Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Habakkuk 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.

2. I have heard thy speech ] I have heard the report of thee. The term appears always to express the report or bruit about one, e.g. Gen 29:13 the news about Jacob, 1Ki 10:1 about Solomon, Isa 23:5 about Tyre (her downfall); comp. Num 14:15; Isa 66:19; Nah 3:19. It seems also always to refer to something past and actual (unless Hos 7:12 be an exception); and this suggests that the allusion is to the divine manifestation at the Exodus.

and was afraid ] Or, am afraid. Of course the prophet or the community in whose name he speaks (cf. Hab 3:14) did not fear hurt from the Theophany so long past, but the recital or the thought of it created alarm. Comp. Exo 14:30-31.

revive thy work ] Though filled with fear at the thought of the divine interposition the prophet nevertheless prays for it. The term “revive” might mean to recall or bring back to life that which is dead (Hos 6:2), or to call into life and being what does not yet exist (Deu 32:39; 1Sa 2:6). The “work” of Jehovah is that which He does, any operation which He performs, ch. Hab 1:5; but the word is often used of His great historical acts done for His people, Psa 44:1; Psa 95:9; Deu 11:7; Jdg 2:7. The sense is thus either: bring into being a great act of Thine; or, renew, recall into life again, Thy former great work of redemption. The second sense is the more natural, and most in harmony with the following phrase “in the midst of the years.”

in the midst of the years ] This cannot mean “within a few years” (Gesen.), a sense ill-suited to the tone of importunity in the passage; nor “amidst the years of distress,” because the idea of distress must have been expressed. The expression must describe the poet’s own time, for his prayer is for immediate divine interposition. Looking back to the far past event of the Exodus, the many years that have rolled by since then, he conceives of the position of himself and his people as amidst the years.

midst of the years make known ] i.e. at this late time in our history make thy work known. Sept. regarded the verbal form as reflexive: make thyself (ox, let thyself be) known. So Wellh.

In wrath remember mercy ] The “wrath” might be that lying on the people now; but it is more natural to understand it of the wrath which the judge will manifest when He intervenes among men. Comp. Isa 26:20, “Come, O my people, enter into thy chambers, hide thyself for a little moment until the indignation be overpast.” At the thought or the recital of God’s interposition in the past type of every interposition of His the poet trembled; yet he would encounter it for the sake of that which will come after it, and he prays that it may come again; then he prays that in that day of universal wrath he and his people may have mercy shewn them. Rev 3:10.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

O Lord, I have heard – i. e., with the inward ear of the heart, Thy speech, (rather as English margin, Thy report, i. e., the report of Thee) i. e., what may he heard and known of God, or, what he had himself heard . The word contains in one both what God had lately declared to the prophet, the judgments of God upon the wicked of the people, and upon those who, with their own injustice, done upon them the righteous judgments of God, and that the work of the Lord would be performed in His time for those who in patience wait for it; and also still more largely, what might be heard of God, although, as it were, but a little whisper of His greatness and of the majesty of His workings.

And was afraid – not fearful but afraid in awe, as a creature, and amazed at the surpassing wonderfulness of the work of God. Well may man stand in awe at the incarnation of the only-begotten Son, how earth should contain Him uncontained by space, how a body was prepared for Him of the virgin by the Holy Spirit, and all the works whereby He shall work the salvation of mankind, the cross, the death, resurrection and ascension, uniting things opposite, a body with one incorporeal, death with life, resurrection with death, a body in heaven. All is full of wonder and awe. Rup.: This is not a servile fear, but a holy fear which endureth forever, not one which love casteth out, but which it bringeth in, wherein angels praise, dominions adore, powers stand in awe at the majesty of the Eternal God.

O Lord, revive Thy work – Gods Word seems, often, as it were, dead and come utterly to an end for evermore Psa 77:8, while it is holding on its own course, as all nature seems dead for a while, but all is laid up in store, and ready to shoot forth, as by a sort of resurrection Rup.: The prophet prophesying prayeth, that it should come quickly, and praying prophesieth that it shall so come. All Gods dealings with His people, His Church, each single soul, are part of one great work, perfect in itself Deu 32:4; glory and majesty Psa 140:3; all which the godly meditateth on Psa 77:3; Psa 143:5; which those busied with their own plans, do not look to Isa 5:12; it is manifested in great doings for them or with them, as in the Exodus the Psalmist says, We have heard with our ears, yea, our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old Psa 44:2; They proved Me and saw My work Psa 95:9; with it He makes His own glad Psa 92:3; after it has been withdrawn for a while, He sheweth it to His servants Psa 90:6; it issues in judgments on the ungodly, which people consider and declare .

The great work of God on earth, which includes all His works and is the end of all, is the salvation of man through Jesus Christ. This great work seemed, as it were, asleep, or dead, as trees in winter, all through those 4,000 years, which gave no token of His coming. Included in this great work is the special work of the Hand of God, of which alone it is said, God said, Let Us make man in Our image after Our Likeness Gen 1:26; and, we are the clay and Thou our Potter, and we are all the work of Thy Hands Isa 64:8; and Thy Hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Job 10:8, man; whom, being dead as to the life of the soul through the malice of Satan, Christ revived by dying and rising again. He was dead in trespasses and sins, and like a carcass putrefying in them, and this whole world one great charnel-house, through mans manifold corruptions, when Christ came to awaken the dead, and they who heard lived Joh 5:25.

Again, the Center of this work, the special Work of God, that wherein He made all things new, is the Human Body of our Lord, the Temple which was destroyed by death, and within three days was raised up.

The answer to Habakkuks enquiry, How long? had two sides: It had given assurance as to the end. The trial-time would not be prolonged for one moment longer than the counsel of God had fore-determined. The relief would come, come; it would not be behind-hand. But meantime? There was no comfort to be given. For God knew that deepening sin was drawing on deepening chastisement. But in that He was silent as to the intervening time and pointed to patient expectation of a lingering future, as their only comfort, He implies that the immediate future was heavy. Habakkuk then renews his prayer for the years which had to intervene and to pass away. In the midst of the years, before that time appointed , when His promise should have its full fulfillment, before those years should come to their close, he prays; revive Thy work. The years include all the long period of waiting for our Lords first coming before He came in the Flesh; and now for His second coming and the restitution of all things. in this long period, at times God seems to be absent, as when our Lord was asleep in the boat, while the tempest was raging; at times He bids the storm to cease and there is a great calm.

This, in those long intervals, when God seems to be absent, and to leave all things to time and chance, and love waxes cold, and graces seem rare, is the prayer of Habakkuk, of prophets and Psalmists, of the Church Psa 80:14, Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, behold and visit this vine Psa 74:1, Psa 74:11-12. O God, why hast Thou cast us off forever? Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, Thy right hand? For God is my king of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Isa 51:9-10 awake, awake, put on strength, Thou Arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not It which did smite Rahab, didst wound the dragon? Art thou not It which didst dry the sea, the waters of the great deep, which didst make the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Psa 80:3. Stir up Thy might and come, save us Lam 5:21. Renew our days, as of old. So our Lord taught His Church to pray continually, whenever she prayed, Thy kingdom come, longing not for His final coming only, but for the increase of His glory, and the greater dominion of His grace, and His enthronement in the hearts of people, even before its complete and final coming. In the midst of the years revive Thy work, is the Churchs continual cry.

In the midst of the years make known – literally, Thou wilt make known: in wrath Thou wilt remember mercy; and so (as we use the word wilt) the prophet, at once, foretelleth, expresseth his faith, prayeth. God had made known His work and His power in the days of old. In times of trouble He seems like a God who hideth Himself. Now, he prays Him to shine forth and help; make known Thy work, before Thou fulfill it, to revive the drooping hopes of man, and that all may see that Thy word is truth. Make Thyself known in Thy work, that, when the time cometh to Dan 9:24 make an end of sin by the Death of Thy Son, Thy Awful Holiness, and the love wherewith Thou hast Joh 3:16 so loved the world, may be the more known and adored.

In wrath Thou wilt remember mercy – So David prayed Psa 25:6, Remember Thy tender-mercies and Thy loving-kindnesses; for they are from old. Thou wilt remember that counsel for mans redemption which has been from the foundation of the world: for we seem in our own minds to be forgotten of God, when He delayeth to help us. God remembereth mercy Luk 1:54, Luk 1:72 in anger, in that in this life He never chastens without purposes of mercy, and His Mercy ever softeneth His judgments. His Promise of mercy, that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head, went before the sentence of displeasure Gen 3:19, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Jerome: He reveals His wrath that He may scare us from sin and so may not inflict it; and when at last He inflicteth it, He hath mercy on the remnant who flee to His Mercy, that we be not like Sodom and Gomorrah. Rom 5:8, while we were yet sinners, and God was angry, Christ died for us, and, Tit 3:5, He saved us, not for works which we had done, but out of His great Mercy, and took away sin, and restored us to life and interruption.

God had already promised by Micah Mic 7:15, According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, I will show him marvelous things. Isaiah had often used the great events of that deliverance as the symbols of the future. So now Habakkuk, in one vast panorama, as it were, without distinction of time or series of events, exhibits the future in pictures of the past. In the description itself which follows, he now speaks in the past, now in the future; of which times the future might be a vivid present; and the past a prophetic past. As a key to the whole, he says, God shall come, indicating that all which follows, however spoken, was a part of that future. In no other way was it an answer to that prayer, Revive Thy work. To foretell future deliverances in plain words, had been a comfort; it would have promised a continuance of that work. The unity and revival of the work is expressed, in that the past is made, as it was, the image of the future. That future was to be wondrous, superhuman; elsewhere the past miracles had been no image of it. It was to be no mere repetition of the future; and to mark this, the images are exhibited out of their historical order.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Hab 3:2

O Lord, revive Thy work.

Revival

I. What is meant by the work of the lord, and its revival?

1. It may mean the work of creation. Or the preservation and government of the world. At other times it means the works of Christ; or the work of the ministry.

2. What is meant by a revival of this work?

(1) A deeper work of grace in the hearts of those who are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

(2) When the number of believers increases. When conviction seizes the hearts of sinners, and causes them to become true penitents; when that conviction ends in true conversion.

II. What is comprehended in this prayer?

1. That the Lord would pour out of His Spirit upon His people, and accomplish in them His gracious promises.

2. That the Lord would have mercy upon sinners.

3. That the end may be answered for which Jesus Christ came into the world, the Spirit was given, and ordinances instituted.

III. What induces the saints thus to pray?

1. The love they have to the children of God.

2. The love they have to sinners.

3. The hatred they have to sin.

4. A desire that all those evils may be removed out of the world which are the consequences of sin.

5. The promises of God.

IV. What manner of person ought he to be who thus prays? In order to ensure a suitable correspondence between his prayer and practice–

1. He himself must abstain from every appearance of evil.

2. The person who prays for a revival must use all the means in his power to do good. By example, reproof, speech in season, etc.

3. He must cultivate a spirit of tender affection for all his Christian friends, that love and unity may reign in the Church. (B. Bailey.)

Revival of the Lords work

This prophecy was probably written during the reign of the good King Josiah, who attempted a serious religious reformation. It proved to be only partial and temporary. It was reluctant and counterfeit on the part of many of the people; as was evinced by their speedy return to idolatrous practices after the untimely death of the distinguished reformer. What was the burden the prophet saw? It was intimated to him that the decree of God was unalterable, and that the day of visitation was at hand; and the very people are named who should be the instrument of Gods righteous judgments on treacherous Judah. Turn now to the exercise in which the prophet engaged, in the certain anticipation of national calamity. It was the exercise of prayer. In his prayer there were three special petitions. Although the condition of his countrymen was dangerous, and their banishment inevitable, yet so long as a remnant was preserved, their case was not desperate. If he could not see his friends reformed and regenerated in their native country, he would plead for their conversion in a foreign land. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. This is an earnest supplication for the revival of Gods work of grace, in the hearts of His people, in the time of outward distress. Do this in the midst of the years, that is, during the seventy years of captivity. While these melancholy years pass heavily along, let the work of repentance commence; let the tears of godly sorrow flow. The second petition is, In the midst of the years make known. Make known Thy character, and perfection, and grace, during the years of captivity, to those now estranged from Thee. If they were unmindful of Thee in the time of prosperity; in the day of adversity let them consider. Make Thy faithfulness known as a God still in covenant with them, as still willing to be reconciled to them. The third petition is, In wrath remember mercy. Wrath is incurred, judgment is threatened, the sword is unsheathed, and vengeance must be inflicted. But see how the man of God perseveres in prayer. If judgment may not be altogether averted, it may be mitigated. We must bear the indignation of the Lord, in submitting to slavery in a foreign land, and in being deprived of the soul-refreshing ordinances of religion. But, gracious Father, in wrath remember mercy. It were easy to prove that all the petitions in this prayer were literally and remarkably fulfilled. That there was a revival of religion during the captivity, may be proved from the grateful and devout sentiments of the captives in the announcement of their enlargement. When the Lord turned again the captivity, etc. We find a confirmation also in the character of those who returned from Babylon. God had evidently granted them, in the words of Ezra, a little reviving; and their first care on their return to Palestine was to rebuild the temple, which was lying in ruins. And as a decisive proof that the prayer of the prophet had received a gracious answer during the captivity, we find that the Jews were henceforward cured of what may be called their hereditary and besetting sin–the degrading and God-dishonouring sin of idolatry. The second part of the prophets prayer was not less clearly answered. Was not much made known to Ezekiel, by the spirit of prophecy, during the captivity? Was not much made known to Daniel? Behold then the efficacy and fruit of prayer. The third part of the prayer was as remarkably answered as the other two parts. In wrath remember mercy In every circumstance that tended to mitigate the rigour of their bondage, God was fulfilling the prayer of the prophet. Learn–

1. That sin incurs the displeasure of God.

2. That prayer is the only way of averting the judgments of God.

3. That the extension of religious knowledge is the only rational means for effecting a national reformation.

4. That while Jehovah is the Supreme Governor of the universe, religion is His great work in the world. (James Glen, A. M.)

