Audio Download

The Book of Habakkuk – Chapters 3:1-19

[Aired March 29, 2025]

Like many of the Lord’s prophets from the past, Habakkuk and Solomon frustratingly recognised that a more excellent ministry, one capable of keeping their Lord’s commands, must replace their currently burdensome covenant. In the meantime, they see only dimly through a foggy glass, often concluding their prophecies in the steadfast hope of the immeasurable joy some Godly power could facilitate faithfulness, a type that only the Elect experience much later. Habakkuk expresses that conclusive hope in verse 19 by glorifying God for the unshakable hope he has within (Hab 3:17-19), and to us, the Father, through Christ our hope of glory, the Chief Singer on us, HIS stringed instruments. It is Christ who strums us to His tune, and not Him to the whore’s. Mysteriously, however, His Bride learns His song as He ravishes her ‘strings’ and she now is singing euphorically! (Rev 14:3)

Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 
Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 
Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 

Hab 3:19  The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. 

Isa 44:23  Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. 
Isa 44:24  Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; 
Isa 44:25  That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; 
Isa 44:26  That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: 

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. 
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. 
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. 

Fittingly, Habakkuk’s prayer “upon Shigionoth” (shig-gaw-yone – H7692) in Hab 3:1 means that it is a “song” and in the translation of its Hebrew meaning of number H7686, it classically depicts Israel’s and our preceding nature of ‘going astray, to err’ in our journey in being recreated as Christs (plural) singing His Song of Songs.

Significations:

Habakkuk’s Prayer

Hab 3:1  A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth [H7692; H7686 – song; to go astray, err]. 
Hab 3:2  O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. 

The nature of ‘fearing the Lord’ is twofold. The paradoxical first induces fear, and by our former Babylonian orthodoxy, despite not being privy to the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, most certainly stirs up a dreadful fear of an ever-burning hellfire and the paradoxically barbaric nature of a loving God. That image was in our minds semi-consciously and conflictingly held in dread while chanting ‘God is love’ and ‘Jesus loves me ’cause he died in my stead on the cross.’ The second is the Elect; upon learning the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, fear transforms into a glorious reverence and respect for our Lord’s mighty works, which He is accomplishing in them. This is to bring our twisted and fearful mindset, and subsequently the world, to judgment, the eager acknowledgement of our sins, wrath upon our old man, and the joy of repentance, “full of praise” for the Lord’s mercy.  

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you [His Elect alone] it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others [The world at this time since the cross] in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand [until their time appointed]. 

Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. 

Those events mentioned earlier depicting our journey to becoming Christ are upheld in the next verse of Habakkuk 3, where the name Teman relates to one of Esau’s firstborn sons, emblematic of our original nature of despising our inheritance (Gen 25:32-34). In coming from Teman, God dualistically represents Christ’s Christs, ‘the younger’ fleeing, coming out of our elder brother, Esau (Gen 27:1-40).

Gen 36:15  These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 

Hab 3:3  God came from Teman [in Edom], and the holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 

God, in coming from Teman, signifies Christ in us, coming from Esau and Midianites to the holy mount of the Lord, having symbolically hidden in “caverns” (Paran = place of caverns) from our murderous brothers and sisters in Babylonian Christianity (Jdg 6:2-3).

Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 
Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 
Heb 11:39  And these all, [Habakkuk and all in the Old Covenant including John the baptist just before the New]having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 

Consequently, the Lord’s Elect, not through anything they brought to the Lord’s table, received His praise and the promise of glory through Christ’s horn of strength alone and hidden in Him. Our trials of cruel mockings, scourgings, wandering in the deserts of Babylonian Christian teachings, afflictions, tormented with the pestilence of lies and confusion, hiding in emblematic caves preceded our fiery burning of His word upon our feet in our journey. We, the Lord’s Temple, are being measured by His plumbline being made worthy to destroy spiritually the nations inwardly and to the ‘earth’, mankind in the Lake of Fire — therein, the formerly blinding light of his brightness “hiding” the world from His truth, will be joyfully received. It is symbolised in Habakkuk 3:7 by Cushan’s (meaning ‘black’) associations with Benjamin (Psa 7:1) and our former darkened Midianite understanding of God’s word and afflictions from the Bond Woman’s ridicule rebounding on them in fear.

