Chapter 17 – Habakkuk
“O Jehovah, for a judgment you have set it; and, O Rock, for a reproving you have founded it.” -Habakkuk 1:12-
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The vision of Habakkuk opens with a series of questions the prophet directs to God, asking: “How long, O Jehovah, must I cry for help, and you do not hear? How long shall I call to you for aid from violence, and you do not save? Why is it that you make me see what is hurtful, and you keep looking upon mere trouble? And why are despoiling and violence in front of me, and why does quarreling occur, and why is strife carried?” .
Since Adam and Eve’s rebellion and expulsion from the paradise of peace and pleasure, trouble of all kinds—including quarreling, violence, strife, despoiling, and other forms of hurtfulness—have marked mankind’s futile existence outside of Eden. And now that numerous nations and despots possess weapons with the potential to cause destruction and death on a scale that staggers the imagination, the issue of divine intervention becomes all the more urgent. Realistically, without taking God’s eventual intervention into consideration there is no valid basis to believe the human race will survive. Although most people prefer not to think about such an unpleasant outcome for the world, the message of the prophets is that this present wicked civilization is eventually going to be squarely confronted with the unthinkable! In fact, it is the intention of certain men to bring it about!
Most people are inclined to scoff at the idea of any sort of judgment from God. Similarly, most people reflexively smirk or recoil at the mere mention of the word ‘conspiracy.’ But considering that the world is ruled over by the evil spirit whom Jesus identified as the “father of the lie,” how could there not be a conspiracy against mankind and God’s kingdom? With Satan as its ruler it is no wonder that modern society has been subtly conditioned to categorize anyone who talks about a new world order conspiracy as paranoid nut-cases who believe that boogiemen in government are hiding the truth about saucer-flying extraterrestrials leaving crop circles around the planet and other such nonsense. Thus, the idea that there could be an ongoing conspiracy to subvert the world into an anti-God, supranational, totalitarian state is made to appear preposterous.
Even Jehovah’s Witnesses may be inclined to scoff at the suggestion of a conspiracy for a so-called new world order. It might be assumed by some that if it were that important, then the Watchtower and Awake! would surely report on it.
Because there is so much disinformation coming from all angles, complicated by a natural skepticism and even a deep-seated reluctance to believe that something so sinister could even exist, otherwise intelligent people are unable to recognize the truth regarding these matters related to Jehovah’s future judgments.
In recognition of the tendency to dismissively scoff at such things, Jehovah opens his response to Habakkuk’s inquiry by saying: “See, you people, among the nations, and look on, and stare in amazement at one another. Be amazed; for there is an activity that one is carrying out in your days, which you people will not believe although it is related.”
According to the Septuagint translation, Habakkuk 1:5 reads: “Behold it you scorners, and look, and wonder marvelously, and vanish away, because I am working a work in your days, which you will by no means believe even if anyone relates it in detail.”
What is the “work” that God is working to which the prophet refers? Here is what the latest Watchtower on Habakkuk had to say on that question:
“Is Jehovah going to do an unbelievable “work” in our day? Be assured that he will, even though that seems unbelievable to doubters. This time, Jehovah’s unbelievable work will be the destruction of Christendom. Like ancient Judah, she claims to worship God but has become thoroughly corrupt. Jehovah will see to it that every vestige of Christendom’s religious system will soon be wiped out, as will all of “Babylon the Great,” the world empire of false religion.” –Watchtower February 1, 2000
Although the Watchtower asserts that the vision of Habakkuk pertains to the destruction of Christendom, which would mean that the Chaldean symbolizes the eighth king, they do not even attempt to explain the prophecy in that light. True, according to the vision of Habakkuk the work that Jehovah was working originally had to do with allowing the Babylonian armies to conquer Judah and Jerusalem. However, Nebuchadnezzar was also authorized by God to tyrannize and subjugate a large portion of the world of that day. So, if the destruction of Judah establishes a pattern for Christendom’s end, what is foreshadowed by the fact that the Chaldean likewise conquered all the other nations in that region of the earth?