On revivals of religion

I. What, in a Christian sense, is a revival of religion? It cannot better be described than by a representation of its origin and effect in the case of individuals and Christian communities. When is there a revival of religion in individuals? Suppose such as need this revival to consist of two classes. One made up of such as have a form of godliness. They have a general faith in Christianity, and educational relations with it, and they do not openly violate any of its moral rules. Still, these persons may be examples of a sort of negative religion only. They may be spiritually inanimate and drowsy. If these men are the subjects of a genuine religious revival, their lukewarmness is abandoned. Then there is in them a consistency of character. The other class is formed of the notoriously abandoned and corrupt. In these, there is a general abdication of restraint, both moral and religious. When these are the subjects of a revival, their moral taste is changed. Their hatred of sin is excited. Their respect for Divine ordinances is enkindled. Survey the operation of a revival of religion on Christian communities. Since the first age of the Gospel, Churches and societies have been found in the lukewarm condition of the Church in Laodicea. A more awful state of a Christian community is supposable, a state not merely of lukewarmness, but of positive corruption and wickedness. If a revival of religion take place, there will be an united, vigorous, persevering effort, on the part of the members, to display in all its excellence and worth the Christian character. Nor is this revival manifest in things exclusively religious. It will appear in their worldly and social state; in their habits of industry and sobriety, etc. Give the reasons why the class of Christians, denominated liberal, have not thought favourably of, nor promoted revivals.

1. The means used to bring them about do not appear to be in accordance with the spirit and instructions of Scripture.

(1) These means are heated and impassioned addresses to the feelings and passions, tending to produce an unnatural excitement of the imagination, and of the whole man, which interrupts cool reflection, and a sober and edifying attendance on religious duties. What an entire contrast do these means exhibit to those adopted by the Saviour and His apostles!

(2) The persons who are held up to the world as having experienced a revival of religion, too often display fruits which are equally at variance with the test of character established by Him who spake as never man spake. Review the lessons of Jesus, enforcing secret devotion, guarding His disciples against ostentation and vain boasting, inculcating upon them humility. We cannot persuade ourselves to believe that a suspension of Christian charity is evangelical proof of advancement in religion.

(3) The reason which has equally operated with others, is a knowledge of the unhappy consequences which have followed. Review the state of our Churches and towns. Where such revivals have been brought about, there will be seen a multiplication of religious societies; Christians engaged in bitter contentions and controversies; members of families alienated from each other.

II. What are the means by which a truly Christian revival of religion may be brought about?

1. Every member of society, however ignoble and obscure, may have an agency in this great work.

2. Those more elevated either by wealth, rank, education, etc., have a still greater degree of responsibleness. See in this matter the importance of family religion, and the value of attendance on the duties of the Sabbath, habitual piety, and the solemn act of prayer. (W. Thayer.)

Revival of the Lords work

The writer of this book mourned over the spiritual degeneracy of his times, and was apprehensive of the entire removal of the privileges which were so much despised. The years mentioned were years of spiritual declension and backsliding, and prevailing wickedness, and consequently years of Gods righteous displeasure; and therefore he says, O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years.

1. In what does this work consist? By the work of the Lord we are to understand the redemption and recovery of this ruined world. This is the work which the Holy Spirit, through the medium of His enlightening, renewing, and sanctifying influence on the human heart, is ever active in promoting. Surely it is a work of the greatest interest and importance. This work may be said to be making progress in the world, when a general interest is felt in matters of religion.

2. What is the object of the prayer in regard to the work of the Lord? In the moral government of God, there exists an inseparable connection between the offering of prayer and the obtaining of spiritual blessings. In answer to prayer we find that in Scripture God has often promised the richest manifestations of His grace. But nowhere has He warranted us to suppose that without prayer these blessings can be obtained. The object of the prophet in this prayer was that God would grant a revival to the Jewish Church. And we have no reason to doubt that in answer to prayer, God will yet arise, and plead HIS own cause in the world, and revive His own work. Whatever be the relationship in which we stand to those around us, we have, as Christians, a message given us to all, and that is the message of God the Fathers love, and of God the Sons death, and of God the Spirits sanctifying grace, a message so plain that none can mistake it, so imperative that none with impunity can neglect it, and so pressing that none can delay it. (John Lindsay.)

Gods work in the midst of the years

Time, like eternity, is full of God, and of the glory of His power. Gods ceaseless work in nature is maintained unchanging in the midst of the years. But there is a work of God to which everything in nature is subordinate. It is His work of grace; His work of redemption and recovery in this lost world; His work of establishing His own kingdom in the hearts of men. In the mind of the prophet, this work of God was identified with the welfare of that chosen nation, that peculiar people, which God had placed in covenant relation with Himself. What lessons may we gather from the prophets words? In the first and second chapters of his prophecy, the prophet sees Gods judgments coming upon Israel, then upon Israels oppressors. We see what years those were of which the prophet speaks in the text. They were years of declension and prevailing wickedness, and years of Gods displeasure. The prophets first and foremost thought is that of the paramount importance of Gods spiritual and saving work. Then he knows–the spirit of faith assures him–that Gods great work will live, and will outlive every catastrophe. He not only prays that God will make His work to live, but that He will make it known. Learn–

1. The prayer for the revival, or the keeping alive of Gods work, is the spontaneous utterance of a heart touched by Gods Spirit.

2. Gods work is often going on in the world when it is not seen or made known, when even His own people are not permitted to discern its progress.

3. Sometimes it is necessary for God to carry on His work by dispensations of wrath.

4. Blessed are the years in which God makes known His work as a work of power and mercy. (Leonard Bacon, D. D.)

Revival in the midst of the years

The utterance of God made the prophet afraid. The period of chastening must be fulfilled. But one thought fills the prophets mind: during this period of suffering the work of God might be revived. God in His wrath remembers mercy most when He does not stay His chastening, but deepens penitence, stirs up prayer, creates heart-searching and earnest endeavours after a new life.

I. The first part of the prayer is that God would revive His work. We believe in a God who works, now and always, both in the natural and in the spiritual. God not merely wills, He works. Work occupies a foremost place in the Divine arrangement. Gods works on matter illustrate and explain His working on mind. There is one feature common to both the natural and the spiritual sphere, the requirement of human co-operation. God waits on mans working. On account of the sin and sloth and heedlessness of man, Gods work declines, and God seems to withdraw. It is here that a place for revival is found. And explanation of it includes both the Divine sphere and the human. Gods working in nature goes on in cycles. So does mans working all through. Uniformity of action would not be adapted to man. The fluctuation which covers the regions of politics, literature, science, and art, extends also to religion. Religious earnestness is under the same law. An enthusiasm is awakened at times for the supreme object of religion which it is not in human nature to sustain. The departure of such a period may be either the deepening and broadening of the channels of life, or it may be a period of stagnation. This is true of the individual, as well as of society at large. Revival is a fervour or intensity resolved on the highest aims, a deeper sense of the meaning of life, a determination to subordinate all to God. The fact that such times in a community are often characterised by excitement, and by a kind of contagion in which religion seems to be less a matter of individual conviction than a diffused influence is, again, only in accordance with the laws of human nature. Why should the spread of religious conviction not be aided by the contagion of feeling? May not genuine and deep feeling be aroused in this way? Why may not the surging of a vague enthusiasm through the hearts of men work great things in religion as in other matters? If religion is a genuinely human thing; if it is in the true sense the most human of all, must it not partake of the usual characteristics of human feeling? What a force there is in the expression of the text, Make Thy work to live: put life into Thy work. How often the work seems to have everything but life. Life comes, and all is changed. Gods working is the hope of the natural world, and equally of the spiritual. We wait for God. And our waiting utters itself. It is an eager, earnest feeling that pours itself out in supplication. It is in this way that our energy most fully unites itself with the Divine.

II. The prayer is also that God would make known. That is, reveal Himself and Divine truth. The prayer is, that God would not only work but reveal; that God would show men the reality. Clouds lie between them and the spiritual and eternal. It is well that these two things are joined together, reviving of Gods work, and making known.

III. What weight is given to the prayer by the addition, in the midst of the years? There is an argument, or plea, in the thought, that many years are gone beyond recall, and that so many years fewer are to come. The irrevocable past, as it rises before us, brings bitter regrets. How different those years might have been! The words seem suggestive of the confusion and darkness of time. And the fleetingness and evanescence of the years rise before us in contrast to the immutable and eternal of the Divine life. (J. Leckie, D. D.)

The necessity of a great spiritual change throughout the

world:—

I. As to the state of the professing Church of Christ.

1. Note the ignorance of the Church.

2. The divisions of the Church.

3. The worldly conformity of the Church.

4. The want of activity in the Church.

5. The deadness of prayer in the Church.

II. As to the state of the unconverted and ungodly world.

1. In relation to civil governments, and to publicly recognised social institutions and authorities. Refer to despotism, corruption, war, etc.

2. In direct relation to religion. Nominal Christians. Note the positive crimes by which the country is stained; Sabbath-breaking, profane-swearing, fraud, drinking, etc.

III. Certain systems which must by. Swept away. Such as popery, Judaism, infidelity, Mohammedanism, heathenism. Surely we may well pray, O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. (James Parsons.)

.

Means of promoting the revival of religion

.

1. Does the man of sincere goodness observe vice prevalent, and spreading its unhappy influence through all ranks and degrees of the community? This is a powerful inducement to desire and to work for its reformation.

2. The decay of religion is not more owing to open wickedness than to inconsiderate negligence. A good man, who has the happiness of the species at heart, will offer up his most fervent petitions to the Father of Lights, that He would be pleased to spread abroad in the breasts of the people a spirit of prayer and reformation. (James Rudge, D. D.)

The revival of the Lords work

1. The prayer of the text rises to heaven in the time of affliction.

2. The prayer of the prophet is founded upon need.

3. Observe whose work it is that is implored to be revived–it is the work of God. And He alone can accomplish it.

4. Consider the use of certain means for the spread and establishment of the Divine work. He has commanded us to call upon His name, to trust in Him, to seek Him, to repent of our misdoings, to do battle against evil wherever found, and to assemble ourselves together for Divine worship. (W. Horwood.)

Nature and origin of revivals

I. The state calling for a revival. A revival is a return to life and vigour from a state of languor and decay. The Church of Christ needs revival. It is not in a lively state as to deep and practical godliness. There are comparatively few flourishing Churches. There is much disunion. There is a low standard of devotedness to Christ. This state of things calls for a revival in the Church generally. As individuals is our condition satisfactory? Is there not a state of worldliness, lukewarmness, and formality? The apostle speaks of many in his day as having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. This surely is a state calling for a revival.

II. The nature of the revival of Gods work. What is Gods work in the heart of man? It is very different from mans work. It is marked by a new birth. It is marked by Christian graces. It is marked by walking in all good works. It is the work of grace in the heart of man. What is the revival of this work?

1. An increase of zeal on the part of Gods people.

2. An awakening among careless sinners.

III. The only source from which it can flow. O Lord, revive Thy work. The Holy Spirit is the great source of the revival of the work of grace in the heart of man. If you desire revivals, the means must be diligently used–reading Gods Word, prayer in secret, social prayer, public worship, self-examination; but if you stop at the means you deceive yourselves; this is the proper posture for the Christian, My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.

IV. The time in which it should be sought. In the midst of the years. Before the day of sickness comes. Before the day of old age comes. Before the judgments of God come on the world. Before the Saviour appears Before the final sentence is pronounced. Seek a revival, while the day of grace continues; while Gods ministers invite you. While opportunity is afforded. Then–

1. Search into the state of your own hearts.

2. Seek revival from God by prayer in private. Devote yourselves afresh unto God. (E. Bickersteth, A. M.)

Gods work revived

I. The work itself. The salvation of the sinner is the peculiar work of Jehovah. It implies the exercise of infinite mercy. It requires Divine care.

