My thoughts for the Itty Bitty Bible Study group on Facebook. (join if you’d like to get these in fb!)
The first verse is explained in various versions (as obtained via Bible Hub) and on got questions.
Habakkuk 3 Amplified Bible (AMP)
God’s Salvation of His People
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to [a]wild and enthusiastic music.
Habakkuk 3 Living Bible (TLB)
3 This is the prayer of triumph[a] that Habakkuk sang before the Lord:
Habakkuk 3 World English Bible (WEB)
3 A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, set to victorious music.
In my research, no one really knows, but it sounds like the variations of worship, praise and prayer that we all see today in the variations of worshipers!
I’m going to do chapter three a little different than usual. I’m going to just list the verse, and add some cross references that come to mind. This chapter sounds so completely relevant to today, and the second coming of our Lord (Matthew 24). See if you agree.
Habakkuk 3 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Habakkuk’s Third Prayer
3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. According to Shigionoth.[a]
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
Some verse, then my verses. Do you agree? Do you have some to add?
Isaiah 43:2
Deuteronomy 31:8
Jeremiah 42:11
Matthew 24:22 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
22 Unless those days were limited, no one would[a] survive.[b] But those days will be limited because of the elect.
Psalm 85:6-9 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
6 Will You not revive us again
so that Your people may rejoice in You?
7 Show us Your faithful love, Lord,
and give us Your salvation.8 I will listen to what God will say;
surely the Lord will declare peace
to His people, His godly ones,
and not let them go back to foolish ways.
9 His salvation is very near those who fear Him,
so that glory may dwell in our land.
Back to Habakkuk 3
Description of our great God:
3 God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
Psalm 48:10
Psalm 72:19
Psalm 113:4
Knowing Jesus has a compilation of verses about the earth being filled with His glory!
Isaiah 6:3 New International Version (NIV)
3 And they were calling to one another:“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Praise Break!
Back to Habakkuk 3
4 His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
Luke 17:24 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
24 For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be in His day.
Revelation 1:12-20 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
12 I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven gold lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man,[a] dressed in a long robe and with a gold sash wrapped around His chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool—white as snow—and His eyes like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and His voice like the sound of cascading[b] waters. 16 He had seven stars in His right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth, and His face was shining like the sun at midday.[c]
Do you see the similarities? Not to mention that Jesus is the light of the world! I love seeing Jesus in the Old Testament tying together both testaments!
John 1 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Prologue
1 In the beginning was the Word,[a]
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 All things were created through Him,
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created.
4 Life was in Him,[b]
and that life was the light of men.
5 That light shines in the darkness,
yet the darkness did not overcome[c] it.
5 Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.[a]
“Things followed him”… not? I don’t think this means that pestilence and plague were part of God’s presence. I think this is part of the whole concept that where the holy God is, that which is unholy just trembles and dies! On the other hand, this also sounds very similar to the judgments in Revelation for His coming again to judge the living and the dead.
I’ve written a quickie guide to Revelation from the end to the beginning.
If you want to look up the judgments, start at Revelation 6.
There are many warnings in the Bible of judgement, both in the current lifetime of the prophet/writer, and in prophetic nature for the future. It is a part of the Christian’s theology.
6 He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Zechariah 14:4
Psalm 73
End times verses, Matthew 24. PureFlix has compiled a few, as has Open Bible.
Back to Habakkuk 3
8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
This is Habakkuk asking God questions.
What is being said here? Why is a chariot of salvation being called when he’s going forth pouring out judgement?
Salvation for those in the midst?
This brings to my mind the discussions about when the rapture is, when the tribulation is, and where are all the believers during any of this. If you checked out the above collections of verses for end times, you know that this sounds very much like some of the judgments in Revelation! I’m not qualified to write much about this, but there are those who are, and they do not agree! All about God is one place I like to go to for some answers. My belief lines up with a Keith Green quote – “pray for Pre, Prepare for Post” as in, no one knows the hour or day, so be prepared!