Hab 3:4  And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. 
Hab 3:5  Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. 
Hab 3:6  He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. 
Hab 3:7  I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 

Our journey from Eden amid the Euphrates River and its major tributaries represents God’s word being sullied by the Babylonian system, which emerged from Eden to this day. It’s a phenomenal flood of lies that never fills the sea and powerfully indicates the world’s belief in ideologies that suit the individual or national wealth and pleasures at the expense of their fellow man.

The genuinely venerable “scientific method” showcases the ultimate analysis of systematic observation, measurement, and experimentation. The formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses guide humanity’s brightest minds towards the best truth until future studies prove otherwise to be sanctioned. As such, the 200,000,000 locusts of Revelation 9:16 represent mankind’s foundation of endless lies, unable to judge righteously even by scientific methods to prove the veracity of their doctrines. With indifference to truth, hypocrisy is easily accepted by Babylon’s rivers of counsel, baptising the world — the sea of mankind. Having consistently failed the Lord in keeping His word, Israel incites the Lord’s rhetorical injunction in the next verse of Habakkuk. To the Elect’s keen eye, the answer is ‘no’. He is displeased with His priests, the embrionic Elect, today since judgment is upon them, and not the Rivers of Babylon never filling the sea of mankind whose judgment is in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Hab 3:8  Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? 
Hab 3:9  Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. 

The bow being made naked represents God’s immutable word will never be broken by not flooding the world ever again with His physically understood word, but rather a flood of fire, the Lake of Fire of Christ’s spiritual baptism bringing the intense light of understanding upon all men ever to be conceived. In the meantime, Babylon cleaves to their food of lies spewing from their nakedness (Hab 2:15) even while gazing upon the nakedness of their brothers, “the mountains” buried in the sea of trembling mankind.

Gen 9:12  And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 
Gen 9:13  I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 
Gen 9:14  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 
Gen 9:15  And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 
Gen 9:16  And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 

Mat 3:11  I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 
Mat 3:12  Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. 

Hab 3:10  The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. 
Hab 3:11  The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. 
Hab 3:12  Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. 

As a Christ would expect, the positive representation of ‘mountains’ is the Mount of the Kingdom of God, which is represented by His Christs, His Two Witnesses who tremble. As the flood of lies passes by, they hear their Lord’s thunderous truth invigorating their strength while their Lord withholds time for their brothers and sisters to be killed. It all gives them light as they march with Godly anger through their land, threshing their giants within.

Rev 11:1  And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 
Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles [Babylon, the world]: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. 
Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses [The remnant, the Elect], and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire [Christ’s word] proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 
Rev 6:11  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. 

It all begins with the Lord’s anointed, preceding the salvation of mankind in the Lake of Fire.

Hab 3:13  Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation [1. to be bare, be nude, uncover, leave destitute, discover, empty, raze, pour out] unto the neck. Selah [Selah means to lift, exalt; even a sarcastic trumpet grand finalè, ‘ta-taaah!’ – wouldn’t you know it, the Beast is back prouder than ever!]. 

God, in His indignation of our sins, marches through our land within, fulfilling His word that He will bring us into the fullness of His salvation (Eph 1:23). The head rules the rest of the body inseparable from that “foundation” made nude since the head is wounded by us having no ability to judge ourselves righteously, while our consciences’ excusing and accusing us with no ability to change—a venerable “two-fold child of hell” (Mat 23:15). Thus, our Lord sees our entire nudity below the neck — arms and legs making mischief, our stubborn hearts, bruised teats, stomachs not able to digest his strong meat rightly, our pudenda always wrongfully aroused, fornicating another Jesus, our dung littering where He walks in our camp, and feet consistently walking out of step with His; not just that, but we are proud (Selah) of our enthronement.

Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 
Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 

Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the Beast. 
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the Beast: and they worshipped the Beast, saying, Who is like unto the Beast? who is able to make war with him? 

