way made clear. When we allow our perplexities, whatever
they may be, to keep us back from work God is plainly laying to our hands, they
will increase around us. Activity and steadfastness in duty will purge our
spiritual atmosphere, while melancholy in active brooding will laden it with
pestilential vapours. A higher attainment still is to have the soul stilled
before God, and expectant even in the midst of our labour.
II. What is enjoyed
in this watch-tower. The prophet’s experience was one so rich and blessed that
a glimpse of it may well stir us up to follow his example:
1. He heard the Divine voice for which he listened. “Then Jehovah
answered me and said.” He became aware of a Divine presence within his soul,
and conscious of a Divine voice speaking to his heart. His waiting and looking
up met with a rich reward. Though this experience cannot now come in the same
form to the trustful waiting soul, yet, in its inner essence, it may and does come. The
indwelling of the Holy Spirit within believers as their tether is a blessed
reality. They who submit themselves to His guidance will be led by Him into all
truth, will not only gain a deep insight into God’s will, but will see its
bearing upon events in Providence. It was a very simple truth that was now
divinely spoken to the prophet:
“Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall
live by his faith.” The man or the race of men that are lifted up with vain
self-confidence shall experience no tranquillity, but they who abide firm in
their allegiance to God and make Him their trust shall he maintained by His
mighty gracious power. The simplest truths, that may in some of their aspects
have long been familiar to us, are often used in the teaching of the Spirit to
lift the soul above the mists that obscure its vision. It will be the
declaration of truths thus divinely spoken to our hearts that will be
accompanied with greatest power.
2. Again, let us notice that this experience brought him a new sense
of the Divine presence with His people. The song with which the sad prophecy
ends, recorded in the third chapter, expresses this sense of the Divine
nearness to His people. The land that had witnessed such marked manifestations
of His presence and power, the memory of which was fondly cherished by the
pious, had not been forsaken by Him. What had been done when “God came from
Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran,” would again be done for the
overthrow of the proud oppressor, and for the deliverance of the humble fearers
of His name. The eternal order lay behind the confusion caused by the wicked,
and would in due time assert itself, for the God of this order was behind all.
3. So the prophet finds his labours for the land and people he loved
sustained by a restful hope. Dark days may come in which the fig-tree shall not
blossom, and there shall be no fruit in the vine, and the field shall yield no
meat, but when their purifying work is accomplished brighter times shall dawn.
His labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Neither will ours if done in the
right spirit. (R. Morton.)
Watchfulness
I. The duty of watchfulness.
1. This duty arises from various causes which affect us in our
outward circumstances, as well as in our minds and hearts. They are our enemies
or our friends; such as build up the character of man for good, and lift it
heavenwards, or mar it and force it downwards to destruction. The ever-present,
active, and all-pervading causes of good and evil, acting upon man’s moral and
spiritual nature, provide a powerful reason for this duty. For while a man is
thus taught his dependence upon God for strength, and is shewn his own weakness
in the battle of life, he is at the same time taught to use every precaution
against his fees, to guard every avenue of his heart against their influence,
and to be vigilant and watchful in all his daily undertakings.
2. But watchfulness as a moral duty may be considered as a
recognition of God’s laws and government. The man who waits, like Habakkuk, for
the Almighty, will see the hand of God everywhere. He recognises God as the
watchful Father, noting every tear and hearing every sigh that inspires the
watchful heart with hope, and that sheds a bright ray of comfort through the
gloom.
II. Faith founded
upon the revelations of God is an argument against all mistrust and doubt of His power and
goodness.
1. The answer which God gave to the prayers of Habakkuk was the
authority by which he met every quibble of his opponents, and by which he
confronted his enmity.
2. A true faith acts on the revelation of God in the life history of
Christ, and on the soul’s immortality. In the life of Christ, weighted with
suffering the most intense, we find a solution to our own troubles, as well as
their sanction. Then let us “stand upon our watch.” (W. Horwood.)
On the watch-tower
There is no remedy, when such trials as those mentioned by the prophet
in the first chapter meet us, except we learn to raise up our minds above the
world. For if we contend with Satan, according to our own view of things, he
will a hundred times overwhelm us, and we can never be able to resist him. Let
us therefore know that here is shown to us the right way of fighting with him: when our minds are
agitated with unbelief, when doubts respecting God’s providence creep in, when
things are so confused in this world as to involve us in darkness, so that no
light appears, we must bid adieu to our own reason; for all our thoughts are
nothing worth when we seek, according to our own reason, to form a judgment.
Until then the faithful ascend to their tower, and stand in their citadel, of
which the prophet here speaks, their temptations will drive them here and
there, and sink them as it were in a bottomless gulf. But that we may more
fully understand the meaning, we must know that there is here an implied
contrast between the tower and the citadel, which the prophet mentions, and a
station on earth. As long, then, as we judge according to our own perceptions
we walk on the earth; and while we do so, many clouds arise, and Satan scatters
ashes in our eyes, and wholly darkens our judgment, and thus it happens that we
lie down altogether confounded. It is hence wholly necessary that we should
tread our reason under foot, and come nigh to God Himself. We have said that
the tower is the recess of the mind, but how can we ascend to it? Even by
following the Word of the Lord. For we creep on the earth; nay, we find that
our flesh ever draws us downward,--except when the truth from above becomes to
us, as it were, wings, or a ladder, or a vehicle, we cannot rise up one foot,
but, on the contrary, we shall seek refuges on the earth rather than ascend
into heaven. But let the Word of God became our ladder, or our vehicle, or our
wings, and, however difficult the ascent may be, we shall yet be able to fly
upward, provided God’s Word be allowed to have its own authority. We hence see
how unsuitable is the view of those interpreters who think that the tower and
the citadel is the Word of God; for it is by God’s Word that we are raised up
to this citadel, that is, to the safeguard of hope, where we may remain safe
and secure while looking down from this eminence on those things which disturb
us and darken all our senses as long as we lie on the earth. This is one thing. Then the
repetition is not without its use; for the prophet says, “On my tower will I
stand, on the citadel will I set myself.” He does not repeat in other words the
same thing because it is obscure, but in order to remind the faithful that,
though they are inclined to sloth, they must yet strive to extricate
themselves. And we soon find how slothful we become, except each of us stirs up
himself. For when any perplexity takes hold on our minds we soon succumb to
despair. This, then, is the reason why the prophet, after having spoken of the
tower, again mentions the citadel. (John Calvin.)
Watching for God
1. It is our safest way, in times of temptation and perplexity, not
to lie down under discouragement, but to recollect ourselves, and fix our eyes
on God, who only can clear our minds and quiet our spirits; therefore the
prophet, after his deep plunge in temptation, sets himself to look to God, and
get somewhat to answer upon his arguing, or reproof and expostulation, that so
his mind may be settled.
2. It is by the Word that the Lord cleareth darkness, and would have
His people answer their temptations and silence their reasonings.
3. Meditation, earnest prayer, withdrawing of our minds off from
things visible, and elevating them towards God, are the means in the use
whereof God revealeth Himself, and His mind from His Word, to His people in
dark times.
4. Faithful ministers ought to acquit themselves like watchmen in a
city or army, to be awake when others sleep, to be watching with God, and over
the people, seeking after faithful instructions which they may communicate,
seeking to be filled from heaven with light and life, that they may pour it out
upon the people; and all this especially in hard times.
5. Albeit the Lord’s people may have their own debates and faintings
betwixt God and them, yet it is their part to smother these as much as they
can, and to bring up a good report of God and His way to others. (George
Hutcheson.)
On noting the providences of God
The observer of grace should be studious to discern the workings
of Divine providence, and to consider their purposes in the counsels of the
Most High. We inquire into the importance of observing the various ways in
which the Almighty is pleased to address us, and of determining how far we have
hitherto regarded them, and turned them to our individual improvement. In reply
to the complaints of His servant, the Almighty shows that mercy would not be
long extended; that the Chaldeans would soon inflict summary vengeance on the
Jews. To these declarations of the Divine displeasure the prophet rejoins by
stating the conviction of his own safety, and of the protection which would be extended
to the rest of God’s people. He had hoped that God would have been satisfied
with gentler corrections, and not have employed an idolatrous nation to punish
His chosen people. But he resolves to wait patiently, in quietness and in
confidence, for the answer of God, that he may know what statement he was to
publish. Every Christian is as a man standing on the watch, as one who will
have to give account; who watches to see what God will say to him. The will of
God is declared both in His Word and in His works. The great end to be effected
by watchfulness is, that we may know our actual state, and be ready at any time
for aught that may befall us. It is that we may not be surprised, that we may
not be taken at unawares. What do you propose to answer when you are called to
appear before an all-seeing God? He has not only spoken to us in national
judgments and mercies, He has said a word privately to each one of us as
individual. (Richard Harvey, M. A.)
Man’s moral mission in the world
Wherefore are we in this world? We are not here by choice, nor by
chance. Man’s moral mission--
I. Consists in
receiving communications from the eternal mind. This will appear--
1. From man’s nature as a spiritual being.
(1) Man has a native instinct for it.
(2) A native capacity for it.
(3) A native necessity for it.
2. From man’s condition as a fallen being. As a sinner, man has a
deeper and a more special need than angels can have. Communications from God
are of infinite moment to man.
3. From the purposes of Christ’s mediation. Christ came to bring men
to God. His Cross is the meeting-place between man and his Maker.
4. From the special manifestations of God for the purpose. These we
have in the Bible.
5. From the general teaching of the Bible. In the Book men are called
to audience with God.
II. How are divine
communications to be received I Two things are necessary--
1. That we resort to the right scene. The prophet to his “tower.”
2. That we resort to the right scene in the right spirit.
III. Man’s moral
mission consists in imparting communications from the eternal mind. That we
have to impart as well as to receive is evident--
1. From the tendency of Divine thoughts to express themselves. Ideas
of a religious kind always struggle for utterance.
2. From the universal adaptation of Divine thoughts.
3. From the spiritual dependence of man upon man.
4. From the general teaching of the Bible.
IV. Man’s moral
mission consists in the practical realisation of communications from the
eternal mind. In the Divine purpose there is a period fixed for the realisation
of every Divine promise. However distant it may seem, our duty is to wait in
earnest practical faith for it. Learn who it is that fulfils his moral missions
in the world. The man who practically carries out God’s revelation in the
spirit and habits of his life. Notice--
(1) The reasonableness of religion.
(2) The grandeur of a religious life.
(3) The function of Christianity.
What is the special design of the Gospel? To qualify man to fulfil
his mission on earth. (Homilist.)
Verse 2
Write the vision, and make it plain.
Teaching must be plain
Think of that railway excursion train as it hurries onwards with
impetuous speed! A vast crowd is collected there, and how various and
complicated are the interests of each! A rapid impulse bears forward the whole;
that impulse resides in every member of the group; one single bystander directs
and controls it all. In an unexpected moment a shock, as of a thunderbolt,
crushes them together; in the twinkling of an eye the elements of destruction
are terribly let loose; each hapless one becomes an instrument of injury or
death to his neighbour. What pain can paint the terror, the agony, the anguish
of such a scene! They will be remembered for long, long years in mutilated
forms, in shaken nerves, in bereaved or orphaned homes; the records will make
multitudes shudder by their firesides, or will haunt them in their slumbers.
Such have been the effects of one false or mistaken signal! Let us who are
ministers of the Gospel
remember what interests we hold, and by how much the soul is more precious than
the body Let us beware! There are in the age in which we live, spiritual
impulses innumerable, strange, impetuous. And we are the signalmen! (J. G.
Miall.)
