The sun and moon stood still in their habitation:
at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
Sun and moon stood still before God
What’s the picture?
An illustrative celestial EXAMPLE to those created ones of GOD
bowed DOWN before the GLORY of our FATHER
Habakkuk – a Prophet burdened for a people humbled
1:2 עַד־אָנָה יְהוָה שִׁוַּעְתִּי וְלֹא תִשְׁמָע אֶזְעַק אֵלֶיךָ חָמָס וְלֹא תוֹשִׁיעַ׃
The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
IF you have not already felt the full weight of a Prophet painting a picture for men without eyes to see —
a sun and a moon which had stood still, — then you have sensed a low and quiet place where the Lord has prepared an unseeing Common Era people by a BLINDING LIGHT in the darkness of these last days…
O LORD, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
Sound familiar?
(Even from your own arrogant lips?)
Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.
Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
Habakkuk 1:2-3
The LAW of which the Prophet speaks
-- the Commandments of the LORD
-- NO LAW = No Justice!
Do we blindly suppose that the righteous are US?
AND therefore WE the named and claimed PEOPLE of God suffer by His Almighty Hand!
COULD THAT BE JUST?
WHY does this sound so familiar to a Common Era people who rarely read or hear the oracles of WARNING by the Prophets of God?
And what does Habakkuk ask early-on in his plea to the LORD?
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?
14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
Habakkuk 13b-14 NKJV
IS THIS any way to PLEA to the Lord our God of Whom WE are commanded to 'love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’ even confirmed by the Messiah and Lord Jesus?
More Writing on the wall
(for those casting a first stone at Habakkuk)
Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.Habakkuk 2:2-4 NKJV
Again, what is the picture?
The SOUL of the proud is fallen.
AND the soul of the Lord's faithful remains bowed down in the witness of our lives.
Therefore, for the hope of the faithful know that the LORD pronounces many woes (and NOT blessings) on the proud who seem to be in charge of our mortal lives. And to name just a few:
- hell שְׁאוֹל
- death מָוֶת
- transgressions (treachery) בָּגַד
- evil רַע
- and the violation of several specific Commandments.
THEN the LORD closes his response to the Prophet with an authoritatively THUNDERING VOICE to humble worshipers bowed down in faithfulness:
“But the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
What would happen IF Common Era worshipers would put down our devices and our coffees and entered into WORSHIP like this?
Let thos whw with eyes to see Christ's writing in the sand see God's zeal for faithful worshipers.
and now:
This prayer sung by the prophet Habakkuk:
O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.Habakkuk 3:2 NKJV
God came from Teman,
The Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
And the earth was full of His praise.
4 His brightness was like the light;
He had rays flashing from His hand,
And there His power was hidden...
He looked and startled the nations.
And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
The perpetual hills bowed.from the prayer of Habakkuk
GET THE IDEA?
all bowed down before the Lord – in HIS Presence everything else stood still or was swept away by the hidden power of HIS GLORY!
Your bow was made quite ready;
Oaths were sworn over Your arrows. Selah
The sun and the moon stood still
Now returning to the context of our opening picture and illustration:
You divided the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and trembled;
The overflowing of the water passed by.
The deep uttered its voice,
And lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation;
At the light of Your arrows they went,
At the shining of Your glittering spear.
12 You marched through the land in indignation;
You trampled the nations in anger.
13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
For salvation with Your Anointed.
You struck the head from the house of the wicked,
By laying bare from foundation to neck.
Selah
When I heard, my body trembled;
My lips quivered at the voice;
Rottenness entered my bones;
And I trembled in myself,
That I might rest in the day of trouble.
Habakkuk 3:16a NKJV
Is THIS your reaction -- contemporary christian worshiper?
A Hymn of Faith
NO hymns for OUR praise band!
NO Old Testament Prophets and their drama that could SILENCE the applause and bring the CROWD to its knees.
Who remembers Jesus cursing the fig tree as the Lord entered Jerusalem?
The unfamiliar picture and significant symbolism Jesus drew is the same as that of Habakkuk’s hymn of faith.
We examined this great symbolism in an earlier series.
Even if you choose not to read the prologue above you will find these references from Habakkuk below -with which we will conclude.
AND consider our 2025 CE Lenten theme of contrition replanted in the hearts of 21st century worshipers:
We stood there and did nothing
- Habakkuk and other Prophets of the Lord have warned us to WORSHIP the Lord our God.
- The Messiah JESUS — Son of the Living God — enters Jerusalem cursing a tree that bore no fruit (though thousands applaud Him).
- Crowds of worshipers enter a Common Era gathering little noticing a cursed fig tree as they bring their coffees and distracting devices toward the gate of the grand stage.
- LENT?
- WE don’t do that anymore…
O, faithless fig tree, dear dried up vine;
do you believe that you alone have cried out to the Lord for mercy?
Habakkuk 3:
O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.for it was not the season for figs – 7 – July 9, 2017 TalkofJESUS.com
Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
5 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
10 Then he said to them, 
12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness.