Chapter three of our prophetic book contains the final recorded prayer of this man of God. No answer of Jehovah to this prayer is given. In effect chapter three is Jehovah’s answer to the two previous prayers. The answer is not spoken by the Lord, but the answer is worked into the heart and words of Habakkuk.

Yet the third prayer is not merely a spiritual exercise of one man of God, as were the former two. This prayer is intended for public use as is shown by verse 1: ‘A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth’, and by verse 19c: ‘To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.’

This prayer would be sung by faithful Jews in Jerusalem at the temple as the Babylonian terror approached. It would be sung by faithful oppressed Jews in exile. It would be sung after the restoration.

Preparation for the Prayer⤒🔗

The final verbal answer from Jehovah to the Praying Prophet is found in Habakkuk 2:20.

The LORD is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.

The Almighty dwells in his temple. That temple is the place of God’s worship, but it also serves as a throne room (the seat of government) for the Father and the Son! (Note the composite throne room – temple in Isaiah 6, and in Revelation 5, 6 and 21:22).

Habakkuk’s first two prayers were composed of agitated complaints to the Most High. The first was a complaint against Jehovah for his delay in putting an end to immorality and injustice in Judah. The second was a complaint against Jehovah for his intent to use a nation still more wicked than they to chastise Judah for her sins. Are not many of our most fervent prayers just that – complaints against our Sovereign? Is it not true that we dare to cast aspersions on the One who rules over us, over our churches, over our nations, and over the world today?

When we are irritated with the Lord for the manner in which he governs the affairs of our times we have one need above all others. It is to have a view of the Judge of all the earth in his sheer majesty and supreme competence. He is in his holy temple. The required consequence of such a vision is spoken. ‘Let all the earth hush before Him.’ God spoke to Habakkuk as a father speaks to a vexed child, ‘Hush!’ The firm hand of the Father is sufficient to change the child’s tone. There were no more complaints against God from Habakkuk. There should be no hint of grumbling from us. There was none in the prayer of chapter three.

‘But’, we sputter, ‘we are in a very dangerous emergency!’ ‘Hush, child!’ are the Father’s sufficient words. When Jeremiah lived to witness the Babylonian crushing of Jerusalem he came to a similar conclusion in his Lamentations: ‘It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord!’ (Lam. 3:26). The faith of which Habakkuk wrote (Hab. 2:4), the faith which makes men just and brings them life, is a faith which often suffers and often lives through calamities. It was the quiet faith of the believing Jews in captivity.

Today some Evangelicals have noisy meetings to drum up victory. Others shout in political rallies to ‘make a difference’ and change the ways of nations. ‘Let all the earth hush before Him.’ Acquiesce in the decrees of the Holy One. Lean upon the Lord in the midst of adversity; it is good for refining the grace of hope (Read Calvin’s commentary on Lamentations 3:25-28 on quietness in adversity).

An Essential Ingredient in Prayer←⤒🔗

The actual prayer began, ‘O LORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid.’ Jehovah had spoken to Habakkuk in human words in response to his first two prayers. The prophet had heard and considered what the Almighty had said. Both replies had expressed God’s perfect holiness. The Most High is so morally upright that he had announced his anger first against a lawbreaking Judah and then against a thoroughly corrupt and wicked Babylon. God’s anger against sin arises from his own flawless character. The Scriptures speak of God’s anger as ‘burning’ and ‘smoking.’ Note that God’s wrath is without partiality.

In his righteous fury the Lord judges all and executes his sentences against both Israel and her atoning sacrifice. But because the heathen have no acceptable sacrifice the Lord’s kindled wrath consumes them forever. Habakkuk appropriately responded to the divine threats of coming judgments – with fear. It would be proper to translate the Hebrew term for fear as ‘trembling.’ In Isaiah 66:2 God declares that the place of his resting (or dwelling) will be:

On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit
And who trembles at My word.

Trembling before the Word of God is a part of the experience of becoming meek before him. Only through awareness of our personal sins against God and of our just deserving of his angry curse are we ready to turn to the Saviour for pardon and grace. Trembling is the pathway to mercy and stillness before our Maker. Listen and be afraid!