II. Why may it very properly be called Gods work? Because it glorifies God.

III. When may God be said to revive his people? When His people are preserved alive. When His people grow in grace. When His people axe led to surmount trouble, affliction, and sorrow. When the backslider is restored. (Hugh Allen, M. A.)

Lent, a season of revival to the soul

The Christian life has its ebb and flow, like the currents of the ocean, and no one need hope to preserve the same uniform frames and feelings at every step of his earthly probation. If we are ever enabled to do right, it is because tim good Lord has helped us. There is a revival which we all need; such a revival as shall lead us to forsake our sins, and crucify our corrupt affections and lusts; such a revival as shall render us more devout and devoted to Gods service. I mean nothing akin to the unwholesome modern system of revivals. The Church has a revival system of her own, which has been practised with most abundant success from the earliest days of Christianity until now. Her revival season begins with the four weeks of Advent, when she calls men to repentance and amendment, that they may make themselves ready to welcome the Saviour afresh on the return of His birthday. Another revival season is the forty days of Lent; when the motive appealed to is the love of God, manifested in the gift of His only Son. Throughout the whole sacred season, His life, His teaching, His miracles are kept constantly before us, deepened in its penetrating power by lastings and prayer. (John N. Norton.)

Revivals

I. The chief need of the world to-day is a general revival of the Christian religion. The preconceptions of most of us are not favourable to revivals. Theories, however, cannot stand for a moment against stubborn facts. There is one fact which renders a revival necessary for a vast number of people. All scientists recognise that retrogression is as much a fact of nature as is evolution or progress. History is full of illustrations of the decay of races and the decline of nations. Only one remedy is open to us, when the decay concerns our religious life. It is a revival–the regaining, by a supreme moral effort, of the spiritual heights which have been lost.

II. Revivals are normal. We are inclined to think that with the world and the Church in an ideal state, a movement closely corresponding to revivals would still take place. Life moves in periods or cycles.

III. Both the history of the church and the bible confirm this view of Christian progress. The Church has always made her great conquests under revival influences. Revival of religion was inaugurated by the Wesleys and Whitefield. Puritanism was a great religious revival. The Reformation began as a revival of religion. The Christian Church was born in a revival which swept three thousand souls into the kingdom on the day of Pentecost.

IV. How may we promote a revival?

1. By earnest prayer.

2. By determined, personal effort. (J. W. Bashford.)

Lessons of the Reformation

1. The Reformation was providential. It was the handwriting of God visible to men.

2. It was a reformation of the Church. It was a conten tion raised within, about, and by the Church.

3. It was a reformation of doctrine. It began on a point of doctrine. Its weapons were argument and learning.

4. It was a reformation of public worship. Here, most especially, it came in touch with the people.

5. It was a reformation of personal piety. If it had not led to this, all else would have been of little moment. But this it did. Upon us it devolves not to be heedless of the lessons of the Reformation, but to profit by them, and transmit them to others. (J. B. Remensnyder, D. D.)

Religious revivals –

I. Genuine religion is the work of God in the soul. Thy work. What is genuine religion? Not theology, not ceremony, but simply this, supreme love to God. The production of this in the soul is the work of God. He produces it, it is true, by means; nevertheless, no one else can or does produce it but Himself.

II. This work of God in the soul is liable to decay. There are many things in and outside of man that tend to impair, weaken, and destroy this supreme love. Carnal impulses, impure associations, social influences, engrossing worldly cares, these are all detrimental. They are to it like a blighting atmosphere to vegetation.

III. This decay should be overcome by a revival. Revive Thy work. Revive this supreme love–quicken, energise it, give it more force and influence in the soul! This is the true revival. (Homilist.)

The revival of Gods work implored

I. Some particulars respecting this work.

1. The work itself; or what is meant by the work here spoken of? It is certainly the work of Divine grace in the souls of mankind.

2. Why it may be called Gods work. Because no one but God can effect it.

3. When God may be said to revive it. God revives His work when souls are raised from the death of sin to the life of righteousness; and when they grow in grace.

II. How we may and should contribute towards its revival.

1. We should labour for it.

2. We should live for it.

3. We should pray for it.

III. Why we should thus interest ourselves in its revival.

1. We are excited to this by piety.

2. We are urged to this by philanthropy, or love to mankind.

3. We are obligated to this by prudence.

4. We are animated to this by a well-supported hope. Applications–

(1) The state of Gods work among us should excite correspondent affections in us.

(2) We should consider and deplore our deficiencies.

(3) We should improve our convictions by renewed application to God; for pardoning mercy, and gracious help. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

Revivalism

Following closely upon Jeremiah, Habakkuk was face to face with the woes which were hastening for the dissolution of the kingdom of Judah. He, more than any other of the prophets, represents the perplexities, not of the nation, but of the individual soul, the peculiar trial which tormented so many exalted spirits of his day. He saw with grief the increasing contrast of sin and prosperity, innocence and suffering–this was his burden. It is essentially personal: he takes it all upon himself. Our text is always a good, a wise, a necessary prayer. The work of the Lord is never so forward that we need not pray, for its further advance. But what is to be said about the movement known as Revivalism? It begins with, and proceeds upon the assumption that man can only be reconciled to God in one particular way. It recognises but one type of religion, and that the most delusive one. It repudiates the idea that God is ever pleased with a dutiful, earnest, moral life. It regards as positively dangerous a mere intellectual grasp of the Christian faith. Revivalism tells you that, unless at a certain time, and at a certain place, and under conditions that you can recall and define, you have undergone an emotional process which has changed the whole drift of your life, and given you an assurance of nearness to God hitherto unfelt, you are not a Christian at all. Revivalism confronts you like a spiritual footpad, and holds to your head the pistol of modern pharisaism: Are you a Christian? Is your soul saved? Have you found the Lord? The answer involves an awful alternative. You must either surrender the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free to the monstrous claims of this pretentious crusade, or consent to be branded as an outcast from the flock of the Good Shepherd. This barrier of separation between converted and unconverted has no sanction to which any follower of Jesus Christ is called upon to submit. We must not, however, cease to pray, O Lord, revive Thy work. Revive it, O Lord, in politics, in public life, in commerce, in trade, in toil of every kind, so that in all places and at all times men shall realise Thy presence. (R. H. Haddew, B. A.)

The law of revivals

Are revivals of religion under law, or the result of any previously operating and well-defined cause? By the revival of religion we mean a quickened state of religious activity and prayer, resulting in the conversion of sinners, the increased efficiency of the Church, and all the effect of the Divine Spirit in conjunction with the appointed means of grace. Our position is, that it is a rule of Gods economy to bestow His grace or Spirit upon the employment of means, just in proportion as those means are adapted to the result. Observe that the results are predicated, not of the means as a power in themselves, but of the Spirits conformity to this law of operation.

1. In favour of our position our first argument is from analogy. There is such a law of adaptation in all the world of nature–an established and reliable connection between means and end, and results correspond with the nature–the perfection or imperfection of the antecedent cause. This law is observable in all the world of industry, science, and art. It is fair to infer that the same law is observed in the spiritual world, and that the results–the quickened graces, the conversions, the ingatherings to the Church–will be in proportion to the wise, diligent, and prayerful use of the means of grace.

2. The second argument is derived from the facts of Christian experience. The early apostles and Christians were successful, in a very remarkable degree, in producing moral changes, in the conviction and conversion of sinners. Everything objective and visible seemed to forbid success. But they were filled with the Spirit. They went forth to their work with an ardour unparalleled. They preached to save, they were wise to win souls. We can trace the connection between appropriate means and the sublimest results. This principle of wise adjustment of means to ends is universally acknowledged.

3. This law must be acknowledged as true, else there is no ground of confidence in the use of Gospel means.

Learn–

1. As Christian workers, to graduate our success. As a general rule it will be in proportion to the aptness, skill, persistency, and prayerfulness of our labours.

2. The responsibility and guilt of those Churches who reap no fruit of their labour. There must be responsibility and guilt somewhere. (S. D. Burchard, D. D.)

Spiritual revival

The work of the Lord means the salvation of immortal souls, and the extension of our Redeemers kingdom.

I. The prosperity of Gods work is the chief business of Gods people. The prophet sees into the future, and instead of being overwhelmed by coming calamities, he realises how immeasurably greater is the welfare of the soul than the welfare of the body, and his earnest, heart-prompted entreaty is, O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years

II. The work of God in the soul may so decline as to stand in need of revival. Does our spiritual life still retain all the freshness and charm of its birth? Is it, as it ought to be, more real, more intense, more earnest, more fully developed by the lapse of time?

III. Although the work of God within us may decline, yet there is a power that can revive it. God can make the dry bones to live, and God can breathe a new life even into the soul that seems to be dead, so deathlike is its sleep. Why does God every year perform the miracles of the spring-time? That we may have perpetually before our eyes illustrations of His reviving power. Then axe you not anxious that a mighty revival of this spiritual life should be experienced in your own souls, and in the souls of those who are dear to you? If you are, pray for it. (John F. Haynes, LL. D.)

Revivals

Literally, to revive is to live again. It supposes life possessed, life departed, life restored. Sometimes it means to infuse fresh vigour, increased animation, where life is weak and drooping, though not extinct. When Habakkuk says, O Lord, revive Thy work, he does not imply that Gods work had died out, only that it was in a low and declining state. Mercy he implores–pardoning, restoring, reviving mercy. This is the object we seek when we ask God to revive His work in us and amongst us. A revival of religion supposes it to exist, but to be in a low and declining state. Let every Church be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain. The Divine favour will be restored, and the Church will be revived. Such a Church God will own and bless. What is necessary to a revival?

1. To recognise the fact that a revival is needed. Well satisfied with our present need, we neither desire nor seek anything better.

2. We must know and feel that guilt is incurred by our lukewarmness and worldly-mindedness. Are we in a declining state? Then it is not simply our misfortune, but our sin, for which God will call us to account. We must see, too, the individual and personal character of our responsibility and guilt.

3. If a better state of things is to be brought about, we must sincerely and heartily repent of our sins, confess and forsake them all, and look to Him who has graciously promised, I will heal their backslidings. The invitations and promises of our God are all based on this principle, Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you. This humility, this repentance, this brokenness of heart generally precedes a revival of religion in our Churches.

4. There must be faith in God, in Christ, in His Holy Word. Faith in Gods character, His perfections, His excellences. Faith in the promises of God.

5. Faith must lead to prayer. Each must pray, all must pray; only ask in faith, nothing doubting. If there be an increase of real prosperity in the Church, there must be an increase of believing prayer. When once Christian Churches and Christian ministers shall thus wrestle with God in prayer, depend upon it, God is on His way, and soon shall they behold the wonderful workings of His power. (Thoughts for Week Evening Services.)

Revival

The symptoms and evidences of spiritual life in possession and active operation, on the part of the Church collectively and of the individual believer, are many, and are such as may be easily recognised.

I. A deep sense of the need of revival. It is in this as in regard to personal spiritual concerns. There must be felt need before there can be fervent prayer. Let us now consider more particularly what is really needed at the present time, or in what respects revival may be said to be needed.

1. We require a revival of personal religion. The influence and power of personal religion and of well-founded, deeply rooted convictions of the efficacy and power of the Word of God, and of the Gospel of His Son in the hand of the Holy Spirit, cannot be overestimated.

2. We require a revival of family religion. Let there but be a revival of personal holiness vouchsafed throughout the land, and religion in a more open and public form would be sure to follow.

3. We require a revival of national religion.

II. An acknowledgment of God as the Author of this much needed revival. The prophet calls it His work. Yes, the revival of the work of grace in the individual soul, of spiritual vitality in the Church, and of real and lively regard for the glory of God and the supreme authority of His law, in the supreme and subordinate legislative assemblies of the nation, is the work of God. Hence God alone can revive it.

III. The necessity of prayer to produce the revival of Gods work. As well as Zerubbabel, the prophet Habakkuk knew that this great work was not to be accomplished by might or by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord; but clearly as he understood this, no less strongly did he feel his obligation to pray for it. (A. Stirling.)

