Welcome to the last week of our series called Habakkuk. In this series, we’ve been exploring the little Old Testament book called Habakkuk. We thought the name of the book was so cool that we just make it the name for this whole series, too.
Habakkuk is a book that we usually ignore, but in this series, God is showing us why we shouldn’t do that. This book is a powerful part of Scripture. Even though some of the wording seems antiquated and out-of-date, the book is incredibly relevant to contemporary issues we face in our lives. That’s especially true of the text we’re going to explore today. The very end of the book of Habakkuk contains what are possibly the most powerful and the most relevant words in the entire book.
And it all has to do with this question…what do you do when life falls apart? Last week we talked about how we react when we stumble in our faith. When our spiritual lives lose their luster and our walk with Christ seems to stagnate. But what do you do when it goes beyond that? What do you do when your life absolutely comes apart at the seams?
It’s happening all around us in our country. It’s happening to people in our church. It happens when you lose a job that you thought was secure. It happens when you see your investments and retirement disappear like a puff of smoke. It happens when you lose your home. It happens at the very mention of the word, “divorce.” It happens when the doctor sits down and says, “I’ve got some bad news.” It happens when a person that you love dearly is suddenly taken away from you.
There are times when life can knock your legs right out from under you. Most of the time you never see it coming. Things were going so well, but now everything is falling apart.
How does a Christ-follower react in those situations? As God’s people, how do we respond when life falls apart?
In chapter 3 of his book, Habakkuk wrote some words that absolutely stopped me cold when I read them. Habakkuk wrote these words approximately 2600 years ago. But he could have just as easily written them today. This is so incredibly relevant to the times we live. In an age of a plunging stock market, bank bailouts, job losses, and home foreclosures, listen to the words of God’s prophet, Habakkuk.
“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.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18, NIV)
I’m going to take some time to break these verses down for you, but first, we need to remember the setting for this book. Habakkuk lived in an agricultural society. Crops and livestock were the source of income for most people in this culture.
Everything started falling apart for the Israelites, though, because the Babylonians were invading Israel and taking God’s people captive. And they were destroying everything in their path, including all of Israel’s crops and animals.
And in that horrible setting, listen to what Habakkuk writes. We’re actually going to work through these verses backwards. Habakkuk said, “…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.”
Like I said, this was an agricultural society. People relied heavily on crops and animals to support their families. But after the Babylonian invasion, it was all taken away from them. Habakkuk said that there were no sheep in the pens or cattle in the stalls.
From an economic perspective, sheep and cattle were the financial reserves for most people. They didn’t have a lot of investment opportunities. Savings accounts didn’t exist. Most people’s financial reserves were found in livestock. It was an investment that they could always count on. Cows would produce calves. Sheep would produce lambs. And in tough times, people could always draw on these reserves.
But not now. Habakkuk said that the pens and stalls were empty. Their savings had dried up. They had no reserves to fall back on. To put it in today’s terms, there is no money in the bank. No more equity in your house. Your investments have tanked. Your retirement fund is wiped out. All your financial reserves are gone.
See what I mean when I say that this book is incredibly relevant to our lives today? This is happening to people all around us. And maybe it’s happening to you.
Habakkuk also said that, “though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food…I will rejoice in the LORD.”
The olive crop and the farm fields refer to things that the people were trusting in right now. They refer to your present means. But in Habakkuk’s life, the present source of income for the people was wiped out. The olive crop and the other farm fields failed.
Ray Fowler points out that, “the word “fails” in the Hebrew is a word that means “to deceive, to disappoint.”
So here’s the idea. You have planted and cultivated the fields, you have worked the land, tended the crops and now it is finally time for harvest, and the crops fail. The fields produce no food. It was all a deception. All that hard work, all that effort, and it all comes to nothing.
In our cultural context, it looks like this. You get laid off after years of faithful service to the company. You lose your job and have no current source of income. The very thing that you were counting on to sustain you today is gone. And keep in mind, Habakkuk already told us that the people’s reserves were gone. So not only did they have no income for today, but they had nothing to fall back on, either.
And, the worst part is that there was not a single sign that things were going to get any better. Habakkuk began this passage by saying, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines…I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
The blossoms on the fig tree and the grapes forming on the vine refer to those things you are trusting in for days to come. They are a symbol of your hopes for the future. It is just a blossom, just a flower, and yet it is a tangible sign that the figs and the grapes are coming. But in this scenario there are no signs for the future. The fig tree does not bud. There are no grapes on the vine. There is no visible sign that these things will ever come to be.