“FOR A JUDGMENT YOU HAVE SET IT”
After describing the ferocious nature of the invaders, Habakkuk was inspired to explain that the Chaldean war machine was going to serve as Jehovah’s official punishing agent. Habakkuk 1:12 reads: “Are you not from long ago, O Jehovah? O my God, my Holy One, you do not die. O Jehovah, for a judgment you have set it; and, O Rock, for a reproving you have founded it.”
Thus, the principle is established, whereby, although Jehovah does not create such man-eating beastly entities, it may suit his purpose at times to simply allow already existing institutions to serve as the executioners of his judgments by not stopping them from carrying out their evil work.
God originally communicated most of the Bible’s prophecies by means of visions. And, just as the visions of Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and others, have not seen their ultimate fulfillment yet, so it is that the vision of Habakkuk is also reserved for the actual time of the end. That is why God tells his watchman, Habakkuk, to write down the vision so as to preserve a record of it, because as Jehovah says: “For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it keeps panting on to the end, and it will not tell a lie. Even if it should delay, keep in expectation of it; for it will without fail come true. It will not be late.”
In spite of the fact that the scripture clearly states that the vision is for a future appointed time—an appointed time which even the Watchtower teaches is still future, according to Bethel’s inchoate commentary on Habakkuk the many wars and atrocities of the 20th century are somehow the work of the modern Chaldean. For example, commenting on Habakkuk 2:5, the February 1, 2000, issue of the Watchtower states:
“Who is this man who “cannot be satisfied”? With voracity like that of Babylon of Habakkuk’s time, this composite “man,” made up of political powers—whether Fascist, Nazi, Communist, or even so-called democratic—fights wars in order to expand his lands. He also fills Sheol, the grave, with innocent souls. But this treacherous composite “man” of Satan’s world, drunk with his own self-assured importance, meets with no success in “gathering to himself all the nations and collecting together to himself all the peoples.” Only Jehovah God can unite all mankind, and he will accomplish this through the Messianic Kingdom.”
The article claims that the modern-day Chaldean is a composite of all the nations and that the atrocities the prophecy presages have supposedly already been committed during the past 20th century. The aforementioned Watchtower also states:
“What bloodguilt we find on the earth today! Yet, in the 20th century alone, bloodguilty nations and ethnic groups have been responsible for the slaughter of more than a hundred million humans. Woe to those sharing in these bloodbaths!”
Oddly, while asserting that the destruction of Judah envisioned in Habakkuk typifies Christendom’s eventual annihilation, the Watchtower also attributes all of the genocides and atrocities of the 20th century to Jehovah’s executioner.
Further betraying their lack of insight into the prophecy of Habakkuk, the Watchtower declares that the modern Chaldean “meets with no success.” Obviously, though, the executioner of Jehovah’s judgments does attain a measure of success since he is doing God’s work, such as it is. He only fails to reach his goal of eradicating Jehovah’s worshippers from the earth.
However, if the Society’s interpretation is correct it means that the Nazis, Soviets, the Red Chinese, the Khmer Rouge and numerous other despots, were all serving Jehovah’s purpose when they mercilessly destroyed tens of millions of lives. And still the questions remain unanswered: If those wicked regimes served as God’s punishing agents, then why does injustice, strife and oppression still prevail earth-wide? And why does Christendom still exist? Furthermore, why has God not miraculously appeared to set things straight, as Habakkuk envisioned?
It should be obvious that those wicked governments did not serve God’s purpose. Clearly,Habakkuk’s prophecy concerns the future appointed time of Judgment Day—even as Jehovah told Habakkuk: “The vision is yet for the appointed time.”
As is the case with numerous other prophecies, it is evident that Jehovah has also concealed the true meaning of Habakkuk until such time as the vision comes to life. As if a sleeping leviathan suddenly awakens to prey upon an unsuspecting world, that is the way the vision is presented. That is why at Habakkuk 3:1 the prophet implores Jehovah with these words: “O Jehovah I have heard the report about you. I have become afraid of your activity. In the midst of the years O bring it to life! In the midst of the years may you make it known. During the agitation, to show mercy may you remember.”