How can a Church be brought into a revival condition

This is a very important question; for the conversions in any Church will generally be in proportion to the average spiritual life of the Church. This is the law. Of course, there are exceptions. Men fish through the ice in midwinter and catch a large supply; and so it is possible for a pastor to dip right through the crust of worldliness and formality, with which the Church is covered, and bring out converts by the score. But a fisher of men that can do this must be endowed with a powerful personality and an uncommon zeal. But taking it for granted, then, that the first thing is to bring the Church into a revived condition, how shall we proceed? Now, we remember that in physics it is said, that, in thawing a cake of ice, all the heat which you pour in below the melting point becomes latent and disappears, but that having raised the whole temperature up to the melting point, it takes but little heat to keep it thawing. It is exactly so with a Church. There is what may be called the zealothemial point in the spiritual thermometer. When the temperature of the body is below that point, you may pour in sermons and prayers and pleadings, and all will soon be absorbed and lost. But once bring the condition above that point, and a little effort will keep converts coming constantly. (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)

Stimulants not required for a revival

Use nourishments instead of stimulants in your efforts to bring up the spiritual tone of the Church. By stimulants, we mean frantic appeals, severe denunciations, stinging rebuke. These rouse for the Sabbath on which they are employed, but their effect is exhausted before the week is over, and the application must be repeated next Sunday, and so on, week after week. By nourishment, we mean the Scriptures unfolded, expounded, and steadily applied. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)

Revivals commence with the few

Begin with a part of the Church instead of attempting to move the whole mass together. Those of us who were country boys know how impossible it is to make a fire out of green logs alone; but if we can get some dry sticks kindled around and underneath these green logs, we can make a very hot fire with them. Dont begin your revival by trying to rouse the whole unseasoned mass of Church members, but begin with a few of the most spiritual, and from these work out towards the others. Lyman Beecher said, in answer to the question, How can we promote a revival in the Church?–First get revived yourself, then get some brother Church member revived, and the work has begun. That is practical wisdom. (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)

In wrath remember mercy.–

The limitations of Divine wrath

What the prophet now subjoins is intended to anticipate an objection; for this thought might have occurred to the faithful–there is no ground for us to hope pardon from God, whom we have so grievously provoked, nor is there any reason for us to rely any more on the covenant which we have so perfidiously violated. The prophet meets this objection, and he flees to the gracious favour of God, however much he perceived that the people would have to suffer the just punishment of their sins, such as they deserved. He then confesses that God was justly angry with His people, and yet that the hope of salvation was not on that account closed up, for the Lord had promised to be propitious. Since God then is not inexorable towards His people,–nay, while He chastises them He ceases not to be a Father,–hence, the prophet connects here the mercy of God with His wrath. The word wrath is not to be taken according to its strict sense, when the faithful or the elect are spoken of; for God does not chastise them because He hates them; nay, on the contrary, He thereby manifests the care He has for their salvation. Hence the scourges by which God chastises His children are testimonies of His love. But the Scripture represents the judgment with which God visits His people as wrath, not towards their persons, but towards their sins. Though then God shows love to His chosen, yet He testifies when He punishes their sins that iniquity is hated by Him. When God then comes forth as it were as a judge, and shows that sins displease Him, He is said to be angry with the faithful; and there is also in this a reference to the perceptions of men; for we cannot, when God chastises us, do otherwise than feel the accusations of our own conscience. Hence then is this hatred; for when our conscience condemns us, we must necessarily acknowledge God to be angry with us, that is with respect to us. When therefore we provoke Gods wrath by our sins, we feel Him to be angry with us; but yet the prophet connects together things that seem wholly contrary–even that God would remember mercy in wrath; that is, that He would show Himself displeased with them in such a way as to afford to the faithful at the same time some taste of His favour and mercy by finding Him to be propitious to them. Whenever, then, the judgment of the flesh would lead us to despair, let us ever set up against it this truth–that God is in such a way angry that He never forgets His mercy–that is, in His dealings with His elect. (John Calvin.)

Habakkuks prayer

Wrath and mercy are here put in juxtaposition the one to the other. The wrath spoken of is the wrath of a holy, omnipotent God, Who can dare to meet that wrath? If we want to know the extent, the fury, the power of that wrath, we have only to look to the Saviour, the very Son of the very eternal God, the Fathers co-equal, co-eternal Son, when He stands as the substitute of His people, as the representative of His Church, the sword of Gods wrath falls upon Him. This wrath will come upon a guilty and sinful world in the last days. It will come as the messenger of God to purge His Church from its alloy, and its imperfections, and its impurities, and the fire shall burn them up. But in the text there is a word of mercy for Gods Church. Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him. Whatever judgments may come upon us, nothing can come beyond what we deserve. What then have we to do? To pray for mercy. Nothing can be done without mercy. (T. Mortimer, A. M.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 2. In the midst of the years] bekereb shanim, “As the years approach.” The nearer the time, the clearer and fuller is the prediction; and the signs of the times show that the complete fulfilment is at hand. But as the judgments will be heavy, (and they are not greater than we deserve,) yet, Lord, in the midst of wrath – infliction of punishment – remember mercy, and spare the souls that return unto thee with humiliation and prayer.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I have heard; received answer to the inquiry made Hab 1:13-17, whether by voice from heaven, or by inward illumination or irradiation of the mind, or any other way of impression from the prophetic Spirit, needs not be inquired.

Thy speech; the report or declaration God made to him concerning the future corrections of his own people, and the devastations Babylon would make among them; and next, the destruction which should fall upon the Babylonians by the Medes and Persians, which is summarily set down, Hab 2.

Was afraid; trembled at the apprehension of these sad things, which both we and they were to suffer; he saw them as certain and grievous.

Revive; not only keep alive, but somewhat refresh, renew, give some new strength to thy church and people, who wait for thee.

Thy work; thy church, called, Isa 45:11, as here, Gods work, in an eminent manner, above other people; so the apostle, we are his workmanship, Eph 2:10; or else by work may be meant, the returning of the captivity, and restoring them to their own land, which was the great thing God did promise to do for them; and the prophet prays for some kindness from the Lord, that may be a revival of the hope, assurance, and joy of it.

In the midst of the years: it is not needful we report the different account of these years, and the precise midst of them assigned by some; perhaps it may point to that time when Evil-merodach exalted Jehoiachin out of prison, which, 2Ki 25:27, was in the 37th year of their captivity; but I rather think it is more vulgarly to be taken for any time within the term of the sad and troublesome days which would last seventy years.

Make known: it is an affectionate request, and (as such often are) somewhat abrupt; make known either thy truth, or wisdom, or power, or compassion, or all; make it known that thou art our God, and we thy people, that thou still hast a care of us: or what next follows makes the sense full.

In wrath, whilst thy just displeasure burns against us for our sins,

remember mercy; make it appear thou hast not forgotten to be gracious, let thy people see thou rememberest mercy towards them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. I have heard thy speechThyrevelation to me concerning the coming chastisement of the Jews[CALVIN], and thedestruction of their oppressors. This is Habakkuk’s reply to God’scommunication [GROTIUS].MAURER translates, “thereport of Thy coming,” literally, “Thy report.”

and was afraidreverentialfear of God’s judgments (Hab 3:16).

revive thy workPerfectthe work of delivering Thy people, and do not let Thypromise lie as if it were dead, but give it new life byperforming it [MENOCHIUS].CALVIN explains “thywork” to be Israel; called “the work of My hands”(Isa 45:11). God’s electpeople are peculiarly His work (Isa43:1), pre-eminently illustrating His power, wisdom, andgoodness. “Though we seem, as it were, dead nationally, reviveus” (Ps 85:6). However (Ps64:9), where “the work of God” refers to Hisjudgment on their enemies, favors the former view (Psa 90:16;Psa 90:17; Isa 51:9;Isa 51:10).

in the midst of theyearsnamely, of calamity in which we live. Now that ourcalamities are at their height; during our seventy years’ captivity.CALVIN more fancifullyexplains it, in the midst of the years of Thy people, extending fromAbraham to Messiah; if they be cut off before His coming, they willbe cut off as it were in the midst of their years, beforeattaining their maturity. So BENGELmakes the midst of the years to be the middle point of theyears of the world. There is a strikingly similar phrase (Da9:27), In the midst of the week. The parallel clause, “inwrath” (that is, in the midst of wrath), however, showsthat “in the midst of the years” means “in the yearsof our present exile and calamity.”

make knownMade it(Thy work) known by experimental proof; show in very deed,that this is Thy work.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

O Lord, I have heard thy speech, [and] was afraid,…. Or, “thy hearing” p; which the Lord had caused to be heard from and of himself; the report that had been made to him, and other prophets before him, particularly Isaiah, who says, “who hath believed our report?” Isa 53:1 where the same phrase is used as here: though it seems here not so much to regard the evangelical part of that report, concerning the coming of Christ, his sufferings and death, in order obtain redemption and salvation for his people; for this would have been, and was, matter of joy, and not of fear and consternation: but the truth is this, the Lord in the preceding speech, being a report he made to the prophet concerning the Messiah, had signified that Christ would have many enemies from the Jews and from the Gentiles, from Rome Pagan and Rome Papal; that the church of Christ would meet with great afflictions and persecutions, and be attended with many conflicts, temptations, and difficulties; that the interest of the Redeemer would be sometimes very low, and the work of the Lord at a stand in the world, yea, seemingly dead, quite lost and gone; this is what caused the fear and distress in the prophet’s mind, and gave him that pain and uneasiness: and hence the following petition,

O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years; which refers not to the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, which was fixed to a term of years, when, and not before, not in the midst of them it would be wrought; but to the great work of the Lord in the times of the Gospel. There is a double reading of these words in the Septuagint version of them, and both very different from the Hebrew text. The one is, “in the midst of two lives thou shalt be known”; the life that now is, and that which is to come. The other, by a change of the accent, is, “in the midst of two animals thou shall be known”; so the Arabic version. Theodoret makes mention of both, and inclines to the former;

“some (he says) by two animals understand angels and men; some the incorporeal powers near the divine Glory, the cherubim and seraphim; others the Jews and Babylonians; but to me it seems that the prophet does not say animals, but lives, the present and future, in the midst of which he was a just Judge:”

but the latter reading is followed by many of the ancients, whose different senses are given by Jerom on the place; some interpreting them of the Son and Spirit, by whom the Father is made known; others of the two cherubim in Exodus, and of the two seraphim in Isaiah; and there were some who understood them of the two Testaments, the Old and New, in the midst of which the Lord may be known; and others of Christ’s being crucified between two thieves, by which be might be known: but, besides these different sentiments, many of the ancients concluded from hence that Christ lay in the manger between two animals, the ox and the ass, and to which they refer in their ancient hymns q; but though this is a wrong version of the text, and a wrong sense which is put upon it, together with Isa 1:3; yet, as Burkius observes, there is in this mistake a certain and ancient truth, that the text of Habakkuk belongs to the work of God in Christ, and especially to the nativity of our Lord Jesus; and so some later writers apply this to the wonderful work of the incarnation of Christ, that new, unheard of, and amazing thing the Lord would work in the earth; the promise of which, being delayed, might seem to be dead; and therefore it is entreated it might be revived, and the performance of it hastened; and others to the work of redemption by Christ, which the Father gave him to do, and he promised to come and perform; but, being deferred, the Old Testament saints were impatient of it. Cocceius and Van Till restrain it to the resurrection of Christ from the dead, his coming being prophesied of before; and render the words, “O Lord, thy work is his life r, in the midst of the years”; the resurrection of Christ from the dead, or the quickening of him, is prophesied of in many places as a work that would be done, and in which the hope and expectation of the saints were placed; this being a work of great importance both to Christ, his exaltation and glory, and to his people; their quickening together with him; their regeneration, or passing from death to life; their justification of life, and resurrection from the dead, depending upon it; and this is the Lord’s work, and owing to the exceeding greatness of his power, and is frequently ascribed to God the Father, who raised Christ from the dead, and gave him glory: and this was “in the midst of the years”, or between the years of the Old and of the New Testament; the former was the year of God’s longsuffering and forbearance, the time when the Jewish church, like children, were under governors and tutors, until the time appointed of the Father; the latter is the acceptable year of the Lord, and the year of the redeemed; and between these two years, at the end of the one, and the beginning of the other, the Messiah came, was cut off or died, and was quickened and raised again: but I should choose rather to understand this more generally of the work of the Lord in the Christian churches throughout the whole Gospel dispensation, or at least in some certain periods of it. The church itself is the work of the hands of the Lord, Isa 45:11 which sometimes has seemed to have been in a very dead and lifeless state and condition, as in the dark times of Popery; and though there was a reviving of it upon the Reformation, yet there has been a decline since; and the Sardian church state, in which we now are, is described as having a “name”, that it “lives”, and yet is “dead”; and the interest of religion, and the church of Christ, will be lower still when the witnesses are slain, and their dead bodies lie unburied, before the Spirit of the Lord enters into them, and revives them: now the prophet having in view these various intervals, and especially the last, prays for a reviving of the interest and church of Christ, and the work of the Lord in it; and which will be done when Christ will come in a spiritual manner, and destroy antichrist; when the Spirit will be poured down plentifully from on high; when the Gospel will be purely and powerfully preached all over the world; when the ordinances of it will be administered as at the beginning; when multitudes of churches will be raised and formed, the Jews will be converted, and the fulness of the Gentiles brought in: this will be a reviving time indeed! and there never will be a thorough one till this time comes; and this will be in “the midst of the years”; between the years of the reign of antichrist, the 1260 days or years of it, which will now expire, and the thousand years of Christ’s personal reign on earth; between these two will be this reviving time or spiritual reign of Christ s. The words may to good purpose be applied to the work of grace in the hearts of true believers in Christ, which is the Lord’s work, and his only; not men, not ministers, not angels, but Jehovah only is the author and finisher of it. This sometimes seems as it were to be dead, when the graces of the Spirit are not in exercise; when saints are in dead and lifeless frames of soul; when they are backward to spiritual and religious exercises; when the world, and the things of it, have got power over them, and they are unconcerned for the things of Christ, the honour of his name, and the good of their own souls; when they are under the power of some sin, and are carried captive by it, as was the case of David, Peter, and others: now this work is revived, when the graces of the Spirit are called forth again into lively exercise; when the affections go out strongly after divine objects and things; when the thoughts of the mind, and the meditations of the heart, are on spiritual subjects; when the talk and conversation turns chiefly on things of a religious and heavenly nature; when there is a forwardness to spiritual exercises, a stirring up of themselves and others to them, and a continuance in them; when there is a visible growing in grace, and a fruitfulness in every good work: this is to be prayed for, and is from the Lord; and is owing to his setting his hand a second time to the work; to his being as the dew to his people; to Christ the sun of righteousness arising on them, with healing in his wings; and to the south wind of the Spirit blowing upon them, and causing their spices to flow out; and this is desirable in the midst of their years, before the years come on in which they have no pleasure, or before they go hence, and be no more:

in the midst of the years make known; which Cocceius and Van Till restrain to the notification of Christ’s resurrection from the dead by the ministry of the Gospel, for the benefit of the Lord’s people, both Jews and Gentiles; as being a matter of great consequence to them, and for the confirmation of the Christian religion, as it undoubtedly was: but it seems better to understand it in a more general sense, that God would make known more of himself, as the covenant God and Father of his people, of his mind and will, of his love, grace, and mercy in Christ; that he would make known more of Christ, of his person, offices, and grace; that he would make known more clearly the work of his Spirit and grace upon their hearts, and display his power, and the efficacy of his grace, in reviving it, and carrying it on; that he would make known more largely his covenant and promises, his truth and faithfulness in the performance of them; that he would grant a larger measure of knowledge of all divine things of the Gospel, and the truths of it; such as is promised, and is expected will be in the latter day, when the earth shall be everywhere filled with the knowledge of the Lord, Hab 2:14:

in wrath remember mercy; the above interpreters refer this to the time of God’s wrath and vengeance upon the Jewish nation for their rejection of the Messiah; and which the prophet does not pray might be averted, but that mercy might be remembered to his own people among them, as was; who had the Gospel first preached to them, and were called by grace and saved; and who had an opportunity given them of escaping from Jerusalem, before the destruction of that city: but it may be more agreeable to interpret this of the state of the churches of Christ and true believers; who, when under affliction and distress, or in temptation and desertion, are ready to conclude that God is dealing with them in wrath; and whom the prophet personates, and by him they are taught to pray, that at such seasons God would remember his covenant, his promises, his lovingkindness and tender mercies, the favour he bears to his own people, and smile on them again, and comfort their souls.

p “tuam auditionem”, V. L. Burkius; “tuum auditum”, Pagninus, Montanus; “rumorem”, Tarnovius. q “Agnoscat bos et asinus Jacentem in praesepio.” And again, “Cognovit bos et asinus, Quod paer erat Dominus.” r Taking for , as for in ver. 10. So Ben Melech observes it may be taken. s The Targum interprets these years of the time in which God will renew the world.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

“Jehovah, I have heard Thy tidings, am alarmed. Jehovah, Thy work, in the midst of the years call it to life, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.” is the tidings ( ) of God; what the prophet has heard of God, i.e., the tidings of the judgment which God is about to inflict upon Judah through the Chaldaeans, and after that upon the Chaldaeans themselves. The prophet is alarmed at this. The word (I am alarmed) does not compel us to take what is heard as referring merely to the judgment to be inflicted upon Judah by the Chaldaeans. Even in the overthrow of the mighty Chaldaean, or of the empire of the world, the omnipotence of Jehovah is displayed in so terrible a manner, that this judgment not only inspires with joy at the destruction of the foe, but fills with alarm at the omnipotence of the Judge of the world. The prayer which follows, “Call Thy work to life,” also refers to this twofold judgment which God revealed to the prophet in ch. 1 and 2. , placed absolutely at the head for the sake of emphasis, points back to the work ( poal ) which God was about to do (Hab 1:5); but this work of God is not limited to the raising up of the Chaldaean nation, but includes the judgment which will fall upon the Chaldaean after he has offended (Hab 1:11). This assumption is not at variance even with . For the opinion that never means to call a non-existent thing to life, but always signifies either to give life to an inorganic object (Job 33:4), or to keep a living thing alive, or (and this most frequently) to restore a dead thing to life, and that here the word must be taken in the sense of restoring to life, because in the description which follows Habakkuk looks back to Psalm 77 and the poal depicted there, viz., the deliverance out of Egyptian bondage, is not correct. does not merely mean to restore to life and keep alive, but also to give life and call to life. In Job 33:4, where is parallel to , the reference is not to the impartation of life to an inorganic object, but to the giving of life in the sense of creating; and so also in Gen 7:3 and Gen 19:32, means to call seed to life, or raise it up, i.e., to call a non-existent thing to life. Moreover, the resemblances in the theophany depicted in what follows to Psalm 77 do not require the assumption that Habakkuk is praying for the renewal of the former acts of God for the redemption of His people, but may be fully explained on the ground that the saving acts of God on behalf of His people are essentially the same in all ages, and that the prophets generally were accustomed to describe the divine revelations of the future under the form of imagery drawn from the acts of God in the past. There is special emphasis in the use of twice, and the fact that in both instances it stands at the head. It has been interpreted in very different ways; but there is an evident allusion to the divine answer in Hab 2:3, that the oracle is for an appointed time, etc. “In the midst of the years,” or within years, cannot of course mean by itself “within a certain number, or a small number, of years,” or “within a brief space of time” (Ges., Ros., and Maurer); nevertheless this explanation is founded upon a correct idea of the meaning. When the prophet directs his eye to the still remote object of the oracle (ch. 2), the fulfilment of which was to be delayed, but yet assuredly to come at last (Hab 2:3), the interval between the present time and the moed appointed by God (Hab 2:3) appears to him as a long series of years, at the end only of which the judgment is to come upon the oppressors of His people, namely the Chaldaeans. He therefore prays that the Lord will not delay too long the work which He designs to do, or cause it to come to life only at the end of the appointed interval, but will bring it to life within years, i.e., within the years, which would pass by if the fulfilment were delayed, before that moed arrived.

Grammatically considered, qerebh shanm cannot be the centre of the years of the world, the boundary-line between the Old and New Testament aeons, as Bengel supposes, who takes it at the same time, according to this explanation, as the starting-point for a chronological calculation of the whole course of the world. Moreover, it may also be justly argued, in opposition to this view and application of the words, that it cannot be presupposed that the prophets had so clear a consciousness as this, embracing all history by its calculus; and still less can be expect to find in a lyrical ode, which is the outpouring of the heart of the congregation, a revelation of what God Himself had not revealed to him according to Hab 2:3. Nevertheless the view which lies at the foundation of this application of our passage, viz., that the work of God, for the manifestation of which the prophet is praying, falls in the centre of the years of the world, has this deep truth, that it exhibits the overthrow not only of the imperial power of Chaldaea, but that of the world-power generally, and the deliverance of the nation from its power, and forms the turning-point, with which the old aeon closes and the new epoch of the world commences, with the completion of which the whole of the earthly development of the universe will reach its close. The repetition of is expressive of the earnest longing with which the congregation of the Lord looks for the tribulation to end. The object to , which is to be taken in an optative sense, answering to the imperative in the parallel clause, may easily be supplied from the previous clause. To the prayer for the shortening of the period of suffering there is appended, without the copula Vav, the further prayer, in wrath to remember mercy. The wrath ( rogez , like ragaz in Isa 28:21 and Pro 29:9) in which God is to remember mercy, namely for His people Israel, can only be wrath over Israel, not merely the wrath manifested in the chastisement of Judah through the Chaldaeans, but also the wrath displayed in the overthrow of the Chaldaeans. In the former case God would show mercy by softening the cruelty of the Chaldaeans; in the latter, by accelerating their overthrow, and putting a speedy end to their tyranny. This prayer is followed in Hab 3:3-15 by a description of the work of God which is to be called to life, in which the prophet expresses confidence that his petition will be granted.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Prophet says here, in the name of the whole people, that he was terrified by the voice of God, for so I understand the word, though in many places it means report, as some also explain it in this place. But as the preaching of the Gospel is called in Isa 53:1, שמעה, shemoe, report, it seems to me more suitable to the present passage to render it the voice of God; for the general sentiment, that the faithful were terrified at the report of God, would be frigid. It ought rather to be applied to the Prophecies which have been already explained: and doubtless Habakkuk did not intend here to speak only in general of God’s power; but, as we have seen in the last lecture, he humbly confesses the sins of the people, and then prays for forgiveness. It is then not to be doubted but that he says here, that he was terrified by the voice of God, that is, when he heard him threatening punishment so grievous. He then adds, Revive thy work in the middle of the years, and make it known. At last, by way of anticipation, he subjoins, that God would remember his mercy, though justly offended by the sins of the people.

But by saying, that he feared the voice of God, he makes a confession, or gives an evidence of repentance; for we cannot from the heart seek pardon, unless we be first made humble. When a sinner is not displeased with himself, and confesses not his guilt, he is not deserving of mercy. We then see why the Prophet speaks here of fear; and that is, that he might thus obtain for himself and for others the favor of God; for as soon as a sinner willingly condemns himself, and does not do this formally, but seriously from the heart, he is already reconciled to God; for God bids us in this way to anticipate his judgement. This is one thing. But if it be asked, for what purpose the Prophet heard God’s voice; the obvious answer is,—that as it is not the private prayer of one person, but of the whole Church, he prescribes here to the faithful the way by which they were to obtain favor from God, and turn him to mercy; and that is, by dreading his threatening and by acknowledging that whatever God threatened by his Prophets was near at hand.

Then follows the second clause, Jehovah! in the middle of the years revive thy work. By the work of God he means the condition of his people or of the Church. For though God is the creator of heaven and earth, he would yet have his own Church to be acknowledged to be, as it were, his peculiar workmanship, and a special monument of his power, wisdom, justice, and goodness. Hence, by way of eminence, he calls here the condition of the elect people the work of God; for the seed of Abraham was not only a part of the human race, but was the holy and peculiar possession of God. Since, then, the Israelites were set apart by the Lord, they are rightly called his work; as we read in another place,

“

The work of thine hands thou wilt not despise,” Psa 138:8.

And God often says, “This is my planting,” “This is the work of my hands,” when he speaks of his Church.

By the middle of the years, he means the middle course, as it were, of the people’s life. For from the time when God chose the race of Abraham to the coming of Christ, was the whole course, as it were, of their life, when we compare the people to a man; for the fullness of their age was at the coming of Christ. If, then, that people had been destroyed, it would have been the same as though death were to snatch away a person in the flower of his age. Hence the Prophet prays God not to take away the life of his people in the middle of their course; for Christ having not come, the people had not attained maturity, nor arrived at manhood. In the middle, then, of the years thy work revive; that is, “Though we seem destined to death, yet restore us.” Make it known, he says, in the middle of the years; that is, “Show it to be in reality thy work.” (51)

We now apprehend the real meaning of the Prophet. After having confessed that the Israelites justly trembled at God’s voice, as they saw themselves deservedly given up to perdition, he then appeals to the mercy of God, and prays God to revive his own work. He brings forward here nothing but the favor of adoption: thus he confesses that there was no reason why God should forgive his people, except that he had been pleased freely to adopt them, and to choose them as his peculiar people; for on this account it is that God is wont to show his favor towards us even to the last. as, then, this people had been once chosen by God, the Prophet records this adoption and prays God to continue and fulfill to the end what he had begun. With regard to the half course of life, the comparison ought to be observed; for we see that the race of Abraham was not chosen for a short time, but until Christ the Redeemer was manifested. Now we have this in common with the ancient people, that God adopts us, that he may at length bring us into the inheritance of eternal life. Until, then, the work of our salvation is completed, we are, as it were, running our course. We may therefore adopt this form of prayer, which is prescribed for us by the Holy Spirit,—that God would not forsake his own work; in the middle of our course.

