John Calvin Commentary Habakkuk 2:20

"But Jehovah is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." — Habakkuk 2:20 (ASV)

After teaching us that the Babylonians were deceived in expecting any help from their idols and were deluded by Satan, Habakkuk now directs the attention of the faithful to the only true God. For it would not have been enough to remove the false confidence the Babylonians had in their idols, unless the Israelites, on the other hand, trusting in the grace of the true God, were fully persuaded that God was on their side, as He had taken them under His protection.

And we should carefully observe this order. For we see that many boldly deride all the superstitions that prevail in the world and, at the same time, daringly and with cyclopic fury despise the true God. How many today are either Epicureans or Lucianians, who jest and scoff against the superstitions of the papacy, but in the meantime are not influenced by any fear of God?

If, however, we are to choose one of two evils, superstition is more tolerable than that gross impiety which obliterates every thought of a God. It is indeed true that the more the superstitious toil in their delusions, the more they provoke God’s wrath against them, for they transfer His glory to dead things. Yet they still retain this principle: that honor and worship are due to God. But the profane, in whom there is no religion whatever, not only change God from what He is but also strive as far as they can to reduce Him to nothing.

Therefore, I have said that the order the Prophet observes here should be maintained. For, after overturning the false illusions of the devil by which he deludes the superstitious—by setting before them a mere shadow in place of the true God—he now establishes the true worship of the only true God.

So, until now the Prophet has been endeavoring to subvert superstitions, but now he builds up. For unless God, when idols are pulled down, ascends His own tribunal and shines there as supreme according to His right, it would be better—or at least more tolerable, as I have said—for superstitions to be left intact.

He now says that God is in His own temple or palace. This word is often understood as heaven, but it is also applied to the sanctuary. Many consider that the reference is made to heaven, as though the Prophet had said that the true God, who is the maker and creator of heaven and earth, is not to be seen in a visible form, nor overlaid with gold and silver, nor represented by wood or stone, but that He rules in heaven and fills heaven with His infinite glory. This view is by no means unsuitable.

But as he here specifically addresses the Jews, it seems to me more probable that he speaks of the temple, where God then intended to be worshipped and sacrifices to be offered to Him. For it would not have been sufficient to contrast God, the creator of heaven and earth, with the superstitions of all the nations. It was also necessary to introduce the contrast between the God of Israel and all those gods who then had gained a name and reputation in the world, since they had been formed by the will of men.

The God of Israel was indeed the creator of heaven and earth. But He had made Himself known by His law; He had revealed Himself to men, so that His majesty was not hidden. For when we speak of God, we are lost unless He comes to us and, in a manner, reveals Himself to us, because the capacity of our understanding is not so great that it can penetrate above all heavens.

Therefore, the majesty of God is in itself incomprehensible to us, but He makes Himself known by His works and by His word. Now, since the Israelites worshipped and surely knew that they worshipped the only true God, the Prophet here rightly confirms them in the hope they derived from the teaching of the law—that God was their Father, inasmuch as He had adopted them.

If anyone prefers to understand the word as heaven, I do not object; and that meaning, as I have said, is not unsuitable. But as the Prophet seems to me to have a special focus on his own people, to whom he was appointed as a teacher, it is more probable that the word “temple” or “palace” is here to be understood as the sanctuary.

If anyone raises the objection that there is then no difference between the God of Israel and the gods of the Gentiles because He also dwells in an earthly habitation, the answer is obviously this: though God is said to dwell between the cherubim, He has not been represented by an image, as though He had anything similar to wood or stone, or possessed any likeness to human bodies.

All these delusions were banished from the Temple, for He commanded His worshipers to look up to heaven. There was an intervening veil, so that the people might understand that they could not come to God otherwise than through that celestial model and the types they saw in the altar of incense, in the altar on which they sacrificed, in the table of the shewbread—in short, in all other services of the Temple.

And there is another difference to be noticed. For though the golden altar was there, though the ark of the covenant was there, and the altar on which the victims were sacrificed, yet inscribed on all these typical representations was the word of God, by which alone true religion was to be distinguished from all false inventions.

For whatever specious appearance of reason there may be in fictitious modes of worship, men have no authority to make them lawful. But such reverence is due to the only true word of God that it ought to overrule all other reasons. And besides, this word, as I have already hinted, did not keep the Jews in these delusions but elevated their minds to heaven.

So now we see that there was a wide difference between the Temple that was at Jerusalem and the temples that the superstitious had then built for themselves throughout the world, for God ruled over the Jews, so that they could not have been deluded. And today, where the word of God shines among us, we can follow it with safety.

And further, God spiritually drew His own servants to Himself, though He employed certain outward elements on account of their ignorance. Therefore, the Prophet justly says that God was in His palace or His Temple. For the Israelites knew with certainty that they did not worship a fictitious God, since in His law He had revealed Himself to them and had chosen the sanctuary, where He intended to be worshipped in a typical, yet spiritual, manner.

He then adds, Let all the earth be silent before Him. Habakkuk, no doubt, commends the power of God, so that the Israelites might proceed with alacrity in their religious course, knowing that being under the protection of the only true God was sufficient security, and that they might not seek after the superstitions of the nations, nor be carried here and there by vain desires, as often happens. Keep silence, then, he says, let all the earth. He shows that though the Israelites might be far inferior to the Babylonians and other nations, and far unequal to them in strength, military art, and forces—in short, in all such things—yet they would always be safe under the guardianship of God, for the Lord was able to control whatever power there might be in the world.

We now see what the Prophet had in view. For he does not here simply exhort all people to worship God, but shows that though men may grow enraged against Him, He yet can easily subjugate them by His hand. For after all the tumults made by kings and their people, the Lord can, by one breath of His mouth, dissipate all their attempts, however furious they may be.

This, then, is the silence of which the Prophet now speaks. But there is another kind of silence, which is when we willingly submit to God. For silence, in this respect, is nothing other than submission. We submit to God when we do not bring our own inventions and imaginations, but allow ourselves to be taught by His word.

We also submit to Him when we do not murmur against His power or His judgments, when we humble ourselves under His powerful hand and do not fiercely resist Him, as those do who indulge their own lusts. This is indeed, as I have said, a voluntary submission.

But the Prophet here shows that there is power in God to lay the whole world prostrate and to tread it under His feet, whenever it may please Him. Therefore, the faithful have nothing to fear, for they know that their salvation is secured. For though the whole world were leagued against them, it still cannot resist God.

Now follows a prayer.