The voice of the old pulpit
I. The old
pulpit’s apology for speaking. I am old. My outward appearance has been
diversified at different times and places. I have a variety of experiences. My
great influence is acknowledged by a large majority in every age and clime.
II. The old
pulpit’s complaints and boastings.
1. My complaints--
(1) I complain because some very ungodly characters have taken the
liberty of ascending my steps.
(2) Because some look at me as a mere workshop to make a living in.
(3) Because I have been compelled to serve as a stage to exhibit
men, and not Christ.
(4) Because I have been too long used as a place of refuge for blind
bigotry and prejudice.
(5) Because many who have stood on my floor did not do my work with
all their might.
(6) Because there is not more attention paid me.
2. My boastings--
(1) In the multitude of my sons.
(2) Of the fame of my sons.
(3) In the greatness and glory of my themes.
(4) In the extent of my influence in the world.
(5) In the preservation of my life in spite of numerous and powerful
enemies.
(6) That I am the great favourite of heaven. (J. Roberts.)
The simplicity and freeness of the Gospel salvation
The vision was to be written upon tables, and made plain,
that every one who read it might run. He who gave the vision commanded that it
should be made plain upon tables, that the way of escape might be at once
learned by those that were in peril, and that without a moment’s delay they
might run in that way and be delivered. What was the danger with which the
people were threatened, and from which this vision was to indicate the way of
escape? It is usually thought to be an anticipated invasion of the Chaldeans.
It seems to me the danger is that to which all men as sinners are exposed; and
that the way of escape indicated is that which is revealed to us by the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. I regard the prophet as here commissioned to announce to his
countrymen, and ultimately, through the volume of inspiration, to the world at
large, the folly, sin, and danger of rebellion against God, and forgetfulness
of Him; and having thus warned them of the evil and peril of their ways, to
urge upon them the importance of running in that way which has been opened for
their escape. In favour of this interpretation the following considerations may
be adduced--
1. Look at the circumstances in which the prophet tells us this com
mission was delivered to him.
2. In Habakkuk 2:4 is a passage three times
quoted by the apostle Paul, as applicable to the salvation of the Gospel--to
the enjoyment of eternal life.
3. Peter (Acts 10:43) tells Cornelius that all the
prophets preached the doctrine of salvation by faith through Christ.
4. The interpretation proposed seems to give greater unity and
appropriateness to the prophet’s subsequent declarations. The commission, then,
which the prophet received from God was a commission to declare plainly and
faithfully to men their guilt and danger as sinners against God, and to point
them to that salvation in connection with which God has revealed Himself to
them, that they may escape the calamities to which their iniquity has exposed
them. It is plain, then, that in order to ascertain correctly the way of
salvation we must go to the written records of God’s will, and read. (W.
Lindsay Alexander, D. D.)
Verse 3
For the vision is yet for an appointed time.
Visions
He whom men style a visionary has for the most part little or no
honour among them. But no one can help having visions unless he be devoid of
imagination. A vision is an inward view, an image, or series of images,
broader, larger, grander, deeper than aught that the bodily eye can see; it is
evoked by some outward sign, on which a spiritual force acts. Visions may come
from God; they may bring men near to God. There are day visions. It was to be a
sign of the latter days, that in them there should be second sight far into
hidden things. And a life without visions is not that which an imaginative and
sympathetic man or woman would care to live. There are false visions and true;
some that never come, and some that will come, and truly. The false visions are
those which have this world for their boundary, and the things of this world
for their substance. They generally relate to self: to one’s own aggrandisement, to one’s own
enjoyment, or to the gratification of some desire of the natural heart. There
is a great variety in them, even at that rate. It is sometimes the will of God
that men should get the discipline they need, and without which they would be
lost for ever, by making the pilgrimage of life with visions before them which
for ever fly pursuit. Turn from visions that fade to one which does not fade.
That vision is supernatural; it is pure vision, for it is seen by faith, and by
faith only. What is that vision of these latter days? Jesus came to earth,
lived, disappeared. But with that departure came a vision such as never mortals
beheld before. The vision of a ransomed and purified race of men and women; of
the destruction of all that is false, and the setting straight all that is wrong;
of perfect truth, and a clear view thereof. Then never lose faith, never fear.
God’s light will grow brighter and stronger every year as you fight off the
powers of darkness and hold faster to Him, and at last you shall see what made
the light of your life, and you shall find all truth and all knowledge and full
reward in the beatific vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (Morgan Dix.)
Though it tarry, wait for
it.
Waiting on God
In these words we have something supposed, and duty
prescribed. “Though it tarry.” This implies some degree of impatience, which
may be due either to unbelief or strength of desire. “Wait for it.” The vision
is at present hid in the Divine purposes, but will at length break forth and be
revealed.
I. Inquire what is
implied in “waiting.”
1. A firm persuasion of the being and reality of what God has
promised. Faith makes unseen things visible, and future things present; and as
to things of a spiritual nature, it so demonstrates their excellency as to
engage us to choose and give them the preference to all other things, while it
excites strong desires after them. Faith therefore enters into the very essence
of the duty here enjoined.
2. The deepest humility, joined with reverence and love. In order
rightly to wait upon God we must have high apprehensions of Him and low
apprehensions of ourselves. The waiting soul is sensible of its own dependence
on the Divine all-sufficiency.
3. Fervent and continued desire. For these two are joined together in
Isaiah 26:8. Waiting will cease when
desire fails; but when everything else in a Christian seems to be gone, this
remains. Waiting upon God is opposed to a stupid and lethargic frame of spirit.
4. Patience must be exercised in waiting. Not despairing patience.
Not merely natural patience. A truly Christian patience, whereby we bear
without murmuring the greatest afflictions, and are not totally discouraged by
the longest delays. A patient spirit is neither timorous and distrustful on the
one hand, nor rash and hasty on the other. For an apostolic similitude, see James 5:7-8. We expect from God; we must
not prescribe to Him.
5. Fixedness and stability, in opposition to a fluctuating and
unstable temper of mind; constancy and resolution, in opposition to fickleness
and levity. The prophet calls it “standing upon a watch-tower.”
6. Diligence and constancy, in opposition to sloth and weariness.
Waiting upon God does not imply indolence, but activity; not neglect of the
means, but diligent use of them. Diligence without dependence is the greatest
folly; and dependence without diligence is no better than presumption.
II. The
reasonableness of the exhortation. Consider--
1. We are but servants; and what should servants do but wait?
2. What God has promised must be worth waiting for. Surely those put
a great slight upon the promised blessings who will not earnestly seek and
patiently wait for them.
3. God has long waited upon us. He has had great patience with us,
and shall we not patiently wait for His mercy?
4. It is one end for which God bestows His grace upon us, that we
might be able and willing to wait. It is this which calms the boisterous
passions and stills the tumult of the soul.
5. God seldom performs His promises or answers our expectations till
we are brought to this state of mind. When we are submissive in the want of
blessings we are most likely to enjoy them; whereas fretfulness and discontent
will provoke God to withhold them. When we contend with Him, He will contend
with us; but when we resign ourselves up to His will, He will gratify us in our
wishes.
6. The sweetness of blessings is generally proportioned to the time
we have waited for them, and the longer they have tarried the more welcome they
are when they come. Learn from hence that when grace has reached the heart
there is still much for the Christian to do. Our present state is oftentimes a
state of sore and pressing want, and always of imperfect enjoyment; and
therefore we should wait, and our waiting should be accompanied with
cheerfulness; and to secure this we should regard promises more than
appearances. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
A three-fold tarrying
Three different Hebrew words are in English rendered by the one
word “tarry.” One means, to tarry for a reason, because constrained to do so by
some rational necessity exterior to the actor. One signifies to tarry for
shame, to remain in a place because ashamed to leave it. One word has in it the
idea of choice, and means to remain behind willingly. Illustrate by Genesis 24:56; Deuteronomy 7:10; Genesis 19:16. Habakkuk is speaking of
the second advent of Christ. To the yearning inquiry of the Church, spiritually
heard by the prophet, “Lord, when wilt Thou come in Thy glory?” the answer
comes--“The time for His coming is appointed, though He tarry for some reason”;
such reasons there are in the conditions of this wicked world which delay His
coming; still, wait for Him; because it (He) will surely come; it (He) will not
tarry freely, willingly, upon His own account, of His own arbitrary choice. (Alex.
Mrywwitz, A. M.)
God’s delays
There is nothing so painful or mysterious in the experience of the
children of God as the Lord’s frequently long delay in coming to their help in
answer to their cry. This experience is not only painful in itself, but it
often implies much spiritual conflict. It tends to shake faith to its
foundations. Yet this is often God’s way. And since it is His way, our first
source of comfort under this trial is--
1. To be still, and know that He is God. In all extremities we must
fall back upon this, the sovereignty of God.
2. However dark be our path, we have no reason to doubt His love.
3. We can sometimes discern reasons why the Lord delays His coming.
The expression, “the fulness of time,” reveals to us much of the secret of
God’s delays. The waiting time is usually a time of growth. The suppliant sees
things very differently at the close of his struggle from what he did at the
outset; and the blessing so ardently sought becomes now a real blessing from
his being thus prepared to receive it.
4. It will follow from this that when our prayers are offered up for
blessings for others they too, at that time, may be unfitted to receive them.
5. As it is with human souls, who cannot, without a miracle, be in a
moment transformed from childhood to maturity, there must be in all mental and
spiritual processes, first, the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the
ear. So it is with the constitution of things. Sometimes before prayer can be
answered many things must happen. (Evangelical Advocate.)
The Divine slowness
This word is the one word which the Divine wisdom often seems to
utter in rebuke of human impatience. God is never in haste.
I. The Divine
proceedings are slow.
1. The history of the earth illustrates this principle. Creation was
the work of long eras.
2. There is something in the movement of the seasons tending to
remind us of this great law. How silently and slowly winter retires before
spring, and spring gives place to summer and autumn. To the Divine mind that
orders it all there is a majesty in slowness.
3. The history of all life conveys the same lesson. Life, whether in
plants or animals, is everywhere a growth; and all growth is silent,
gradual,--so gradual as not to be perceived. The education of an individual is
slow; the education of a people must be very slow.
II. Guard against
impatience in judging the ways of God, and know how to wait. Religion,
revealed religion, includes much in harmony with these facts of nature and
providence.
1. Note the long interval which was to pass between the promise of a
Saviour and His advent.
2. So, when the Saviour did come, the manner of His coming was not
such as the thoughts of men would have anticipated. The kingdom of heaven was
to come without observation.
3. It is not without mystery to many minds that the history of
revealed religion since the advent should have been such as it has been. We
might have anticipated that the doctrine of Christ would be retained in its
purity, and that its subduing power would be everywhere felt. But on reflection
we find analogy suggesting that this was by no means probable.
4. If we descend from the general life of the Church to the spiritual
history of the individual believer, we may find much there to remind us that
the experience of the Church at large, and the Christian taken separately, are
regulated by the same intelligence. With regard to much of our Personal
history, we are expected to wait for the revelations of God. (Robert Vaughan,
D. D.)
Verse 4
The Just shall live by his faith.
Faith and the higher life
All men live by faith, and in our world man is the only
creature who lives by faith. A world altogether without faith, where no man
could trust another in anything, would be a most miserable world. Take away
faith altogether, and all the social fabric would be one heap of ruins. Man is
the only creature in this world who can live by faith. All creatures and all
things depend upon God for the continuance of their existence as truly as man
does, but it is man only who can trust in God. The fact that man can know God
and trust in Him is a proof of his greatness and glory, and shows him to be the
object of God’s special care and tenderness, as was shown by Christ in His
Sermon on the Mount. Yet there are many men who do not trust in Him for His
blessings, and live for His glory, in the enjoyment of them. Faith in Him is
not a condition of the bestowal of His temporal blessings upon men. But men
cannot have God’s spiritual blessings without faith in Him. To live for the
spiritual and invisible is impossible without faith in God, and man is too
great and glorious a being to live only for the present. The truth is, that the
man of faith in God is the only man who truly lives.
