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by Katie Erickson

“Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations. 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. You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters.
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. 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.” (Habakkuk 3:11-19)

For the past two weeks (here and here), we’ve been looking at Habakkuk’s prayer to God. Today’s passage is the conclusion both of his prayer and of this short book that we’ve been studying. What better way to end it than on the theme of rejoicing in the Lord, even when circumstances appear difficult.

This section of Habakkuk’s prayer starts with God’s created order. The sun and the moon represent that order, and the image of them standing still means that order is disrupted. Arrows and lighting refer to a storm, which is further disruption. Habakkuk uses these images to show how he feels that the world is no longer working right when the people are not following God’s law; it’s as if the sun and the moon no longer appear as moving in the sky as they are supposed to.

Habakkuk brings up God’s prior deliverance of Israel, and he is confident that God will deliver them again and that Israel will once again become powerful. Remember back in Habakkuk 1:2-4 how Habakkuk was pleading with God for deliverance? As the course of this prophetic book goes on, Habakkuk hears God’s responses and remembers God’s power, and he is now confident that God will deliver them. However, he doesn’t express confidence that it will be smooth sailing; Habakkuk knows that the people need to pay for their sins. But deliverance can come in all sorts of forms.

There is a lot of military language in this passage, which shows how God had destroyed and will destroy Israel’s enemies. God had shown His power in delivering the people from Egypt many years before, and God will show His power again by delivering them from the Babylonians. There will be judgment on Israel by the Babylonians, but then God will judge the Babylonians as well.

We see specifically that Habakkuk himself does not expect to be exempt from the effects of God’s judgment. He says in 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.” Even if Habakkuk was more righteous than most in Israel, he is still part of the nation and will still suffer the consequences of God’s judgment.

We could pity Habakkuk for this, or make him a victim. But what is Habakkuk’s response? Rejoicing! In verses 18-19 he says, “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.”

If I had to choose a theme for my current season of life, it would be similar to Habakkuk’s refrain: The joy of the Lord is my strength. Even when life is terrible, I still have the joy of the Lord and nothing can take that away from me. I may forget it at times and need to be reminded, but even in difficult circumstances that may or may not be consequences from my bad choices, I can have joy. The song Joy of the Lord by Rend Collective has recently become my theme song to help remind me of this.

What do you do in your life when your circumstances are difficult? Do you become miserable and consider yourself a victim, or do you rejoice in the Lord? The choice is yours.

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