They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
Habakkuk cried out to God about the injustice in Judah. God answers by naming the nation He will use: a people who accept no standard but their own will. Two hard questions follow. Why would God hand His people over to such a power? And what happens to a nation that makes itself the source of its own rights?
A nation raised up as God's instrument
The Chaldeans, also called the Babylonians, never guessed what their rise was for. One writer explains who was really at work:
Hamilton SmithSo, in his day, God tells the prophet that He has raised up the Babylonians to carry out His work of government. The Babylonians never imagined that God had lifted them to the height of power only to be a tool in His hand — a tool to discipline His people and to hold back the evils of the nations. Yet that is how it was in the prophet's day. And so it has been again and again in world history, when cruel tyrants have been allowed for a time to attack the nations around them.
Justice and dignity that come from themselves
This is the heart of the verse. The Chaldean made his own rules and set his own worth. The quote below uses an older translation of the verse, where the ESV reads "their justice and dignity go forth from themselves":
H. L. Rossier"Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves." His own will decided what the Chaldean called his right. It was the same with his dignity. He paid no attention to anyone else's dignity. He felt that his own dignity raised him above everyone else. High-handedness and endless pride drove him. Don't we know cases like this in our own day? The believer might want God to put this pride down. But God says to him: Don't you see that these judgments come from Me? They begin with the nations around you, but they are meant for you.
Terror as a method
What did that dread look like in practice? One writer describes their way of war:
Hamilton SmithThe Chaldeans are described as a bitter and hasty nation, marked by cruelty and violence. They marched across the earth with fierce energy to take homes that were not theirs. They spread terror and dread by their acts of horror. In these acts they were a law to themselves, with no respect for the customs of other nations. They had sunk below the level of natural men. So wild, savage animals become the picture of the inhuman cruelty with which they would prey on the nations.
Used by God, not approved by God
Habakkuk protested that the tool was worse than the people it would punish. One writer answers by pointing to the limits God set:
F. B. HoleGod had taken the Assyrians up as the rod of His anger, to discipline many a nation that was far from Him — and Israel among them. Later God used the Chaldeans in the same way. This is what troubled Habakkuk. He protested that, bad as Israel might be, the Chaldeans, whom God was about to use to discipline them, were worse. We see here what we also see in Habakkuk: God may use an evil nation to discipline His faithless people, but only under His strict supervision and control.
Another writer adds that God did not choose them for any good He saw in them. The opposite was true: they were a cruel nation (H. L. Rossier).
Where self-made glory ends
A people who take their glory from themselves end up with a god of their own making:
J. N. DarbyHe would raise up the Chaldeans against His people. They were the very picture of pride and energy. They succeeded in everything they undertook, and they sought glory only in the opinion they had of themselves. Their leader would turn away from the true God who had given them their strength, and would worship a god of his own.
The story does not end there. The God who lifts up one offender to punish others also brings him down when he claims honours that belong to God. Babylon's fall proved it (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
Summary
- Raised — The Chaldeans rose because God raised them. They were a tool in His hand, and they never guessed it.
- Self-ruled — Their own will decided what was right. Their own pride set them above everyone else.
- Feared — Being a law to themselves, they respected no custom of the nations and ruled by terror.
- Limited — God may use an evil nation to discipline His failing people, but only under His strict control.
- Judged — Glory taken from self ends in worshipping self. God puts down the very power He raised up to punish others.