A unseen virus spreading around the world. Millions losing their jobs. Uncertainty about whether or not we can ever get \u201cback to normal.\u201d Will tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions die of this disease?<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts about God in these times? Are you praying? If so, how? With tears? With anger? With a broken and contrite heart?<\/p>\n
Habakkuk 3:17-19 contain words of great hope. But we won\u2019t understand those verses unless we see the depth of despair that faced the prophet writing them.<\/p>\n
The immediately preceding verse reads:<\/p>\n
I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise\u00a0who\u00a0<\/em>will invade us.<\/strong> (Habakkuk 3:16)<\/p>\n Habakkuk sees God as a consuming fire, pure and holy. In chapter 1 he called out, \u201cGod, why don\u2019t you give us justice! Punish these evildoers!\u201d By 3:16 he sees the enormity of that punishment \u2013 the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. And he trembles.<\/p>\n Seeing the horrible end coming to his country, the prophet writes our text::<\/p>\n Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines,\u00a0Though\u00a0<\/em>the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord GOD is my strength, and He has made my feet like the feet of a deer, And makes me walk on my high places.<\/strong> (Habakkuk 3:17-19)<\/p>\n Let\u2019s consider these three verses in turn:<\/p>\n Verse 17: I\u2019ve Lost Everything!<\/strong><\/p>\n The economy of Judah at this time was based almost exclusively on agriculture and livestock. Agriculture could be divided into permanent crops \u2013 fruit trees, olive trees, grape vines \u2013 and annual field crops, like wheat and barley. According to this verse, what parts of this economy have failed?<\/p>\n So do you see what he is saying? \u201cEven though I\u2019ve lost everything; even though all my income disappears.\u201d We might say, \u201cWhen I lose my job and the unemployment insurance runs out; when I can\u2019t work and am denied my disability claim; when we\u2019re sick and can\u2019t pay our medical bills.\u201d<\/p>\n But really Habakkuk\u2019s situation is worse than anything we can imagine in this country. For in Judah there is no social services agency, there are no homeless shelters, there are no food stamps \u2013 and during the destruction of Jerusalem there are no well-off relatives. Emergency rooms that serve the indigent don\u2019t exist. No income for Habakkuk means starvation. It means death \u2013 first for the weakest in the family, the old and the young, and eventually for everyone.<\/p>\n So in this verse Habakkuk says:\u00a0Though it looks like all God\u2019s gifts have been taken from me.<\/em><\/p>\n How does Habakkuk respond to this situation?<\/p>\n Verse 18: Yet I will Rejoice!<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.<\/strong><\/p>\n Note here three reactions Habakkuk avoids:<\/p>\n Instead, what does he say? \u201cI will exult<\/em> in the Lord, I will rejoice <\/em>in the God of my salvation!\u201d<\/p>\n Habakkuk not only foresees the\u00a0possibility\u00a0<\/em>that he could lose everything; he foresees the\u00a0certainty\u00a0<\/em>that the world as he knows it \u2013 along with everything and everyone he loves \u2013 will be destroyed terribly. And in this extremity he says not only, \u201cI won\u2019t accuse God of being unfaithful,\u201d but, \u201cI will rejoice<\/em> in God.\u201d<\/p>\n How can he say that? Looking ahead to the terrors of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s siege, how can Habakkuk rejoice in God? He answers that in verse 19:<\/p>\n Verse 19: For God Led Me Here<\/strong><\/p>\n The Lord GOD is my strength, and He has made my feet like the feet of a deer, And makes me walk on my high places.<\/strong><\/p>\n Consider three questions that arise as we try to understand what he is saying: Why does he say his feet are made like those of a deer? What is implied by \u201chigh places\u201d? And what does he mean by He \u201cmakes me walk\u201d?<\/p>\n (a) \u201cHe has made my feet like the feet of a deer<\/em>.\u201d If Habakkuk had lived on this continent, he might have said, \u201clike those of a bighorn sheep.\u201d Many years ago, Beth and I hiked for a week in Montana\u2019s Glacier National Park. Frequently we would look up at a rocky, seemingly inaccessible peak \u2013 and there near the top we would see bighorn sheep. They would climb to the uppermost crags and run over rock fields as easily as we would run on the beach.<\/p>\n Why are bighorn sheep able to do this? Because of their feet \u2013 their tough, cloven hooves. These hooves aren\u2019t hurt by sharp rocks; rather, they are able to grip even small outcrops. God designed their feet for climbing. They don\u2019t slip. They don\u2019t fall.<\/p>\n Note that the point is not the\u00a0power\u00a0<\/em>of the sheep, but the design of the sheep\u2019s foot. Habakkuk uses the word for the female deer, not the male, to emphasize this point. The female deer too is able to climb to the highest heights, to run over rocky fields, because of her special feet.<\/p>\n So Habakkuk rejoices that his feet are made like deer\u2019s feet, like the feet of bighorn sheep \u2013 designed by God to travel over the most difficult ground.<\/p>\n (b) \u201cMy High Places\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n For many of us today, the phrase \u201cwalking on high places\u201d connotes recreational mountain climbing: Go out on a beautiful day, climb to the highest peak, experience a great view, exercise your body, get back to nature. But these are recent ideas. In Habakkuk\u2019s day, no one exercised for the sake of exercise. Recreational mountain climbing was still a few millennia in the future.