My looking at the various scriptures, of which I do not have the space to list here, I am preparing for mid trib rapture. Why? That’s what I see when I look at the whole of the end times verses. Also, it’s what I see as how God works with his children…He saves them in the midst of the storm! My other reason, how terrible will it be for those that are not preparing for any true persecution to find out that they are in the first three and a half years of the tribulation, not raptured out before hand as they had been taught, and completely ill prepared to stand for God in the midst of the horrors that, well, honestly, are going on every where else in the world but here in America. The Bible warns that many will fall away and hearts will grow cold. How many are falling away because the prosperity doctrine does not work for them? How many fall away because it’s been preached that they will be healed in this life, and they continue to suffer, or lose a child, or what have you? Why won’t God answer their prayers? and the spiral starts. Be prepared! And we can rejoice if we are raptured before the tribulation!
Back to Habakkuk 3
9 You stripped the sheath from your bow,
calling for many arrows.[b] Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
it lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their place
at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
12 You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
Still sounds very much like His last campaign on the Earth to separate the sheep from the goats. Just read the various passages listed herein.
Back to Habakkuk 3
13 You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck.[c] Selah
14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
There’s a verse about the end times enemies turning upon themselves and hiding. They did so many times in Old Testament battles. One such is Gideon in Judges 7:17-22. Also 1 Samuel 14:20, and 2 Chronicles 20 .
The key for believers to remember is this… the children are saved, in the midst of the judgement. Remember the three Hebrew children, and Daniel in the lions’ den, and Joseph in the pit, and then the jail, and then raised up to deliver the world as they knew it! I discussed this in IBBS Habakkuk 2
Psalm 46:10-11 New International Version (NIV)
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
the surging of mighty waters.16 I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
This is in light of the scripture shared above that except the day be cut short even the very elect would fall away. Here are some verses about our responsibility and our comfort for the end times.
Isaiah 54:17 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
17 No weapon formed against you will succeed,
and you will refute any accusation[a]
raised against you in court.
This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants,
and their righteousness is from Me.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Isaiah 41:10 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
10 Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you; I will help you;
I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.
Luke 10:19 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
19 Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; nothing will ever harm you.
Ephesians 6:10-20 is our responsibility to be prepared for battle, remembering this:
Ephesians 6:12 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
12 For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
Romans 12:19 with Proverb 20:22
Psalm 37
Who better to fight for us than the God of all Creation?
Jesus is the prince of Peace…Psalm 23 goes nicely here.
As Psalm 46:10 says, Be Still and know that I am God!
Back to Habakkuk 3
Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
No matter what happens around us we need to rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of our salvation because He is the strength of our heart and He does make our feet like Hinds feet that walk on high places!
My Joy blogs –
- a year ago I wrote Joyful Joyful about my decision to choose joy.
- a Quick read about Joy from my Advent series.
- I also have written about my struggle with depression, and how I’ve had to choose joy. One such blog is Oil of Joy, my testimony.
- Another is Whose Joy am I responsible for, an addition to my joy journey.
Why am I talking about Joy in the midst of talking about end time events? I defined Joy for myself several years ago:
Joy is not dependent upon the things going on around me. It depends upon the Joy that is within me –
Another point of view is that
Happiness comes from Happenings, but Joy comes from Jesus.
If we depend on things around us to determine our joy, we will be sadly disappointed, if not depressingly despairing.
If our Joy is based upon Jesus residing in us, no one, NOTHING can take that from us, and we will have the Love of God within us, and the Peace of God sustaining us! Remember the first three fruit of the Spirit are listed as Love, Joy, and Peace! These are gifts to us from our heavenly father because HE KNOWS what’s going to happen! Let’s thank him!
Praise Charts has a list of various Christian Songs to praise the Lord and give Him thanks.
Here’s my praise Break!
Final bit of Habakkuk:
To the choirmaster: with stringed[d] instruments.
Remember that in all of things, we should worship. Worship is our greatest weapon!
Patheos has written a collection about verses to ward off the enemy.
Let me know what you think about this!
~~~
Hi!
My hope in the midst of despair and my joy in the face of depression is because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. If you do not have one, or are not sure you will join him in heaven, please check out these links.
- Got Questions provides a detailed explanation of The Roman’s Road.
- Billy Graham’s version of the Plan of salvation
Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest
Copyrights and Legal-eze
There are many organizations that support children and families. Here are ones that we are blessed to be a part of. Please consider sponsoring a child – the life you change could be your own.
- Naomi’s Heart Ministries
- Obed’s House Ministries
- Project Based Missions, Global
- The son of a friend will be interning with CRU – previously known as Campus Crusades for Christ. If you’d like to support someone I can vouch for in this area, please consider going to Matthew Plant’s donation page.
- Compassion
