John Calvin Commentary Habakkuk 1:12

"Art not thou from everlasting, O Jehovah my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast established him for correction." — Habakkuk 1:12 (ASV)

The Prophet, now exulting according to what all the faithful feel, shows the effect of what he has just mentioned. For as ungodly men wantonly rise up against God and, while Satan renders them insane, throw out swelling words of vanity as though they could by speaking confound earth and heaven, so also the faithful derive a holy confidence from God’s word.

Empowered by this confidence, they set themselves against them and overcome their ferocity by the magnanimity and firmness of their own minds, so that they can intrepidly boast that they are happy and blessed even in the greatest miseries.

This then is what the prophet means when he adds—Are you not our God? The question is much more emphatic than if he had simply declared that the true God was worshiped in Judea and would therefore be the protector of that nation. For when the Prophet puts a question, he means, according to what is commonly understood in Hebrew, that the thing admits of no doubt.

“What! Are you not our God?” Thus we see that there is a contrast between the wicked and impious boastings in which the profane indulge, and the holy confidence which the faithful have, who exult in their God.

But that the discourse is addressed to God rather than to the ungodly is not done without reason, for it would have been useless to contend with the wicked. This is indeed sometimes necessary, for when the reprobate openly reproach God, we cannot restrain ourselves; nor is it right that we refrain from testifying that we regard all their slanders as of no account. However, we cannot so courageously oppose their audacity as when we have the matter first settled between us and God, and are able to say with the Prophets, “You are our God.”

Whoever then would boldly contend with the ungodly must first have to do with God, and confirm and ratify, as it were, that covenant which God has proposed to us: that we are His people, and that He, in turn, will always be our God. Since God thus covenants with us, our faith must be truly made firm, and then let us go forth and contend against all the ungodly. This is the order which the Prophet observes here, and what is to be observed by us—Are you not our God?

He also adds—long since, מקדם, mekodam, by which word the Prophet invites the attention of the faithful to the covenant which God had made with His people, not yesterday nor the day before, but many ages before—even 400 years before He redeemed their fathers from Egypt. Since then the favor of God to the Jews had been confirmed for so long a time, it is not without reason that the Prophet says here, “You are our God from the beginning.” That is, “The religion which we embrace has been delivered to us by Your hands, and we know that You are its author; for our faith rests not on the opinion of men, but is sustained by Your word. Since, then, we have found so often, in so many ways, and for so many years, that You are our God, there is now no room for doubt.”

He then adds—we shall not die. What the Jews say of this place, that it had been corrected by the scribes, does not seem probable to me, for the reason they give is very frivolous. They suppose that it was written lo tamut, “You do not die,” and that the letter nun had been introduced, making it “we shall not die,” because the expression offended those scribes, as though the Prophet compared God to men and ascribed to Him a precarious immortality; but they would have been very foolish critics.

I therefore think that the word was written by the Prophet as we now read it: “You are our God, we shall not die.” Some explain this as a prayer—“Let us not die;” and the future tense is often taken in this sense in Hebrew. However, this explanation is not suitable to the present passage, for the Prophet, as I have already said, rises up here as a conqueror and disperses like mists all those foolish boastings of which he had been speaking, as though he said, “We shall not die, for we are under the protection of God.”

I have already explained why he turns his discourse to God. This is, however, the conclusion of the argument: that as God had adopted that people, received them into favor, and testified that He would be their defender, the Prophet confidently draws this inference—that this people cannot perish, for they are preserved by God.

No power of the world, nor any of its defenses, can indeed afford us this security; for whatever forces all mortals may bring either to protect or help us, they will all perish together with us. Therefore, the protection of God alone is what can deliver us from the danger of death.

We now perceive why the Prophet joins together these two things, “You are our God,” and “We shall not die.” Nor can indeed the one be separated from the other; for when we are under the protection of God, we must necessarily continue safe, and safe forever; not that we will be free from evils, but that the Lord will deliver us from a thousand deaths and always preserve our life in safety.

When He affords us only a taste of eternal salvation, some spark of life will always continue in our hearts, until He shows us—when, at length, we are redeemed, as I have already said, from a thousand deaths—the perfection of that blessed life, which is now promised to us, but is still looked for, and therefore hidden under the custody of hope.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since You set around us so many terrors, we may know that we ought to be roused and to resist the sloth and tardiness of our flesh, so that You may fortify us by a different confidence. May we so rely on Your aid that we may boldly triumph over our enemies and never doubt that You will at length give us the victory over all the assaults of Satan and of the wicked. And may we also so look to You that our faith may wholly rest on that eternal and immutable covenant, which has been confirmed for us by the blood of Your only Son, until we are at length united to Him who is our head, after having passed through all the miseries of the present life and having been gathered into that eternal inheritance, which Your Son has purchased for us by His own blood. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We began yesterday to explain the words of the Prophet, by which he encouraged himself and the faithful, and obtained support under circumstances bordering on despair; for he turned to God when he saw the wicked not only elated with prosperity but also pouring forth blasphemies against the living God. The Prophet then says that those who are under God’s protection will not perish; of this he felt assured within himself. The declaration, as I have said, is much more striking, as the Prophet turns all his thoughts towards God than if he had publicly and loudly declared what he testified, as it were, in a private conference.

