1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.

Shigionoth

— This comprises instruction for how the song should be sung. It is in the plural and signifies songs that are enthusiastic and soul-stirring. The singular form of the word is found at the heading of Psalm 7 [shiggaion].

It is derived from a root sha 'ag, to cry aloud either in trouble,

danger, pain, or in the joy of deliverance. Here it relates to the latter. The word is in the feminine gender, for it will be the bride of Christ who will raise their voices in enthusiastic Halleluyahs at the second advent and the glorious victories of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rev. 19:1-8).

The Christadelphian Expositor

3 Eloah came [comes] from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

Habakkuk sees Eloah yahvo = Eloah SHALL COME IN from Teman (the south). This is the march of the Rainbowed Angel (Rev.l0, Is.63, Pslm 68.17, Deut.33.2), Christ and the saints moving up from Sinai, filling the earth with Yahweh's glory and praise.

6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.

Eloah surveys the earth and beholds turmoil and trembling (wars of Armageddon).

He stands and measures the earth. On reaching Jerusalem Christ and his saints take stock of the vast work yet to be done in overthrowing Christ' s enemies and establishing his glorious kingdom. So this is a standing, a pausing in the divine progress; it will be measured with the rod of correction and punishment for all its abominations (Rev. 14.6, Pslm 19)

He beholds and drives asunder the nations - this takes 40 years (Rev. 14.17-20).

The everlasting mountains (empires) are scattered and the perpetual hills (smaller powers) bow before him; total subjugation of all Gentile power to Christ (Pslm.2.8,9, Pslm 72) 10. His ways are everlasting "the goings of the Olahm are his." The Millennium belongs to Christ and the saints, the new world rulers, who now receive the joyous reward for their sufferings.

7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

[Cush begat Nimrod!!!]

Habakkuk sees the tents of Cushan in affliction (Russia is the latter day Cush) (Gen. 10.8) creator of chaos. He is smashed by Eloah of Teman at Bozrah (ls. 34) Ezekiel's war Ezk. 38 12. He sees the curtains of the land of Midian trembling (Christ and the saints moving up along the King's highway.

àBy the help of Moses, we understand that he arrives at Paran "from Sinai," which Habakkuk styles, taiman, "the south". Habakkuk had a vision of what was to be transacted in the country of the south, which will be left in the rear by an advance from mount Paran, after bringing affliction there on the tents of Cushan, and causing the curtains of the land of Midian to tremble (iii. 7).

The reader is requested to note, that when Moses delivered his prophetic blessing upon the tribes of Israel, he was in the plains of Moab, and soon about to leave them. This was about a hundred miles north of mount Paran. When Israel heard the blessing, would they not desire to know, in view of Moses' speedy death, where help was to come from to establish the blessing?

In reply to this, the answer is found in the oracle:

"There is none like the AIL of Yeshurun riding heavens in thy help, and clouds in his potence: the Elohim of olden time a refuge; and underneath the arms of olahm: and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall command to destroy. Israel shall then dwell in safety alone ... a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."

Eureka 10.6.

12 Thou didst march [of the rainbowed angel] through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.

A glorious consummation is this!

When these aerial reverberations shall have died away, and calm shall be restored to the trembling heavens, and the quaking earth, "the labours of the saints" will be finished, and they will enter into the rest, or sabbatism, that remains for the people of the Deity. There will then be found nothing answering to the image of Nebuchadnezzar; nor to the Fourth Beast of Daniel. They will have become

"like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, carried away by the tempest; so that no place is found for them."

The judgments of the seventh vial are exhausted; "for the Lamb has conquered;" and executed all the bitternesses of the little scroll. There is now no longer any Papacy to stultify humanity; all names and denominations are abolished, and all the political hills and mountains, or Gentile, imperial, regal, and republican states, that upheld them, are overthrown.

Eureka 10.7.

13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.

Thy people; that is, first, "those who have made a covenant with him by sacrifice" -- the saints; secondly, for the salvation of that people who shall be made willing in the day of his power -- the twelve tribes of Israel (Psa. l. 5; cx. 3). The saints are those of the circumcision justified by belief of the things promised, or covenanted, to the fathers, said covenant being confirmed and brought into force by the death of the Seed; and those of the circumcision and uncircumcision who, since the crucifixion, are justified by belief of "the things of the Kingdom of the Deity, and of the name of Jesus Christ;" and have been immersed into him, and thereby become Abraham's Seed, and heirs according to the promise (Rom. iii. 30; Acts viii. 12; Gal. iii. 29).

These are the saints developed upon the principle of belief of the "exceedingly great and precious promises" of Deity, both during and since the times of the law. Multitudes of these are "sleeping in the dust of the earth;" and a few living ones are to be found in the British empire, and in these States of America. The dead saints, who are now lying in the dust of divers and remote countries, are to be raised into renewed existence; and, with the few that are alive, and have not tasted death, are to be "gathered together unto our Yahweh Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. ii. 1).

"Gather my saints unto me" is the command; and doubtless, the first to be fulfilled after his descent to Sinai. This command of the Judge can only be delivered to the, angels of his power. This is their work in all the earth; for it is written,

"He shall send his angels with a trumpet of great sound, and they shall gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other" (Matt. xxiv. 31).

They will gather them to Sinai; for the prophet, who saw Adonai Yahweh go forth with whirlwinds of the south, says, "YAHWEH my Elohim, all the saints, shall come in with thee" (ix. 14; xiv. 5).

But, how can they enter the land of Palestine with Adonai Yahweh, He who shall be Yahweh, who comes from Sinai, and the south, unless they were first gathered there unto him by the angels of his power? The angels had to do with his own resurrection, when he was delivered from death by the glory of the Father; we conclude therefore, that, while the saints are raised by the same power, the application of that power in all individual cases, will be made by the angels of his power under his supremacy.