Do you have hopes and dreams for the future, but no visible signs that they will ever come to fruition? Do you ever feel like saying, “God, please just give me a little sign, some type of hope that things are going to change, something to hold on to?” If so, then you know how Habakkuk felt. All hope of future prosperity, all hope of brighter days ahead seemed to be gone.
In Habakkuk’s situation, God’s people had lost their savings, their reserves that they had worked so hard to build up. To make matters worse, their current source of income was gone. And to cap it off, there was absolutely no sign that things were going to get better. There wasn’t a single thing that pointed toward a brighter future or a better tomorrow.
For the Israelites, life really had fallen apart. They didn’t have a government to bail them out. They didn’t have social services. There was no such thing as an unemployment check. There was no family to rely on because everyone was in the same boat. Everyone had their past, present, and future financial hopes crushed. They had literally lost everything. Their lives had absolutely come apart at the seams.
When you fully understand the impact of what had happened to Habakkuk and the rest of the Israelites, what he says in verse 18 makes no sense. Habakkuk said, “I’ve lost everything. My past, present, and future financial hopes are gone. I literally have nothing. Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
At this point, Habakkuk almost sounds schizophrenic. He has just told us how bad things were. It was a totally miserable situation. His life and the lives of all of God’s people had completely fallen apart. Yet he was joyful. It doesn’t sound like the boy was quite right, does it? This just does not make sense…until you understand this truth.
Joy is a choice. Joy is not based on your circumstances. Joy is not dependent on what happens to you. I’ve told you this axiom before, but it’s worth repeating again. Warren Wiersbe said that, “Happiness depends on right happenings. But even when things go wrong, you can have joy.” That’s because joy is a choice.
This may sound a bit harsh, but if you’re miserable, it’s because you have chosen to be miserable. Joy is a choice. Misery is also a choice.
Now, please get this. I’m not saying you should be happy. For a lot of us, life really is falling apart. Our finances are in trouble. Our family is in upheaval. The results from our last medical test were not good. We’ve lost someone that we deeply cared for. Life really has knocked our legs out from under us. I’m not suggesting that you should be happy about that. If that did make you happy, I would wonder what you’ve been smoking.
But joy and happiness are two separate things. Happiness is based on your situation. But joy is a choice.
Habakkuk wasn’t at all happy about what was happening in his life. We saw that last week. He cried out and complained to God. He was not the least bit happy about what was happening, and he very bluntly and very directly told God that he was not happy about it.
But even though life was falling apart all around him, he was still able to say, “yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
Notice where his joy was found. It didn’t come from his situation. It came from his God. I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in God my Savior. In Habakkuk’s life, God was the one thing that hadn’t changed. The Lord was the one and only constant in his life. He was the only sure thing that Habakkuk had.
And the very same thing is true for us. It’s so easy for us to begin to trust in different things in our lives. But none of it is a sure thing. The only constant, the only sure thing we have is God. That’s why our source of joy has to be God. Anything else will bring nothing but disappointment and pain.
Now, look at what Habakkuk said in the very next verse. “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:19a, NIV)
Everything else had crumbled around him, but he knew that his source of strength was God. One guaranteed way to be miserable and to remain miserable is to believe that everything depends on you. You have to fix your financial mess. You have to fix your family. You have to fix everything that is broken in your life.
I’ve got some bad news for you…you can’t. Remember the first message in our Habakkuk series? You and I can’t do anything on our own. Anything we do, we can do because God gives us the strength to do it.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you should be lazy and do nothing. What I’m saying is that you can’t fix anything on your own. You’ve got to partner with God. Follow his leading. Tap into his strength.
We can have joy in the worst of circumstances because we know that God is stronger than our circumstances. He is bigger than our problems. He is greater than our pain.
Whatever is happening in your life right now, God is bigger than that. Whatever pain you brought with you this morning, your God is greater than that. But what do you do when you see no evidence of that truth?
You might believe that God is almighty and all-powerful. You believe that he is bigger than your problems and your pain. But what do you do when there is no tangible evidence of that?
Habakkuk’s answer is one word: wait. Listen to what he said in chapter 3, verse 16. “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.” (Habakkuk 3:16, NIV)
Habakkuk saw the Babylonian invasion. He saw the desperation of his people. He saw the destruction of his entire life. And like I said earlier…he wasn’t at all happy about it. In fact, this passage tells us that even his health was affected. He was completely stressed out. These verses kind of sound like he was having a panic attack.
But then, he said, “I’m going to wait. I’m going to wait patiently on God. I’m stressed out. Things are a mess. I’m scared to death. But I can’t fix any of this on my own. I am going to force myself to wait patiently for God to deal with our invaders. I’m going to wait for him to restore our nation and make everything right again. I’m going to wait for God to do a powerful work in my life.”
I realize that this doesn’t sound incredibly spiritual. And this is probably not the answer that you’re hoping for. But sometimes, when life absolutely sucks, the only thing you can do is wait.
Listen to these words from the prophet Jeremiah. Keep in mind that we learned last week that Jeremiah was a contemporary of Habakkuk. He lived during the same time and experienced the same devastation that Habakkuk experienced.
In Lamentations 3, Jeremiah wrote, “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” (Lamentations 3:22-26, NKJV)
Sometimes the only thing you can do is wait for the Lord. I realize that this is not terribly comforting if you’re hurting right now.
When I have a headache, I go straight to the medicine cabinet. I’m looking for something that will take away my pain. But I don’t just want a medicine to take away my pain. I want a medicine to take away my pain now! For me, it’s Advil. I take Advil because it gets rid of my pain and it does it faster than any other medicine I’ve ever taken.
When we’re hurting, we want relief and we want it quick. Unfortunately, God doesn’t work like some fast-acting headache medicine. He has promised to take away our pain, but he never promised to do it quickly. So there are seasons in our lives when the only option we have is waiting.
Jeremiah said in these verses that it’s good to wait on the Lord. Now, it doesn’t feel good at the time. When you’re waiting on God, it feels like you’re spinning your wheels. It feels like you’re doing nothing. It feels like you’re waiting on empty promises from an absent God.
Some of you know all too well what I’m talking about. Because you’re waiting, but God isn’t delivering. And you’re just about ready to throw in the towel. You feel like you’re waiting on something that is never going to happen.
As difficult as it is, remember that you have an incredibly limited perspective on the situation. You can’t see how this will eventually play out. You don’t know the end of the story. You can’t see past your pain. But God can.
There’s a great verse in John 13. Jesus was washing his disciples’ feet, which was considered to be a job only for a servant or a slave…not for the Son of God. When Jesus came to wash Peter’s feet, Peter objected. There was no way he was going to let Jesus wash his feet.
Here’s what Jesus said to him. “Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13:7, NIV)
The ways of God are above us. We don’t always understand what he’s doing at the time. Peter didn’t realize that, in the kingdom of God, the servant is the greatest of all. Jesus was doing something that Peter just couldn’t comprehend at the time.
If you’re in a painful season in your life, Jesus’ words to Peter carry an important truth for you. “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
Pain doesn’t always make sense. If your life seems to be falling apart, I can’t give you a neat and tidy answer as to why it’s happening. We usually don’t have the luxury of understanding why we’re in a painful situation.
So in absence of solid answers, all I can give you is the words of Jesus. “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
And until the time of understanding, until the time of healing and restoration comes, the best Scriptural advice I can give you is wait. Keep hanging on. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is just get out of bed and fight through another day. Keep hanging tough until God delivers you from your pain.
But the good news is that God will deliver you from your pain. Listen to this promise from the book of Isaiah. “No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:17, NIV)
Steven Furtick said, “This verse promises that no weapon formed against the child of God will prosper. But that doesn’t mean the weapon won’t be formed against you. In fact, it almost certifies that it will.
Every accusation leveled at God’s servants will be refuted in the end. But that won’t stop accusations from coming. It assumes that they will.
God is our healer…but that doesn’t mean you’ll never battle sickness.
God is our comfort…but that doesn’t mean you’ll never contend with loneliness.
God is our provider….but that doesn’t exempt you from trials or tribulations.
The struggles you’re facing don’t disprove God’s promises. They’re the very reason He made the promises to begin with.”
His promise isn’t that you will never experience pain. His promise is that your pain is temporary and, in His time, he will deliver you. He will heal you.
The question for us revolves around what we do in the interim. What do you do when life is falling apart, you don’t have any answers, and you’re waiting for God to move?
Listen to the words of Habakkuk again. “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.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18, NIV)
Here’s the question for every one of us to ask ourselves…can I worship God in the midst of my pain? Can I praise him even when life doesn’t make sense? Can I trust him enough to continue to give him glory while my life seems to be falling apart?
Our band opened this service with the song Praise You in This Storm. Think about the chorus on that song.
I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm
For a lot of us, there is a storm that’s raging in our lives. Life is really tough. For some of us, it seems to be completely falling apart. Right now, you have a chance to come to your Heavenly Father. Tell him exactly what you’re feeling. Give him your hurt, your anger, your frustration, your pain. But then, renew your commitment to wait on him. Commit to wait on the powerful work that he wants to do in your life. And while you wait, praise him. Worship him. Love him. And understand that he will eventually reward your faithfulness during this storm in a powerful way.
Mike Edmisten