But it was not without reason that he said, “You, my God, my Holy One;” as though he had said, “I trust in You, inasmuch as I am one of Your chosen people.” He does not indeed speak here in his own private name but includes with himself the whole Church, for this privilege belonged to all the children of Abraham. They had been set apart by the gratuitous adoption of God and were a royal priesthood.

This is the reason why the Prophet says, You, my God, my Holy One. For the Jews were accustomed thus to call God, because they had been chosen from the rest of the world. And their holiness was that God had deigned to take them as His people, having rejected others, while yet there was by nature no difference between them.

There is, moreover, much weight in the words which follow, “Jehovah! For judgment You have set him.” This temptation always occurs to us whenever we strive to put our trust in God: “What does this mean? For God now forsakes us and exposes us to the caprice of the wicked; they are allowed to do what they please, and God does not interfere. How, then, can we cherish hope under these perplexities?”

The Prophet now sets up a shield against this temptation: “You,” he says, “have appointed him for judgment.” For he ascribes it to God’s providence that the Assyrians had with so much wantonness wasted the land, or would waste it when they came (for he speaks of things still future): “You,” he says, “have appointed him for judgment.”

This is a much-needed truth, for Satan darkens God’s favor with clouds, as it were, when any adversity happens to us, and when God Himself thus proves our faith. But adversities are, as it were, clouds, excluding us from seeing God’s fervor, just as the light of the sun does not appear to us when the sky is darkened.

If, indeed, the mass of evils is so great and so thick that our minds are overwhelmed, they are not clouds, but the thick darkness of night. In that case, our faith cannot stand firm unless the providence of God comes into our view, so that we may know, in the midst of such confusion, why He permits so much liberty to the wicked, and also how their attempts may turn out and what the outcome may be.

Unless then we are fully persuaded that God by His secret providence regulates all these confusions, Satan will a hundred times a day, yes, every moment, shake that confidence which ought to repose in God. We now see how opportunely the Prophet adds this clause. He had said, “Are you not our God? We shall not die.” He now adds this by way of anticipation: “The Assyrians indeed lay waste Your land with unbridled wantonness, they plunder Your people, and with impunity slay the innocent; but, O Lord, this is not done except by Your permission. You overrule all these confused proceedings, nor is all this done by You without a cause. You, Jehovah, have appointed him for judgment.” Judgment is to be taken as chastisement.

But the Prophet repeats the same thing: “And, being strong, You have established him for correction.” Some render צור, tsur, strong, in the accusative case and give a twofold explanation. One party applies the term to the Jews, who were to be subdued by hard means since they were so refractory; and hence they think that the Jews are called strong because they were like stones.

Others give this meaning: “You have made him strong to correct;” that is, “You have given him strength, by which he will chastise us.” But as this is one of God’s titles, I do not doubt that the two clauses correspond. He now, then, gives this name to God. Having given Him His name as an eternal God, “You, Jehovah,” etc., he now calls Him strong.

He puts צור, tsur, to correspond with Jehovah, and then to correct to correspond with judgment. Thus we see how well the whole context agrees and how the words answer one to the other. Then it is, “You, strong one, have established him to correct.”

But why does the Prophet call Him strong? Although this title, as I have said, is commonly ascribed to God, the Prophet, I have no doubt, was mindful of the circumstances at the time. It is indeed difficult to retain this truth—that the world is ruled by the secret counsel of God when things are turned upside down.

For the profane then clamor against God and charge Him with listlessness; and others cry out that all things are thus changed fortuitously and at random, and therefore they call fortune blind.

It is then difficult, as I have said, to retain a firm hold on this truth. The Prophet, therefore, in order to support his own weakness, sets before himself this title of God: “You, the strong God,” or the “rock,” etc., for צור, tsur, properly means a rock, but it is to be taken here for God of strength. Why? “Behold, we indeed see revolutions which not only make our faith totter but also dissipate, as it were, all our thoughts. But however much the world may revolve in confusion, yet God is a rock; His purpose does not fail, nor does it waver, but remains always firm.” So now we see why the Prophet calls God strong.

“You the strong one,” he says, “have established him.” He expresses more by the word established than in the first clause, for he prepared himself with firmness against continued evils, in case God (as might be easily conjectured) would not give immediate relief to His people but would add calamities to calamities.

Should God then join evils to evils, the Prophet prepares himself for perseverance: “You,” he says, “the strong one have established him.” That is, “Though the Assyrian should not only rush upon us like a whirlwind or a violent tempest but also continue to oppress us—as though he were a pestilence attached to the land, or some fixed mountain—yet You, Lord, have established him.” For what purpose?

To correct. But the Prophet could not have said this had he not known that God justly chastised His people. Not only for his own sake did he say this, but he also intended, by his own example, to lead the faithful to make the same holy and pious confession.

The two clauses of this sentence then are these: first, that though the Assyrian would rage with unbridled wantonness like a cruel wild beast, he would yet be restrained by the hidden power of God, to whom it peculiarly belongs to overrule by His secret providence the confusions of this world. This is one thing. Second, the Prophet also ascribes justice to God’s power, and thus confesses his own guilt and that of the people, for the Lord would justly use so severe a scourge because the people needed such a correction. Let us now go on—