Pleading for Mercy←⤒🔗

No longer does Habakkuk argue against God’s purposes to crush Judah in the near future. No longer is he horrified that a most depraved nation will be the Lord’s instrument for Judah’s judgment. Accepting and trembling at the most unpleasant prospects, the quieted prophet sought to pray appropriately. He realized that he must no longer insist that his own plan direct God’s providence. Righteousness will not come to his nation by means of a soft landing. Nor will God annihilate the most vicious idol worshipers before they can injure his chosen people. Yet God’s revelation has opened a window of prayer for the burdened prophet. This window is the grand promise given to Habakkuk, one of the key promises of all the Bible:

The just shall live by his faith.Habakkuk 2:4

Thus Habakkuk and all believing Jews had legitimate requests to make. For, after all, ‘Prayer is asking God for things which he has promised to give’ (Children’s Catechism). Twice Habakkuk framed the public prayer by the phrase, ‘In the midst of the years.’ Commentators dispute whether this phrase has an eschatological sense. But surely it means, ‘In the midst of the years’ of Judah’s destruction, and ‘in the midst of the years’ of her captivity; ‘in the midst of the years’ of Babylon’s terrorizing raids and her oppressive powers, and ‘in the midst of the years’ of our own great tribulations.’

Make Him Live←⤒🔗

‘In the midst of the years make him live’ (verse 2)! Make who live? The man of faith! Make his soul alive in you, and let him live through the gathering storm of disaster. No, the saints do not escape the horrors and sadnesses of their nations’ judgments from the hand of God. But through steadfast faith they live! God can keep their hearts alive in faith and even preserve their lives in the midst of general slaughters.

Make Him Understand←⤒🔗

‘In the midst of the years make him understand’ (verse 2)! In peace and safety we line up our doctrines and feel secure. But there comes a new requirement of deep understanding of the ways of God when men are swept up in the tragedies and disasters of their nations which have forsaken God and despised his law.

Remember Mercy←⤒🔗

‘In trembling remember mercy’ (verse 2)! As the time of judgment approaches Habakkuk envisions himself and all true believers as trembling. The wicked may curse God, but they will not tremble before him. The wicked may fear earthly means of destruction, but not the God who lifts the rod which directs these means. But those who tremble before a holy, angry and just God – the ultimate source of judgment – will appeal to him for mercy. Deserving no relief from God’s smoking justice, men and women of faith realize that there is pardon for sin in Jesus Christ, God’s Son and God’s Lamb of sacrifice. At the very time of wrath there is mercy to be shown to those who have faith.

The Prayers Answered←⤒🔗

This pleading that those of faith would be made alive by divine action was God’s means of preserving lives through the most alarming times. In 606 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar first conquered Jerusalem, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego lived through the holocaust. Scripture records that, even in captivity, their living faith was dramatically displayed to Nebuchadnezzar himself and to his nation. The prayer, based on the promise of Habakkuk 2, that they ‘understand’, led to there being divine prophecy and the gifts of wisdom among the Jews even in their darkest hours.

During Nebuchadnezzar’s second conquest of Jerusalem, Ezekiel, a man of great faith, was preserved alive. His living prophecies to the Jews in exile are recorded in the Old Testament book which bears his name. While in Babylon he prophesied of God’s giving a new heart to his people Israel. And he understood and taught that God must be inquired of according to his promises to do for them what he has promised (Ezek. 36:37).

In 536 BC, in answer to Daniel’s prayer (Dan. 9), men of faith (Zerubbabel, Joshua and Haggai) led the first contingent of exiles back to Jerusalem. In 458 BC, Ezra led a second group back. In 445 BC, Nehemiah came to aid in the restoration. Men of faith lived through the most fearsome events and gave vitality to the body of God’s people. They outlived their heathen conquerors and the cruel nations that oppressed them. All the while the bright beam of righteousness and truth burned through further lights who continued to live in exile, such lights as Mordecai and Esther. God was pouring out mercy in the midst of very frightening years.

If the modern church should live through well-deserved national calamities under the wrath of God the Lord is able to let his people live, to let them understand and to taste mercy. Ezekiel 9 tells us how God preserves his special people even during scenes of the most general slaughter. For example, Ezekiel was prophesying in exile during the third and most horrific conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Life, understanding and mercy abounded to his saints even in this, one of the kind of scenes throughout history which make all knees to tremble.

If God destroyed a wicked world in Noah’s day, if he eradicated Sodom and Gomorrah, if Jehovah sent his special people into exile and reproach among the nations, will he spare modern western nations, once ‘Christian’, who repeat the same sins? Here is a prayer to keep in the pocket of your memory for those dark hours of judgment. Acquaint yourself with mercy in Christ, and be certain that you enter the upheavals of war, conquest and oppression as a person of steadfast faith. Men and women of faith shine as jewels of mercy amidst the deepest gloom of sin and unbelief. Because they are products of divine mercy, God is greatly glorified in them and by them, even when other types of triumph do not appear.