Everything is first experienced in the Great Whore, our ‘Old Man’, relying on her elevated power, illusory beauty and might, a signified ‘calf of Samaria’, who paradoxically transforms into a faithful city (Isa 1:21) who endures representations of the same afflictions as Christ did. She is the “annointed” whom the Lord is in the process of saving; for the moment, represented by Habakkuk’s powerful references to self-serving Old Israel, unconsciously in lockstep fornicating with the heathen Chaldeans, duplicitously fighting half-heartedly against them.

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world [The heathen; Babylon] is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 

It all substantiates our progression in becoming our Lord’s Christs. By being His spiritual Israel of God, we are, by His decree, infinitely more distinctly “anointed” by His anger against our Old Man, “the heathen”, wounded repeatedly until we no longer need His wounding for our spiritual nudity.

Hab 3:14  Thou didst strike through with his staves [Staff, branch, tribe, rod, shaft] the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. 

Hos 8:5  Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? 
Hos 8:6  For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. 
Hos 8:7  For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. 

All of God’s wondrous works that had gone before them in astonishing miracles never changed their hearts, just as the opening of the Red Sea didn’t affect Israel, along with countless other anomalies that barely received a second glance; such as is Babylon today who is blind to the marvelous work the Lord is doing in His Elect, right under their noses, even in their very physical families. However, at the return of Christ outwardly, the subsequent verse hints at a violent loosening of people’s loins and more so spiritually beginning the Lake of Fire when the world will wish for the rocks to fall upon them hiding them from the face of Christ and His Christs in their ‘day of trouble’.

Hab 3:15  Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters. 
Hab 3:16  When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. 

What better rendition of understanding than from a fellow prophet, Joel is there, in spirit discerning spirit to represent these preceding verses.

Joe 2:1  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 
Joe 2:2  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 
Joe 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
Joe 2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 
Joe 2:5  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 
Joe 2:6  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 
Joe 2:7  They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 
Joe 2:8  Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 
Joe 2:9  They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 
Joe 2:10  The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 
Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? 

Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord

Hab 3:17  Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 

Those verses affirm the study’s introduction of Chapter 3, highlighting Solomon’s, Habakkuk’s, and all the prophets of old yearning for the inevitability of a different covenant to replace the current one, which was impossible to uphold to the perfect standard God commanded without attributing its Job-like perfection of works to the individual. Until that time when a better covenant should come, righteous figs, fruit of the vine, olive oil, wheat, barley and meat representing the best flesh can offer will continue to fall far short of glorifying the Lord — somekind of direct help from God had to come to empower man so that he could hope to keep the Lord’s commands. Accordingly, Habakkuk and Simeon could truly rejoice since their God-given faith emphatically believed that was the only way!

Isa 1:11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 
Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 
Isa 1:17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 
Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Isa 1:19  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 
Isa 1:20  But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Luk 2:25  And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the holy ghost was upon him. 
Luk 2:26  And it was revealed unto him [… and felt by Solomon and all the prophets before Israel’s exile] by the holy ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Luk 2:27  And he came by the spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 
Luk 2:28  Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 
Luk 2:29  Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 
Luk 2:30  For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
Luk 2:31  Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; 
Luk 2:32  A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel [The Israel of Christ]. 

Hab 3:18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 

Psa 114:1  When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; 
Psa 114:2  Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. 
Psa 114:3  The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. 
Psa 114:4  The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. 
Psa 114:5  What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 
Psa 114:6  Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? 
Psa 114:7  Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; 
Psa 114:8  Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

Hab 3:19  The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, [Hind’s hoofs, like their cousins lambs, skip like the hill  ] and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. 

Habakkuk, along with all the righteous prophets, men and women, having never been jewels in the joints of the Bride, will shed tears of joy for having been faithful servants of the Lord, walking upon the high calling of their time in laying the foundation for the Bride’s grand debut — awaiting her New Song only she and her Husband knows.

Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women [Harlot churches]; for they are virgins [Imbued with spiritual virginity for their faithfulness]. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits [A remnant; very few] unto God and to the Lamb.