At this late date, as the world seems to be on an unalterable death march towards eventual all-out war and the inevitable use of weapons of mass destruction, it seems particularly timely to consider what the vision of Habakkuk actually portends for the future.
Habakkuk introduces us to the Chaldean by describing him as a bitter, impetuous and fear-inspiring nation. The eighth verse reads: “And its horses have proved swifter than leopards, and they have proved fiercer than evening wolves. And its steeds have pawed the ground, and from far away its own steeds come. They fly like the eagle speeding to eat something.”
In centuries past the fearless warhorse was the ultimate in military hardware. A charging cavalry or horse-drawn charioteers could quickly cover ground on the battlefield and easily overwhelm or outflank mere foot soldiers. This gives rise to the question: If the primitive Babylonian army was at one time described as such a formidable conqueror of nations, how much more fear-inspiring are modern mechanized military forces?
Without dispute the modern American military is the most awesome and terrible war machine that has ever existed on this earth. No single nation can possibly hope to defy the overwhelming might of Anglo-American military superiority. The most recent war in the Persian Gulf region provided the world a small glimpse of the “shock and awe” that the United States is capable of unleashing. From bases halfway around the globe or from gigantic floating airbases in the seas, literally thousands of supersonic warplanes can swoop down from the heavens launching precision laser-guided missiles with deadly pinpoint accuracy. Ground-linked orbiting satellites even provide the soldier on the ground the capability of guiding sea or air-launched cruise missiles and huge bunker-busting bombs to within mere feet of targets anywhere on earth. And those are just conventional weapons and technology that are in the formidable U.S. arsenal. More than a dozen nuclear-armed submarines prowl under the oceans of the world night and day. Merely one of these vessels is capable of obliterating an entire nation at a moment’s notice with push-button ease. Besides many thousands of nuclear weapons, reportedly there are various secret weapons that are either under development or that simply have not been used in battle yet.
Certainly, if the Chaldean army was considered to be fear inspiring, how much more so is the modern military of the Anglo-American superpower?
“THIS ITS POWER IS DUE TO ITS GOD”
Satan the Devil is more than content to maintain things as they are—as long as he is in power. For the last approximately 6,000 years the chief demon has misled the world in countless ways. But the time for the Devil to reign as god over mankind is only a temporary allowance on the part of the God of gods. Jehovah has already laid the groundwork for Christ Jesus and his 144,000 chosen ones to replace the Devil and his wicked angels.
It should not be supposed, though, that the demonic gods will quietly go off into the abyss when their time expires.
Since the Hebrew name of Satan literally means “opposer,”no doubt Satan and the demons will fiercely oppose Christ when he comes in his kingdom.
The 12th chapter of the Apocalypse reveals that Satan and his angels will wage a furious battle in heaven when once the kingdom of the world is given over to Christ. The result of that unseen war in the spirit dimension is that Satan and his legions are to be violently ejected from their residence in the realms above. The bad news is that they will be forced to make a last-ditch stand against the glorious kingdom of Christ here in the vicinity of the earth! Needless to say, that development will not bode well for the world. The ouster of the great dragon from heaven will have profound earth-wide ramifications that far surpass any calamity that mankind has ever suffered.
Just like a cornered criminal madman may take hostages in a desperate attempt to stave off his inevitable capture and inflict as much damage as possible, in the same way when the gods of this system are faced with their own incarceration, it will be as if they take the world as their hostage and threaten the entire globe with annihilation should Christ attempt to take them out. During the critical last hour coinciding with Satan’s “short period of time” the vision of Habakkuk will be fully realized when the modern Chaldean launches his world-conquering campaign.
Habakkuk 1:9-11 describes the demonically driven empire with these words: “In its entirety it comes for mere violence. The assembling of their faces is as the east wind, and it gathers up captives just like the sand. And for its part, it jeers kings themselves, and high officials are something laughable to it. For its part, it laughs even at every fortified place, and it piles up dust and captures it. At that time it will certainly move onward like wind and will pass through and will actually become guilty. This its power is due to its god.”
The great tempest of Jehovah that is to destined to whirl itself upon the entire earth is here revealed to be the demon-maddened king of Babylon, whose forces are likened to an onward sweeping wind. But, although the Chaldean is described as a fierce and formidable military force there are other more subtle means of attaining world domination.
“IN ORDER TO TAKE POSSESSION OF RESIDENCES”
According to Habakkuk the last empire is destined to pillage and enslave the whole world! That is no small feat. How might such a calamity come about? In modern times communistic governments have simply revoked the rights of their citizens and confiscated all private property. However, capitalism has the same capacity to dispossess—albeit in less overt ways. This may be accomplished through promoting excessive indebtedness, because as the Bible observes—the borrower becomes a slave of the lender. Governments may also enslave and impoverish their subjects through graduated heavier taxation, sudden currency devaluation, or hyper-inflating the amount of currency in circulation, thus rendering it worth less and less until eventually it becomes worthless.
In view of the world’s precarious economic and financial condition presently; as individuals, corporations, and nations slowly sink deeper and deeper into a quagmire of unpayable debt, there is now the looming specter of a debt default or hyperinflation triggering a sudden, catastrophic, meltdown-scenario with the potential to simply disintegrate the entire debt-burdened economic structure. Because of the interconnectedness of the global financial system, the collapse of a single large institution or nation may set off the dreaded chain-reaction, the so-called domino scenario, which could bring down the entire house of cards, as some have described the system. Evidently the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 brought the system to within hours of just such a catastrophic collapse. The bailout of AIG was said to have been necessary to prevent the banking system from seizing up as well.
Without doubt the computer-wired age means that the entire world may be virtually foreclosed on in the event of a systemic crash. As has been demonstrated in recent months, stock markets can crash with breathtaking suddenness. Currencies may be devalued. Giant corporations that employ tens of thousands of people may go bankrupt. Banks that seem rock solid prove to be an illusion. Money itself is destined by the prophets to become as so much paper confetti to be thrown into the streets—indicating a dollar-centric repeat of the catastrophe that befall Weimar Germany in 1923, when a wheelbarrow full of Reichsmarks would not buy a loaf of bread. How quickly might civilization change if common everyday financial transactions became impossible?
Habakkuk 1:6 further describes the work of Jehovah’s punishing agent, saying of him: “The nation bitter and impetuous, which is going to the wide-open places of the earth in order to take possession of residences not belonging to it.” In response, Habakkuk 2:6b appropriately pronounces a curse against the pillaging empire, saying: “Woe to him who is multiplying what is not his own—O how long!—and who is making debt heavy against himself!” And again in the ninth verse: “Woe to the one that is making evil gain for his house, in order to set his nest on the height, so as to be delivered from the grasp of what is calamitous!”
The Watchtower comments on the verses above, saying:
“Here the emphasis is on unrighteous gain. In the world around us, the rich grow richer, and the poor grow poorer. Drug dealers and swindlers amass great fortunes, while many of the common people starve. One fourth of the world’s population is said to live below the poverty line. Living conditions are appalling in many countries.”
Contrary to the Watchtower’s milquetoast interpretation of Habakkuk, the “evil gain” is not that of petty drug dealers and swindlers. The Chaldean king is the one who sets himself on high through acquiring “residences not belonging to it” and by “making evil gain for his house.” The prophecy describes the dispossession of the nations as part of the judgment work Jehovah has assigned to the Chaldean. The Watchtower’s interpretation of Habakkuk is worthless as regards shedding light upon future developments. Actually, it is worse than worthless, for the reason that Jehovah’s Witnesses have been deluded into imaging they have been reliably enlightened on the meaning of Habakkuk.
