“They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps already landed.” The
line is from C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe, and it concerns the main character from the entire
Chronicles of Narnia series: Aslan,
the great and powerful lion! This line, spoken by Mr. Beaver, is the first time
his name is mentioned, and it is said that he is on the move. Lewis writes, “And now a very curious thing happened.
None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment
the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has
sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you
don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning -
either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a
lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful
that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into
that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the
children felt something jump in its inside.” When the children later ask Mr.
Beaver who Aslan is, they are told, “Why, don’t you know? He’s the King. He’s
the Lord of the whole wood.” And then the children are told an old rhyme about
Aslan, the Lion-King: “Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight / At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be
no more / When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death / And when he shakes
his mane, we shall have spring again.” Mr. Beaver says, “You'll understand when
you see him.” Upon discovering that this Aslan is a lion and not a man, the
children inquire as to whether or not it will be safe to encounter him. They are told, “if there's anyone who can
appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than
most or else just silly. … Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe.
But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”[1]
In the Narnia stories, Aslan of course represents Christ –
at least in a very elementary way. Lewis would not want us pressing the point
too deeply, but it is there. But I want to go back to two things that he wrote
in the section I just shared from: first, the statement that Aslan is on the
move; second, the effect that this statement had on those who heard it. “Each
of the children felt something jump in its inside.” There was that numinous
sense that these words bore “enormous meaning,” and uncertainty as to whether
it was terrifying or lovely.
I suggest that this is how we are supposed to be struck by
the words in verse 12 of our text: “You marched through the earth.” The eternal
God of the universe, the Holy and everlasting One, the One who is described in
verses 3 and 4 as covering the heavens with His splendor and filling the earth
with His praise, whose radiance is like the sunlight with rays flashing from
His hand – this One is depicted here as being on the march. He is marching
through the earth. In the previous section, Habakkuk saw Him coming, and in
verse 6, he said that the Lord stood and surveyed the earth, measuring it up,
as it were, for judgment. Now in verse 8 He begins to march forward.
The setting is in the future – a day and time of which Jesus
Himself said that no one can know. The English verb tenses are set in the past,
but that’s not how the Hebrew is written. Hebrew verbs do not have a past,
present, and future tense per se. Those features have to be determined by
context. But these Hebrew verbs are, for the most part, in what is called the perfect tense. When the prophets use
this tense, it is often like this, where future actions are depicted as being
so certain that they can be spoken of in the past or present. And that is how
Habakkuk is depicting the Lord’s march through the earth at the end of all
things.
Habakkuk is speaking to a nation under siege. The Babylonian
army has been raised up by God Himself to be agents of discipline and judgment
against Judah
for her sins. Habakkuk and other righteous people in the land were doubly
burdened about the situation. But God has spoken to them to reveal that He is
going to deal with Judah ,
and then He will deal with Babylon
so that all wrongs will be set right. Though Babylon is marching, God Himself is on the
march and no one can thwart His effort to accomplish His purposes. This is
relevant to us today as well. We are on the brink of the most divisive
presidential election our nation has ever had – one in which each candidate’s
strongest qualification is that he or she is not the other. Injustice and immorality are as rampant in our day
as in Habakkuk’s, as is the threat of organized terrorism. With so much
uncertainty, God speaks a word that is most certain – He is on the march, and
no one can stop Him.
So, as we look into this text, let us do so with an eye on
how it is that God is on the march.
I. The Lord is on the march with unsettling character.
There is, in this entire passage that we have read today, an
impressive list of words piled up for emphasis that describe the character with
which the Lord is coming when He sets out to march. These are not words that we
like to associate with God in our day and time. They are words like rage,
anger, wrath, and indignation. You wouldn’t want to hear someone describing you
with those words, would you? I suppose not. So how are we supposed to feel when
we hear God described with these words?
Many people object wholeheartedly to this depiction of God
and call it an outdated notion. They say that the God of the Old Testament is a
God of wrath, but the God of the New Testament is a God of love. If this is how
someone feels about God, it only proves that they haven’t read the Old or New
Testaments very well. For one thing, there is no differentiation between the
God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. There is one God, and He does not change. And
there is as much about His love in the Old Testament as there is in the New,
and as much about His wrath in the New Testament as there is in the Old. It is
the love that the God of the Old Testament has for humanity that compels Him to
become one of us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ; and it is the wrath of the
God of the New Testament that Jesus will execute when He judges the living and
the dead. Moreover, it is the wrath of God that Jesus Himself absorbs for us in
His death on the cross that is the ultimate manifestation of the love of God.
Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His love for us in this: that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Habakkuk is given a prophetic glimpse through the corridors
of time and sees God on the march. But He is not marching like a conducter of a
marching band with a smile on His face and a bounce in His step while the band
plays “76 Trombones.” No, He is marching like a warrior. He marches with rage,
with anger, wrath, and indignation. You may say, “I do not like to think of God
that way.” You do not have to like it; and not liking it will not change it one
bit. But the day will come when every eye will see this very thing: the Lord is
on the march with unsettling character.
