[2] "Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
[3] God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
[4] His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden."
[12] "In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations.
[13] You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot."
[18]..." yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
[19] The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments."
The first thing that comes to mind when I am reflecting on verses like these is that I need to filter everything through the Revelation of the Father, demonstrated through the words and deeds of Jesus, as He is the perfect representation of the Father (Heb 1:3). As the perfect revelation, He provides us with the decoder ring through which we must always view things in all of scripture. Also, we know that the Bible must also be read understanding that progressive revelation is part of the reality of Scriptures. As God revealed more and more of Himself, man was able to understand more and more about Him. We must understand that God communicated, within the existing revelation coordinates, new information and revelation as man was able to understand. Jesus specifically said the following (as a great example of providing additional revelation in line with their ability to understand): John 16:12-13 NIV: “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. [13] But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."
Paul , also, describes a maturing in understanding and growing in application that is similar to what Jesus expressed. He wrote the following to the Church in Corinth - 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 NIV: "Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly---mere infants in Christ. [2] I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready."
The Author of the letter to the Hebrews also had similar words to share - Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV: "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. [12] In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! [13] Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. [14] But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."
Finally Peter also described a similar maturing process, and treated it as a normal part of Christian maturation - 1 Peter 2:2-5 NIV: "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, [3] now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."
[4] "As you come to him, the living Stone---rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him--- [5] you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
It is so important to grasp these two principles (the perfect revelation of the Father in Jesus and progressive revelation) as we read scripture, for otherwise we misunderstand God, His redemptive plan and His heart. This is a normal maturation process for all Christians. We must understand that just because we can read the words, and understand the meaning of the words that we may still not fully grasp the full intent and meaning, nor the character of God. Paul writes that at best we can only partially understand this side of eternity - 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 NIV: "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. [11] When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. [12] For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
Thus, I am not saying that I have a perfect grasp of these principles and thus have complete understanding, what I am saying is that my knowledge of God and His heart and character will continue to expand and grow throughout my entire life. I have grown immensely in my understanding of God since my salvation, and I know that I will continue to grow in understanding and revelation my entire life. That being the case, I know that there is 100% chance that I am misunderstanding or not walking and believing in the full revelation of God's heart and character at this present time. As such, I might easily misread or misunderstand God's motivation and emotions concerning me. If we are honest with ourselves, I believe we all must come to the same conclusion.
So, that was a long introduction to a difficult topic, but one that I hope provides some framing for my thoughts. My personal opinion is that there are a few additional things that are related to what I just covered, that we need to consider when reading the Old Testament:
1) God is the same, He never changes (Heb 6:17).
a) Our understanding of Him changes, He doesn't change.
2) God had to work with the people where He found them, and with their present understanding and paradigms.
a) He called Abraham when there really was no mono-theistic mindset on earth - He was the first to have that revelation.
b) He led Israel out of Egypt, and they all had the mindset of slaves when they came out. They were familiar with tribes, but were not a nation.
3) God chose the Hebrew people as His own, and loved them.
4) God loves all people and made a way for salvation for all in Christ Jesus, but that wasn't understood fully until Peter had the revelation in Joppa (Acts 10).
a) Prior to this event, despite hints in the OT, all Hebrews thought that only they could be saved, and all others were outside of God's plan and promise.
1) If the prior point is accurate than any revelation received concerning other peoples and nations would be filtered through this belief.
5) All people have free-will and this is something that God has absolutely protected since the beginning. We have the choice to choose God, or not.
a) Adam and Eve is primarily the story of free-will, and the ramifications of choice
b) Other peoples choices and actions are at times misunderstood as God's actions or lack of protection
6) Moses reportedly wrote the first five books of the bible, and as such His understanding of God would have been communicated through his writing.
a) He was recording in Genesis what had been orally passed down for generations, and included others revelations of God's character.
b) He recorded His own interactions with God in the remaining books and God's word was inspired by the Holy Spirit within the context of His paradigm of understanding.
As I was just thinking about this all I had an interesting analogy, one of my interactions with my son or daughter on their behalf. I know that from the time that my children were born that I would defend them to the death against any force or person that put their life in danger. This is still true today, but their ability to defend themselves has grown as they have matured. When they were young I would remove them from dangerous situations, blocking off parts of the house that were dangerous, etc. As they got older I started to teach them about what was dangerous, and at times they didn't understand my motivation. They thought something looked fun and exciting but I would not allow them to participate because I knew they were not mature enough to participate safely, i.e. driving a car when they had not been trained. They would think I was being too stern or mean, when in reality I was motivated out of my love and desire to protect them from harm. At one point we had to get rid of our Nintendo because my son, who was 5 at that time, couldn't understand that playing the game for hours at a time was not healthy for him. At another point we chose to move because of the influence of some of the children in the neighborhood. My kids we really disappointed, and now we arrange for them to have friends over to play. It was much more work and they missed their former friends, but they were able to grow up safely without bad influences surrounding them. We made a decision for them that they were unable to make for themselves. As they have grown into adults they are now primarily responsible for their own lives and protection and make their own decisions about what is good and what is not, and they understand more fully my motivation. Now I can more fully explain myself, my actions and also provide insight into my previous actions and motivations, should they ask.