<\/p>\n Instead, in his time, \u201chigh places\u201d connotes a difficult, challenging place. A place one would not want to go unless it is absolutely necessary. You might climb to a high place to gain defensible ground in a battle, but you only go there if you can\u2019t avoid it. So \u201chigh places\u201d here means a difficult, challenging place.<\/p>\n (c) \u201cMakes me walk on my high places<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n The NIV translates this, \u201cenables me to go on the heights.\u201d<\/p>\n Most English translations use two verbs here: the NAS, \u201cmake\u201d and \u201cwalk\u201d, the NIV, \u201cenable\u201d and \u201cgo\u201d, the ESV, \u201cmake\u201d and \u201ctread.\u201d But in Hebrew, there is only one verb, the usual verb for \u201cwalk\u201d, with a stem change that indicates the subject is caused to do the normal action of the verb. So in this case, the phrase might mean:<\/p>\n \u201cHe leads me to these high places; He makes me go there even though I don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/p>\n Or, it might mean (as the NIV interprets it):<\/p>\n \u201cHe enables me to walk on places I could not go without his help.\u201d<\/p>\n I think both ideas are present. Habakkuk is not talking about a pleasant afternoon of rock climbing. He dreads what God has in store for him; he knows the path is very challenging, very dangerous. In that sense, God is leading him to a place he does not want to go. Yet God is his strength, and Habakkuk is confident that God will enable him to do what he could never do on his own.<\/p>\n And that is why he is joyful! God led him to this very spot. And though there is pain and difficulty here, he knows that God will either rescue him from the danger or allow him to die. But even death is controlled by God; that will come about only if God directs.<\/p>\n So why rejoice? God is good! He is wise! He is in control! And He knows what He is doing!<\/p>\n Lessons for Living By Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s draw two lessons that may not be obvious from what we have said so far:<\/p>\n (1) By definition, walking by faith is harder than walking by sight<\/strong><\/p>\n Habakkuk chapter 2 presents us with lessons about how\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>to live by faith. The proud one searches for satisfaction, security, accomplishment, and honor. All of us desire these things. The natural response to these desires is to seek them directly: to try to satisfy ourselves, to try to establish our own security, to try to accomplish great things, to aim to bring honor to ourselves. The natural response is the easy response.<\/p>\n But to the one who lives by faith, God says, \u201cDon\u2019t pursue these directly! You will not find them that way. I know, that\u2019s the natural thing to do. But I tell you: Trust in Me! Delight in Me! And I will give you the desires of your heart. You will find true satisfaction, true security, true accomplishment, and true honor in Me alone!\u201d<\/p>\n So you say living by faith is hard? That\u2019s no surprise. Walking by sight is easy. Walking by faith is hard. Otherwise, it wouldn\u2019t be walking by faith.<\/p>\n (2) Living by faith means loving\u00a0God<\/u>, instead of loving God\u2019s gifts.<\/strong><\/p>\n Habakkuk sees all God\u2019s gifts disappear. Now, the question is: Will he love God?<\/p>\n Think of a parent who lavishes gifts on a child. The child says he loves his parent. But isn\u2019t the child\u2019s reaction to the ending of those gifts the real test of his love?<\/p>\n Or consider a young man who loves a young woman; he gives her many gifts, he writes lovely poems for her, he sends her flowers daily. She takes his gifts, reads his poems to others \u2013 but then ignores him.<\/p>\n How easy it is for us to act that way toward God! To love His gifts, to delight in His gifts \u2013 and to become angry if those gifts disappear.<\/p>\n There is a great deal of difference between, \u201cI love what you do for me\u201d and \u201cI love you<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Living by faith means loving God Himself! We indeed must be thankful for His gifts \u2013 but God is our delight, He is our portion, He is our treasure, and nothing we desire compares to Him.<\/p>\n So as God opens Habakkuk\u2019s eyes to the coming of one of the most terrible events in human history, the prophet \u2013 knowing that God will bring this about \u2013can delight in God, who enables him to walk on the high places.<\/p>\n What about our sorrows today, our worries about this virus?<\/p>\n All pain and suffering in the fallen world results from sin, beginning with man\u2019s initial sin in the Garden. And God is dealing with sin. Through Jesus\u2019 death on the cross, He has rendered death powerless. He has promised to end sin, to end rebellion, to fulfill His every promise for those in Christ.<\/p>\n So rejoice! Not\u00a0because of<\/em>\u00a0the pain and sorrow, but because you can be confident that\u00a0our God Reigns<\/strong>! He is sovereign over the affairs of men. He will be exalted by your joy in the midst of sorrow. He will stand by you and enable you to walk over those high places.<\/p>\n Once this particular pandemic ends \u2013 and it will end – what other high places lie ahead for you? Will he enable you to have great victories \u2013 playing a key role, perhaps, in the Third\u00a0Great Awakening in this country? Or in establishing a church planting movement among an unreached people group? Or to have such career success that you give millions in funds to advance the Gospel, to provide for the poor, to change the culture?<\/p>\n Or will your high places be more like Habakkuk\u2019s, more like those described in Hebrews 11:35-38: Mocked, beaten, imprisoned, poor, destitute?<\/p>\n Whatever your high places might be, know that God has guided you there. He will enable you to endure, He will enable you to rejoice. Trust Him. Delight in Him. Throw yourself upon Him. And love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.<\/p>\n\n
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