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. (3:17-19)
The book of Habakkuk can be depressing. In it we find the prophet crying out to God because He has used a godless nation to punish the nation of Israel. The problem was that by this point Israel was basically as godless as the Babylonians who were invading them. Oh, they had a semblance of religion, but on the inside, they were dead and had broken their covenant with God long ago. God assures Habakkuk that He will punish and remove the Babylonians as well, but first, they must complete the work of judgment on God’s people. Thus, the prophet has to face the thought of impending judgment from Babylon and then waiting until God chooses to remove them.
At the end of it all, Habakkuk realizes that the only real answer is faith and the righteous one must live by faith. He needed faith to trust that this invasion was from the Lord and indeed His will regardless of how painful it would be. He needed faith to believe that one day those who conquered them would also be punished and removed. He needed faith to trust the Lord to see him through what would become the darkest days of his (and the nation’s) life. In the text above, the prophet finally realizes that his only choice is to trust the Lord and to CHOOSE joy. No matter how difficult things might seem around him, he knows that God can make him thrive; even in the darkest of times.
This little phrase, “the righteous will live by faith,” literally changed the world. Paul quoted from Habakkuk and his situation in this book when he wrote the book of Romans. It was that quote that arrested the heart of the great reformer, Martin Luther, and helped him understand what it meant to truly be a Christian. This (along with many other things) sparked a reformation of the church that still ripples out in the world today. The deepest, purest truth of Christianity is that God is sovereign and He is our strength. What we see happening around us, whether good or bad, is irrelevant because He can make us thrive and know joy in the darkest of times. We don’t live by what we see, we live by faith in what we don’t see but know to be true—Jesus is on the throne and the one who trusts in Him will never be shaken.
