Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?
Habakkuk 3:8-9
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
You stripped the sheath from your bow,
calling for many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
Habakkuk depicts God as a warrior riding into battle on a chariot and shooting arrows at his enemies.
God’s Chariot
God rides on a chariot. The verb “rode” (rakab) means to ride or drive. It is related to the noun chariot (merkabah). An alternate word for chariot (rekeb) is the most common modern Hebrew word for a car today. It is something ridden/driven. There was a city in the tribe of Simeon called Beth-marcaboth (“House of chariots”, Joshua 19:5).
Horseback riding seems to have actually developed later than the chariot. When Habakkuk says God rode his horses, a better translation may be that he drove his horses (see NRSV). This makes the two parallel lines work together better.
What does God’s chariot look like? Isaiah 19:1 says “the LORD is riding on a swift cloud”. The Psalmist says “he makes the clouds his chariot” (Psalm 104:3). Baal is similarly depicted in a similar light, riding a chariot on the clouds.
Most notably, however, is that he rides his “chariot of salvation”. His purpose isn’t conquest. Rather, it is to save his people.
God’s Bow
The Lord uncovers his bow (the Hebrew literally says he makes it naked, i.e. pulls it from its sheath). The Hebrew word for bow (keshet) carries the basic connotation one would expect of a bow and arrow. It’s a symbol of the strength of the army or archer. A broken bow can indicate defeat (1 Samuel 2:4) or an end to fighting (Psalm 46:9).
Keshet can also refer to a rainbow. After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah and established the rainbow (keshet) as a sign of the covenant:
I have set my bow (keshet) in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow (keshet) is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow (keshet) is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Genesis 9:13-16
The image is that God hung up his bow, never more to attack the earth in such a way again.
To Ponder…
Do you view God as a warrior riding into battle as a positive or negative image? How can this be an encouraging image?
What do you think of when you see a rainbow in the sky?