In reality, the vision for the appointed time apparently involves the utter collapse of the present system and the ushering in of a totalitarian, global super state. Apparently, private property will become nationalized—or in this case—internationalized.
Through Habakkuk, Jehovah foretells that when the appointed time for the vision to come to life arrives, the neo-Chaldean empire will keep “gathering to himself all the nations and collecting together to himself all the peoples.”
The gathering and collecting of all the nations should not be mistaken for any sort of peaceful unification. They are gathered and collected into his fisherman’s net as captured prey. The dispossession of the nations will make them dependent upon the largess of the merciless last king. The Chaldean is destined to bring all the nations of the world to ruin. That is why at Jeremiah 51:25 Jehovah described Babylon as the “ruiner of the whole earth.”
That is the day when men will be forced by sheer desperation of circumstance to give an accounting as regards whom they worship. No wonder Jehovah speaks through Habakkuk saying: “But as for the righteous one, by faithfulness he will keep living.”
God’s pronouncement against the Chaldean condemns him for coercing mankind into venerating a mere idol, saying: “Woe to the one giving his companion something to drink, attaching to it rage and anger, in order to make him drunk, for the purpose of looking upon their parts of shame.” (Habakkuk 2:15) Paul similarly condemns Christians who self-indulgently make a god of their own gut. Likewise, Jesus warned his followers to be very careful not to become weighed down by heavy eating and over-drinking, so that the day of Jehovah might not be a snare for them.
Habakkuk indicates that spiritual neglect and over-indulgence may lead to being ensnared because of not having the spiritual strength to resist drinking from the cup of rage that the enraged king will pass among mankind. During a time of scarcity and rationing many will allow themselves to become mere idol worshippers in a vain attempt to keep their souls alive.
Some are of the opinion that idolatry is a practice relegated to the ignorant peoples of the ancient past. They suppose that idol worship is solely that crude form of veneration carried on by brutish pagans as they groveled before grotesque images of their own contrivance. However, Jehovah has another perception of matters. From his standpoint the peoples of our modern world are practicing a form of idolatry that is every bit as barbaric and disgusting as was the religion of the ancient Chaldean. Just as a literal carved image denigrates the illustrious God, paying homage to a political image that presumes to substitute for the kingdom of God is blasphemous and idolatrous.
Jehovah considers it vain and presumptuous for sinful humans to boast that their wisdom and might will solve the world’s complex problems. The prophecy of Habakkuk expresses this thought in harmony with others of the prophets, saying: “Of what benefit has a carved image been, when the former of it has carved it, a molten statue, and an instructor in falsehood? when the former of its form has trusted in it, to the extent of making valueless gods that are speechless?”
“An instructor in falsehood” is an appropriate description of the satanic propaganda behind world government. A previous generation of admirers blasphemously hailed the League of Nations as the only hope of peace for our planet.
Those who are informed in such matters know that the United Nations has adopted the Bible’s messianic prophecy, which foretells that men will beat their swords into plowshares when Jehovah sets matters straight, and it has shamelessly presumed that it will bring about world peace. But, as the above-quoted verse of Habakkuk infers, what benefit can it possibly bring to those who might make a molten statue, even of Isaiah’s symbol of peace, thus idolizing its ideal, when they are powerless to achieve its realization?
No wonder Habakkuk 2:4-5 depicts the presumptuous Chaldean as being bloated with self-assurance, saying of him: “Look! His soul has been swelled up; it has not been upright within him…And, indeed, because the wine is dealing treacherously, an able-bodied man is self-assuming; and he will not reach his goal, he who has made his soul spacious like Sheol, and who is like death and cannot be satisfied.”
In what way will the last king make himself as spacious as Sheol and as insatiable as death?
Modern civilization, for all of its many scientific advances and sophistry, is merely part of an ages-old wicked system of things, and as such, it is plagued with the very same problems that have afflicted human societies for centuries. The reason being, fallen human nature has not improved over time. People are still just as prone to acts of immorality, greed, and barbarism as in ancient times.