II. The Lord is on the march with indirect consequences.
Everything that exists in the universe exists because God
created it. Plants and animals, rocks and rivers, continents and clouds, angels
and men all exist because God made them. And of all that God made, only angels
and men ever dared to disobey and rebel against Him. But the consequences of
man’s sin were far-reaching and brought corruption on the entirety of creation.
In Genesis 3:17, after Adam and Eve had fallen into sin, God said to Adam,
“Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days
of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.” The ground did
not sin against God, but Adam’s sin affected the ground, and the ground was
cursed as part of Adam’s penalty.
We see it again in the flood in the days of Noah. In
addition to the human loss of life, we must remember that there were
innumerable animals who died in that flood, and great destruction came upon all
creation. Why? It was because of man’s sin. Genesis 6:12 says, “God looked on
the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way
upon the earth.” On and on we could go, to the Exodus when the Nile was turned to blood as God brought judgment upon the
Egyptians.
Habakkuk has seen what is to come in the future. It has
reminded him of the past. He is thinking back on how God’s judgments in time
past affected the entire created order, and he knows that those events were
only a foreshadowing of a greater judgment that is to come. He speaks of rivers
and seas being affected by the Lord’s wrath. The earth is split with rivers,
mountains quake, and a downpour of water comes, along with the deep lifting its
hands – depicting something like a tsumani of sorts. The sun and the moon will
stand in their place and not move, as they did in the days of Joshua, until
they disappear permanently, being overshadowed by the glory of the Lord.
The book of Revelation speaks of all these things happening
at the end of all things. Revelation 16 tells of seven angels who go forth with
bowls filled with the wrath of God. One poured his bowl into the sea and the
sea became like blood. Another poured his bowl into the rivers and springs, and
they became blood as well. Another poured out his bowl upon the sun, and the
heat became so intense that people were scorched with fierce heat. Another
poured his bowl on the Euphrates
River
It will be a time of great natural devastation when the Lord
goes on the march. At the present time, all nature is suffering, languishing
under the curse that Adam’s sin brought upon it. Paul says in Romans 8 , “For
the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its
slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For
we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth
together until now.” Creation is longing for the curse to be lifted. Nature
itself is groaning in anticipation of all the wrongs committed upon the earth
to be made right. A day is coming when this corrupted creation will pass away
in exchange for a new heaven and a new earth that is neither corrupted nor
corruptible. Peter puts it this way:
But the day of the
Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar
and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its
works will be burned up. Since all these things are to
be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct
and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because
of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt
with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens
and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:10-13 (NASB)
When the Lord goes on the march, all creation will
experience the consequences of His judgment, because all creation bears the
consequences of our sin. So it is an indirect consequence. Rivers and
mountains, sun, moon, ocean – none of these have done anything to incur the
wrath of God. But they are affected when that wrath is poured out indirectly. Thus
Habakkuk asks the rhetorical question in verse 8, “Did the Lord rage against
the rivers, or was Your anger against the rivers, or was Your wrath against the
sea…?” Certainly not. So, what precipitated this rage, this anger, indignation
and wrath, that has set the Lord to marching?
III The Lord is on the march in victorious conquest.
The nations have raged against one another and against the
Lord. The Psalmist explains in Psalm 2, “Why are the
nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take
counsel together Against the LORD
and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast
away their cords from us!” Even Judah Babylon
Whether it is a quest for power and domination,
an abandonment of moral foundations, oppression of God’s truth and God’s
people, or the exploitation of the vulnerable for the sake of greed and pride,
no human society has ever been innocent and unworthy of judgment – including
the present American society. Moreover, every individual – regardless of his or
her nationality, ethnicity, or genealogy – is subject to this same judgment.
There is a day of reckoning in which God will be the only One with whom we have
to do, and He will call us to account for our lives.
Habakkuk does not envision this scene taking place in a
stale and sterile courtroom, with God as an old man in a black robe and
powdered white wig behind a desk. He sees this scene taking place on a
battlefield. He sees the Lord coming on the march dressed as a warrior for
battle. He rides on a horse and chariot (v8). He has made His bow bare (v9).
That is to say, He has taken it out of its sheath and now holds it ready to
fire. He has arrows (v11) which emit light, and a spear that gleams (v11). And
He carries a rod of chastisement, which verse 9 says was “sworn.” The language
hearkens back to Deuteronomy 32, in which the Lord says,
See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give
life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver
from My hand. Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven,
and say, as I live forever, if I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand takes
hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, and I will repay
those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword will
devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the
long-haired leaders of the enemy. Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants,
and will render vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His land and His people (Deut 32:39-43).
God had made an oath. He swore by uplifted hand that He
would render vengeance on His adversaries and vindicate His people. So the
judgment that is coming must come, otherwise
God is a liar. And that is something that God cannot be. Because He is holy and
just, He must exercise holy justice, and that means that He will come on the
march to conquer all those who persist in their rebellion against Him. By
choice or by force, the promise is certain in Philippians 2:10-11 that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. As Robertson writes, “The
nations have attempted to overthrow the yoke of the Lord’s reign. But all their
efforts are in vain. For when the Lord acts, it immediately becomes apparent
that the earth can hardly bear His presence, trembling under the weight of his
footsteps.”[2] He is on
the march, and He will conquer. That is certain.
