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A few years ago, my daughters bought a couple of guinea pigs. One thing I noticed about these guinea pigs is that they were filled with anxiety. They would run into their homes at the slightest outside movement. If you tried to pet them, they would freak out. It was understandable, though. They are little creatures in a big world. There are a lot of animals that would like to eat them. So, their anxious system helps protect them.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized, we are a lot like guinea pigs. We are ready to run at the slightest sign of danger, whether real or not. We have a lot of anxiety. There’s good reason to have anxiety. We are small in a big world. There are a lot of dangers. There are many things we can’t control that affect our well-being. However, it’s worse for us. Our imagination is much greater than that of guinea pigs. We can see and imagine all sorts of threats that they would never think about.
Here’s the problem. Our anxieties can help us avoid threats, but they can also become debilitating. In the face of overwhelming circumstances, we can lose all hope. Joy can disappear. We can settle into bitterness and become enslaved to worry. So, how do we work through the struggle and find a joy that arises from hope? That is the message that the prophet Habakkuk has for us. In this prophecy, we have a glimpse of how Habakkuk struggled with anxiety over the events in his nation. In the end, he came to a place of joy. How did he find it? That’s what we will consider in this passage. We will consider this in three steps, the problems Habakkuk sees, the vision Habakkuk sees, and the joy Habakkuk finds.
The Problems Habakkuk Sees
Habakkuk was a prophet in the southern kingdom of the Jews, Judah. He was concerned about what he saw there.
How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted (1:2–4).
Do you ever cry out like that? Do you ever look at what is happening in your nation and cry out for justice? That’s what Habakkuk was doing.
The Lord had an answer. He was going to punish the unjust rulers of Judah. The Lord said, “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians . . .” (Hab. 1:5–6). The empire of Assyria had fallen, and now God was raising up another empire, Babylon. This empire would punish the people of Judah for their many crimes against God and man.
Now, this was not a very satisfying answer for Habakkuk. Imagine people complaining about the injustices in our nation. There are complaints on both sides of the aisle about the injustices of the other party. Now, imagine that God says to one of them, don’t worry about the injustice. I am going to deal with it. I am going to send China to punish you. What would that person think? Probably what Habakkuk thought about Babylon. Don’t they have a lot of injustices of their own? Here’s how Habakkuk puts it:
Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
God is not one who tolerates evil. So, how can God use such an evil nation?
The Lord then gives the answer. He will certainly deal with Babylon, too. He says:
You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed!
The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you,
and disgrace will cover your glory.
The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them (Hab. 2:16–17).
God was going to deal with the injustices of Babylon, and Habakkuk could count on it. So, what conclusion did Habakkuk draw from all this? All people should humble themselves before the Lord. “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (2:20).
The Vision Habakkuk Sees
God confirmed His intention to right all wrongs with a vision that He gave to Habakkuk. Habakkuk described it in a prayer to God. Habakkuk remembered all that God has done and he cried out to God to do something again. “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2). He wanted God to do something. Do you ever get in situations like that? Do you ever look at your nation, family, church, and community and just long for God to intervene like He did long ago? Do you desire to see people turning to the Lord with humility and repentance? Do it again in our day, God, we might say! That’s what Habakkuk was praying for.
As He did this, He saw God coming like He came long ago. He saw Him coming on the clouds like He did at Mount Sinai when He gave the Ten Commandments. “God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden” (3:3–4). When God comes down, it is awesome and glorious.
When God comes down, nature can barely stand it. The mountains crumble before him: “He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed—but he marches on forever” (3:6). All that which seems most secure in this world collapses before Him. Like the Red Sea, the waters stand up and move apart at His coming. “Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high” (3:10). It’s quite a vision and worth considering carefully.
One key to this vision is that Habakkuk saw God coming to destroy the enemy. “You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding” (Hab. 3:13–14). God comes and destroys the enemy like He did to Pharaoh when He brought His people out of Egypt.