I. The noblest
character. In the Bible men are divided into two great divisions, the righteous
and the wicked. The righteous is a man who trusts God’s Word, submits to God’s
will, and lives in conformity with God’s righteous and holy law. He is a
straight, or right, man--right in mind, in heart, and in life. The unjust man
is s man with a crooked soul. In the Old Testament the word righteousness
refers more to conduct than to the inward principle of spiritual life, and the
righteous man is characterised by truthfulness, honesty, uprightness,
tenderness, and unswerving fidelity to duty in relation to God and man.
II. The highest
life. Man’s highest life is a life of trust in God. No man can live to himself
in the highest sense of life, and if he tries to do so he will die in the very
attempt. It is through the death of the lower self that the higher and true
self can live. To enable men to do this was Christ’s object in coming to the
world to live and die for us. Through faith men die in His death and live in
His life, and this is the only way in which fallen man, who is dead in
trespasses and sins, can find his life. The greatest thing the blessed Saviour
could give for man was life, and the greatest thing He can give to man is life.
In giving life Christ gives to men all they stand in need of for time and
eternity. There is more in life than correspondence of an organism with its
environment. There is a vital, mysterious principle, which manifests itself
through the correspondence of the organism with its environment, and reaches
its perfection when that correspondence becomes perfect. The highest life is
the spiritual, which, said Christ, consists in the knowledge of God and Himself.
The spiritual man not only lives and moves and has his being in God and His Son, as
the true environment of spiritual and eternal life, but God in His Son must
live in him. What is it to live according to the sense of the word in
the text? It consists of three things--
1. Participation of God’s nature. Men live in God and unto God by
becoming partakers of the Divine nature.
2. Perfect delight in God. We associate enjoyment with all conscious
life. God has no way of giving joy but by giving life.
3. Usefulness for God. The crown of every life is its usefulness; its
highest end is service. There is no true joy of life possible without life of
service. The life which consists of the knowledge of God in His Son will be
eternally progressive.
III. The condition of
the blessed life of the righteous. “By his faith.” Man’s highest life is a life
of living trust in a living God. Faith in God is the animating and sustaining
principle of the life of the righteous. Only a person can be an object
of trust, Faith cannot live but in the constant vision of its object.
This living faith in God is given to man to enable him to do his work for God.
The only faith worthy of the name is that which enables us to live the truest
and highest life. (Z. Mather.)
The just
When we repent and believe the Gospel, we live--are raised from
spiritual death to spiritual life.
I. The just.
Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him. Works which are
supposed to merit, naturally puff up the mind with pride. The prophet says,
that proud disposition which you think merits, because of your works, is not an
upright disposition. Good works cannot avail to justification. You must
believe, not works. Good works are evidences of faith. The just are such as God
justifies by faith in His own beloved Son. For Christ’s righteousness is to
all, and upon all them that believe.
II. They are alive.
Did they not live before? Yes, a natural life. They are quickened to a new and
higher life. None are alive till born again of the Spirit. We must experience
the “washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”
III. How the
believer lives this spiritual life. By his faith. The man who is justified by
faith is made spiritually alive, and this life is maintained and supported by
repeated acts of faith in the Son of God and Saviour of the world. Faith in
Christ justifies, and by believing we receive righteousness and strength, and
are made holy and acceptable to God. (R. Horsfall.)
Nothing better than reliance on God
The prophet means to show that nothing is better than to
rely on God’s Word, how much soever may various temptations assault our souls.
He sets the two clauses of the verse, the one opposed to the other: every man who would
fortify himself, would ever be, Subject to various changes, and never attain a
quiet mind; then comes the other clause--that man cannot otherwise obtain rest
than by faith. The first clause I would render, “Where there is an elation of
mind there is no tranquillity.” When the prophet says that there is no calmness
of mind possessed by those who deem themselves well fortified, he intimates
that they are their own executioners, for they seek for themselves many
troubles, many sorrows, many anxieties, and contrive and mingle together many
designs and purposes; now they think of one thing, then they turn to another;
for the Hebrews say that the soul is made right when we acquiesce in a thing,
and continue in a tranquil state of mind; but when confused thoughts distract
us, then they say that our soul is not right in us: We now perceive the real meaning of the
prophet. “Behold,” he says:
by this demonstrative particle he intimates that what he teaches us may be
clearly seen if we attend to daily events. The meaning then is, that a proof of
this fact exists evidently in the common life of men--that he who fortifies
himself, and is also elated with self-confidence, never finds a tranquil haven,
for some new suspicion
or fear ever disturbs his mind. Hence it comes that the soul entangles itself
in various cares and anxieties. This is the reward which is allotted by God’s
just judgment to the unbelieving. The prophet, in the second clause, places
faith in opposition to all those defences by which men so blind themselves as
to neglect God, and to seek no aid from Him. (John Calvin.)
Life by faith
In this connection there is a peculiar shade of meaning in living
by faith. Immediate reference is to approaching trials of an extraordinary
kind. There is a vision of national calamity, an impending invasion of the
Chaldeans. It is declared that humility is the only upright attitude of soul,
in such circumstances:
and contrasted with the proud impatience which cannot wait for God, in His
appointed time, is the meek reliance of the just man. “But the just shall live
by his faith.”
I. Ordinarily, the
just man lives by faith.
1. As it is the first act of that new spiritual life which the Holy
Ghost produces in the soul. It is that coming to Christ which the Scriptures
make anterior to every other gift or exercise of grace.
2. We live by faith, as it apprehends the plea by which the
condemnation of death is set aside, or as it is a justifying instrument. We are
said to live by that instrumentality which delivers us, and shields us from the
operation of death.
3. We live by faith, as it unites the soul in mystical union with the
Head, in whom there is all the fulness of life.
4. We live by faith, as it is in the range of its appropriation the highest and best
condition of life.
5. We live by faith, as it is a principle essentially indicative of
life, active, operative, and fruitful.
II. How does such
faith survive in circumstances of extraordinary trial?
1. Calamity, that which exceeds the bounds of ordinary affliction.
Such as war, famine, pestilence, earthquake.
2. Reproach for the faithful maintenance of truth and holiness.
3. The return of infidelity--extraordinary in that no completeness of
defeat can prevent its returning invasion.
4. Another trial is apostasy. Faith is first in order; every other
grace in the soul implies the precedence of this faith; hope herself must give
up the sure and steadfast anchor, before this inner and ultimate life of faith
can be destroyed. (A. T. M’Gill, D. D.)
Life is due to faith
The prophet here places faith in opposition to all those defences
by which men so blind themselves as to neglect God, and to seek no aid from
Him. As men therefore rely on what the earth affords, depending on their
fallacious supports, the prophet here ascribes life to faith. But faith, as is
well known, depends on God alone. That we may then live by faith, the prophet
intimates that we must willingly give up all those defences which are wont to
disappoint us. He then who finds that he is deprived of all protection, will
live by his faith, provided he seeks in God alone what he wants, and leaving
the world, would fix his mind on heaven. The prophet understands by the word amunat,
that faith which strips us of all arrogance, and leads us naked and needy
to God, that we may seek salvation from Him alone, which would otherwise be far
removed from us. We perceive why Habakkuk has put these two things in
opposition the one to the other--that the defences of this world are not only
evanescent, but also bring always with them many tormenting fears--and then,
that the just shall live by his faith. Faith is not to be taken here for man’s
integrity, but for that faith which sets man before God emptied of all good
things, so that he seeks what he needs from His gratuitous goodness: for all the
unbelieving try to fortify themselves; and thus they strengthen themselves,
thinking that anything in which they trust is sufficient for them. But what
does the just do? He brings nothing before God except faith: then he brings
nothing of his own, because faith borrows, as it were, through favour, what is
not in man’s possession. He, then, who lives by faith, has no life in himself,
but because he wants it, he flies for it to God alone. The prophet also puts
the verb in the future tense, in order to show the perpetuity of this life; for
the unbelieving glory in a shadowy life; but the Lord will at last discern
their folly, and they themselves shall really know that they have been
deceived. But as God never disappoints the hope of His people, the prophet here
promises a perpetual life to the faithful. (John Calvin.)
The use of faith in a time of general declension in religion
What is a calamitous season?
1. When it exceeds the bounds of affliction, or when the
dispensations of God’s anger in it cannot be reduced to the head of affliction.
2. When judgments fall promiscuously upon all sorts of persons, and
make no distinction.
I. How we shall
live by faith; what faith will do in such a season.
1. Faith will give the soul a reverential fear of God in His
judgments.
2. It will put the soul upon preparing and providing an ark for
itself.
(1) This ark is Jesus Christ.
(2) There must be a door in this ark. To obtain an interest in
Christ is the general work of faith in these days.
(3) It will put us upon the search and examination of our own
hearts, what accession we have made to the sins that have procured these
judgments. The sins which do and have procured these judgments are--open and
flagitious sins of the world. And the sins of Churches and professors. These
latter include lukewarmness; contenting ourselves in outward order; want of
love among ourselves; earthly-mindedness.
II. How faith will
carry it under other perplexities that may be coming on us.
1. How we may live by faith under reproaches.
(1) Faith will give us such an experience of the power, efficacy,
sweetness and benefit of Gospel ordinances and Gospel worship, as shall cause
us to despise all that the world can do in opposition to us.
(2) It will bring the soul into such an experimental sense of the
authority of Jesus Christ, as to make it despise all other things. Faith will
work this double respect unto the authority of Jesus Christ--as He is the great
Head and Lawgiver of the Church, and as He is Lord of lords and King of kings.
(3) Faith will bring to mind, and make effectual upon our souls, the
examples of them that
have gone before us, in giving tile same testimony that we do, and in the
sufferings that they underwent upon that account.
(4) Faith will receive in the supplies that Christ hath laid up for
His people in such a season.
(5) It is faith alone that can relieve us with respect unto the
recompense of reward.
(6) Faith will work by patience when difficulties shall be
multiplied upon us.
2. How we may live by faith, under an apprehension of the great and
woeful decays in Churches, in Church members, in professors of all sorts; and
in the gradual withdrawing of the glory of God from us all on that account.
(1) This is such a time of decay among us. A sense of it is
impressed upon the minds of all the most judicious and diligent Christians,
that do abound most in self-examination, or do take most notice of the ways of
God. They recognise the open want of love among Church members; want of delight
and diligence in the ordinances of Gospel worship; and our worldly-mindedness,
conformity to the world, and security. A sense of this general decay ought to
be an exercise and concern to our minds. God is dishonoured by this general
decay. The world is offended and scandalised by it. The ruin of Churches is
hastened by it.
(2) What is the work
of faith under this condition? It will remind the soul that, notwithstanding
this, Christ hath built His Church upon a rock that it shall not be utterly
prevailed against. It will remind the soul that God hath yet the fulness and
residue of the Spirit. Faith will cheer us by saying, “Are not all these things
foretold thee?” And it will put every soul in whom it is upon an especial
attendance unto those duties God calls him unto in such a season. Such as
self-examination; great mourning, by reason of God’s withdrawing Himself from us;
watchfulness over ourselves, and over one another, that we be not overtaken by
the means and causes of these decays; zeal for God and the honour of the
Gospel, that it may not suffer by reason of our miscarriages. (J. Owen, D.
D.)