When I read the Old Testament I am trying to always look at it from a perspective of God loving and protecting His chosen people. I believe that is how they related to Him. He was their God, not the God of the other nations and peoples, which now in light of Peter's revelation in Acts 10, we know was not the complete picture. However, at that time this is how the people understood the situation. Again, when we were young, we needed very clear black and white understandings to guide us. We had a mindset that set up a good/bad connotation to things. What was good was generally the opposite of what was bad. We didn't understand the nuance and shades. Something was either good or bad, not good and less good, or bad and less bad. We needed clear guidance to teach us about ourselves and the world, as well as about our family and parent's love. In the same way I believe God instructed His chosen people. Thus, I believe that God's actions on their behalf were also seen as actions against others. If He loved the Hebrews, than He hated the other nations. If He protected them then He attacked the others. It was black and white.
Applying this logic, I was just thinking about the pursuit of the Hebrew people by the Pharaoh. If he would have relented and stopped following them He, and his army, would have survived. It was Pharaoh's choice to pursue Moses and the Hebrew people. What was not understood at the time was God's love for the Egyptian people (See Isaiah 19:25) nor the Pharaoh's free will. Both of these are true, and understood now. We understand that God loves Egypt just like He loves every nation, and included them in the Great commission (Matt 28:18-20), Jesus' statement of love for the whole world in John 3:16, and specifically as a people in Isaiah 19. We now understand God's heart towards sinners and that He doesn't desire anyone to perish (1 Tim 2:3-4). These things are true, and have always been true if God is unchanging, yet they were not always known.
Back to my analogies, when I read my own journal's from years ago (I have been journalling for 30+ years) I can see the significant growth that has occurred in me personally and in my understanding of God. He spoke to me back then, and I definitely see how I understood things differently and how God worked within the limits of my paradigm of understanding. He had much to say to me, but much of it I couldn't understand because of my own maturity level. He has increased the level of communication and understanding and works to build me up in Him, but He doesn't just skip to the end, He knows my maturation is a process. I believe that I clearly heard the Holy Spirit back then and I do now too, I just understand Him more now. That doesn't mean that what I heard was wrong, but sometimes what I heard and how I understood it were limited. For example, early in our marriage we heard from God that we were to have a heart for children, raising up sons and daughters. We immediately thought that we might be called to the mission field, working in orphanages. We tried several different approaches to make that happen and they all failed to be God's will. Our thoughts of working in an orphanage made the most sense to us at that time. I believe we heard God's words for us, but we just didn't have a full revelation. When we look back at our lives now, we see how we have been instrumental in raising up and ministering to hundreds of sons and daughters and even now serve on a board and in a ministry for foster children. God's word was true, we just didn't understand the fullness of it at that time, applying our the only paradigm of understanding we had at that time. I like to say that God's word is perfect, our understanding of it isn't!
So back to the verses from Habakkuk (sorry for circuitous route). The prophet wrote the following: "In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations. You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot." If we apply the points we now understand to be true about God's love for all nations, the plan of Salvation for all nations, the price Jesus paid for all sins, for all men, and the fact that God loves the sinner (Rom 5:8), but hates and defeated sin setting us free (Romans 5-8). When we read these verses we must filter them with the understanding of the more recent revelation . God's motivation was to save His people, and He moved strongly on their behalf, even breathing hard (literal translation of the Hebrew word here translated anger). If I think back to times where my child got themselves in danger, I would immediately respond to them running hard if needed, breathing hard and pushing past or through anyone who stood between me and them. I might be described as angry, but my overwhelming emotion is love for my children. God has passion for His people, and it might look like or even be described as angry towards the other nations, especially if you didn't have the further revelation we have now through Christ Jesus.
In these verses, God's anger is described as towards those who threaten His children, and in this case the prophet describes someone as the leader of the land of wickedness. Is it possible that God was speaking about satan, and not some leader of a specific nation? Could this be a reflection back to the time God set the Hebrew people from the leader of Egypt? When He moved on their behalf as He lead them out of destruction? I am not sure which scenario is true, but some of the authors of commentaries believe that Habakkuk was referring back to the deliverance out of Egypt. We already looked at that scenario through a filter of additional revelation provided later in the Scriptures.
Finally (Sorry for the really long discussion) in summary, I believe that it is so important to read scriptures with the revelation provided by Jesus as our grid for understanding. We must not lose sight of the greater revelation of god's love, Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, our freedom bought through His blood, and our call to go to all the nations, to all peoples and to spread the message of the love of God, and the invitation to relationship with Him. God loves us all! He created us all! He hates sin, for it causes us to miss out on His blessings, but He loves the sinner. He loves every nation, and sent Jesus to set us all free. This is a free gift, one that we can choose because He continues to uphold our free-will. We must learn to be mature in our understanding of God, His word, and His interaction with us.
I pray that this is helpful to you, and not confusing. God Loves You and wants you to know that! He wants to provide clarity where there is confusion. he wants us to walk in a more full revelation of His love and interaction in our lives.
Amen!
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