What he now subjoins— in wrath remember mercy, is intended to anticipate an objection; for this thought might have occurred to the faithful—“there is no ground for us to hope pardon from God, whom we have so grievously provoked, nor is there any reason for us to rely any more on the covenant which we have so perfidiously violated.” The Prophet meets this objection, and he flees to the gracious favor of God, however much he perceived that the people would have to suffer the just punishment of their sins, such as they deserved. He then confesses that God was justly angry with his people, and yet that the hope of salvation was not on that account closed up, for the Lord had promised to be propitious. Since God then is not inexorable towards his people—nay, while he chastises them he ceases not to be a father; hence the Prophet connects here the mercy of God with his wrath.

We have elsewhere said that the word wrath is not to be taken according to its strict sense, when the faithful or the elect are spoken of; for God does not chastise them because he hates them; nay, on the contrary, he thereby manifests the care he has for their salvations. Hence the scourges by which God chastises his children are testimonies of his love. But the Scripture represents the judgement with which God visits his people as wrath, not towards their persons but towards their sins. Though then God shows love to his chosen, yet he testifies when he punishes their sins that iniquity is hated by him. When God then comes forth as it were as a judge, and shows that sins displease him, he is said to be angry with the faithful; and there is also in this a reference to the perceptions of men; for we cannot, when God chastises us, do otherwise than feel the accusations of our own conscience. Hence then is this hatred; for when our conscience condemns us we must necessarily acknowledge God to be angry with us, that is with respect to us. When therefore we provoke God’s wrath by our sins we feel him to be angry with us; but yet the Prophet collects together things which seem wholly contrary—even that God would remember mercy in wrath; that is, that he would show himself displeased with them in such a way as to afford to the faithful at the same time some taste of his favor and mercy by finding him to be propitious to them.

We now then perceive how the Prophet had joined the last clause to the foregoing. Whenever, then, the judgement of the flesh would lead us to despair, let us ever set up against it this truth—that God is in such a way angry that he never forgets his mercy—that is, in his dealings with his elect. It follows—

(51) The view given of “the middle of the years,” is ingenious and striking; but the common interpretation is, that “the years” of calamity, allotted to the Jews, are meant. The Septuagint version of this verse is so extremely wide of the original, that none can account for the differences. There are no various readings of any moment; and the literal rendering of this verse, and of the former part of the following, I consider to be this,—

2. O Jehovah! I have heard thy report; I feared, O Jehovah! Thy work! in the midst of the years revive it; In the midst of the years make it known; In anger remember mercy:

3. May God from Teman come And the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah.

It is called “thy report,” as it was a report which came from God; the allusion is to the threatenings in chapter 1. “The report from thee,” would convey the sense. The third line is a prayer; and so are the following lines, though all the verbs are in the future tense, while that for “revive” is in the imperative mood. The third verse ought to end with the word “Selah.” What follows in the other part and in the subsequent verses, is a relation of what took place when God had formerly interfered in behalf of Israel; while here, and in the latter part of the preceding verse, the Prophet expresses a prayer to God in reference to his people, and borrows his language from the past interpositions of God.— Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.] Prayer] joined with praise. Shigionoth] (cf. Psalms 7); this verse posterior to the prophecy.

Hab. 3:2. Speech] Report concerning Gods judgments. Revive] Preserve, revivify (Psa. 80:19): within years of calamity in which we live. Known] Make thy work known.

HOMILETICS

GODS VOICE AND HUMAN FEAR.Hab. 3:2

The prophet had received an answer to his prayer (ch. Hab. 2:1). Knew the mind of God towards Jews and Chaldans: he now submits to Gods will, but fears the threatened judgments, and prays for his afflicted people.

I. God speaks to men. I have heard thy speech. If we are willing to hear the word and know the mind of God, we shall not have long to wait.

1. The Scriptures are the voice of God. They are given by inspiration of Godmake known the doings, and set forth the requirements of God. The oracles of God speak to men in wisdom and truth. Upon whatsoever this title and inscription isThe Word of Jehovahthere must we stoop, says Owen, and bow down our souls before it, and captivate our understandings unto the obedience of faith.

2. The Christian ministry is the voice of God. God calls to men by his servants, but they refuse to hear. Thus we learn the necessity of preaching, and what inconvenience follows when it is not used. Where preaching fails, saith Solomon, the people perish. Therefore let every one keep himself in Gods school-house, and learn his lesson diligently [Bp. Pilkington]. We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us.

3. Providence is the voice of God. In times of judgment and revival, in national and personal providences, God speaks to us. Ponder the dealings of God, rest upon his will, and learn the instruction of his discipline. Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?

II. Men should hear the voice of God and fear him. I have heard thy speech and was afraid. In Hab. 3:16 we have the effect of this fear. The prophet stood in awe at the matter and the majesty of the speaker. It was not a slavish, but a filial fear, urging him to pray. The best menMoses, Isaiah, and Danielhave been afraid at the voice of God. When the prophet heard the judgments of God

1. He feared for himself. Ministers should examine their own hearts. Have they been faithful in their work, pure in their motives, and holy in their lives? Unfaithfulness, says Bridges, is to undo our own souls, as well as our peoples.

2. He feared for the Church. Israel were the people, the special work of God (Isa. 45:11). He desired their preservation and prosperity. Ministers should be anxious for the glory of God, and the conversion of sinners among their people.

3. He feared for the world. When he thought of the threatenings upon the enemy, he was astonished at their guilt, and desired their wickedness to end. The whole world lieth in wickedness; good men fear and warn others of the consequence. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

THE REVIVAL OF GODS WORK.Hab. 3:2

The prophet saw the impending ruin, wept for his infatuated countrymen, and wrestled with God to remove or mitigate the punishment of their sins.

I. The blessings desired. The revival of Gods work, and the manifestation of Gods mercy.

1. The revival of Gods work. O Lord, revive thy work. Gods people were afflicted, and Gods cause was low; new life was desired in the nation, and fresh favour to the Church. A revival implies deadness. Life may not be quite extinct, but feeble and decaying. What deadness, formality, and few conversions in the Church! The stones and the dust give evidence of decay in Zion. What worldliness and infidelity in the nation! Everywhere means of grace neglected, and masses living without God. As Edwards lamented before the New England revival, so we may confess: we have been long in a strange stupor. The influences of the spirit of God upon the heart have been little felt, and the nature of them but little taught. A great necessity exists now for God to give us a little reviving in our bondage (Ezr. 9:8).

2. The manifestation of Gods mercy. In wrath remember mercy. (a) Generally manifest the favour. Make known. Make known thy power and providence in the world; thy pity and grace in the Church. Let us not guess at thy purposes. Do not remain hidden and unknown. Glorify thyself in the accomplishment of thy work. (b) Specially show favour to thy people. Mercy regards our misery. Sin will bring wrath and prevent mercy to us. But with God there is mercy. The sinner may be forgiven that he may be feared. God will remember or show mercy to the penitent. The depths of our misery can never fall below the depths of mercy, says Sibbes. It must be great mercy, or no mercy; for little mercy will never serve my turn, said Bunyan. Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

II. The time in which the blessings are desired. In the midst of the years are emphatic words, and twice given. He does not say at the end of the years. He thinks it long till then. He prays for something to be done now. Whatever may be the remote future, God suspends the punishment, and gives room for penitence and prayer now In darkness stars may shine; in distress, deliverance be wrought; and in wickedness the enemy overthrown. God has a set time to favour Zion, but this is when his servants take pleasure in her welfare, and favour the dust thereof (Psa. 102:13-14). Trial days of the Church will not be prolonged one moment beyond the time appointed; but, meantime, comfort may be given, and we should renew our prayers for years which have to intervene and pass away. Look then upon us, and be merciful unto us, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.

III. The means by which the blessings are to be secured. Man has many plans, trusts to various institutions and societies; but God has one way to improve the world. We hit upon a scheme; God implants a principle. Revival preachers and revival meetings may be necessary, but the work is of God. Thy work. Instead of looking for new and unusual methods, let the Church earnestly use what she has. Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.

1. Private prayer. We are guilty of what has been termed the selfishness of the closet. It is not my family and my work, but Gods work, that we must remember. Personal interests must not overlook public good.

2. United prayer. The first revival began in the upper room when the apostles were met together. In America a united prayer-meeting brought the wonderful change. By prayer, says one, we lay our hand upon the springs of an agency which can diffuse blessings through the world.

3. Earnest preaching must not be overlooked. Preaching, like Peters address on the day of Pentecost, adapted to awaken men from slumber, and convince them of sin. It was bold and earnest, direct in its aim, and full of compassion. It must be serious preaching that makes men serious, said Baxter. Ministers and people must be revived first, that they may revive others. Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Hab. 3:1. If the words be taken in connection with the prophecy, we learn that prayer and praise may be intimately united together; that the petitions of one generation may become the music of another; and that Christian experience varies as the dealings of God may vary.

Hab. 3:2. There are three things in this text

1. an alarming voice;
2. an appropriate prayer; and
3. a potent argument [Spurgeon].

We offer three thoughts. I. Genuine religion is the work of God in the soul. Genuine religion is not theology, not ceremony, but supreme love to God. This is produced only by God. II. This work of God in the soul is liable to decay. Many things tend to impair and destroy supreme love to God. Carnal influences, impure associations, social influences, and engrossing worldly cares. Hence the prayer, revive it. III. This decay should be overcome by a revival. Revive, quicken, energize this love, and give it more force and influence in the soul. This is true revival. Not the revival of crude theological dogmas, pietistic cant, and superstitious fears [Dr. Thomas].

In the midst of the years means just at the right time. He knows well how to find the means to render help, neither too soon nor too late. For in case he brought help too soon we should not learn to despair of ourselves, and should continue presumptuous; in case he brought it too late we should not learn to believe. To revive and to make known are nearly the same thing, only that to revive is to perform the miracle and bring relief; but to make known means that we should be sensible of and delight in it [Lange].

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3

Hab. 3:2. Mercy is wanted for England. The wickedness of this country belongs not to one class only, but to all classes. Sin runs down the streets. We have a fringe of elegant morality, but behind it a mass of rottenness. There is immorality in the streets at night, and dishonesty of business men in high places. Cheating and thieving upon the grandest scale are winked at. This city is wicked, and the land full of fornication and idolatry. I may not utter a wailing; but having heard the Lords speech, I may be afraid, exhort you to pray for this land, and ask God to revive his work, that drunkenness and dishonesty may cease [Spurgeon].

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(2) Thy speech.Better, thy report, as in margin. The tone is that of Psa. 44:1, We have heard with our ears O God! our fathers have told us . . . Jehovahs doings at the beginning of the years are well known; the prophet seeks that they may be manifested again, now in the midst of the years. The petition in wrath remember mercy, is explained by Hab. 1:5 et seq. It impliesthough Thy visitation be well deserved, yet mercifully limit its duration, as on former occasions.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Hab 3:2 contains the prayer proper.

Thy speech R.V., “the report of thee.” Some understand “the report of thee” in the sense of “thy report,” that is, thy declaration, namely, the announcement, in chapters i, ii, of judgment upon Judah and upon the Chaldeans. But the expression seems to be used always in the sense of report concerning some one (Gen 29:13; 1Ki 10:1). It is the report concerning Jehovah’s mighty manifestations, described in 3-15; of these the prophet has heard. Margin R.V., rightly, “thy fame.” I

was afraid The greatness and sublimity of these interferences filled the prophet with fear, not fear of destruction, but a feeling of awe and reverence, which accompanies the recognition of the omnipotence of Jehovah. Fear of destruction would have silenced him or would have wrung from him a cry of despair; the feeling of awe inspired confidence. If Jehovah could help in the past, surely he can help in the present crisis.

Revive thy work The work of deliverance described in Hab 3:3-15. The present and the immediate future seem to reveal Jehovah as indifferent toward the best interests of his people. O that he would repeat the wonderful acts of the past, when again and again he became the saviour of his people!

In the midst of the years This expression has been variously interpreted; but if taken in connection with the divine manifestations of the past (13-15), and with the promise that at the “appointed time” (Hab 2:3) he would manifest himself again in mercy, the right interpretation suggests itself. The words refer to the period between the two manifestations, to the prophet’s own days and the days of distress yet to come. The petitioner prays Jehovah to come near to his people even now, to hasten the “appointed time.”

Make known Thy work, which is now hidden. This is essentially a repetition of the thought of the preceding clause. LXX. reads, “make thyself known.”

In wrath remember mercy The announcement of judgment in Hab 1:5 ff., seemed to be an indication of the divine anger. Unchecked it will accomplish the destruction of Judah. Troubled by these prospects, the prophet beseeches Jehovah to temper his wrath with mercy, even in executing judgment, and before the final deliverance promised for the “appointed time.” The thought becomes somewhat modified if we read, as is permitted by the Hebrew, “turmoil” for “wrath.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘O YHWH, I have heard your report,

And I fear, O YHWH, your work,

In the midst of the years, renew it,

In the midst of the years make it known,

In wrath remember mercy.