The life of faith
The text may be taken in two ways. In a moral sense, as regards
the circumstances of the Jews. In a theological sense, as respects that great
object on which believers have fixed their eye in all ages of the Church. The
Rabbis give a very curious exposition of the words, “I will stand upon my
watch.” They translate, “I will confine myself in a circle,” and explain that
the prophet drew a circle, and made a solemn vow that he would not go out of
it, until God had unfolded those dark dispensations to him, which seemed so
injurious to His perfections.
I. Explain the
terms of this proposition, “The just shall live by faith.”
1. Who is the just or righteous man? There are two sorts of
righteousness, according to the law, and according to faith. By righteousness
after the law understand that which man wishes to derive from his own personal
ability. By righteousness of faith understand that which man derives from his
own personal ability. To have faith, or to believe, is a vague expression.
Faith is sometimes a disposition common to the righteous and the wicked;
sometimes the distinguishing character of a Christian; sometimes it is put for
the virtue of Abraham; sometimes it stands for the credence of devils. Faith is
a disposition of mind that changeth its nature according to the various objects
which are proposed to it. We are inquiring about saving faith, and have to
inquire what is its object. It is Jesus Christ as dying and offering Himself to
the justice of the Father. We must distinguish two sorts of desires to share
the benefits of the death of Christ. A desire unconnected with all the acts
which God is pleased to require of us; and a desire that animates us with a
determination to participate these benefits. Jesus is proposed to the
believer’s mind and heart and conduct. There are two kinds or causes of
justification.
1. The fundamental or meritorious cause.
2. The instrumental cause.
That is the fundamental which acquires, merits, and lays the
foundation of our justification and salvation. By the instrumental we mean
those acts which it hath pleased God to prescribe to us, in order to our
participation of this acquired salvation. If faith justifies us, it is as an
instrument, that of itself can merit nothing, and which contributes to our
justification only as it capacitates us for participating the benefits of the
death of Christ. Justifying faith is a general principle of virtue and
holiness.
1. Justifying faith is lively faith, a believer cannot live by a dead
faith.
2. Justifying faith must assort with the genius of the covenant, to
which it belongs.
3. Justifying faith must include all the virtues to which the
Scriptures attribute justification and salvation.
4. Justifying faith must merit all the praises which are given to it
in Scripture.
5. Justifying faith must enter into the spirit of the mystery of the
satisfaction of Jesus Christ.
II. Objections made
against this doctrine.
1. IS it pretended that the design of excluding holiness from the
essence of faith is to elevate the merit of the death of Christ?
2. Dost thou say, thy design is to humble man? What can be more
proper to humble man than the system we have expounded?
3. Dost thou say, our system is contrary to experience?
4. Or that our justification and salvation flow from a decree made
before the foundation of the world, and not from our embracing the Gospel in
time?
5. Or dost thou still object, that, although our system is true in
the main, yet it is always dangerous to publish it; because man has always an
inclination to “sacrifice unto his own net,” and by pressing the necessity of
good works, occasion is insensibly given to the doctrine of merit? (J.
Saurin.)
Faith, a life-giving power
Righteousness has been defined as the fulfilment of relations. But
those relations are not primarily relations of earth. The higher relation rests
on revelation. It is our relation to God. “Life “ is not here, living in the
sense of existing., nor in the sense of exercising existence. Three ideas have
to be added to the primary idea of existence. This life is conscious, satisfying,
everlasting existence. “Faith” is the realisation of a future, the conviction
of the invisible. Faith in a person is the realisation of that person, the
having him so present to the eye of the soul that the presence is a power. Too
often by faith is meant the realisation not of a person, but of a thing; not of
Jesus Christ as all that He is, and God in Him, but of one single thing about
Jesus Christ--His atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and even this
rather in the aspect of the death than in the aspect of the life, rather as a
fact accomplished and done with than as a reality having in it the motive of a
dedication, and the power of a life. (Dean Vaughan, D. D.)
The just shall live by his faith
The great Babylonian empire was swallowing up the smaller nations
round about. To the prophet who believed in the Holy Almighty God, ruling in
the earth in righteousness, this was a mystery. It was a strange problem. He
could not understand why that great empire should grow greater, and why the nations
round about should thus be turned into their net, and brought under their rule.
Bad as the Jewish people were, they were not so far astray from the true God
and from righteousness as were the men of Babylon. Why then should this nation
control? He stands and looks at this mystery, and finds that he has no solution
for it. He is perplexed and baffled. But like a wise and true prophet, he goes
aside and stands upon what he calls his watch-tower that he may see what God
will say. He will be quiet and still in heart, waiting for the Divine message
to come to solve the difficulty. The text is the answer.
I. The uplifted
soul, and its penalty. What is it for a man to be lifted up? It is to be proud,
haughty, to have a feeling of self-dependence and self-sufficiency. It is to
forget God, and to assume that a man’s life is in his own hands. There are many
things that will produce an uplifted soul. Such as worldly success;
intellectual culture; a man’s unbelief. There is hardly a step between unbelief
in God and a man having a vain, proud, self-satisfied, and uplifted soul. Such
a soul is not upright. It is crooked, perverse, froward. That is the penalty.
For what is the glory of man? It is to know God, and to live in fellowship with
Him. The great glory of man is righteousness. How do those who are “lifted up”
carry themselves in times of trouble? They are ground to pieces--broken up.
What strength have they for the day of adversity?
II. The true life
for man. It is a Divine message spoken to the just man. “Your duty is to live
by faith.” This faith is the antithesis of “lifted up.” It is a spirit of trust
in God, a devout belief in God, in the righteousness and the love of God: it is lowliness and
humbleness of mind; it is a feeling of true dependence upon the great Father in
heaven. All the holy and just men who ever lived a true and noble life, have
done so because they have lived by their faith. How will this work? God becomes
a reality to the soul that is full of trust and prayer. God draws near to us as
we live in faith and spirituality to Him. We make great mistakes in the matter
of realising God and the love of God. Try by argument, by subtle process of
reasoning, by investigation, to find out God and to know Him, and you are
baffled. It is by faith God becomes known. And a life of faith and devoutness
gives strength for obedience. Faith brings us into union with the great Source
of all life, and causes us to be equipped with power for obedience in
righteousness. The path in which Christ walked, and we are called to walk--the
path of self-sacrifice, purity, meekness, love to enemies, trust in God, moral
courage--this path is one which severely strains and taxes all the powers of a
man. Hindrances and temptations throng around you at every step. Christian victory
is not so much a stern exercise of resolution as a devout consecration to God;
not so much self-straining as self-surrender to God; a loving consent to the
guidance and inspiration of the Divine Spirit. The hour of quiet, simple
yielding up of self to God, with utter dependence on His moulding touch and
strengthening grace, is always the hour of our fullest power for obedience.
There is another element that enters into the life of faith--peace, serenity,
joy. The outward circumstances of life are never without some kind of discord
or pain. If we make ourselves dependent upon the perfect adjustment of outward
things for peace, then never will peace be ours. Open the portals of the soul,
with lowliness and childlike dependence before God, bow in hushed submission,
and then into the soul, noiselessly, yet with living power, like the calm dawn
of a summer day, peace will come. Live the life of faith, and you will find God
everywhere, and your character will grow in righteousness, and your peace and
joy shall flow and abound like the waters of a great sea. (Thomas Hammond.)
Life by faith
Take the text as it stands on the page of the Hebrew prophet. This
oracle of Habakkuk really means, “A righteous man shall live by his fidelity.”
You will best understand the beauty of a Scripture passage when you look at it
in its original setting. Habakkuk lived near the beginning of the Babylonian
Captivity. In his large insight, in his poetic fire, he claims kindred with his
mightier predecessors, Amos, Micah, Isaiah. He was faced by a new and eminently
painful problem, he was precluded from holding out to his people any near or
direct hope. And he was right. Habakkuk had to face the problem of the strength
of the wicked and the humiliation of the just. The aggravations of the problem
arose from the struggles of suffering innocence, but hitherto they had mainly
presented themselves in individual instances. When the sufferer was a nation,
and God’s chosen people, it was natural that terrible misgivings should
overcloud the souls of men. In the very moment of repentance and reform came
the threat of exile terrible and remediless. The Chaldean power was upon them;
there was no remedy, save in comfortless endurance, ands hope yearning but
still deferred. In those days of endurance and hope deferred, the lives of men,
the life of the prophet himself, the life of that whole generation might ebb
away. But the faithful are never utterly forsaken. For the prophet himself and
for his nation, for all time, it was granted him to see at least in germ, to
set forth at least in outline two of the universal truths on which the
consolations of our little human life must rest. The answer that came to the
prophet in his watch-tower was this, “The righteous man shall live by his
fidelity.” Does this seem obscure, meagre, and unsatisfactory? The prophet
caught its meaning. He breaks out, and concludes his book with one of the most
splendid poems in the whole Bible. Nothing, neither drought nor desolation,
could shake Habakkuk in his inextinguishable trust in God. The soul of the
Chaldean is arrogant and wicked. That is enough. Then because God is God, in
the pride and injustice of the oppressor lie the certain germs of his final
overthrow. “The moral law is written on the tables of eternity.” And the righteous
shall live by his faithfulness. Is he faithful? That is enough. Because God is
God, righteousness not only contains the promise of life, when rightly
understood, it is the only life. The just man, the ideal nation is not under
the crushing disadvantage which he imagines. The power to serve God never
fails, and the love of God is never rejected. There is the oracle to the
troubled prophet, and to the trembling nation. It has two side. The first is
the old law, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” The other is, “The
righteous man shall live by his fidelity.” What more would you have?
Righteousness may be hated and persecuted. Wickedness may be lapped in luxury;
but nevertheless, righteousness is life, sin is death. (Dean Farrar.)
Habakkuk
The design of this prophecy is to confirm the servants of God in
their belief of His power, and reliance on His providence, as the Ruler and
Disposer of the universe, notwithstanding the prosperity wherein wicked men are
sometimes seen to flourish in the earth, while the pious and godly are tried
with affliction and adversity. The practical principle of religious faith is
that, let the probable consequences of present advantage or loss be what they
may, it is our true wisdom always to hold fast by God, and put our trust in
Him. Habakkuk prophesied in the reign of Jehoiakim, son of the pious Josiah.
But he, instead of imitating the piety of his father, followed the Evil
practices of his more distant ancestors, Amen and Manasseh. He and his subjects
abandoned themselves to every sort of profaneness towards God, of violence,
oppression, deceit, and dishonesty towards each other, and of sensuality and
debauchery in their own lives. Such was the state of the kingdom of Judah when
Habakkuk saw his “burden.” He first inquires of God why injustice was suffered
to prevail in Judah, and the wicked to oppress and get the advantage over
upright and religious persons. The answer of God proclaims the speedy arrival
of the Chaldeans, as a scourge of God. The mind of Habakkuk was even more
disturbed with the expectation of the dreadful excesses of the Chaldeans, than
it had been at the sight of the enormities already practised in Judea. He
therefore, with all humility, proceeds to ask the reasons of so apparently
strange a dispensation. He professes his own confidence in Cod, and his
persuasion that the Chaldeans are not really the favorites of God, but only the
executioners of His wrath. Having been allowed to put these questions, the
prophet describes himself as anxiously waiting to have them answered. Here the
second chapter opens. The “lifting up” in the text means the withdrawing of our
trust in God, either through careless arrogance, which makes men forget their
dependence upon Him, or through unsteadiness of faith, which leaves them to be
tossed about, without stay or foundation, like a feather, a leaf, or any other
light and worthless body, that is lifted up and whirled about in the air. “His
soul which is lifted up,” withdrawn from an entire dependence on God, “is not
upright in him,” for he murmurs and is discontented at the arrangements of
God’s providence in things, pertaining to this life.” A man’s soul is not
upright in him, who makes light of the expectation of a future state, and of
the rewards and punishments to be therein distributed by the righteous judgment
of God. Or who cavils at, and finds fault with any of the commandments of God,
as burthens grievous to be borne. Or who trusts to his own performance of the
law for acceptance. “The just shall live by his faith.” Faith has always been
the support and comfort of the humble and confiding servants of God. (James
Randall, M. A.)