Because the world has spurned Jehovah’s counsel and has sown winds of destruction, the laws of reciprocity demand an eventual reaping of the whirlwind of annihilation. As unpleasant and disturbing as it may be to contemplate, the fact is that men have a long history of murdering one another and are still no less disposed to do so. Indisputably, empires and their religious consorts are the worst blood-spillers on the planet. The Assyrian and Babylonian empires with their powerful priests were notoriously ruthless and cruel. So was the Roman Empire and Christendom. Soberingly, the vision of Habakkuk foretells that the worst is yet to come.
“DOES HE HAVE TO KILL NATIONS CONSTANTLY?”
After Jehovah responded to Habakkuk’s initial question by introducing the prophet to the Chaldean executioner, Habakkuk was appalled at what he next envisioned involving the fear-inspiring Chaldean. That is why the prophet addressed himself to God again, asking why Jehovah would allow a treacherous tyrant to swallow down someone more righteous than he. At Habakkuk 1:14, the prophet continues his query, asking: “And why do you make earthling man like the fishes of the sea, like creeping things over whom no one is ruling?”
Since Adam rebelled against Jehovah, leaving mankind without the direct oversight of our heavenly King, God has determined not to shield mankind from experiencing the inevitable horrific end result of rebellion. In the animal kingdom the strongest or most cunning are considered most successful. According to the earthly, animalistic philosophical underpinnings of civilization, man is nothing more than a highly intelligent, self-evolved animal. Such lack of spirituality has led men, originally made in the image of God, to view and treat each other in ways becoming of beasts. The ultimate end for this evil system is that entire nations are destined to be ensnared by the Chaldean, as if mere fish in a net. The 15th verse reads: “All these he has brought up with a mere fishhook; he drags them away in his dragnet, and he gathers them in his fishing net. That is why he is joyful.”
The racist mindset of an Anglo-European imperialist regards other ethnic groups and lower social classes as belonging to a sub-human species. And like mere cattle and fishes they are to be herded and culled as the international oligarchy sees fit.
No one should doubt that there are powerful men today who fully intend to use every means at their disposal to implement a Nazi-like global “final solution”to the real or imagined problems of population increases, environmental degradation and dwindling natural resources.
Genocide is the foundational policy of the British Empire and through Anglo influence Malthusianism has been adopted as American policy too. Think of the ramifications—the most powerful alliance the world has ever known, the Anglo-American dual world power, has as its official policy the wholesale reduction of earth’s billions!
Apparently, they will “succeed” in bringing about their scheme to reduce humanity by a sizable percentage, which is why Habakkuk was inspired to write: “You have counseled something shameful to your house, the cutting off of many peoples; and your soul is sinning.”
Through the prophets Jehovah has stated his purpose to allow a predatory super-state to unleash a genocidal holocaust on a scale never before seen on this already blood-soaked planet. Habakkuk continues: “That is why he offers sacrifices to his dragnet and makes sacrificial smoke to his fishing net; for by them his portion is well oiled, and his food is healthful. Is that why he will empty out his dragnet, and does he have to kill nations constantly, while he shows no compassion?”
In true predator fashion, the last king is destined by prophecy to dine on mankind for his own pleasure. In that way he makes “his soul spacious just like Sheol”—his soul becoming synonymous with the grave of mankind.
The 14th chapter of Isaiah parallels Habakkuk, depicting the king of Babylon as the killer of nations. Isaiah 14:6 refers to “the one striking peoples in fury with a stroke incessantly, the one subduing nations in sheer anger with a persecution without restraint.”
Verses 18-20 also depict the inglorious death of earth’s last genocidal tyrant in grisly terms, saying: “All other kings of the nations, yes, all of them, have lain down in glory, each one in his own house. But as for you, you have been thrown away without a burial place for you, like a detested sprout, clothed with killed men stabbed with the sword that are going down to the stones of a pit, like a carcass trodden down. You will not become united with them in the grave, because you brought your own land to ruin, you killed your own people. To time indefinite the offspring of evildoers will not be named.”