Now, what does this all refer to? I don’t think we need to see a specific prophecy here. Rather, it gives us a vision of how God comes in history and at the end of history. This is what happens when God comes to deal with the problems of the world. It is mighty and glorious and awesome. It makes our heart pound, as Habakkuk says happened to him.
God comes over and over again in history to intervene. He does this in the life of individuals, nations, families, churches, and communities. There are also the great events of history. The most important is when God came and took out the great enemy, Satan, in the death and resurrection of Christ. Listen to how Paul described this coming:
He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Col. 2:14–15).
God came down in Christ and conquered Satan, sin, and death. The victory is definitive, but it is not yet complete. That will occur when Jesus comes again at the end of time and finally casts Satan into the lake of fire, raises up His people, and abolishes death forever. That’s what we are looking forward to! That is the final fulfillment of the vision of Habakkuk.
So, we need to see this vision in Habakkuk, a vision of God coming with power to make all things right. This is a way of seeing what God has done, is doing, and will do for His people. He will come down and bring a great victory. We do not need to have any doubt about how things will turn out. This is especially true since we have seen God come down in the cross and make a spectacle of His enemies on the cross. This assures us that all things will turn out well!
The more we can see this vision, the more assured we will be in the ups and downs of our lives and of the nation.
The Joy Habakkuk Finds
But what if things don’t turn out quite like we’d like? What if our economy collapses? What if we lose our home? What if we have to use up our retirement savings? What if we get cancer? What if our kids go off the rails? What if our spouse dies? These are the sorts of things that make us very anxious, and these are the sorts of things that Habakkuk was contemplating. He said,
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 . . . (Habakkuk 3:18)
What happens if everything falls apart?
Well, Habakkuk gives us a surprising declaration in the face of these anxieties: “yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (3:19). Notice that he does not just say that he will be OK. He says that he will find joy. His spirit will rise up in joy. How can this be?
The reason is that Habakkuk has seen a vision of God? Read the rest of the chapter. It is this vision of God and the awareness of all that He has done that gives Habakkuk an ability to rejoice even as he contemplates great calamities.
This is not something that Habakkuk produced on his own. “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (Hab. 3:20).
So, how do we find joy in the midst of life’s anxieties? Let me show you what Habakkuk did, and that will give you some guidance.
First, he did not ignore life’s problems. We often try not to think about potential calamities or the bad things that can happen and keep them below the surface. We don’t want to think about them because it’s painful. That’s not what Habakkuk did. He looked the worst possibilities in the face!
Second, he wrestled with the problems. This book is a like a wrestling match with the big difficulties of life. We should not think of joy as something that comes easily. True joy will only be won after hard labor. Look at how the psalm writers wrestled with God. It’s not easy to find peace and joy in a world filled with anxieties.
Third, he brought the problems to God. He spoke to God about them. He didn’t just wrestle with them on his own. He brought them before God and wrestled with them before God. It’s easy for us to think we have to have everything figured out before we talk to God. Not true. In fact, the opposite is true. The Bible is clear that God wants us to pour our hearts out before Him.
Fourth, he found a vision of God that brought joy. It was only after this wrestling with his emotions and the challenges of life that he was able to find joy in God. Once he got that vision, though, he was able to find joy even in the midst of life’s anxieties.
We might ask at this point, what is joy? True joy is an elation or exaltation of spirit that arises from a firm conviction that all things will turn out well. That’s exactly the gift that God gave Habakkuk. God gave Habakkuk the gift of seeing. Habakkuk was able to see that all things would turn out well, that God would sort it all out. “The Sovereign Lord” was his strength (Hab. 2:20). That conviction is even more clear for us because we have seen the Father send His own Son for us to die in our place and suffer the cruel death on the cross so that we could be forgiven. “So, we can have confidence. As the Apostle Paul says, He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:33).
That’s the conviction that God gave to Habakkuk that all things will turn out well, and that’s what God will do for us, too. He can give us the ability to find joy in the midst of life’s anxieties. If we are willing to enter into that process of wrestling with God, God will show us who He is and what He will do that will give us joy that arises from a firm conviction so we can say with 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 (Hab. 3:18).
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