Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Habakkuk 3:4
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Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
and His brightness - that wherein God dwelleth Ezekiel 10:4, “the brightness of the Lord’s glory,” before which darkness fleeth Psalms 18:12, “was as the light,” or as the sun. Out of the midst of the darkness, wherewith God, as it were Exodus 19:9, Exodus 19:16; Exodus 20:21, hid Himself, the brightness of the “inapproachable Light” wherein “He dwelleth,” gleams forth Exodus 24:10, bright as the brightest “light” gathered into one, which man knows of and whereon he cannot gaze. So amid the darkness of the humiliation of His presence in the flesh, John 1:14 : “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father;” and, Isaiah 9:2, “the people that walked in darkness see a great light,” not dim. Theoph.: “nor weak, nor shadowed, like that of Moses, but pure unimaginable light of the knowledge of God.” The brightness too of His flesh was like the light of the Godhead on Mount Tabor; for the Godhead flashed through. Rup.: “As often as He did His marvelous works, He put forth His “brightness” (tempered for His creatures, since they could not approach the depth of His light, yet) as “light” to enlighten people to know Him. Yet the brightness issues from the Light, co-existing with it, and in it, while issuing from it. And so the words aptly express, how He who is the, Hebrews 1:3, “brightness of the Father’s Glory and the express Image of His Person.” Wisdom Hebrews 7:25, “brightness of the eternal light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness,” is as the Light from whom He is. Nicene Creed: “Light of Light,” Equal to the Father by whom He was begotten. As John says in John 1:9 : “That was the true Light, which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world.” As He prayeth in John 17:5, “Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” He had horns coming out of His Hand - Jerome Dion: “Horns are everywhere in Holy Scripture the emblem of strength.” It may be, that here “rays” are likened to horns, as the face of Moses is said, with the same image, to have “sent forth rays” after he had long been in the presence of God. So it may be a mingled image of the Glory and might; Light, which was also might. But “horns,” though they may be a symbol of “light,” are not of “lightning;” and the Hand of God is used as an emblem of His power, His protection, His bounty, His constraining force on His prophets. It is nowhere used of the side or sides. We have two images combined here; “horns” which in every other place in which they are used as a metaphor, is an emblem of power; and “from the hand of” which, wherever it is used of a person, means that the thing spoken of had been in his hand or power really or virtually. Both then combine in the meaning that the might came forth from the directing agency of God who wielded it. When then did light or might, which lay, as it were, before in the hand of God, go forth from it? For “the hand of God” is always symbolic of His might, whether put forth, or for the time laid up in it. The form of the words remarkably corresponds to those of Moses, in the preface to the blessing on the tribes, which Habakkuk had in mind Deuteronomy 33:2, “From His right hand was a fiery law for them,” and Paul says that the glory of Moses’ face which he received from the Presence of God, was a symbol of the glory of the law. 2 Corinthians 3:7 says, “The ministration of death written and engraven on stone was glorious, so that the chil…
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