Habakkuk 3:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He walks forth into the fields. He indicates that nothing poses a challenge or is insurmountable for Him; in every action, He moves as if traversing smooth, even terrain, for flat fields are simple and easy to navigate, unlike uneven hills that impede progress. For Christ, every task is manageable, and His endeavors are free from strain. What can He, being God by nature and Sovereign of all, achieve without ease? Thus, drawing from the image of those who walk in the fields, He illustrates how to perceive His works. Moreover, if one understands the fields as representing the humble in spirit—referred to as the cherished land and the Lord's field, which receives divine seed from above and yields varying fruits—a deeper comprehension emerges. In these fields, the Son enters to cultivate the soil, consistent with the depiction of Him in a parabolic manner: ‘he went out to sow’ (Matthew 13:3). Likewise, David does not sing, ‘and thy fields shall be filled with abundance’ (Psalms 64:12), and he adds, “and the valleys…” followed by, “shall rejoice and sing” (Psalms 64:14), providing a basis for this interpretation, as it is not typical for lifeless valleys to express joy or lament. Within them, the divine and supreme Word may dwell like a cedar. *Servant: ‘and shall go forth into the field at His command.’

Furthermore, in the subsequent part of the verse that states, 'the devil will appear before His feet,' the LXX has articulated it differently, which we will clarify later. Aquila has substituted 'the devil' with the term 'flying,' and Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Fifth Edition also use 'flying,' which corresponds to the Hebrew gezerh (רשף). According to Hebrew tradition, Beelzebul is referred to as the prince of demons in the Gospel (Mt. 12:24), and Reseph represents the demon who holds dominion over others; due to his swift and wild nature, he is likened to a bird in flight. This is the entity who, as the serpent in Paradise, engaged the woman with words and received his name rooted in the curse from God, as 'Reseph' signifies 'crawling on the womb.'

The implication here is that upon the Lord’s arrival and His baptism in the Jordan, with the descent of the dove heralding the Father’s voice proclaiming, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matt. 3:17), the devil will emerge from the waters to confront Him. Death, along with the ancient serpent who tempted Him for forty days in the wilderness, will stand at His feet. Conversely, should we take the LXX reading, 'The word shall pass before His face, and in His footsteps shall go out into the fields,' it denotes that the Word of God, allegorically referred to as His face, will precede Him and prepare the hearts of the faithful, rectifying the wrongs and equalizing the inequities so that the souls of the hearers may receive the spiritual seed, akin to a well-tended field.