SUMMARY
Habakkuk prays that what has been characteristic of God in the past would also be a present experience.
ANALYSIS
In 3:3-15 the celebration of God’s historical deliverance is coupled with references to more cosmic conflicts. While at some point in the past a specific event may have occasioned the hymn, it is not reporting past events as such. Rather, the hymn is expressing renown and awe at the reversal of all forces that generate diminished life. Chaotic waters are subdued as historic enemies are defeated. There is no sharp division between the natural and the historic. Nations are trampled as is the sea with its churning, mighty waters (3:12, 15). CreationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... More and redemption are intertwined in this hymnic celebration. The book of Habakkuk yearns for and promises a defeat of chaotic violence. It awaits the defeat of not just a single oppressor, but a reordering of life that reverses all forms of diminishment. “In our own time revive [your work]” is a perpetual prayer for those who wait for deliverance from wrathful times.