The Chaldean is condemned for killing his own people. However, the Scriptures do not indicate that the Babylonian empire committed genocide against Babylonians. In that respect the prophecy seems to foreshadow something else.
What?
In the eventuality that the U.N. becomes a world government all people and nations would become subject to it. If it were to implement a large-scale liquidation of the population it would indeed become guilty of killing its own people—as the prophecy of Isaiah and Habakkuk foretell. The term for it is democide—death by government.
From our standpoint in the 21st century, it is as if all the previous empires have lain down in decorated memorial tombs. For example, the British Museum in London houses many artifacts and treasures from ancient Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.
It is as if the Anglo king is the custodian of the treasures of his honored fore-bearers. However, the last king leaves no such glorious legacy. It is as if he is left to rot like an animal carcass in the field for having perpetrated such an appallingly hideous evil scheme.Ultimately the Chaldean (eighth king) becomes guilty, as Habakkuk 1:11 foretells, due to directly attacking God’s people. In the third chapter of his prophecy Habakkuk describes Jehovah’s response to the attack, saying: “And you went forth for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed one. You broke to pieces the head one out of the house of the wicked one. There was a laying of the foundation bare, clear up to the neck. With his own rods you pierced the head of his warriors when they moved tempestuously to scatter me. Their glee was as of those bent on devouring an afflicted one in a place of concealment.”
Jehovah’s going forth to save his anointed one does not mean that the anointed are spared from experiencing death at the hands of the Chaldean. They are saved in the same sense that Jehovah saved his original anointed one—Jesus—not by sparing him from suffering death, but by resurrecting him from the pit of destruction.
Once the anointed kings of God’s kingdom have been finally sealed with Jehovah’s irreversible approval, there is nothing that any antichrist, Devil, or imperial tyrant can do to break their loyalty to God. Their salvation is assured. They are immortal and incorruptible from that point on. Their martyrdom only serves to instantaneously transform them into glorious, invincible, heavenly kings. From their heavenly station, Christ and his gathered 144,000 unleash total annihilation upon the killer of nations and the would-be usurper of God’s kingdom in the battle of Armageddon. Since Christ and his associate rulers have the legal right to protect their interests and assert their authority over the earth, it is perfectly just that the Chaldean be held accountable for his atrocities against the nations and the city of God. Habakkuk 2:7-8 foretells how the kingdom heirs will pillage the pillager and kill their killer, saying: “Will not those claiming interest of you rise up suddenly, and those wake up who are violently shaking you, and you certainly become something to pillage? Because you yourself despoiled many nations, all the remaining ones of the peoples will despoil you, because of the shedding of blood of mankind and the violence to the earth, the town and all those dwelling in it.”
“The town and all those dwelling in it” represent the people of Jehovah who will ultimately inherit the earth after the last king is vanquished and in that way they pillage the Chaldean. Habakkuk concludes his prophecy by describing the physical and emotional toll that the vision had upon him personally: “I heard and my belly began to be agitated; at the sound my lips quivered; rottenness began to enter into my bones; and in my situation I was agitated, that I should quietly wait for the day of distress, for his coming up to the people, that he may raid them.”
Jesus once told his apostles that he had many things to tell them but that they were unable to bear the burden at that time. No doubt the future unveiling of Christ will mean that he will fully reveal all the things his followers must suffer, including the correct understanding of Habakkuk and the other prophets. Interestingly, several translations of the first verse of Habakkuk’s prophecy call it: “The burden that Habakkuk hath seen.”
But even though the prophet was distressed by the appalling vision concerning the future of the world, Habakkuk’s abiding faith in Jehovah empowered him to look forward to the realization of the vision, knowing it would ultimately lead to salvation for God’s people. Hence, the closing words of “the burden that Habakkuk” envisioned conclude on a positive note: “Yet, as for me, I will exult in Jehovah himself; I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. Jehovah the Sovereign Lord is my vital energy; and he will make my feet like those of the hinds, and upon my high places he will cause me to tread.”
