Habakkuk 3, verses 16-19. Let us now hear God's Word. When I heard, my body trembled, my lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. When He comes up to the people, He will invade them with His troops, though the fig tree may not blossom. nor fruit beyond the vines. Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet, and he will make me walk on my high hills. To the chief musician with my stringed instruments." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come and think about your Holy Word, and we ask that you would be here, that you would be present by your Holy Spirit to work in our minds and our hearts and help us understand this wonderful passage of Scripture and what you have for us here and all that this passage is intended to teach us. and help us to have joy in you. We ask for your blessing on our studies here, and I pray that you would speak to the hearts of each and every person here through your word tonight. And I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Is there a joy that transcends circumstances? Is there a joy that can be had that is not based upon earthly, temporal things. Most people spend their lives striving after happiness. People want to be happy. They want to be happy, and unfortunately, many times, most of the time, they end up looking in all the wrong places. They end up looking for joy in all the wrong sources. And so they strive after this joy, And just when they think they have grasped it, it slips through their fingers and they realize that it is just fleeting human happiness. The prophet Habakkuk now shows us the way to a joy that transcends circumstances, even disastrous, calamitous circumstances. He resolves now to rejoice in God, even in the face of suffering, even in the face of disaster. And in doing so, he teaches us to do the same. As I said, we began our study last time by thinking about verse 16. What did the prophet tell us in verse 16? Well, we described this, first of all, as his fear. You see all that language of trembling there in the passage. And the prophet's responding to what the Lord has revealed to him in the first couple of chapters of the book. He's responding to, number one, the Babylonian invasion that's on the way. I believe that's what his reference to the one invading, coming to invade, is about. He's talking about Babylon coming to invade Judah and all the destruction and death. and suffering that's going to come along with that. At the same time, he's also had this awesome vision of the Lord that the Lord is coming in judgment. He's coming against Judah in judgment. He's going to use Babylon or the Chaldeans to bring that judgment. and then ultimately he's going to judge Babylon as well. And that causes fear and trembling in the heart of the prophet. But you also see that other word there, right, which we talked about last time, and that is the word rest. The prophet says he's going to rest in the day of trouble, which is kind of a strange thing to say when you think about things from a human perspective. So this day of trouble that's on the horizon that is coming toward Habakkuk and his people is something that the prophet now is planning on resting in, finding rest in that day of trouble. And that leads us now to the next part of our study, which is focused on joy. The prophet is going to respond to this impending disaster with joy in God. So that's where we're going to go now in verses 17 and 18. But first, let's make another connection here between 16, 17 and 18. Let's read 16 again. Now, we argued last week that The last part of verse 16, when he comes up to the people, he will invade them with his troops, is a reference to the Babylonians coming to destroy Judah. And the prophet says that he's going to rest in that day of trouble. And now, right on the heels of that, verse 17, Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. In one way at least, that's a parallel statement that he makes there in v. 17-18. He's saying when they come, when they invade, I will rest. And when that day comes when there's no food, there are no animals, and it's just desolate, I will rejoice. I will join my God. So you see the connection there between rest and joy. The prophet is saying something very similar in v. 17-18 that he said in v. 16. Now Habakkuk goes on to describe here a very bleak and desolate picture in verse 17. This is a picture of a lack of food, of barren lands, barren vines and trees, and the lack of animals that are needed for food and labor, milk, things like that. This is a picture of the Babylonian invasion. What's going to happen when the Chaldean army comes is they're going to ravage the land. And part of what they do when they ravage the land is they produce this situation of famine and this situation of losing their resources that they would depend upon in livestock and fruit coming off trees and vines and things like that. So for example, listen to the description of the Babylonian invasion in 2 Kings 25 verse 3. It says, "...by the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land." So Nebuchadnezzar has come with his army, and what has he produced? He's produced this famine for the people of Judah that is so severe that there's no food to be had for the people of Judah. You can also see this in the prophecy of Jeremiah. Keep your finger here in Habakkuk and turn back to Jeremiah chapter five. As Jeremiah looks ahead here to the coming Babylonian invasion and see how he describes it in similar ways to Habakkuk chapter five and verses 15 to 17. Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord. It is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open tomb. They are all mighty men. Here we go, verse 17. And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall destroy, excuse me, they shall destroy your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword. You see the description there of Babylon and what's gonna come with that are conditions of famine. So that corresponds to what we have here in verse 17 with this description that the prophet gives us. Now, the prophet's going to give us two basic things that cover almost everything. And that is, number one, he's going to describe the devastation on crops, food sources, and on livestock. Livestock. And when you put these two things together, the lack of food and the lack of animals, you've got a desperate situation. You've got a situation of famine. You've got a situation of desolation and despair for the people because there's nothing to eat. There's no animals with which to labor or get milk from and things like that. So let's see how he describes these things in particular. First of all, top of verse 17, Though the fig tree may not blossom. The first thing he references here is the fig tree. Now you know from reading your Bible hopefully that the fig tree is very important in the Bible. It was one of those staple food sources in the Old Testament and in the New Testament for that matter. But the scene pictured here by the prophet is a fig tree that does not blossom, which means what? It's not going to have any fruit. It's not going to provide the fruit that is needed. Now, the Lord, when He brought the people of Israel into the land of Canaan, He described the land to them as a prosperous and fertile land. And one of the indications of that prosperous nature of the land was the presence of figs. Listen to it, Deuteronomy 8, 7 to 8. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey. You hear in that description there many of the things that we have right here in verse So the presence of figs, of fruitful fig trees is a sign of God's blessing on the people and on the land. Now the lack thereof is a sign of what? The opposite of that, right? God's curse and God's judgment. So for example, Jeremiah 8.13. I will surely consume them, says the Lord. No grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade, and the things I have given them shall pass away from them." Okay, so you see how the Lord had brought them into the land of Canaan and blessed them with things like figs, and He tells them, if you disobey Me, I'm going to remove those things, and you see that now in verse 17. In verse 17, the fig tree no longer blossoms. Verse 17, "...nor fruit beyond the vines." Here are the vines which should be producing fruit like grapes from which you would get wine and raisins. But now these vines are without their fruit. This is another indication of lack, of a bad situation for the people of Judah. Number three, failed olives. Though the labor of the olive may fail." The basic idea here is that of olives not producing. Or we might say, though the olive crop fails. There fails to be a harvest because there's no olives to be had. Again, olives are one of those signs of God's blessing of the people and of the land, and the lack thereof, the opposite, the curse of God and the judgment of God. The fourth one. is right after that, and the fields yield no food. So here's the picture of the fields in which wheat, for example, would grow, but there's no wheat there to be had. There's nothing out there in the fields that can be taken to provide sustenance and food for the people. It is a picture of barren farm fields. where there is no food to be had, the crops have failed to be produced or have been stolen by the Babylonians or the land ravaged by them. Once you put all of this together, you've got a picture of what? This means famine. in a very dire circumstance, right, of barren fields, no olives, no figs, barren vines. Now, I've often thought that, I had my wife to thank for this, that just how dependent we are on the grocery store and the food we get from the grocery store, But we, because of my wife, have had a vegetable garden of some sort where we've tried to grow things like cucumbers and squash or what have you. And I've thought from time to time, what if that was our only food source? What if that garden in the backyard was it? How devastating would it be to go out there and see the squash beetles consuming everything? How devastating would it be to see it all turn yellow and wither? Or to have somebody come through and just steal everything that's there? Or the deer come through and eat it all? It would be disastrous. Because then you'd be wondering, where am I going to get something to eat? Well, that's the picture here, verse 17. It is a picture of desolation and famine. And of a lack of food going right along that with that is the livestock. End of verse 17 there, though the flock may be cut off from the fold. So this is a fold, a place where sheep are kept and it is without sheep. There are none there. They are gone. Now, these would be animals that would provide wool and meat, things like that, and this would be a severe blow to a people who would be dependent, to some extent, on an animal like sheep. Again, we know from the Old Testament that the abundance of animals is a sign of blessing. The lack of them is a sign of judgment and God's curse. In addition to that is what we find there at the end of verse 17. There be no herd in the stalls. You go to the place where the cows are kept, to the barn, so to speak, and there are no cows there, which means no milk, no animals to labor, to plow the land, things like that. This too is a picture of desolation. The lack of food and now the lack of animals spells famine and absolute devastation. It is quite possibly the worst picture that could be painted of a situation. It's a very dire situation. Now, what is this? We've already alluded to it, but this is the promised curse of the covenant. Remember God told Israel in the Old Testament, before he brought them into the land, if you obey me, you will be blessed in this land. If you disobey me, you will be cursed. So now let's again, keep our finger in Habakkuk and go back to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 28. You also find this in Leviticus 26, but we'll stick to Deuteronomy here. Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 1. Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Now, what we want to see here is what this blessing consists in. How do we see these blessings that God is going to give to Israel? Drop down to verse four. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. You see the reference there to food and animals. Right? And so God says, I'm going to bless you if you obey. And you're going to see that blessing in terms of an abundance of food and an abundance of animals. Now, let's see the opposite of that. Drop down to verse 15. But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. You see the situation reversed, right? So we've gone from situation of blessing, abundance of food and livestock, situation of cursing and the opposite of that. And that is why we have what we have in Habakkuk chapter three and verse 17. This is the promised curse. So this isn't a surprise. The situation that we have here in this prophetic book is what God told His people was going to happen a long time ago. And this means that God keeps His word. Even words of judgment. Now we want God to keep His word of promise, right? We want God to keep His word that we would say bring blessing and benefit to us. Does God keep his word of cursing and of judgment? Yes, he does. And this shows it. Habakkuk and his people are receiving the curse of the covenant. You can expect God to keep his word, not only when he promises good things, but also when he promises to inflict punishment for sin. So we must believe in the trustworthiness of every one of the words of God, whether it's a word that promises blessing or a word that promises a curse. What should we do with that? If we know God is true to His word, if we know that He says to us, for the wages of sin is death, then we better repent. We'd better turn from our sins and our disobedience and come back to God. so that we might receive his blessings in Christ rather than these promised curses. Let us not be among those who think that God will not keep his word of judgment. Now, this is a dire situation, and we really know nothing about this, right? We know nothing about famine. We know little teeny hardships compared to what we have in verse 17. That's not to minimize our suffering or our hardship, our difficulties of whatever variety they may be. I realize they can be difficult and can be very hard. But in terms of what we're talking about here, this is a picture of desolation. What do we know of these things? We don't. know much, if anything, about these things. As modern Americans, we have never experienced a famine. We've never been without the basic necessities of life. Now, we thought it was bad during COVID-19 when we couldn't get toilet paper or something like that. But obviously, that is nothing. Absolutely nothing compared to the picture that's being painted here in verse 17. We've seen rising food prices. And we have bemoaned this. And maybe we've even complained about it. But that's nothing compared to this. It does not hold a candle to it. I hope that humbles you. It humbles me. it humbles me to think just how small my problems are. Just how little my difficulties are because I'm not in this. I mean, can you imagine what it would be like if tomorrow we woke up and the grocery stores were empty and there was nothing to be had at the store and we didn't know what we were gonna do? How would we respond to such a situation? So this, on a human level, is a joyless picture. Right? Can you find any joy on a human level in verse 17? No food, no animals. Just think about those things that bring you some temporary measure of happiness, those things being removed, and what that would look like. Where can joy be found in this picture? It doesn't appear to be found. If you wanted to paint a bleaker picture in human terms, you'd be hard-pressed to do so. This is why verse 18 is so amazing. This is what makes verse 18 so very powerful and challenging and life-changing. Because what you would expect after a description of a land that has been devastated and is foodless and missing all the animals that you depend on is mourning, right? You'd expect sorrow, dejection, depression, grief, all of those things, but what do you get? Verse 18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation." Habakkuk's response to this situation is one of joy. Now, it's in the future, but it's coming. So Habakkuk has not experienced it, but he sees it with the eye of the prophet coming down the road, and yet he resolves to be joyful even in the face of disaster. Now before we get to this response of joy, I think it's helpful for us to think about how we would naturally respond to such a situation as this. If you were facing this picture, is this how you would respond? I dare say that we wouldn't. What are some of the ways we might respond other than the way the prophet responds here. Uh-oh. Okay, we'll leave that up there. It doesn't want to go anywhere. This is probably the big one. Isn't that how you would respond? No food to be had. No animals to provide me milk or meat or labor or what have you. Complained. What else might we do? Say again, Mark? Panic. Yep. Panic. Theodore? Be like troubled in our heart? Yeah. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, it'd be similar to this one. Carla? Anger. We'd probably be angry. Who are we angry at? Carla? Yes, he did. That's the good news, right? Yes, that's the good news. We'll get to that one. Self-pity. Yeah, we might have a serious pity party. How about worry? Self-control? You would hope we would have self-control, Theodore. We probably wouldn't. We'd probably be upset and lack self-control. Those are some of the ways that we would respond naturally, just almost instinctively in the flesh, we might say, to a situation that we have described for us in verse 17. And I believe we know that because We have to ask ourselves, since we've never experienced this, and this is not on the horizon, how do we respond in the smaller things? How do we respond in the lesser difficulties and hardships of life? And I think the list is probably still the same, isn't it? David, do you want to add something? Okay. You would probably find a lot of people who lose their religion in that situation. And if it is not for the grace of God, who among us could say, no, in that situation, I'm strong. I'm strong. I'm remaining faithful and true to God, even though there's nothing to eat. I mean, we're talking about serious, serious and severe difficulties and hardships. But I asked myself the question, and I want to ask you the question, how do we respond in the smaller things? And I realized that sometimes this is how I respond when things don't go the way I want them to go. I get mad. I get upset. I worry. I complain. Now, if you take me out of my everyday difficulties and you put me in a situation of famine, am I gonna respond any better? Am I gonna respond any different? No, I think we're gonna respond in the same way, it's just gonna be worse. Maybe a greater degree of intensity or more of it. So how we respond to the little difficulties, the lesser difficulties of life is really important. It's really important for me to follow the prophet here not by waiting on some terrible disaster to come and say, hey, then I'll be joyful. I'll be joyful then when things are dire. No, if we won't be joyful now, then it's very, very unlikely that we're going to be joyful then when things are very, very difficult, if that time does indeed ever come. The other thing that I think is really interesting and important here is the issue of food. Remember one of those things that was such a big issue with Israel in the wilderness. What was it? It was food and their perceived lack of it, right? So they come out into the wilderness and they don't have what they had before or they don't have it right there at their fingertips as soon as they want it. And what do they do? They do this, right? So for example, Exodus 16. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. So they come out there and they're mad about what? Food. And it's not that they're not going to be provided for. We know the story they are going to be provided for. But yet the attitude. Numbers 11. Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept again and said, who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish, which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. So even after they are provided for, God gives them bread from heaven. They say, we're tired of this. We're tired of this food. We remember the food we had back in Egypt, and it was great. And they list all those different types of food that they had then. I hope you can see the parallel, the straight line from Old Testament Israel to us when we complain about food. I mean, can you imagine how joyful you would be if you had to eat the same thing every day? Week in and week out, month in, month out. You would be tempted to complain, even if you weren't a complainer, you'd be tempted to complain, and you'd be tempted to justify it. And say, I'm right to complain, I'm tired of this manna, I want something else. So this is how we typically respond. But yet, we're here in this passage to learn how to respond rightly. Okay, and I just want you to notice the first word of verse 18, and we'll stop here, and it is the word yet. Ah, what an important word, yet. After all of that, after that terrible description of the disaster and the calamity that is impending, Habakkuk says yet. Now that, is a word of what? That's a faith word, right? That's a word of faith that says, that may be the situation. If it is, yet, I will rejoice. And so as we apply that to ourselves, we must learn to say, though I do not have all that I want, yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. Though life is not going as I planned it, and as I want it to go, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Though my relationships are not where I want them to be, yet I will rejoice. We must learn to speak that way. We must learn to put that all-important word in there and say, in spite of that, I'm going to trust God, I'm going to believe God, and I'm going to respond to this situation with joy. This is a word of faith because Habakkuk knows that God has made promises to his people. Remember, in the Lord's march, in the vision, in the middle of chapter 3, the Lord comes forth for what purpose? For the salvation of His people. So Habakkuk knows that even though this situation is coming, yet the Lord is for him, the Lord is with him, and he can rejoice in that. He can rejoice in God Himself and all that God is going to do for him and how God will provide for His people. So remember that little word, yet. yet I will rejoice in the Lord." That is the word we need to put on our own lips so that we respond in the way the prophet does.