Faith crowned
He that believeth God’s Word so as to walk worthy of the great
things which He has promised to do for him, shall have his faith crowned with a
happy accomplishment. From these words we raise the following observations--
1. We see the method which God has taken in revealing to us things to
come. He has thought it sufficient to reveal to us the things themselves,
without notifying the time when they shall be performed and manifested in the
world.
2. We see the great sin of infidelity, and how much of the Divine
displeasure we incur, when we disbelieve any Word of God, only because the
completion of it falls not within the time which we had reckoned upon for the
doing of it.
3. We hear the blessing which accompanies our sincere belief and
dutiful observance of God’s Word. “The just shall live by his faith.” This is
the only true life that men can live. (W. Reading, M. A.)
The life by faith
The immediate cause which gave rise to these words was the strong
temptation of the prophet to distrust the providence of God, arising from the
prosperity of the wicked, and their cruel oppression of the righteous. He
points to faith in God as the sustaining, animating principle of the righteous
man until his trial should be over. Consider the various ways in which it is
true of the just man that he lives by faith. The just man’s faith in God is the
belief and conviction of his mind of the reality and truth of all that God has
been pleased to assure him of. It is the persuasion that all God’s promises to
him are true, and will be fulfilled--a persuasion so real that he is supported
by it, and acts upon it. What is this life of the just man that is spoken of here?
Not mere animal life. Not mere intellectual life. It is the spiritual life of
the soul before its redeeming Lord. It is a life peculiar to the just, such as
none else lives. A life of acceptance with God, of love to God, of obedience
and submission to Him.
1. Man is justified, declared just before God, through this great
principle of faith.
2. To his faith in God the just man owes the life of obedience and
holiness which he lives before Him.
3. Faith represents God as the source of strength in present trial,
and of comfort in all affliction. Such a belief is absolutely necessary, in
order to stir up man to exertion and perseverance in his spiritual contest with
evil.
4. Faith, assuring the mind of the Christian of the glory that awaits
him in the future time prevents the discouragements that he meets with, and the
denial to which he submits, from overcoming his patient perseverance in
well-doing. (H. Constable, M. A.)
The portraiture of a good man
Whether the man whose soul here is represented as “lifted up,”
refers to the unbelieving Jew, or to the Babylonian, is an unsettled question
amongst biblical critics; and a question of but little practical moment.
I. A good man is a
humble man. This is implied. His soul is not “lifted up.” Pride is not only no
part of moral goodness, but is essentially inimical to it. A proud Christian is
a solecism. Jonathan Edwards describes a Christian as being such a “little
flower as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble in the ground,
opening its bosom for the beams of the sun, rejoicing m a calm rapture,
suffusing around sweet fragrance, and standing peacefully and lowly in the
midst of other flowers.” Pride is an obstruction to all progress and knowledge
and virtue, and is abhorrent to the Holy One. “He resisteth the proud, but
gives grace to the humble.”
II. A good man is a
just man. The just shall live by his faith.” To be good is nothing more than to
be just.
1. Just to self. Doing the right thing to one’s own faculties and
affections as the offsprings of God.
2. Just to others. Doing unto others what we would that they should
do unto us.
3. Just to God. To be just to self, society, and God, this is
religion:
III. A good man is a
confiding man. He lives “by his faith.” This passage is quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; it is also quoted in the
Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:38). (Homilist.)
.
Justifying faith
It is as if the prophet had said: Depend upon it, when this world has done
its best and its worst, it will plainly appear that the great question between
it and the Church is, whether it is better to trust in one’s self, one’s own
wisdom, and fame, and riches, and high spirit, or to go altogether out of one’s
self, and to live entirely on the heavenly righteousness which God gives to His
own people. The world rests upon itself, the Church lives by faith. Faith is
that by which we abide in Christ. The spiritual life within us depends in some
special manner on this grace. How impossible that those men should have true
faith who allow themselves in self-righteousness. What difference can it make
in point of pride and presumption, whether a man trusts in his own faith, or in
his own works! In either ease he trusts in something of his own. The true faith
in Christ leads immediately to the obeying of all His commandments. Faith in
Christ will make our fortunes in the world of small consequence: and will help us to
endure trials patiently. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts
for the Times. ”)
The life of faith in the midst of a self confident world
The subject here is, how they that are just continue to live. The
bond of this union, whereby a man becomes just is confidence--trust--faith.
What is this living T It is put in opposition to the characters on the other
side, who are not upright, the man shall live unto God by this principle of
confidence. The very same principle that brings him to Jesus for righteousness
that he may be just, works in him when he is in Jesus, and by it he lives. It
requires such a principle as this to live consistently. There is no such thing
as Christianity made easy. The power of uprightness is in faith, and no man but
a man of faith will be found thoroughly upright. (Hugh M’Neile, M. A.)
Faith
These words were spoken to Habakkuk, to check him for his
impatience under God’s hand. They are just as true for every man that ever was
and ever will be as they were for him. It always was true, and always must be
true, that if reasonable beings are to live at all, it is by faith. Because
everything that is, heaven and earth, men and angels, are all the work of God.
We do not remember enough what we do know of God. All things lie, like a grain
of dust, in the hollow of God’s hand. Think of the infinite power of God, and
then think how it is possible to live, except by faith in Him, by trusting to
Him utterly. After all, what can we do without God? The life of our spirits is
a gift from God, the Father of spirits, and He has chosen to declare that
unless we trust to Him for life, and ask Him for life, He will not bestow it
upon us. If we wish to be loving, pure, wise, manly, noble, we muse ask those
excellent gifts of God, who is Himself infinite love and purity, wisdom and
nobleness. And it is by faith in Christ we must live,--in Christ, a man like
ourselves, yet God blessed for ever. It is a certain truth, that men cannot
believe in God, or trust in Him unless they can think of Him aa a man. All that
men have ever done well, or nobly, or lovingly, in this world, was done by
faith--by faith in God of some sort or other. Without Christ we can do
nothing--by trusting in Christ we can do everything. (C. Kingsley.)
Living by faith
The prophet is speaking of a time of terrible calamity,
which was to come upon himself and upon all his people. One event is to happen
to all,--to the righteous, and to the wicked. Some of his people shall meet
these terrible calamities with the spirit of pride, refusing to humble
themselves under the mighty hand of God. And, seeing that those who do not bend
under God’s providences, are invariably broken by them, the prophet contrasts
the position of such persons with the position of those whom he describes in
the text, and he remarks, “The just shall live by his faith.” What is it
for a man to live, in God’s sense of the word, and to live in a time of
calamity? Such a man will hear God’s voice in the calamity; he will hear the
rod, and Him who hath appointed it. The man who really lives, in a time
of calamity, will see God’s face even in that time; he will see the face of God
behind the cloud. He will not be crushed by calamity. “The just shall live by
his faith” means, he shall be equal to the claims which are made upon him, even
in times of calamity, by the support which he derives through the operation of
his faith. Faith is not mere assent. It follows belief in a particular kind of
testimony. If we believe a worthy testimony, a certain state of heart must
follow that belief. It is trust or reliance. Take the word “just” to represent
a justified sinner, and that man shall live by his faith.
1. Man is introduced into a new life by this faith. Trusting in God’s
beloved Son, life is immediately given to him. He no sooner trusts, than all
that is involved in everlasting life becomes his. This is God’s free gift to
him.
2. Man has support in time of trouble through faith. Hope is closely
related to faith. If you would have a stronger hope, you must have a stronger
faith. There is a work which faith performs that hope cannot accomplish. Hope
has a limited sphere, faith has not. Faith has to do with all that God has said
about Himself, and about His Son, and about His Spirit, and about the
privileges of the redeemed, and about the destiny of the redeemed. Faith is the
principle whose operations render God’s descriptions of unseen things real to
us, so that His words take the place of facts. One effect of the faith of a
Christian is to bring us into an entirely different style of life from that in
which those men live who walk by sight. It must be so. Note some of the points
of difference between a believer and an unbeliever. One holds the world tight,
the other holds it with a slack hand. One orders his life by the will of his
fellow-men, the other
by the will of God. Then ask yourselves whether you have what the Scriptures
call “faith,” the faith that saves. (Samuel Martin.)
Verse 5
Who
enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied.
Moral wrong;
some of its national phases
Evil,
like good, is one in essence, but it has many forms and phases. The
branches that grow out of the root, whilst filled with the same sap, vary
widely in shape and hue.
I. Drunkenness. This is one of the most loathsome, irrational, and
Pernicious forms which it can assume. Drunkenness puts the man or the woman
absolutely into the hands of Satan, to do whatsoever he wills.
II. Haughtiness. “Is a proud man.” Babylon became inspired with a
haughty insolence. She regarded herself as the queen of the world, and looked
down with supercilious contempt upon all the other nations of the earth, even
upon the Hebrew People, the heavenly chosen race. Nebuchadnezzar expresses,
“the spirit of the kingdom” as well as his own, when he says, Is not this great
Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power,
and for the honour of my majesty?” It is suggested that their love of wine had
much to do in the developing of this haughty spirit. We read, chapter 5th, that
Belshazzar at his feast drank wine with the thousands of his lords, his
princes, his wives, his concubines.
III. Rapacity. Two things are suggested concerning the rapacious form
it assumed in Babylon.
1. It was restless. “Neither keepeth at home.” Not content with its
own grandeur, wealth, and luxuries, it goes from home in search of others; goes
out into other countries to rifle and to rob.
2. It is insatiable. “Who enlargeth his desire as hell,”--that is, as
Sheol the grave,--“and is as death, and cannot be satisfied.” (Homilist.)
Verse 6
Him
that ladeth himself with thick clay.
Heavy clay
It is
the glory of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ when it is regarded in its
moral aspect, that it is not the religion merely of transcendental and
unpractical truths, but that its motives and precepts go down to the minutest
details of everyday duty. Note--
1. The danger of a false start and a false aim in life. God has given
us a complex nature, and He has given us the use of our reason and the other faculties,
physical and mental, which He bestows upon men. And the great end of man is to
glorify God. If a man uses his powers only to found a family or amass wealth,
we earnestly warn that man. He has mistaken the great end of his being.
2. A form in which the lading of thick clay is found is greed of
money. Covetousness in some one or other of its forms or specious disguises is
one of the besetting idolatries of the day. This greed of money manifests
itself in money-getting and in money-losing, and also in money-spending.
Comparatively few recognise the principle of stewardship to God in the
expenditure of their income.
3. Another form in which this heavy clay is sometimes found is
anxiety. What our Lord and His apostles tell us to avoid is the carking,
distracting care which turns a man’s mind away from God, and keeps him
continually on the rack, forgetting the loving Father who is willing to be the
bearer of all his cares.
4. Another form of this clay among business men is sharp practice.
Sharp practice is in our manufactories, upon the exchange, with lawyers, and
not only among the little petty hucksters, but among tradesmen who make a much
fairer show in our streets.
5. Another form is a worldly tone and spirit. To be a Christian,
there is no necessity to leave your work and to lead the life of a recluse. Go
into the world and make your money, but do not worship it. (Canon Miller, D.
D.)
