Habakkuk
ò
òòòòòòòòòòòò
Introduction[i]
How
diverse and perfect is the development of the ways of God in His word! Not only
does it contain the great events that establish the fact of His government, and
the character of that government-not only the proofs of His fidelity to His
people, and His estimate of the evil that led to judgment, but also His answer
to every feeling caused by the series of events by which He chastised them, the
relief which He affords to the anguish that must be felt by one who is
faithful, on account of the affliction of God's beloved people, together with
the profitable exercise of his faith. The perfect ways of God are unfolded on
the one side, and on the other the heart is formed to the intelligence of those
ways, and to the enjoyment of the full effect of the faithfulness of the God of
love; while, during the expectation of this effect, confidence in God Himself
is established, and the links of the heart with God are abundantly strengthened.
It
is of the latter part, the development of faith and of spiritual affections
amid the trial, that Habakkuk treats in his prophecy. It speaks of the exercise
of the heart of one who, full of the Spirit, is attached to the people of God.
Still, it is Israel that is brought before us.