Rejoicing While Distressed

Habakkuk 3:16–19 NIV

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Introduction: How do you handle distressing or depressing news?

Distressing News Can Make Us Distressed.

Different ways people handle difficult news.

- Fight - We try to control things - lady who took control in our accounting office. Would not let others help her.

- Flight - Runaway or escape - We deal with the stress by hiding, or escaping into things that can become addictions to ease the pain. - Running to the batting cages

- Freeze - We can't move - like deer in headlights. - hearing the news of Ben's return of leukemia.

- What did change was Habakkuk’s response to what was going on. He moved from a place of frustration to a place of worship.

Encourages us to take honestly take frustrations and questions to God. We can grow in Faith.

How?

The Righteous Rejoice in the Righteous One.

“God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!”

“I got the promotion, God is good!”

“The cancer is gone, God is good!”

“My child came back to the Lord, God is good!”

“Our marriage was saved, God is good!”

But how often do we hear something like this?

“I was let go from my job, God is good!”

“We thought he was getting better, but he took a turn for the worse and died, God is good!”

“My child was arrested last night, God is good!”

“My spouse left me for someone else, God is good!”

The goodness of God is not dependent upon our current set of circumstances. God is good, even when we struggle to see it.

Verse 16 - Description of Depression.

Verse 17 - The source of His Depression - The news that Babylon will take Judah captive.

Verse 18 - He will rejoice in God anyway.

He will not be a victim. He will be a survivor. He lists all the sources of food and agricultural commerce of the ancient world: fig trees, grape vines, olive trees, field produce, sheep, and cattle. Under these terrible conditions, Habakkuk resolves to be joyful, not superficially with eyes closed to the struggle for justice or deliverance but looking truth in the face. - Bruckner - NIVAC

- Phases:

Questioning - God how can you allow evil to continue.

God - Evil begets its own destruction, and it will take a while but I will win over evil.

Habakkuk - In this song remembers How God has saved in the past - He is faithful

So he accepts, he trusts, and he rejoices.

Habakkuk’s resolution is like Job’s: “I spoke … twice but I will say no more” (Job 40:5b); “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10); and “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face” (Job 13:15).

What’s his basis?

Rejoicing in His Promises.

Habakkuk 3:17–18 moments won’t usually happen in our lives without Habakkuk 3:1–16 moments: moments when we remember the goodness and faithfulness of God in the past. Moments when we acknowledge that God has a different perspective from ours. Moments when we make the decision to trust him, even when we don’t like or understand what’s going on. Learning to worship God in the good times prepares us to worship God in the difficult times.

The Gospel helps us see the big picture - Jesus enters and empathizes, Jesus conquers evil on the cross, Jesus defeats the consequences of that evil through His resurrection - All who Trust him will be saved, he has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment for full restoration. - This Gospel helps us accept the now, but not yet, and exult in the God of our salvation.

The second is...

Rejoicing in His Presence.

Habakkuk 3:19 shows us the result of verses 17–18.

When we rejoice in the Lord he strengthens us and enables us to go to higher places than we can on our own.

Most seasoned Christians have walked through a crisis of belief at some point in their lives: a season when they struggled to see God in the midst of their suffering, when they wondered if God was listening to their prayers. But in that trial, their faith grew and developed.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (4:15).

Screw Tape Letters Quote

Honest prayer keeps us linked to God. Those connected to a faith community are able to walk through hardship with the help of friends who can speak truth and encouragement into our hearts, even when our faith is floundering.

Conclusion:

We can learn much from Habakkuk’s extended dialogue with Yahweh. With him we can ask difficult questions (Hab. 1:2–4) and be persistent in questioning (1:12–2:1). We can be historically grounded in God’s mighty acts of deliverance (3:1–15). We are also invited to join him in his profound faith in song (3:16–19). Habakkuk’s humanity and joy are a model and a challenge. May we be witnesses, like Habakkuk, to God’s purposes in a world dominated by corruption. May Yahweh’s kingdom come also to us.

Bruckner, James. Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (The NIV Application Commentary Book 13) (p. 270). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.