The "trumpet of great sound" is not necessarily a sound making a stunning impression upon ears of flesh. It is the power of the seventh trumpet, which has been sounding for seventy years without arresting public attention. It is the power of this period for the resurrection of the saints, which will be loud enough for them to hear; for they respond to it and come forth (John v. 28,29). An angel's whisper can wake the dead, when breathed by the command of Him, who is the resurrection and the life. This would be a "great sound," though inaudible to ears of flesh.

When the angels of the Yahweh's power shall have finished the gathering of the saints from one end of the heavens to the other, they will have collected together "a cloud of witnesses," by whom will be concentrated in one general assembly the living history of all ages and generations. There will be Abel, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, David, Daniel, John, and all the prophets and apostles, with a multitude beside, that no man can number; all in their day, intelligent in the word, and zealous for the truth, in the service of which many were accounted fools, and many lost their lives.

In the later ages of their separation from the nations, the governments of the Gentiles, symbolized by the beast and his image, made war upon them, and overcame them, or prevailed against them (Apoc. xiii. 7; xi. 2,7; Dan. vii. 21). But, now that the Ancient of Days has come to Sinai, and they are gathered unto him, and approved on the ground of having continued in the faith, rooted and settled, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel (Col. i. 22,23); they are transformed, and become like Christ Jesus in all things, except that he is pre-eminent in rank and authority. They are "equal to angels," who excel in strength (Luke xx. 36).

But all things being prepared, the quietude of the camp of Sinai is changed for "the noise of great waters." The scene becomes tempestuous. When they stood inactive, they let down their wings. But judgment having been given to them, they extend their wings; and the noise thereof is the noise of a host marching against the foe. Habakkuk saw this angelic multitudinous unity in full career. They would, of course, attack the peoples first who were nearest to their encampment. These are "the tents of Cushan" and "the curtains of Midian," which are afflicted and made to tremble. This Cushan is east of the Tigris and north of the Persian gulf; the Midianites are the Arabs of the desert, who are to "bow down before him" (Psa. lxxii. 9).

But, it is written, "Yahweh rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the vanities of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it" (Isa. xix. 1). In this invasion of Egypt then in the hands of Gog, the king of the north, who hath power over its gold, and silver, and precious things (Dan. xi. 43) the troops of Sinai would have to march round the head of the gulf of Suez, or to pass over the sea, or through it.

The last alternative seems to be the course to be adopted at some epoch of the enterprise; which will probably be on return from the conquest of Egypt, in the march to Zion. "I will bring again from the depths of the sea," saith the Spirit in Psa. lxviii. 22. And these words were written in Jerusalem, implying that they were coming Zionwards. In Psa. lxvi, after announcing the universal subjection of the nations, the reader is invited to the contemplation of the means by which the conquest is effected:

"Come and see the doings of Elohim, terrible of deed towards the sons of men. He turned the sea to dry land; they passed through the river on foot: there did we rejoice in him." And Isaiah says:

"Yahweh shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river (Euphrates) and shall smite it into seven streams, and cause to go over in shoes ... like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt" (xi. 15,16). And yet again in ch. l. 9, Isaiah, by the inspiration of the Spirit saith in relation to Israel's future redemption,

"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahweh; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not the same that cut in pieces Rahab (Egypt) and wounded the dragon? Art thou not the same that dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?"

These were the awakenings of ancient days; and by the prophet's petition, which was the word of the Spirit, the dividing of the sea and the river in a future exodus is indirectly foretold. "Therefore the redeemed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing unto Zion (not from Egypt to Sinai, as of old); and everlasting joy (simchath olahm, joy of the future age) shall be upon their head."

The Rainbowed Angel being constituted of individuals who are all "like Jesus," who descended to Sinai, and in the days of his flesh even, walked upon the sea; showing thereby that He, and therefore they, are untrammeled by the natural laws: it will be unnecessary and superfluous to divide the sea on their account. It is Israel according to the flesh, who are subject to the natural laws, that are to be "brought again from the depths of the sea;" beside showing his power, and gaining praise and fame in the earth in drying up, or destroying the Egyptian gulf; the passage of the sea by Israel in Egypt under the leadership of "the Prophet-like Moses," is designed to serve for a national baptism into Christ by which "all their sins will be cast into the depths of the sea," according to the testimony of Mic. vii. 19. When they passed through the sea under Moses, "they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor. x. 2); so when saved from their long captivity by Christ, they will be nationally baptized into him by a like marine investment; and thus be able, as "a people saved by Yahweh," nationally to sing "the song of Moses the servant of the Deity, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous thy works Yahweh Elohim almighty; just and true thy ways, O king of the nations. Who shall not fear thee, O Yahweh, and glorify thy Name? For thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest" (Apoc. xv. 3,4).

15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.

As a mighty warrior he cleaves his enemies - angry rivers, raging sea; earthquakes, whirlwinds, terrific storms - literal and political of Seventh Vial judgements, by the Cherubim (chariots, sharp arrows, cleaving the earth, marching, threshing, wounding the head.

19 Yahweh Adonai is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

The vision is one of desolation for the Holy land for long ages. Yet his sorrow turns to joy at the prospect or restoration under Yahweh, "the Elohim of my salvation." He rises up with renewed strength (resurrection to immortality), to walk upon high places, that is to rule in righteousness in the Age to Come over Israel and the nations as kings and priests - the noblemen of the Lord Jesus Christ, lifted up.

Brother Richard Lister -

The Apocalyptic Messenger,

thomas.lister1@btinternet.com