Habakkuk 3:17-19

Yet I will Rejoice…

Bible Passage: Hab 3:17-19

Introduction: These final verses written by the prophet Habakkuk is one of the most touching in all of Scripture. This Psalm fits as one of the great affirmations of true faith in God. His circumstances have not changed. The outer world with its evil conduct and warfare remains the same. God’s people remain in a time of lamentation and sorrow. The prophet, however, turns to praise…Why?

He has heard God’s voice and seen God’s vision. As his name means, Habakkuk has embraced God and his plans. Even though Yahweh has chosen to judge Israel, in no way does this dismiss the Lord’s loving nature.

Habakkuk turns from Habakkuk 1:2 “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?” to Habakkuk 3:18 “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

The answer to all of your questions to God that begin with Why? Is Who! Specifically…who is your strength and who is your salvation.

**READ/PRAY**

Plural Noun Proposition: In Habakkuk 3:17-19, the prophet expresses to you a profound prayer of joy despite the hardships and desolation surrounding him. In 3 ways this ending prayer illustrates that in the midst of real suffering and hardship, you can choose to rejoice in the strength of the Lord.

1. Your Suffering is Real v17

Habakkuk 3:17 “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,”

The failure of crops and the absence of livestock were curses forewarned by Moses if Israel was unfaithful to God’s covenant

Deuteronomy 28:15–19 ““But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.”

Now some scholars believe that v17 describes a series of facts than a series of possibilities. Some say that this was a possibility and may not have happened yet, that Habakkuk is prophesying about the future.

What I believe is the true meaning of this verse is the complete economic disaster on Judah. The specific terms of the economy of Israel.

The six clauses of v. 17 seem to be in ascending order of severity, with the loss of figs ranking least and the loss of the herd in the stalls causing the greatest economic damage.

Figs served as a delicacy in Israel, but their loss did not produce severe hardship. Grapes provided the daily drink, but again the loss of the fruit of the vine would produce inconvenience rather than a substantial loss.

The olive crop on the other hand produced oil for cooking and lighting. Grain (barley and wheat) provided for the staple diet of Palestine. The failure of the fields to produce food might mean starvation for large segments of the population.

Both sheep and cattle made up much of the wealth of Palestine. Sheep and goats provided wool and the occasional meat for the Israelite diet. Hebrews did not normally eat cattle, but they were used for preparing the soil for planting and other heavy work.

The loss of any of these individually might be survived. Together, the losses spelled economic disaster and devastating loss of hope—loss of their daily provisions, loss of their economic strength, loss of the Lord’s blessing due to their sin (Lev 26; Deut 28; Amos 4:6–9; Hag 1:6–11).

You know I remember going to Marine Corps bootcamp and the first 72 hours you don’t sleep! I remember we were so busy, being shuffled from haircuts, to uniforms, to medical, to chow, to the armory, and to the barracks. From the moment I landed on the yellow footprints, it was so hard. Grown men with muscles and sweat pouring down their faces were yelling and screaming and commanding us to move quickly. Every night in the beginning you could hear weeping of young men crying themselves to sleep in their bunks. I remember thinking to myself one night…13 more weeks of this? It was overwhelming. Gone were my video games, gone were my friends, gone were private showers, gone was good food, actually the food was pretty good. But something strange began to happen as bootcamp moved along. We started to understand that through these trials we would become stronger, stronger together. We began to understand that the suffering we were going through was creating unity and trust in one another and in our Drill Instructors.

In the same way, like Habakkuk, you may look at your own sufferings that seem overwhelming right now. Some trials may be happening due to your own sin or maybe it has come upon you and it is outside of your control. Or maybe you think of the children suffering in war torn countries with only the darkness of Islam and false religions to help them. And you think, what can I do? Who can I turn to? For some reason, suffering can cause you to run from God can’t it? It may even cause you to try and take matters into your own hands. The problem with that is that you have limited knowledge and very little power. And when you try to make things better in your own flesh, what usually happens, things can get worse. You say things you didn’t mean to say or you do things that you will later regret. The result of that will be that depression may start to come into your mind, helplessness clouds you when you think of the state of the world will enter your heart.

The answer of course is to trust that the Lord is sovereign and what’s done is always what’s best. You may be thinking, easy for you to say but believe that God’s plan for your life is exactly what is needed. Or whatever God is doing in the world is perfect, despite your suffering. Understand this, that trials are inherent to life. But as your faith matures you will see that lament is part of spiritual growth and by admitting your struggles and confusion in prayer to God, he will help you recognize your dependence on Him. And He promises to hear you and give you understanding.

So if you are dealing with a personal trial, whether it’s financial, health issues, family dynamics, or a relationship that involves personal loss, consider turning to God in prayer first. Before reacting. But not just to pray for help in your trial, but prayer in gratitude for all that God has done in your life to be grateful for. This will shift your focus from your suffering to the blessings you have. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” This will bring you a sense of peace and hope in the midst of your trial.

In this month’s Voice of the Martyrs they have a “where are they now” issue. One story involved a girl, who at the age of 11 placed her faith in Christ. Her father was angry and considered her dead to him. He locked her in a closet and prayed to Allah that the next time he saw her that she would be dead. She lived. For six months, her brother snuck her food. The police came and found her at 46 lbs close to death. Over 20 surgeries and many years later, she met her father and he will not repent and feels no sorrow for what he did to her. But this story isn’t about the hopelessness of Islam, the girl, still using crutches to walk was adopted by a Christian family who loved her and continues to care for her and helps her to forgive her father, which she has done only through the love of Christ.

And like Habakkuk, in the midst of hard circumstances, she was able, through real suffering say “yet… I will rejoice in the Lord” and so can you. Think right now, whatever it is, whatever pain you are experiencing, whatever trial you are going through or have gone through, or maybe someone you love is going through something…and say it… “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” Do this every time and you will be able to find the joy in your salvation…

2. Your Salvation is Joy v18

Habakkuk 3:18 “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

This is more than a toughing it out or hanging in there. Habakkuk would be joyful in the God of his salvation

James 1:2 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,”

Romans 8:35–37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

“It is right and proper to voice appreciation of God’s goodness when he bestows all that is necessary for life, health, and prosperity. But when these things are lacking, to rejoice in God for his own sake is evidence of pure faith.”

But maybe like Israel, your suffering is because of your own sinful heart. And the consequences of your sin has brought you discipline from the Lord in the way of suffering and trial because you earned it and deserve it.

In Psalm 51, David’s song of a broken and contrite heart. He calls out to God in Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

If we believe through the Spirit, that the Father sent the Son to die for our sins, then we believe that our triune God is a loving God and a loving Father.

I don’t know about you but if I got into trouble, my dad was the last one I ran to. Some of you may have had a different dad, a dad that when you got in trouble you ran to him instead of away from him.

And that is what David did in Psalm 51. In the midst of understanding his own sin and the suffering that God would allow him to experience because of it…David turns to his father in repentance and asks him to restore to him the joy of his salvation.

“The words ‘rejoice’ and ‘exult’ each have the cohorative [sic cohortative: “I will”] attached. This is the strongest possible way to say that one is determined to rejoice in the Lord regardless of what does or does not happen. Faith means loving and serving God regardless of circumstances.” “The literal is, ‘I will jump for joy in the Lord; I will spin round for delight in God.’ Here is the hilarity of faith!—joy at its best with circumstances at their worst! What a victory! May it be ours!”

Paul and Silas in Acts 16, prayed and sang hymns at midnight while sitting in prison

Peter and the apostles in Acts 5:40–41 “and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”

Peter says later in 1 Peter 4:13 “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”

I remember reading in Fox’s Book of Martyrs so many amazing stories of church martyrs who were joyfully willing to give up their lives for Jesus Christ. One story was of a woman that gathered children around her in her arms and called the wild beasts their friends – the wild beats that were about to kill them in the arena with spectators watching. She said, “These wild beasts are our friends because they’re going to usher us into the presence of our Beloved King.”

Does your joy in your salvation sound like these? It should, shouldn’t it? You see there is no joy in this world. If you do find happiness it is most likely temporary. The danger of not having joy in your salvation is that you will be searching for it in things that were never created to bring you joy. Work? No. Marriage? No, not eternally. Money? Absolutely not. The result of that will be that when you hear the gospel, you may be so skeptical of the promise of joy that you will reject it, and by doing so reject the only thing that will actually bring you joy…Jesus.

I want you right now to stop and think about one thing about Jesus that has brought you joy. Forgiveness, rescue, mercy, love, access to heaven, friends in the body of Christ, prayer, hope for eternity? Meditate on those joyful things daily, rehearse the eternal joy that comes from knowing your Savior.

The grace of our Lord has brought you an indescribable inheritance that is awaiting you. This world is not the end for you if you are in Christ, this place is a hard and dark beginning, but the light has come into the world for you and everlasting joy is awaiting you.

This is easier said than done…so beg the Lord for strength…

3. Your Strength is God v19

Habakkuk 3:19 “God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.”

God, the Lord, is my strength

Here Habakkuk uses the strongest words available as the name of God. Literally ‘Yahweh Adonai’. This is the only place outside of the Psalms that this phrase is used and no wonder because this is Habakkuk’s Psalm.

Like Isaiah 12:2 ““Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.””

This echoes the beautiful words of Moses in Exodus 15:2 “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

Habakkuk’s strength is not from himself, he recognizes this. His trust was not in himself or Israel, but in God alone.

Israel’s source of security was not in their agriculture, army, and livestock but in Yahweh. And God is still worthy to be praised whether he provides those things for his people or decides not to.

That should be your assurance as well. Your confidence should never rest in visible and temporal blessings but always in the unshakeable new covenant with God, found in Christ.

You see Habakkuk communicates a personal God. My strength, and on to ‘he makes my feet like the deer’s, he make me tread on my high places.’

Israel fell from God’s grace. Just like all of us. If it were up to us to hold on to God and keep our salvation, we would eventually let go of him and lose our salvation.

And yet God in his kindness made Habakkuk’s feet like the deer’s

Habakkuk may have been borrowing from David in Psalm 18, Psalm 18:33 “He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. Although the Hebrew words are different, it has the same meaning.

Habakkuk makes the connection here, that it is God who secures us

What does it mean ‘feet like a deer?’

Some are inclined to refer this to Israel’s return to their own country, although they admit another explanation: God will give the swiftest feet to his servants, so that they may pass over all obstacles to destroy their enemies. Others think it is a figure for the irresistible strength that springs from confidence in God.

The simile probably more accurately reflects the grace, sure-footedness and vitality of the deer as it prances and leaps from cliff to cliff without slipping.

Have you seen those deer, I thought they were goats too, that jump off the side of mountains on those narrow little rocks without slipping and falling!? It’s incredible!

But I think it’s more accurate to see God’s help and love for Habakkuk and this is the same love he has for you

Look with me at Habakkuk 3:16 “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.”

God has seen Habakkuk’s body tremble and his lips quiver. God saw his legs tremble. Like a baby deer that was just born and can barely stand up.

And here Habakkuk says, “He makes my weak, scared, shaky, legs, into the legs and the feet of a deer. Sure-footed on solid ground. High up. In the high places. The sense of feet like a deer means to dance or leap. If you’ve ever seen a baby deer leaping, doesn’t it seem joyful?

This reminds me of Hebrews 12:11–13 “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”

Now the word ‘heights’ for high placesdoes not refer to the mountains of Israel, but to the place of conquest and domain, to the high places of salvation that are climbed only by faith Habakkuk 2:4 ““Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” It denotes the ultimate triumph of the people of God over all oppression. The clause points back to Deuteronomy 32:13 and 33:29, where in both cases the context is the joyful conquest and possession of the land.

I wonder friends, is God your strength? When your knees knock together when you are afraid, do you turn to him to make your feet like those of a deer? I know I haven’t but I pray that I can remember this.

I have an old Macbook Air, the charge lasts about 30 minutes. When the battery turns red, I pull out the charger and it clicks back in and just like that, I get a lightning bolt and I keep on typing away. In the same way friends, your lack of strength is because you have unplugged from God. And so how do you plug back in?

Intentional prayer at specific times, scheduled Bible reading with a plan, fellowship, come to church for both services, I know it’s alot. But unless you want to be like my Macbook and die every 30 minutes, you need to plug into the source of your strength and that is God. And he has given you so many ways and this church to help you do that!

I have enjoyed our time in this book together. Habakkuk reminds us that we can cry out to God, that we can accept our discipline from God with understanding and trust, that we can receive hardships and sufferings that are real and still know that God loves us. We can find joy in our salvation, especially when we consider the world has no joy to offer us. And in our weakness, we always have a loving Father that will strengthen us. Remembering that the righteous shall live by faith.

When I think about how suffering for all of you is different than mine but just as real and devastating it breaks my heart, when I think about you experiencing joy in your salvation it brings me joy, And when I think about you turning to God for strength, it reminds me of Jesus.

For your sin, Christ suffered a real death on the cross

For the joy set before him, Christ endured the cross

For the strength, Christ prayed to His Father on the way to the cross

You see this is the application of this book…embrace the cross. In the midst of your real suffering, lack of joy in salvation, and spiritual weakness. Focus all your hope on that instrument of death where God’s wrath and mercy met 2000 years ago for you.

5912 Hope has a thick skin and will endure many a blow; it will put on patience as a vestment, it will wade through a sea of blood, it will endure all things if it be of the right kind, for the joy that is set before it. Hence patience is called “patience of hope,” because it is hope that makes the soul exercise patience and long-suffering under the cross, until the time comes to enjoy the crown.

John Bunyan

3All of the sacrifice you will have to make, all of the suffering you will have to endure, and all of the evil this world throws at you…my prayer is that you will look at your life humbly and pray with me…Although all of this is happening, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.