As Habakkuk considers what he has heard from YHWH about what He is going to do, he is filled with awe and trepidation. But nevertheless he prays that YHWH will continue to carry it through and bring it about in the eyes of all creation, so that all may see it. One thing, however, he pleads, and that is that in exercising His wrath, God will remember mercy.

Thus the righteous man is living by faith (Hab 2:4), no more questioning God’s will. He admits his fear and awe, but still prays for the fulfilment of His purposes. Let God bring about His will, only, in His wrath, let Him remember mercy. We too must learn to have such confidence in God, even when we cannot understand. His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts not our thoughts. And we must recognise that in the end it is He Who knows best.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

DISCOURSE: 1225
A REVIVAL DESIRED

Hab 3:2. O Lord, revive thy work!

THE ministry of the Prophet Habakkuk seems to have been contemporaneous with that of the Prophet Jeremiah. He foretells the judgments which should be executed on the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans; and the fearful recompence which should come on the heads of the Chaldeans by the instrumentality of the Medes and Persians. But he was not willing that his people should wait so long without a blessing, even the whole period of their threatened captivity; and therefore, in a divine ode, an ode of peculiar sublimity, he implores of God the restoration of his favour towards them, and entreats him to blend his judgments with mercy: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years (of their captivity) make known: in wrath remember mercy!
The petition here offered is highly proper to be presented to God, at all times:

I.

For the Church at large

It is proper,

1.

For the Jewish Church

[The captivity of that people in Babylon lasted only seventy years: but that to which they have been subjected, since their dispersion by the Romans, has lasted above seventeen hundred years: and in all this time there has been no material revival amongst them, in a way of humiliation, or of return to God. But now it seems as if God were about to return in mercy to them, and to restore them to himself: so that we are encouraged to cry unto him, O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years! And certainly we have the same encouragement which the prophet had. He in all the subsequent part of this chapter, reminds God of his former interpositions for them, in Egypt, and in the wilderness; and of the deliverances vouchsafed to them under circumstances of still greater difficulty than that with which they were encompassed in Babylon: and we may also well call those wonders to remembrance, as an encouragement to plead for them, and to expect from Gods hands the most signal interpositions in their favour. For their present dispersion is not more unfavourable than their oppression in Egypt; nor are the manifestations of Gods favour, which we look for in their behalf, more glorious than those which were vouchsafed to them at the Red Sea, and on Mount Sinai. It is not a new work which we have to solicit for them, but only a revival of the former work. And we may hope, that God will yet again, and at no distant period too, take them under his protection, and reveal unto them more richly than ever the abundance of peace and truth.]

2.

For the Christian Church

[This is at a low ebb, and greatly needs a revival. Where are the Pentecostal effusions of the Spirit, and the simultaneous conversions of thousands unto God? In great and extensive countries, where religion once flourished, the very name of Christ is now scarcely known. And amongst those who profess to be followers of Christ, how little is there of real piety, and of vital godliness! Whether amongst pastors or their flocks, we behold but little of that primitive simplicity, or of that entireness of devotion to God, which characterized the apostolic age. We read of days of the Son of man; and those are what we want to behold amongst us. We want to see the lighting down of his arm amongst us; and such displays of his power and glory as he gave when he shook the room where his people were assembled, and filled them all with the Holy Ghost and with power [Note: Act 4:31-33.]. In a word, we are looking for times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord: and for these we should be earnestly pleading with God in prayer; saying, with the prophet, O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, and come down; that the mountains might flow down at thy presence [Note: Isa 64:1.]! and, with David, Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation [Note: Psa 85:6-7.].]

But the petition may be offered also,

II.

For our own souls in particular

Who amongst us does not need to offer it?
[We are but too apt, all of us, to experience changes in the divine life, similar to those which take place in the natural world. There are seasons of spring and autumn, summer and winter: and such we find at times within our own souls. In early youth, our feelings are warm and our imaginations lively: and we seem as if it were not possible for us ever to decline from the ways on which we have entered. But, when we have advanced to middle life, how often do we see reason to deplore the loss of those ardent affections which once glowed in our souls! The cares of this World, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire of other things, have beguiled us, and caused a painful declension within us; so that we have need particularly to cry, O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of my years! ]

To the prophets remedy, then, we should betake ourselves
[Prayer is, of all things, the most effectual. Personal exertions are good in their place, and even necessary: but, to whatever extent they be carried, they will be of no avail without prayer. The husbandman may labour day and night; but he can never obtain a crop, without the shining of the sun, and the influences of the former and latter rain. All is under the controul of heaven with respect to him: and so it is with respect to us: and it is by prayer that the Divine blessing is to be obtained. And what would not the prayer of faith effect? Has it closed heaven for three years and a half, and then opened it again; and shall it not avail for us? Were we but earnest and constant in prayer, there would be little reason to complain of declension, though every day would still bring with it the need of a revival.]

And have we not the same encouragement?
[The prophet looked back to former days, and pleaded for a repetition of former mercies. And shall not we also look back to the day when he quickened us from our death in trespasses and sins, and created us anew, and translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son? We are taught to consider his gifts as earnests and pledges of further mercies: and that is a just mode of arguing which the Psalmist adopts, Thou hast delivered my soul from death; Wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before the Lord in the light of the living [Note: Psa 56:13.]? God says to us, Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified [Note: Isa 43:26.]: and if we use these means in faith, our success shall resemble that which the prophet describes: Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old! Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away [Note: Isa 51:9-11.].]

Application
1.

Inquire now, I pray you, what is the state of Gods work within you?

[Has he ever yet wrought effectually in your souls? Has he ever brought you out of bondage to the world, and sin, and Satan; and brought you to live in a state of entire dependence upon him, for guidance in his ways, for protection from enemies, for daily supplies of grace and peace, and for the final possession of the promised land? And are you advancing in the divine life, and making your profiting daily to appear? If the work is not yet begun, lose not a moment in pleading with him, that you may obtain mercy at his hands. And if, through the prevalence of temptation, it has declined at all, cry to him with all possible earnestness, O Lord, revive thy work! and leave nothing undone, if by any means you may strengthen in your souls what is yet remaining, but is ready to die [Note: Rev 3:2.]]

2.

Let nothing discourage you in your application to the Lord

[See the state of the Jews in Babylon; and judge whether you can be in a more desperate state than they. To Babylon they had been sent by God himself, in token of his heavy displeasure: and there they were oppressed without mercy. No access to God had they in his ordinances; nor had they any hope of deliverance, except what was founded on his word of promise. Let your state, then, be as bad as your imagination can paint it, and the same blessed hope is yours: for God will not shut his ear against the cry of the poor destitute, or disappoint their desire. Go to him with that prayer of David, Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice, and be glad in thee all our days [Note: Psa 90:13-14.]! and you may be perfectly assured that he will return to you, and give you a reviving in your bondage [Note: Ezr 9:8.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

The Prophet we left at his watch tower, in the opening of the foregoing chapter, to receive the Lord’s answers, to his humble supplication, and here we find him again thankfully acknowledging the faithfulness of Jehovah, in hearing and answering his petitions. But, Reader! do observe how all he saith hath an eye to mercy, and to God’s own work. And what were both in the Old Testament Church, and Old Testament language, but the Lord Jesus Christ? Is not Jesus, as Christ, the Christ of God; the work of God in redemption? Joh 9:4 . And is not Jesus the mercy promised; yea, the first born in the womb of mercy? Luk 1:72 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

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.

Ver. 2. O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid ] Audivi auditionem tuam. I have heard (not thy fume or thy report, as some render it, unless it be in the prophet Isaiah’s sense, Isa 53:1 , but) thy preceding discourse, in answer to my disceptation. I have heard that the Babylonians will come, and that my people must go into captivity. This was no pleasant hearing; for we all naturally shrink in the shoulder when called to carry the cross; but those that do what they should not must look to hear and feel too what they would not.

And was afraid ] Fear is constrictio cordis ex sensu mali instantis, a passion of the soul shrinking in itself from some imminent evil. The wicked hear and jeer: or their fear driveth them from God, as it did guilty Adam. Contrarily, the godly tremble at God’s judgments while they hang in the threatenings; and draw nigh to him with entreaties of peace. In this fear of the Lord is strong confidence, “and his children have a place of refuge,” Pro 14:26 .

O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years ] i.e. Preserve alive thy Israel, that work of thine hands, Isa 45:11 , together with thy work of grace in their hearts; keep that spark alive upon the sea of tribulations and temptations. The angels (saith a reverend man) are kept with much less care, charge, and power, than we; because they have no bias, no weights of sin hung upon them, &c. There is not so much of the glory of God (saith another) in all his works of creation and providence as in one gracious action that a Christian performeth.

in the midst of the years make known ] sc. Thy power in perfecting thy glory, and not forsaking the work of thine own hands, Psa 138:8 . It was Luther’s usual prayer, Confirm, O God, in us that thou hast wrought; and perfect the work that thou hast begun in us, to thy glory. So be it. So Queen Elizabeth, when prisoner at Woodstock, prayed thus: Look, Lord, upon the wounds of thine hands; and despise not the work of thine hands. Thou hast written me down in thy book of preservation with thine own hand: O read thine own handwriting, and save me, &c. But what meant the Seventy here to translate, In the midst of two beasts: which while Ribera striveth to defend, he tells us a tale of the babe of Bethlehem, born in a stable, and laid in a manger between two beasts, an ox and an ass ( ). It may very well be that the Church here prayeth for God’s grace and favour during the time of her captivity.

In wrath remember mercy ] In commotione irae: when thou art most moved against us, and hast as much ado to forbear killing of us as thou hadst to forbear Moses when thou mettest him in the inn, then remember to show mercy, call to mind thy compassions which fail not. “Look then upon us, and be merciful unto us, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name,” Psa 119:132 . The wicked are threatened with an evil, an only evil, without any mixture of mercy; this the prophet here deprecateth, and beggeth mercy, Eze 7:5 . Per miserere mei, tollitur ira Dei. through mercy to me, the wrath of God is born away.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.

heard Thy speech = heard Thy hearing. Figure of speech Polyptoton. App-6.

speech = hearing. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Subject), App-6, for what was heard. Here = Thy fame, as in Num 14:15. 1Ki 10:1. Isa 66:19.

afraid. = In awe; as in Exo 14:31.

revive = renew, in the sense of repeating, doing over again.

work. Some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, and Syriac, read “works”: i.e. doings.

years. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), for the afflictions suffered in them, or “wrath” manifested in them.

in the midst, &c. Out of 273 occurrences, this is the only place where it refers to time. Had Habakkuk learnt, like Daniel? Note the Figure of speech Anadiplosis (App-6), for emphasis.

make known = make [Thyself] known. The Hebrew accent places the logical pause on this verb: i.e. by repeating nowwhat Thou hast done in the past.

wrath. As manifested in present affliction; showing what is meant by “years”, above.

mercy = compassion. Supply here the logical Ellipsis “[I will meditate on Thy doings of old: ]”.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

I have: Hab 3:16, Hab 1:5-10, Exo 9:20, Exo 9:21, 2Ch 34:27, 2Ch 34:28, Job 4:12-21, Psa 119:120, Isa 66:2, Jer 36:21-24, Dan 8:17, Heb 11:7, Heb 12:21, Rev 15:4

speech: Heb. report, or hearing, Isa 53:1, Rom 10:16

O Lord: Ezr 9:8, Psa 85:6, Psa 90:13-17, Psa 138:7, Psa 138:8, Isa 51:9-11, Isa 63:15-19, Isa 64:1-4, Hos 6:2, Hos 6:3, Joh 10:10, Phi 1:6

revive: or, preserve alive

in the: Jer 25:11, Jer 25:12, Jer 52:31-34, Dan 9:2

in wrath: Exo 32:10-12, Num 14:10-23, Num 16:46, Num 16:47, 2Sa 24:10-17, Psa 6:1, Psa 6:2, Psa 38:1, Psa 78:38, Jer 10:24, Jer 29:10, Lam 3:32, Zec 1:12

Reciprocal: Gen 8:1 – God remembered Exo 9:19 – and gather Num 12:15 – till Miriam Jdg 20:47 – six hundred 2Sa 24:16 – repented 1Ki 11:34 – Howbeit 1Ch 21:13 – great Ezr 9:13 – less Neh 4:2 – revive Psa 77:10 – the years Psa 90:16 – Let Psa 103:10 – dealt Psa 143:11 – Quicken Isa 1:9 – left Isa 64:9 – wroth Jer 46:28 – correct Lam 5:1 – Remember Lam 5:21 – Turn Jon 1:17 – the Lord Hab 1:12 – we Phi 2:27 – but on

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

A PRAYER FOR REVIVAL

O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

Hab 3:2

I. God has His great and solemn epochs in history.They come at long intervals, and they change the face of the world. Such, in the ancient days, were the Flood, the call of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, and that event to which Habakkuk looked forward with fear: the captivity in Babylon with the subsequent vengeance upon the capturing power. Such, in our own history, have been the Norman Conquest, the signing of the great Charter, the great events of the Reformation, the deposition of the Stuarts. It is a soul-stirring, if sometimes a heartrending thing, to live in such periods as those, when the very foundations of the earth seem to be broken up, and God makes all things new. To see the great crisis coming nearer, even while it is yet afar off, is so terrible a sight that no thoughtful man could bear it, unless, like Habakkuk, he was convinced by faith that the hand of God was in it. Only a saint, like our Edward, could smile, as, according to the legend, he did, when he saw in a prophetic trance that turning of the Seven Sleepers which betokened, as he knew, convulsion and disaster to the world.

