Judgment on the wing.
I. ITS CHARACTER DESCRIBED. (Habakkuk 1:5.)
1. Its subjects. The land and people of Judah (Habakkuk 1:6). These, though Jehovah's covenanted people, had declined from his worship, departed from his ways, dishonoured his Name. It was in the covenant that, under such circumstances, they should be chastised (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalms 89:30); and Jehovah is never unmindful of his covenant engagements (Psalms 111:5), if men are of theirs (2 Timothy 2:12, 2 Timothy 2:13).
2. Its Author. Jehovah. "The Judge of all the earth" (Genesis 18:20), "his eyes behold and his eyelids try the children of men" (Psalms 11:4), communities and nations no less than individuals (Psalms 67:4). As "justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne" (Psalms 89:14), so "all his ways are judgment" (Deuteronomy 32:4), and "the works of his hands are verity and judgment" (Psalms 111:7). As the least significant occurrence (Matthew 10:29), so the most momentous, cannot happen without the Divine permission. The Supreme is behind all second causes. He regulates the rise and fall of nations and kings (Job 12:23; Psalms 75:7), the ebb and flow of ocean (Job 38:11), the movements of the heavenly bodies (Job 38:31-33), the growth and decay of flowers (Isaiah 40:7). When Nineveh is overthrown and Babylon raised up, Jehovah, unseen but all-powerful, is the prime Mover. When Judah or Israel is chastised, it is Jehovah s hand that holds the rod.
3. Its certainty. Being matter of clear and definite promise on the part of Jehovah: "I will work a work;" "Behold, I raise up the Chaldeans." So certain is Jehovah's future judgment of his enemies (Malachi 3:5; Acts 17:1-34 :81). This, like that, has no basis but Jehovah's announcement. That this will not fail may be inferred from the accomplishment of that.
4. Its vicinity. Close at hand. "Behold, I work a work in your days" obviously meant that within a generation at furthest the Divine stroke should descend on Judah, and that every person in the nation should regard it as near. In the same way are Christians directed to think of the judgment of the great day as at hand (James 5:9; 1 Peter 4:7; Revelation 22:12), though of that day and of that hour knoweth no man (Mark 14:1-72 :82) more than this, that it is certain (Job 21:30; Psalms 1:4; Daniel 7:10; Matthew 25:32; Hebrews 9:27).
5. Its strangeness. It should be both startling and incredible.
II. ITS INSTRUMENT INDICATED. (Verses 6-11.) This was the Chaldean or Babylonian power, at the time subject to Assyria, and not risen to the ascendency it afterwards enjoyed under Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. The prophet depicts it when raised up, not only into a nation, but against Judah by a sevenfold characteristic.
1. Its natural disposition. He calls it "a bitter and hasty nation," i.e. fierce and rough, heedless and rash, and represents it as marching through the breadth of the earth, impelled by covetousness, and making a way for itself by sheer brute force and violence—taking possession of dwelling places not its own.
2. Its formidable appearance. "They are," or he, i.e. the nation, is, "terrible and dreadful," by its very name and much more by its aspect and actions inspiring terror in the breasts of beholders.
3. Its presumptuous self-sufficiency. "Their judgment and dignity proceed from themselves;" i.e. conscious of its own strength, it determines for itself its own rule of right, and ascribes to itself its elevation above the other nations of the earth. This putting of self instead of God in the place of honour and scat of authority is the essence of all sin. Wicked men walk after the counsels and in the imaginations of their own evil hearts (Jeremiah 7:24), and are prone to arrogate to themselves what should be rendered to God, viz. the glory of their successful achievements (Deuteronomy 8:17; 7:2).
4. Its military strength.
5. Its warlike achievements.
6. Its daring impiety. Rushing on like a swollen torrent, like his own Euphrates when it overflows its banks, sweeping across the land like a tempestuous wind over the sandy desert, it overleaps all barriers and restraints both Divine and human, and stands convicted before God as a guilty transgressor.
7. Its shameless blasphemy. The culmination at once of its offence and of its guilt is that it deifies its own might, saying, "Lo, this my strength is my god!" Such was the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30) and of Belshazzar (Isaiah 14:14); such will be that of the future antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
Learn:
1. That if God's people sin they must look for chastisement (Deuteronomy 11:28; Psalms 89:32).
2. That if God's people are chastised for their offences, God's enemies cannot hope to escape punishment for theirs (1 Peter 4:17, 1 Peter 4:18).
3. That God can always lay his hand upon an instrument wherewith to inflict punishment upon his people (Isaiah 10:5).
4. That wicked men and nations whom God employs in the execution of his judgments do not thereby escape responsibility for their own actions (Isaiah 10:12).
5. That the deification of self is the last delusion of a foolish heart (Genesis 3:5).