Under a heap of
clay
The
avaricious “accumulate on themselves
thick clay.” Hardly, indeed, an avaricious man can be found who is not a burden
to himself, and to whom his wealth is not a source of trouble. Everyone who has
accumulated much, when he comes to old age, is afraid to use what he has got,
being ever solicitous lest he should lose anything; and then, as he thinks
nothing is sufficient, the more he possesses the more grasping he becomes, and
frugality is the name given to that sordid and, so to speak, that servile
restraint within which the rich confine themselves. In short, when any one
forms a judgment of all the avaricious of this world, and is himself free from
all avarice, having a free and unbiassed mind, he will easily apprehend what
the prophet says here,--that all the wealth of this world is nothing else but a
heap of clay, as when any one puts himself of his own accord under a great heap
which he had collected together. The general truth to be drawn from the
expression is, that all the avaricious, the more they heap together, the more
they lade themselves, and as it were, bury themselves under a great load.
Riches acquired by frauds and plunders are nothing else than a heavy and
cumbrous lump of earth; for God returns on the heads of those who thus seek to
enrich themselves whatever they have plundered from others. Had they been
contented with some moderate portion, they might have lived cheerfully and
happily, as we see to be the case with all the godly, who, though they possess
but little, are yet cheerful; for they live in hope, and know that their
supplies are in God’s hands, and expect everything from His blessing. (John
Calvin.)
Making money
Whatever
we do to please ourselves, and only for the sake of the pleasure, not for an
ultimate object, is “play,” the pleasing thing, not the useful thing The first
of all Enish games is making money. That is an all-absorbing game; and we knock
each other down oftener in playing at that than at football or any other
rougher sport; and it is absolutely without purpose. No one who engages heavily
in that game ever knows why. Ask a great money-maker what he wants to do with
his money; he never knows. He doesn’t make it to do anything with it. He gets
it only that he may get it. “What will you make of what you have got?” you ask.
“Well, I’ll get more,” he says. Just as at cricket you get more runs. There’s
no use in the runs, but to get more of them than other people is the game. And
there’s no use in the money, but to have more of it than other people is the
game. (John Ruskin.)
Verses
9-11
Woe
to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house.
Covetousness
and self-trust
I. The national wrongs here indicated.
1. Coveting the possessions of others. “Woe to him that coveteth an
evil coveteousness to his house.” “An evil covetousness”? There is a good
covetousness. We are commanded to “covet earnestly the best gifts.” But to
hunger for those things which are not our own, but the property of others, and
that for our own gratification and aggrandisement, is that which is prohibited
in the Decalogue.
2. Trusting in false securities. So “that he may set his nest on
high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil.” The image is from an
eagle (Job 39:27). The royal citadel is meant. The Chaldeans built high towers
like the Babel founders, to be delivered from the power of evil. They sought
protection, not in
the Creator but in the creature, not in moral means but in material. Thus
foolishly nations have always acted, and are still acting; they trust to armies
and to navies, not to righteousness, truth, and God. A moral character built on
justice, purity, and universal benevolence is the only right and safe defence
of nations.
3. Sinning against the soul. “And hast sinned against thy soul,” or
against thyself. Indeed, all wrong is a sin against oneself--a sin against the laws of reason,
conscience, and happiness.
II. The national woes here indicated. “Woe to him that coveteth an
evil covetousness to his house,” etc. What is the woe connected with these
evils? It is contained in these words: “The stone shall cry out Of the wall, and
the beam out of the timber shall answer it.” Their guilty conscience will endow
the dead materials of their own dwelling with the tongue to denounce in thunder
their deeds of rapacity and blood. Startling personification this! “Note,” says
Matthew Henry, “those that do wrong to their neighbour do a much greater wrong
to their own souls. But if the sinner pleads Not guilty, and thinks he has
managed his frauds and violence with so much art and contrivance that they
cannot be proved upon him, let him know that if there be no other witnesses
against him the stone shall cry out of the wall against him, and the beam out
of the timber in the roof shall answer it, shall second it, shall witness it,
that the money and materials wherewith he built the house were unjustly gotten (verse 11). The stones
and timber cry to heaven for vengeance, as the whole creation groans under the
sin of man, and waits to be delivered from that bondage of corruption.
(1) That mind gives to all the objects that once impressed it a
mystic power of suggestion. Who has not felt this? Who does not feel it every
day? The tree, the house, the street, the lane, the stream, the meadow, the
mountain, that once touched our consciousness, seldom fail to start thoughts in
us whenever we are brought into contact with them again. It seems as if the
mind gave part of itself to all the objects that once impressed it. Hence, when
we leave a place which in person we may never revisit we are still tied to it
by an indissoluble bond. Nay, we carry it with us and reproduce it in memory.
(2) That mind gives to those objects that impressed us when in the
commission of any sin a terrible power to start remorseful memories. No
intelligent personal witness is required to prove a sinner’s guilt. All the
scenes of his conscious life vocalise his guilt. (Homilist.)
Deceitful
riches
Usually,
when a worldling is dead, we ask how rich he died. “Oh,” say many, “he died rich;
he hath left a great estate.” Alas! the poor man has slept his sleep, lost his
dream, and now he awakes he finds nothing in his hand. Where lies his golden
heap? Only the rust of that heap is gone to witness against him; his mansion
fails him; only the unrighteousness of it follows him; others have the use of
it; only the abuse of it he carries to judgment with him; he hath made his
friends (as we say), but he hath undone himself; so that I may justly write
this motto upon every bag:
“This is the price of blood.” Shall I then treasure up the price of blood
Verse 10
Thou
hast consulted shame to thy house.
Consulting
shame
The
prophet again confirms the truth, that those who count themselves happy,
imagining that they are like God, busy themselves in vain; for God will turn to
shame whatever they think to be their glory, derived from their riches. The
avaricious indeed wish, as it appears from the last verse, to prepare splendour
for their prosperity, and they think to render illustrious their race by their
wealth; for this is deemed to be nobility, that the richer anyone is the more
he excels, as he thinks, in dignity, and the more is he to be esteemed by all.
Since, then, this is the object of almost all the avaricious, the prophet here
reminds them, that they are greatly deceived; for the Lord will not only
frustrate their hopes, but wilt also convert their glory into shame. Hence he
says that they consult shame to their family. He includes in the word “consult”
all the industry, diligence, skill, care, and labour displayed by the
avaricious. We indeed see how very sagacious they are; for if they smell any
gain at a distance, they draw it to themselves, night and day they form new
designs, that they may circumvent this person and plunder that person and
accumulate into their heap whatever money they can find, and also that they may
join fields to fields, build great palaces, and secure great revenues. This is
the reason why the prophet says that they “consult shame.” What is the object
of all their designs? For what purpose are all these things? Even for this,
that their posterity may be eminent, that their nobility may be in the mouths
of all, and spread far and wide. But the prophet shows that they labour in vain;
for God will turn to shame whatever they in their great wisdom contrived for
the honour of their families. The more provident, then, the avaricious are, the
more foolish they are, for they consult nothing but disgrace to their
posterity. (John Calvin.)
Verse 11
The stone shall cry out of
the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
Retribution
The prophet in this
connection is declaring that the Chaldeans shall be punished for their cruel
rapacity. Retribution is everywhere assumed as a great first-truth, which
nature itself constantly teaches, and to which man’s universal conscience as
constantly responds.
I. The
sin. What was the iniquity for which the Chaldean monarch is here so solemnly
denounced? Not the mere outer act of building a great city, but in the manner
and motive of his doing it. “He had built his city in blood, and established it
in iniquity.” There was sin in the motive, for the monarch only built for his
selfish aggrandisement. We perceive, then, glaring ungodliness in both manner
and motive of this great work of Babylon.
II. The
punishment. The Bible does not teach that men are punished eternally for the
sins committed in time. Man goes on sinning for ever, and therefore is punished
for ever. By a law of a man’s own mental constitution, memory and conscience
are summoning from the past both ministry and material of a righteous
retribution. This is retribution--a punishment really more dreadful than any
material imagery whereby the Bible sets it forth--a retribution which becomes,
of itself, eternal torment. We do not say that in this is all of retribution. (Charles
Wadsworth, D. D.)
The handwriting on the
wall
Very startling was the
vision which appeared to Belshazzar and his courtiers when their feasting and
mirth were at their height. But not in terrible omens and supernatural visions
alone do we see the Divine handwriting. To thoughtful men on every wall by the
wayside appear mystic letters of profound significance. The hand itself is
unseen behind the veil of nature, but the words are formed clear and distinct
upon the stones of the wall, and they remain as if graven with a pen of iron.
Botanists are familiar with a peculiar genus of lichen called Opegrapha, from
the resemblance which the fructification of all its species bears to written
characters. On the surface are numerous dark intricate lines, like Arabic,
Hebrew, or Chinese letters. The likeness in some instances is remarkably close.
Nature has thus mimicked in almost every wood, and on almost every rock and
wall, the latest and highest result of man’s civilisation; and in her humblest
plant forms has written her wonderful runes. It can, indeed, be said in the
highest sense of the whole family of lichens that they are God’s handwriting on
the wall. Lichens form the nebulae, so to speak, of the firmament of life. Lichens are in the ocean
of air that covers the dry land what seaweeds are in the ocean of waters that
covers the depths of the sea. They are as the pioneers of vegetation, climbing
the bare crag, and penetrating into the lonely wilderness, and planting there
the flag of life. As elements in the picturesque, lichens have long held a high
place in the estimation of all lovers of nature. What would a ruin be without
them? Lichens run through the whole chromatic scale, and show what striking
effects nature can produce by an harmonious combination of a few simple lines
and hues. Not less worthy of examination is the specialised organ with which
the lichen decks itself than the blossom of the brightest flower. Nothing is
lost in nature. God’s handwriting on the wayside wall and the weather-beaten
rock writes no sentence--“Thou art weighed in the balances and art found
wanting.” (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.)
Verse 12
Woe to him that buildeth a
town with blood.
A curse denounced against
bloodshed
I. The
ground or cause of this curse. The crying, crimson sin of bloodshed. In all
generations it has been the care of providence, both by civil and religions
means, to extinguish all principles of savageness in the minds of men, and to
make friendship and tenderness over men’s lives a great part of religion. By
nothing has this been so highly endeavoured as by the rules and constitution of
Christianity.
II. The
condition of the person against whom this woe or curse is denounced. He was
such an one as had actually established a government and built a city with
blood. As soon as Cain had murdered his brother he presently betook himself to
the building of a city. Bloodiness has usually a connection with building,
which represents the setting up of government. Nebuchadnezzar seems to be the
person here spoken of.
III. The
latitude and extent of this woe or curse, and what is comprehended in it. It
includes the miseries of both worlds, present and future.
1. It
fastens a general hatred and detestation upon such men as persons. Cruelty
alarms and calls up all the passions of human nature, and puts them into a
posture of hostility and defiance. The tyrant is universally hated and scorned.
2. The
torment of continual jealousy and suspicion.
3. The
shortness and certain dissolution of the government that endeavours to
establish itself with blood.
4. The
sad and dismal end that usually attends such persons.
IV. The
reasons why a curse or woe is so peculiarly denounced against this sin.
1. It
makes the most direct breach upon human society.
2. Because
of the malignity of those sins that go in conjunction with it.
V. Apply
to the present occasion. All unjust bloodshed is twofold. Either public, and
acted by or upon a community, as in a war. Or personal, in the assassination of
any particular man. (R. South, D. D.)
Verse 14
For the earth shall be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea.
