Though the fig tree does not blossom …. yet I will rejoice in the Lord

The context of this quote from Habakkuk 3:17,18 is of devastation following the spiritual decline of God’s people. Habakkuk had been questioning the Lord, he could not seem to understand why people were able to get away with what they were getting away with. There was such injustice, such depravity, and people were seemingly living at ease (Chapter 1). However the nation stood under the discipline of God, and was starting to reap the consequences of having turned its back on Him. Under the law, God would actually send pestilence and famine, and would even bring down armies on Israel and send them into exile. In the midst of this Habakkuk wrestles through his pain, his questions and his angst, and in spite of it all declares “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” He can do this, for he knows that the Lord is in His holy temple (Habakkuk 2:20). In other words he knows that God is still on the throne, that He is still in control.

It is my understanding, that in the new covenant God does not actually send calamity, He does however allow for the law of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:7), and when we as a nation turn our backs upon Him, then He withdraws His hand of protection. And we do need to remember that we have an enemy who seeks to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10a). Nevertheless it remains true that the Lord is in His holy temple, that He is in control, and that He has plans for our good (Jeremiah this 29:11). In particular He is working in ways we cannot see, and so with the eyes of faith we set our eyes on Jesus who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). And in doing so, we can choose with Habakkuk, to rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation (Habakkuk 3:18).

In my own experience, Joy is one of the first things to go when I take my eyes off Jesus. And by drawing my attention to this verse again this morning, the Lord is reminding me that I need to choose to rejoice over and over. I mean Habakkuk’s struggle seems so strangely current, with the spiritual bankruptcy of his time paralleling the spiritual bankruptcy of our own! But if we exhibit joy in the midst of it all, then together with the other fruit of the Spirit, it becomes a strong testimony to the world that there is a deeper reality than the temporal reality of the here and now. So if I am fully convinced that we have not believed cunningly devised fables, and I am, then with Habakkuk I choose this morning to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of my salvation.

Father, in the verse following the one just quoted, Habakkuk declares “The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like hind’s feet.” It is my understanding that a hind is a kind of female deer that is able to stand in very precarious places. In this morning Lord I am asking you to help me and anyone reading this blog to stand, and having done all to stand. And I ask You Lord to do Your part in helping us to rejoice. And if nothing else Lord, we can choose to rejoice that You have clothed us with garments of salvation, and covered us with robes of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). And so I praise and bless and worship You again this morning Lord, in Jesus Name Amen