Now finally, we will see here in our text that …
IV. The Lord is on the march for a special cause.
It was not that He was angry with the rivers and the seas
that He came. It was not the He was bored and just needed something to do. He
is not a capricious deity like the gods of the pagans who just operates on
whims and flights of fancy at will. No, God acts with calculated precision for
the fulfillment of His sovereign purposes. And the purpose for which He has set
out on this march through the earth is the salvation of His people.
Verse 13 says: “You went forth for
the salvation of Your people, for the salvation of Your anointed.” Throughout
the Scriptures, God anoints things for Himself. He called for the anointing of
altars, and priests, and kings. Israel Israel
Ah, but there is a different way of
understanding that little Hebrew particle eth.
Very simply, the word could be translated as “with.” Looking at the larger
grammatical structure of the context, it seems that this translation is not
merely justified, it is almost demanded.[3] This changes our understanding of the verse dramatically. For
now, we have God coming for the salvation
of His people, and He is coming with
His Anointed One, the Messiah Jesus.
Verse 8 may even give us a glimpse of this coming salvation
that will be accomplished by Jesus. God is depicted as riding “chariots of
salvation.” The Hebrew word translated “salvation” there is Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus. You
remember that when the birth of Jesus was announced to Joseph in Matthew 1 , the angel said to him,
“you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
That is what the name means. It means that there is salvation with the Lord.
You will remember that in John
3:17-18 , Jesus said, “For God did not send
the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has
been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God.” You see, the judgment is going to happen. All have
sinned, and all will stand to give account before God, and all will be found
guilty. Unless there is salvation offered. And that is what Jesus came to do.
Habakkuk envisions Him coming on a chariot of salvation. And He comes, at the
bidding of His Father, to bring salvation for His people.
Verse 13 goes on to explain how this salvation will be accomplished.
“You struck the head of the house of evil to lay him open from thigh to neck.”
It is a gory image, for sure, but one which depicts the fulfillment of the most
ancient messianic prophecy we have. In Genesis 3:15 , immediately following the sin of Adam and
Eve, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between
you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on
the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” This
is known as the proto-evangelium, the
first gospel, because it foretells of One who is coming, who will be born to a
woman, who, by His own suffering (the bruising of the heel), will destroy the
works of Satan forever (the bruising of the head). Habakkuk sees it. He sees
the Messiah coming to save His people by crushing the head of the house of evil
– Satan Himself. He is laid open from thigh to neck, utterly defeated and
destroyed.
And Habakkuk says in verse 14, “You
pierced with is own spears the head of his throngs.” In other words, “You used
his own weapons against him.” We have seen it happen over and over again
through history. Haman built a gallows on which to hang the righteous Mordecai,
only to hang from it himself (Est
7:10 ). Babylon Calvary . There Satan brought together the forces of
Jewish and Gentile evil to conspire against the Son of God, the Anointed One.
God had come to live among us in the flesh, and sinful mankind murdered Him. He
was nailed to the most heinous torture device ever conceived – the Roman Cross,
and He bled and died, having a spear thrust through His side to demonstrate
that there was no life left in Him. And it appeared as though Satan had won a
great victory that day as the lifeless Messiah was taken down from the cross
and buried in a tomb. But God had come with His Anointed One for the salvation
of His people, and He would pierce the head of the house of evil with his own
spears! The blood that was shed on that cross paid the ransom for all those who
had been held captive in sin by Satan, and by the resurrection from the dead,
Jesus rendered Him powerless and defeated.
Habakkuk was given a faint glimpse of
how all of this would play out. Though he could hear the footsteps of the
Babylonians at the gates, marching in to overtake his homeland, he had a
promise from heaven assuring him that God Himself was on the march. He was
coming as a warrior intent on conquest. He would bring judgment on the
unrighteous, and provide salvation for His people. In the short run, and in a
limited sense, Habakkuk understood this to mean that the period of Babylonian
conquest would be limited, and that his people would one day return to their
homeland. But in an ultimate and unlimited sense, he also knew that these
events that would play out over the next century were merely a foreshadowing of
greater things to come. God will come with His anointed One, the Messiah Jesus,
to bring salvation for His people by defeating Satan at the cross and the
resurrection. The judgment that is to come is well deserved by all men because
of our sin. But God has come to us in a chariot of salvation to rescue us if we
will but turn to Him in saving faith and trust. He is Jesus, and He has crushed
the head of the enemy forever. Wrong will be right when He comes in sight. At the
sound of His roar, sorrow will be no more. God is on the march.
[1] C. S.
Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 67-68.
[2] O.
Palmer Robertson, The Books of Nahum,
Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (New International Commentary on the Old
Testament; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 236.
[3] For
example, Robertson (237) says, “Although the term could be taken as the sign of
the direct object, this interruption does not explain why it is introduced in
the second line and does not appear in the first.”
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