The knowledge of God
There shall be such a
revelation of God’s character and attributes as shall win the faith and love
and adoration of the human family. Now, where is that revelation made? In
nature you get only glimpses of God; it tells us something of His wisdom and His power, but it
tells us nothing about His mercy and His forgiving love. Every word that nature
utters to a sinner is a word of terror. God has so loved us that He has sent
His “only-begotten Son,” through whom we may learn to know the Father. This
knowledge of God in Christ meets every want. It is of this knowledge the text
speaks--an experimental knowledge of Christ which brings us to God, and fits us
for heaven. This knowledge gives us lie. It has a quickening power. The man
that knows and receives Christ lives--lives a spiritual life that shall last
for ever. This knowledge also produces love. And it produces holiness in the
heart and life. It prepares us for heaven, which is the home of love. This
knowledge is to be universal! Reason teaches us to expect it.
2. The
Bible proclaims it.
3. There
are signs of the near approach of this glorious day. The first sign is the
decay of idolatry; the second is the decline of popery. A third is the increase
of knowledge. A fourth is the uprising of humanity. A fifth is the condition of
Christianity. (Charles Garrett.)
God’s glory universally
known
The prophet teaches here,
that so remarkable would be God’s judgment on the Babylonians that His name
would thereby be celebrated through the whole world. There is in the verse an
implied contrast; for God appeared not in His own glory when the Jews were led
away into exile; the temple being demolished and the whole city destroyed; and
also when the whole eastern region was exposed to rapine and plunder. When,
therefore, the Babylonians were, after the Assyrians, swallowing up all their
neighbours, the glory of God did not then shine, nor was it conspicuous in the
world. The Jews themselves had become mute; for their miseries had, as it were,
stupefied them; their mouths were at least closed, so that they could not from the heart bless
God, while He was so severely afflicting them. And then, in that manifold
confusion of all things the profane thought that all things here take place
fortuitously, and that there is no Divine providence. God, then, was at that
time hid; hence the prophet says, “Filled shall be the earth with the knowledge
of God.”; that is, God will again become known when, by stretching forth His
hand, He will execute vengeance on the Babylonians; then will the Jews, as well
other nations, acknowledge that the world is governed by God’s providence, as
it had been once created by Him. We now understand his meaning, and why he says
that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory; for the glory
of God previously disappeared from the world, with regard to the perceptions of
men; but it shone forth again when God Himself had erected His tribunal by
overthrowing Babylon, and thereby proved that there is no power among men which
He cannot control. We have the same sentence in Isaiah
11:9. The
prophet then speaks, indeed, of the Kingdom of Christ; for when Christ was
openly made known to the world, the knowledge of God’s glory at the same time filled
the earth; for God then appeared in His own living image. But yet our prophet
uses a proper language when he says that the earth shall then be filled with
the knowledge of God’s glory, when He should execute vengeance on the
Babylonians. Hence incorrectly have some applied this to the preaching of the
Gospel, as though Habakkuk made a transition from the ruin of Babylon to the
general judgment. This is (surely) a strained exposition. It is, indeed, a well
known mode of speaking, and often occurs in the Psalms, that the power, grace,
and truth of God are made known through the world, when He delivers His people
and restrains the ungodly. The same mode the prophet now adopts; and he
compares his fulness of knowledge to the waters of the sea, because the sea is
so deep that
there is no measuring of the waters. So Habakkuk intimates that the glory of
God would be so much known that it would not only fill the world, but in a
manner overflow it; as the waters of the sea by their vast quantity cover the
deep, so the glory of God would fill heaven and earth, so as to have no limits.
If, at the same time, there be a wish to extend this sentence to the coming of
Christ, I do not object; for we know that the grace of redemption flowed in a
perpetual stream until Christ appeared in the world. But the prophet, I have no
doubt, sets forth here the greatness of God’s power in the destruction of
Babylon. (John Calvin.)
The triumph of the Gospel
If we seek at all times to
trace the providences of God we shall often find that He makes His throne
darkness to us; and from the thick darkness we hear a voice saying, “What I do,
thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” But in tracing the
operations of the word of His grace, and the state of His Church, we find this clearly
made known. The eternal fiat has gone forth, “The earth shall be filled with
the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
I. The
subject-matter of this prophecy. The “glory of the Lord” has various meanings.
A grand display of it was made when Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders were
called up into the mount. Any particular visible display of God’s presence was
His glory. But the term has also reference to the Gospel. There was a glory
attending the law, but this was much more glorious. It is more glorious than
the law in its Author, His Person, and His work. The Gospel is peculiarly
glorious above the law--
1. In
its extent. If we look at former times we might perhaps think that God had
selected a few--one family--as His peculiar treasure; but now we find this was
only that the coming of the Messiah might be more clearly marked.
2. It re
presents the Divine attributes more gloriously than the law. Majesty, justice,
hatred of sin were shown. Here is the richest display both of grace and
justice. Here God’s glory is concentrated as in a focus.
3. It is
more glorious as life and immortality are more clearly revealed “The
knowledge,” etc; This word has also various meanings. Sometimes it means
“discrimination;” at others, “publication”; and when applied by a believer, it
is full assurance. The knowledge in the text implies--
(1)
Clearness;
(2)
impression.
All the theoretical
displays of the Gospel are of no avail without the impression of its truth. The
design of the Gospel is to change him who heartily believes it into its own
nature. It is the glory of God, and it changes the soul from glory to glory,
and makes it partaker of the Divine nature.
3. Performance.
Believe and obey the Gospel. The sinner believes; the believer works.
4. This
leads us to the universal tendency of this knowledge. Like leaven, it will work
its way.
II. What
is said concerning this glory. The margin of some Bibles reads, “the channels
of the sea.”
1. Clearness.
These channels are very deep; so is Divine science--not superficial.
2. Experience.
The waters do touch every surface of land; they wash every shore. The glory of
God shall be felt by every people.
3. Universal.
The channels are effectually covered; so shall the world be filled.
III. Remarks
in support of the prophet’s declaration.
1. God’s
covenant with Abraham. “All the families of the earth were to be blessed in
him.”
2. It
was renewed to Isaac, Jacob, etc.; but especially to Jesus Christ.
3. It
was the burden of all the prophecies.
4. See
the commission of the apostles.
5. We
may refer the accomplishment of this to the promised agency of the Holy Ghost.
6. We
argue it from the effects which have been produced. Application--
(1) You
are interested in this individually.
(2) See
what God expects from us. (J. Summerfield, A. M.)
Verse 18-19
What profiteth the graven
image, that the maker thereof hath graven it.
National wrongs ending in
national woes
I. That men often
give to the works of their own hands the devotions that belong to God. These
old Chaldean idolaters gave their devotions to the “graven image” and to the
“molten image” that men had carved in wood and stone or moulded from molten
metals. It was the works of their own hands they worshipped. Are men’s
sympathies in their strong current for God, or for something else? Do they
expend the larger portion of their time and the greater amount of their
energies in the service of the Eternal, or in the service of themselves?
II. That men often
look to the works of their own hands for a blessing which God alone can bestow.
These old idolaters “said to the wood, Awake, to the dumb stone, Arise.” Now,
it is true that men do not say formal prayers to wealth, or fashion, or fame,
or power, albeit to these they look with all their souls for happiness. Men who
are looking for happiness to any of these objects are like the devotees of
Baal, who cried from morning to evening for help, and no help came.
III. That in all
this men entail on themselves the woes of outraged reason and justice. “Woe
unto him that saith to the wood, Awake, to the dumb stone, Arise.”
1. It is the woe of outraged reason. What help could they expect of
the “molten image, and a teacher of lies”? What answer could they expect from
the dumb “idols “ that they themselves had made? How irrational all this!
Equally unreasonable it is for men to search for happiness in any of the works of their hands,
and in any being or object independent of God.
2. It is the woe of insulted justice. What has God said? “Thou shalt
have no other gods before Me.” All this devotion, therefore, to the works of
our own hands, or to any other creature, is an infraction of man’s cardinal
obligation. (Homilist.)
The misapplication of the
teaching of art in the service of religion
There is some difference
of opinion as to the exact time at which the prophet Habakkuk delivered his
message. But there is no question that it coincided with the period in which
Israel came in contact with the great empires of the East, and was allowed to
be humbled and punished by them. One of the consequences of intercourse with
these empires, ending in the Captivity, was to familiarise their minds with
buildings and workings of art which, while they marked the absence of a
knowledge and worship of the true God, presented marvellous instances of the
power and skill of man! The mind of man, in his fallen state, is ever prone to
forget God and to reject Him; it is ever prone to corrupt the simple idea of
His majesty and power. The idolatry of power was expressed in the architecture
and image worship of this period. The words of the text refer to it, The dumb
stone (of the monuments) speaks still; it speaks of abject submission to
irresistible power. It speaks of rule and might and iron will; but there is no
love, no tenderness, no hope in its utterances. History re-echoes the prophet’s
denunciation, and extends it to after generations, embracing the later and more
engaging forms of art thus employed. The message of works of art addresses
itself to the carnal and the sensuous that is in us. It does not bring us into contact with the
unseen and the infinite. There is a woe in it. May we not, descending the
stream of time, go on to point out that the prophet’s woe also lights upon what
is called Christian Art--on them who, in the Church of Christ, have said unto
the wood, Awake, and have called upon the dumb stone to teach? The woe has
taken effect in bringing down a thick pall of dark superstition and loss of spiritual
life wherever the practice has prevailed. It is not to the wood or to the stone
that we are directed for our instruction in Divine things, but to the Word and
to the testimony. And therefore it is that in the arranging of our churches and
the adjusting of their ornaments, at the time of the Reformation, it appeared
right to those who were charged with this work that the wood and the stone
which had been setup to speak and to teach should be excluded from this office;
that no attempt should be made, by an exhibition of the passion and death of
our blessed Lord, to the outward eye, to move the feelings and to strengthen
the faith; but rather that such things were to be removed as a danger and a
hindrance to acceptable worship. In place of ornaments and images the Reformers
put the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. It cannot be denied
that in our day there is some danger lest too much importance be attached to
external appearance, to architecture and decoration. While we do not look to
the wood to Speak, or to the dumb stone to teach, we will not hesitate to make
both minister to the comeliness of the sanctuary. In so doing we shall not
impede but assist devotion. Holding fast the essential truths, and taught by
the Word of the living God, we may rejoice with thanksgiving for the comeliness
of the sanctuaries which now cover our land in every direction, and cheerfully
do our part, that the wood and the stone may be made worthily to set forth the
honour of God’s service, and furnish us fitting accompaniment for the prayer
and the praise we offer in His name. (Archdeacon Cooper, M. A.)
Verse 20
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.
Keeping silence
Habakkuk commends the power of God, that the Israelites might
proceed with alacrity in their religious course, knowing it to be a sufficient
security to be under the protection of the only true God, and that they might
not seek after the superstitions of the nations, nor be carried here and there,
as it often happens, by vain desires. “Keep silence,” then, he says, “let all
the earth.” He shows that though the Israelites might be far inferior to the
Babylonians, and other nations, and be far unequal to them in strength,
military art, forces, and in short, in all things of this kind, yet they would
always be safe under the guardianship of God; for the Lord was able to control
whatever power there might be in the world. We now see what the prophet had in
view; for he does not here simply exhort all people to worship God, but shows
that, though men may grow mad against Him, He yet can easily by His hand
subjugate them; for after all the tumults made by kings and their people, the
Lord can, by one breath of His mouth, dissipate all their attempts, however
furious they may be. This, then, is the silence of which the prophet now
speaks. But there is another kind of silence, and that is, when we willingly
submit to God; for silence in this respect is nothing else but submission: and we submit to God,
when we bring not our own inventions and imaginations, but suffer ourselves to
be taught by His Word. We also submit to Him, when we murmur not against His
power or His judgments, when we humble ourselves under His powerful hand, and
do not fiercely resist Him, as those do who indulge their own lusts. This is
indeed a voluntary submission:
but the prophet here shows that there is power in God to lay prostrate the
whole world, and to tread it under His feet, whenever it may please Him; so
that the faithful have nothing to fear, for they know that their salvation is
secured; for though the whole world were leagued against them, it yet cannot
resist God. (John Calvin.)