II. Those who live in the interspaces of history may often feel inclined, like Habakkuk, to cry to God for some manifestation, less signal, but not less sure, of His interest, and His activity.O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known. They can hardly venture to ask for the great and revolutionary interpositions of His hand; but for some reassuring proof that He is on the watch, that He cares, that He is helping. They see their country divided and despised. Its best elements are unable to make themselves felt. Yet God seems to take no heed. The world goes on quietly, as if there were nothing amiss. It seems long to wait for the Day of Judgment. We crave for some intermediate exhibition of that power which has judged in the past, and will judge hereafter. In the midst of the years make known.

III. We are bound, as Christians, to ask what all this national, this imperial, movement is leading to.Noble and God-given in itself, it yet stands in need of discipline and guidance, or it will go wrong. When Lord Beaconsfields policy was stigmatised as selfish, he replied that it was as selfish as patriotism. Whether Lord Beaconsfield considered the answer a final one or not, I do not know; but clearly there is a patriotisma pseudo-patriotismwhich is culpably selfish, just as there is a family affection, a devotion to the interests of a family, which is culpably selfish. God save us from being drawn into it. The Chaldans, whose triumph Habakkuk foresaw, were raised up by God for the chastisement of Israel, and doubtless of other nations. But their triumphs led them to an impious deification of their own might. He shall pass over and offend, we read, imputing this his power unto his godhis false god; but the true and better rendering is, This his power becoming his god. Naturally prone as the Chaldans were to a proud self-reliance, which warped all their views of life, so that Habakkuk says of them, He is a proud man; behold, his soul is lifted up, it is not upright in him, they fell into an idolatry of their successful methods. The perfection of their organisation, the splendour of their equipments, turned their vain heads. They sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag, says the prophet; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. Is there no fear, my brethren, lest England should err as the Chaldans did? It is not only the voices of us poor unheeded clergymen that warn. Men discount all our utterances, because they think that we are committed beforehand to certain ways of looking at matters. But the freest and most modern and most masculine of English writers tell you the same. I do not hold with all that Mr. Kipling has written. I fear that much of what he has said goes to confirm people in thinking that some forms of immorality are inevitable and even right. But it is Mr. Kipling who has taken up the position of the Hebrew prophet, and bidden you not to put your trust in what he is pleased to call reeking tube and bursting shard, and calls for Gods mercy upon us, lest we forget.

IV. If God has thus revived His work for England, the time has come for us, by His grace, to revive ours.What if not only the self-idolatry of the Chaldans is found in us, but the other vices which Habakkuk saw in themthe lust of dominion, the commercial greed, the callous indifference towards the miseries of the poor by whom their prosperity was built up, the coarse and degrading drunkenness, the unreasoning materialism?

Canon Mason.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

There it is in a nutshellour trouble and our prayer. Look round at the Church and its character and position in modern England, that Church, set on a hill which cannot be hid; seen and criticised by the world of our generation. There is not a thoughtful earnest Churchman among us who can fail to hear the roar of the Chaldan flood at the gates of our Jerusalem. What is our position? We are pressed and ringed in with dangers. To name only three: (1) We are attacked by unbelieforganised and aggressive in its assaults upon the faith which is the foundation upon which we stand. (2) Our position is either ruthlessly assailed or contemptuously ignored by the vast godless masses of the people, utterly indifferent to religion, who are clamouring for an upheaval which shall shake society to its very bottom. (3) The organised jealousy of the religious societies which have gone out from us and are labouring year by year with growing bitterness to despoil us of our great national inheritance, and to reduce us to the level of an insignificant sect in the eyes of the world. These are but some of the perils which hem us in.

A MESSAGE FOR THE CHURCH OF TO-DAY

I. This prayer which the prophet lifts to God out of the depths of his perplexities seems to me alive with a living message for the Church of to-day.Gods Church in danger as it seemed of fatal hurt at the hands of the blind forces of evil, and spiritually in need of revival, and Gods servant crying out for the bared arm and the ancient deliverances of the living God. Revive Thy work, O Lord, in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known. O, that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence. Bring to birth again the work which carried all before it. Make faith in Thee a reality and not a name. Let it be once more as it has been. In the midst of these turmoiled years, when hearts are failing, and love waxes cold, and catastrophes threaten, and the noise of evil and unbelief grows louder and even louder in our earsbreak up the impenetrable frost of indifference. Send down the fire from Heaven, and make Thyself felt and known in the midst of us to-day.

There it is in a nutshellour trouble and our prayer. Look round at the Church and its character and position in modern England, that Church, set on a hill which cannot be hid; seen and criticised by the world of our generation. There is not a thoughtful earnest Churchman among us who can fail to hear the roar of the Chaldan flood at the gates of our Jerusalem. What is our position? We are pressed and ringed in with dangers. To name only three: (1) We are attacked by unbelieforganised and aggressive in its assaults upon the faith which is the foundation upon which we stand. (2) Our position is either ruthlessly assailed or contemptuously ignored by the vast godless masses of the people, utterly indifferent to religion, who are clamouring for an upheaval which shall shake society to its very bottom. (3) The organised jealousy of the religious societies which have gone out from us and are labouring year by year with growing bitterness to despoil us of our great national inheritance, and to reduce us to the level of an insignificant sect in the eyes of the world. These are but some of the perils which hem us in.

And what of the Church herself? Is she ready to stand the battle? Is she utterly true to herself and her great mission in the world? Which of us can dare to say so? Is she sure of herself as she ought to be, and of the faith which has been delivered to her trust? Is he only a querulous cynic who feels a faltering in her testimony to the absolute truth of her message to mankind? Is it merely pessimism which sees the cancer of worldliness eating the heart out of her vital energies?

In the midst of our turmoiled years we cry: O! for another Pentecost with its rushing mighty wind, and its fiery tongues, and its thousands swept into the Church!

So we pray; so we plead on bended knee; so we turn our faces heavenward and ask God to give us back the life we need, and have been forfeiting by our coldness and unbelief.

I do not think there can be room for doubt that to-day the Church stands face to face with a great crisis in her life in England. And never has she needed more what Bishop Creighton used to call the tonic of history to arouse her to a sense both of her need and of her opportunity.

II. Every Churchman has in his most clearly seeing moments a vision of the Church as she might be, as she may be, aye, and as she ought to be.The Church in which the brotherhood of men, of all classes and of all kinds and calling, is fully realised in the common life of a universal society bound together by common love, by common faith, and by common devotion to the one Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we not know more of that life, and translate the ideal into fact? Ah! there is something wrong. There is something in our life which wants putting right. What is the matter with us? What and where is the cure?

(1) We need, first, a revival of faith throughout the whole Church. Our age, grimly says an American writer, stands in doubt. Its coat-of-arms is an interrogation point rampant above three bishops dormant, and its motto is query. Only a faith which has the strong hold upon revealed realities which comes from listening to the voice of its Master speaking down the ages in those sublime words: Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe in Me, can combat blank atheism.

(2) We need not less than this revival of faith far and wide amongst us, a revival of the sense of sin. Not long ago the voice of the Bishop of Birmingham, to which all schools in the Church are attentive to listen, solemnly told us this: We feel the need of a revival of religion which marked the rise of the Methodist Society. But I am persuaded of this, that the prelude and accompaniment of any such revival of religion must be a reawakening of the consciousness of sin and of the eternal doom upon it. Have we been losing our sense of the guilt of sin through the influence of scientific theories of heredity which practically make man an automaton, and almost rob him of personal responsibility altogether? The sense of sin was a keynote alike of the Evangelical revival of the eighteenth and the Oxford Movement of the nineteenth centuries. A well-known modern scientist has lately been telling us, with considerable unction, that the best men of to-day are thinking less and less about their sins!as if they were, after all, a thing unimportant and not to be made a burden. Brethren, Christianity as a Gospel depends for its very existence on the fact of sin.

(3) Lastly, we need a new devotion to the Person of Christ. Is there not one thing which all saints share in commondeeper than their differences, stronger than all things which serve them? It is the glorious unity of personal devotion to Jesus Christ. Blessed is he, says holy Thomas Kempis, who knows what it is to love Jesus. That is what more and more we all need to know here and now in the English Church. That is the way to the solution of our bitter controversies. This will give the deathblow to our miserable party-spirit.

So let us pray with hearts aglow with hope and chastened by penitence: O Lord, even so revive Thy work in the midst of the years. Give us that renewed faith, that deepened sense of sin, that quickened devotion to the crucified and living Christ.

Rev. F. B. Macnutt.

Illustrations

(1) This psalm was evidently composed for public use, as the musical terms scattered through its course indicate. Perhaps it was intended to be sung by the captives, during the captivity, which was so near. In the earlier verses the prophet tells God how afraid he has become, since he has received the news of the advent of the Chaldan hosts; and pleads that in the midst of wrath He would remember mercy.

(2)O, that Thy steps among the stars would quicken!

O, that Thine ears would hear when we are dumb!

Many the hearts from which the hope shall sicken,

Many shall faint before Thy Kingdom come.

Is there not wrong too bitter for atoning?

What are these desperate and hideous years?

Hast Thou not heard Thy whole creations groaning,

Sighs of the bondman and a womans tears?

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Hab 3:2. Habakkuk acknowledges the threatening predictions of the Lord and declares that he is dreading them. Revive thy work is rendered “preserve alive” in the margin which expresses the thought in the original. It means that while the Lord must execute vengeance upon the wicked yet He is implored to temper justice with mercy.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Hab 3:2. O Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid I have heard what thou hast revealed to me concerning thy judgments to be executed, first upon thy own people, and afterward upon their enemies the Chaldeans, and the terribleness of them hath filled me with a reverential awe and dread. O Lord, revive, or preserve alive, thy work in the midst of the years Habakkuk having understood, by divine revelation, that some time would intervene between the desolation of Judea and the punishment of the Chaldeans, here entreats God, that, during that interval, he would preserve or take care of his work; that is, his Israel, that work of his hands which he had formed for himself, that they might show forth his praise: (see Isa 43:21; Isa 45:11 🙂 together with the work of his grace in and among them; that he would keep that spark alive amidst the waters of tribulation and temptation through which they had to pass. Although all men are the work of God, yet the Jews might be called so more emphatically, because he had, by many extraordinary interpositions, raised them to be a peculiar people to himself, and had formed them such by laws given to them in a singular manner, not used with regard to any other people. In the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy Or, as Grotius interprets the clause, In that intervening time show, that although thou art angry, thou rememberest mercy. In the midst of these years of calamity let thy people experience, that even in thy indignation thou thinkest upon mercy, and dost not lay more upon them than thou enablest them to bear. The years here referred to seem plainly to be those in which the Jews were under the power of the Chaldeans, and Judea lay desolate. Mr. Green translates the verse, O Jehovah, I have heard thy report: (that is, what thou hast revealed concerning the captivity:) I am in pain, O Jehovah, for thy work: (that is, the Jewish people:) in the midst of the years revive it: (restore the Jews to their own land before the years appointed for their captivity are expired:) in the midst of the years show compassion; in wrath remember mercy.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

3:2 {b} O LORD, I have heard thy speech, [and] was afraid: O LORD, revive thy {c} work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

(b) Thus the people were afraid when they heard God’s threatenings, and prayed.

(c) That is, the state of your Church which is now ready to perish, before it comes to half a perfect age, which would be under Christ.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

B. The prayer for revival 3:2

The prophet acknowledged that he had received the Lord’s revelation (cf. Hab 2:1). It was essentially a revelation of Yahweh, His justice, sovereignty, and power, and it had filled him with awe. Reception of divine revelation resulted in the fear of the Lord, as it always should.

Habakkuk called on God to stir up the work that He said He would do in judging Babylon. He asked God to make it known to His people "in the midst of the years," namely, the years between Judah’s judgment and Babylon’s (cf. Hab 2:6-20). God undoubtedly did this in part through the Book of Habakkuk. While God was preparing Babylon for His wrath, Habakkuk asked Him to remember Israel by extending mercy to her. This verse contains the only petitions in Habakkuk’s prayer: that God would preserve life, provide understanding, and remember mercy. Some readers have seen it as an encapsulation of the book’s message.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)