The teaching of silence
There is an eloquence that lives not in words. There is an
appeal to the heart, ay, and to the reason too, in the language of silence. The
child that wakes in the night and listens for a sound and hears none, realises
loneliness, and vastness, and the sense of mystery, and cries out for fear.
There is a voice in the silence of old associations, as we stand amid the
relies of the past. There is a silence too amongst men that speaks most
unmistakably,--the silence of deep feeling, whether of sorrow, or rage, or attention, or
determination, when men have ceased to talk, because they feel words are out of
place, and the time for work has come. The silence spoken of in the text is a
silence created by a sense of the present majesty of God.
I. The presence of
God. He has Himself declared His omnipresence. He condescended to dwell in the
tabernacle and the temple. In the newer dispensation there were manifest
declarations that God is among His worshippers of a truth. It is no relic of a bygone
superstition to assert that God is in the midst of us. At the present day, with
altered circumstances externally, are we to suppose the reality is changed?
Because the temple gave way to the riverside or the catacombs, and they in turn
to the Basilica and the Church, are we to think that God has failed His people
or broken His covenant? Are we to imagine that God does not now draw near to
hear the prayer addressed to Him, or that, while He is present everywhere else,
He excludes Himself from those sanctuaries where His people specially desire
His presence? We are here for a festival of parochial choirs. But in whose
honour is that festival? Our own or God’s?
II. The work of
music. Regard it as an influence. Which of us is altogether insensible to it?
And as a means of expression. The influence of music must lead on to something
further. If we feel it in any degree, we are bound to make it our own, and
employ it till we realise something of the worth of music as a means of
expression. When Mendelssohn, as a boy, had seen anything very beautiful, if he
was asked to describe it, he would say, “Oh, I can’t speak it, I will play it
to you,” and would then sit down and draw out of the instrument tones that
expressed the deep impression which the beautiful had made on him. We are not
all so. Still we all have some such power in some degree.
III. What has this
to do with silence? A great deal. For all great works great preparation is
needed. For the true preparation of the music of the sanctuary, silence is
necessary. The music we have been speaking of is the music of worship, and the
music of hearts. Silence is the attitude of listening and attention. What is
necessary in God’s house is silent reverence. And it is the condition of real
work,--of most work with the hand, of all real work with the head. The silence
of preparation is like a dam across a stream. In the silence of thought, in the
silence of humility, in the silence of reverence, in the silence of deep
feelings, in the silence of earnest determination, we prepare an offering of
prayer and praise, which wells forth, not from the noisy utterance of our lips, without
influence and without expression, but a strong deep flood from the heart
itself, which flows, and will flow on and on for ever, which has God for its
object, our own deepest interest for its subject, our whole life for its
channel, and eternity for its end. (G. C. Harris.)
Sentiments for a great crisis
This prophetic book was written in troublous times.
I. The attitude of
God towards the earth in the great crisis of its history. Some think by
Jehovah’s temple the prophet means the Church; others the universe; others
heaven; others the temple at Jerusalem. We understand our text to speak of heaven
as the temple of the Lord.
1. The fact that the Lord is in His temple speaks to us of the hiding
of His purposes. To us, in this lower world, God’s face is often veiled. Our
vision is not keen enough to pierce the mysteries of that temple into which He
withdraws Himself.
2. Indicates the interest which He takes in human affairs. Though the
Lord is hidden, He is not unobservant. It is our consolation to know that our
Heavenly Father, though unseen, is all-seeing and all-pervading. And if God
care for the most insignificant individual, must He not care much more when the
fate of nations hangs in the balance
3. Intimates His infinite repose in spite of all external changes. No
disquiet can be felt by the Almighty.
4. He is ready to interfere effectively at the proper moment. As a
rule, He conceals His designs, until the time comes for action.
II. The fitting
attitude of man towards God in eventful times. “Let all the earth keep silence
before Him.” There should be--
1. The silence of humiliation.
2. The silence of adoration.
3. The silence of submission.
4. The silence of expectation.
5. The silence of quiet resolution--the resolution to follow
implicitly the guidance of providence, and, at whatever cost, to do our duty to
our country, the world, and to God.
The expressiveness of devout silence
Addison professes to have been wonderfully delighted with a
masterpiece of music, when in the very tumult and ferment of their harmony all
the voices and instruments have stopped short on a sudden, and after a little
pause recovered themselves again as it were, and renewed the concert in all its
parts. “Methought this short interval of silence has had more music in it than
any one same space of time before or after it.” And he goes on to cite from
Homer and from Virgil two instances of silence, “which have something in them
as sublime as any of the speeches in their whole works.” (Francis Jacox.)
Silence
What is silence? You often use the word, but are you sure that you
always use it correctly? or that you are able to discriminate between the
literal and the metaphorical use of the word? Strictly speaking silence is the
suspension of articulate speech, though by a metaphor we transfer the term to a
cessation of any sound whatever. Thus, we read of the hushed silence which, in
tropical countries, precedes the shock of the earthquake; and we have all been
awed by the silence which fills up the intervals between the peals in the
thunderstorm. But in these instances the word silence, which strictly means the
pause of articulate speech, is not used in its primary and literal sense, but
figuratively or metaphorically. The Psalmist calls the human voice “man’s
glory”; and so it is, as sharing with the possession of reason “the glory “ of
distinguishing between man himself and the coasts that perish. And our Lord
warns us against the vain and idle use of this great gift, by the solemn
declaration that “by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou
shalt be condemned”; and again, that “for every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” But if the faculty of
speech be thus wonderful and sacred, and if a responsibility thus strict and
awful attach to its right employment, must not something of the like
sacredness, something of the like responsibility, belong also to that
correlative power--the power of silence?
I. The silence of
worship, of awe and reverence. “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the
earth keep silence before Him.” When we come up to the house of prayer, to meet
Christ upon the mercy-seat,--to hear His voice speaking to us in the read and
spoken word,--to receive Him into our very souls in the Sacrament of His broken
body and shed blood, we are bound to observe the silence of awe and reverence. Except when we open
our lips to join in prayer or praise to God, our attitude within these hallowed
walls should be that of silence, of those who are impressed with the sanctity
of the place, and who know and feel that the Almighty God is indeed in their
midst. Yes; and it would be well, could we put more of this holy silence into
all our religious acts. Our religion shares too much in the faults of the age
in which we live. It is too public, too outspoken, conducted too much as a
business; and so the inner and contemplative element is too much lost sight of.
“Commune with thine own heart, and in thy chamber, and be still”; this is the
direction of the Psalmist, and it is a direction to which we shall do well to
give heed in this busy, noisy, bustling generation. Do not suppose that it is
only the clergy, or persons of retired life, or those who have given themselves
up to the attainment of a higher sanctity, who must court the silence of prayer
and meditation. It is even yet more necessary for you whose lives are spent
amid the busy competition of trade, or professional enterprise, or manual
labour,--whose thoughts from early morning till late night are almost
uninterruptedly engrossed with the cares and riches and business of this
life,--it is absolutely necessary for you if, while living in the world, you
would live with God and for God, that you make a point each day of withdrawing yourselves,
if it be but for a quarter of an hour, from the outer world, and retiring into
yourselves, to meditate on your own spiritual state, and on God’s great love
and goodness towards you. Devotion is possible even in the busiest life. Never
plead worldly business as an excuse for irreligion, or for deficient fervour in
religion. On the contrary, worldly business will be a great help to your
religion if only you recollect that, in order to make it such, you must ever
cultivate--educate that inner life of the soul which naturally aspires after
God. And how will you cultivate and educate it? You can only do it by diligent
seeking, and faithful use each day of a period of silence,--silence for prayer,
for penitence, for communion with the Unseen and the Eternal.
II. The silence of
preparation. Every great achievement, whether in the moral or the intellectual
world, has been in a sense like Solomon’s temple,--it has risen noiselessly,
silently, without sound of axe or hammer. Therefore is that great primary act
in religion--the conviction of sin--invariably preceded by deep and solemn
silence, while the sinner stands before God self-accused and self-condemned.
Therefore, also, is silence ever present at all the more solemn passages of our
life. Sorrow--real, genuine sorrow--is ever silent. A cry!--a tear!--what
relief would these be,--but they must not intrude into the sacred ground of
sorrow,--the sorrow of the just-bereaved widow or orphan. And so, too, sympathy
with sorrow is ever silent. Idle words, or still idler tears,--these are for
false comforters, like those that troubled the patriarch Job: the true sympathy is
the sympathy of a look,--of the presence of silence, not of uttered
consolation.
III. But I must name
that last silence,--a silence that we must all experience, and for which, by
silence, we must prepare now--the silence of death. What exactly the silence of
death is, none but the dying can know. When that silence comes upon us, and
come upon us it must, with a certainty to which no other future certainty bears
the slightest resemblance, may it find us experienced in silence. May we have
sought it, may we have profited by it, may we have practised it, while it was
still ours to choose or to refuse. May we have known what it was, day by day,
to be many times alone with that God who must then be alone with us, to judge
or else to save. (C. H. Collier, M. A.)
The religion of silence
We all speak too much, and make too much noise. Every one has felt
irritated sometimes, when in thoughtful mood he could not escape from people’s
voices. A panorama of the Alps from a Swiss mountain-top may be spoiled even by
the cries of “Wunder-schon!” No one can worship rightly, no one
can even hear the call to worship, who does not often feel that he must be
silent. This is the religious aspect of the modern demand for more leisure
time. And one of the things we most of all need to learn and teach, is how to
use the leisure that we are demanding, so that our “silences may be blessed
with sweet thoughts.” For worship, there are three main uses of silence--
1. To get rid of evil voices that speak within us. Passion,
selfishness, self-assertion, lust, fear, are voices that cry within the souls
of most men more than they know. Their cries mingle with the other noises of
life, and so escape notice. But when the soul is hushed for worship it can
distinguish any such voice, will feel its wrongness, and be at pains to silence
it. There are many thoughts we dare not allow when we realise ourselves in
God’s holy temple. The silence which discovers and banishes these is a means of
moral victory.
2. To let the “still small voices” be heard within. Often busy people
feel that there are many things in their mind and heart which they can only
half express, even to themselves. Wordsworth describes these in his Ode on
Immortality. The reason why these are so inexpressible is often our want of
silence rather than our spiritual incapacity. There are some scientific
instruments so fine that to do their work they must be set at night in a quiet
country-house far from traffic. The mind and heart and conscience are such
instruments. All that is best in us of thought and feeling exceeds speech. When
we try to speak out all that we want to say, we know how true it is that
“language is a means of concealing thought.” But in reverent silence, thought
and love and the sense of right and wrong, in finer shades than language can
match, may be drawn out, and the soul attain a richer and fuller being in this
temple of God than elsewhere.
3. To know God. For there is more to be had than the quickening of
human nature to its fullest life. There is a Presence in the world; one whose
thought we share, whose love we feel, and whose voice speaks in conscience.
That which the finest spirits prize most in silence and loneliness is the real
companionship they reveal. We Know ourselves alone, yet not alone, for the
Father is with us. The holy temple is the place of revelation and communion for
its silent worshippers. (John Kelman, M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》