me to the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk chapter 3, Habakkuk chapter 3. And I want to think about this thought tonight. What do you have left when you have nothing left? What do you have left when you have nothing left? Look with me at that book of Habakkuk, chapter three. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Nahum, or Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, chapter three. Follow along with me as I read the entire chapter A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, and Shigyonath. Oh Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. God came from Teman, the holy one from Mount Paran, Sila. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light he had raised, flashing from his hand. There his power was hidden. Before him went pestilence, and fever followed at his feet. He stood and measured the earth. He looked and startled the nations. The everlasting mountains were scattered. The perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction, the curtains of the land of Midian trembled. O Lord, were you displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers? Was your wrath against the sea that you rode on your horses, your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made quite ready. Oaths were sworn over your arrows, Selah. You divided the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice and lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation, and at the light of your arrows they went, at the shining of your glittering spear. You marched through the land in indignation. You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked by laying bare from foundation to neck, Selah. you thrust through with his own arrows. The head of villages, they came out like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. You walked through the sea with your horses through the heap of great waters. 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. He will make me walk on my high hills. To the chief musician with my stringed instruments. Well, this is now our third message in the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk. And you might remember our first message was living right when life goes wrong. We saw from the questions of Habakkuk, questions that are asked by people even to this day. The form may take, different wording, but the basic question is God inactive and inattentive? When we see the wicked prosper around us, when we see the righteous struggling, when we see the difficulty of life for those who are even followers of God and seeking to live in righteousness, is God inactive and inattentive? Or the way that it's sometimes asked, if God is good, why? Or another way that one author has stated, where is God when it hurts? And God's answer was, no, God is at work. Now his answer to Habakkuk was not the kind of answer that Habakkuk expected. Habakkuk wondered why the wicked were prospering in the nation of Judah and God said, don't worry, I know what's going on and I will judge them by bringing in the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. Now this prompted a second kind of question that we also still ask today. The first question being, is God inactive and inattentive? The next question is, is God unjust? God, how could you use a nation more wicked than Judah, as wicked as Judah is, to judge Judah? God's answer, in effect, is no, God will do what's right. God says, I know what Babylon is like, and I will judge them too. In our second message, we looked at chapter two. In chapter two, the Lord shows that He knows exactly what is going on in this world, and that He will judge the wickedness of this world. He condemns the unbridled aggression of Babylon while also speaking out against the sins that are common between Babylon and Judah. God ironically uses a rhetorical device in chapter two where the nations that have experienced the injustice at the hand of Babylon are the ones who take up the proverb, which God places on their lips. Speaking of the coming doom, the impending doom, the woe upon Babylon. And in this way, God shows that he knows what is going on. He shows that he is in control even when things seem out of control. He shows that the unjust will be punished and that the oppressed will receive justice. As we come to chapter 3, we have Habakkuk's final prayer and hymn of faith. And how brightly this hymn of faith, this prayer, shines against the darkness of judgment that is going to come from the hand of the Lord. In a way, this provides for us an example of how we can rejoice in the midst of misery. It answers a question, by example, why can we praise in the path of pain? Why can we delight in the midst of the darkness of devastation? Because it reminds us, if we are believers, of what we have left when we have nothing left. It points us to the God who is over and above everything and reminds us that when everything else is taken away, we still have him. We can rejoice then in God who is over and above all because he is what is left when we have nothing else left. And he is enough. And this is the conclusion that Habakkuk comes to personally, and he will practically, in a way, by his example, preach to us tonight. And I want to, in an overview of this chapter, state three things. First of all, that when we have nothing left at all, we have God. And he is enough. And not only is he enough, he is cause for rejoicing. How can we rejoice in difficult times? We can rejoice because we have God. But underneath that, we can rejoice in difficult times because God is greater than every foe. Because God is greater than every fear. And because God is greater than every loss. Follow along with me as we work our way through this text. First of all, God is greater than every foe. In the bulk of this prayer, Habakkuk records a theophany, an appearance of God, which God gave that revealed God's sovereign power over every foe. After speaking of the fear that he feels in verse two, and appealing to God to revive his work in the nation of Judah. And even in the midst of great wrath to remember mercy, Habakkuk speaks of what he sees. In this passage, the descriptions of God point both backwards at God's work in the past and forward to God's future work. As we read through this section, as we read through it earlier, we can see allusions that go both back and forward. God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran, that area of Edom. Just the very appearance of God is enough to make the prophet pause to think. We see that word, Selah. where Sila is used throughout the Psalms, more than likely it was a musical rest in which the people responded to what they had just sung by thinking about it as music played. So right off the bat, as soon as Habakkuk mentions the appearance of God, he says, let's stop and think about that. Of course, reminding us of who God is, and that He is not absent. He is the Holy One. Whose eyes are purer than to behold wickedness. He is the one who shows up. And having paused to reflect upon that, He says, His glory covered the heavens, the earth was full of His praise. In this, we are reminded of Isaiah chapter six, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, remember he said, holy, he heard the angels saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. And this is what we see here. His glory covers the heavens and earth is full of his praise. Brightness like the light rays flashing from his, from his hand where his power was hidden. This picture of God holding light in his hands. Now, anybody ever try to hold light? I always carry a flashlight with me, but to actually hold light, who can hold light? Only person that can hold light is the one that created light and divided it from the darkness. Before him went pestilence and fever followed his feet. What a statement about God. There are some who say that If there's any kind of sickness or any kind of death or devastation, it has nothing to do with God. Here, the prophet Habakkuk says, God uses these very things in his judgment upon sinful people. As he speaks about the judgment, that I think he looks back to what God did in bringing his people into the land of Canaan. but also to what God will do to those nations that have defied him and done wrong to his people. Before him went pestilence and fever followed at his feet. He stood and measured the earth. He is the one, as Isaiah said, who measures not only the earth, but the heavens with a span. The person that measures the earth obviously is greater than that earth, holds it in his hands. In fact, his power and his sovereignty is so great that he looks and the nations are startled at his work. Not only are the people of the nations startled, but the very creation itself shakes as a result of God's powerful work. Everlasting mountains scatter, perpetual hills bowed. Those very things that we think of as firm and unshakable They shake in his presence, they tremble in his presence. His ways are what is truly everlasting. He sees the tents of Kushan in affliction, the curtains of the land of Midian are trembling. And again, I think this has allusions back to when God brings his people into the land of Canaan. Verses 8 and 9 speak about God and his work in the rivers and in the sea. God makes his bow quite ready, oaths sworn over his arrows. God is the one who brings judgment. No one can escape his bow shot. And then again, a call to pause and reflect upon that. Habakkuk continues, you divided the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and trembled. The overflowing of the waters passed by. The deep uttered its voice, lifted up its hands on high. Sun and moon stood still in their habitation. We remember that, don't we? Sun stands still in the Valley of Agilon. Who can do that? God alone. at the light of your arrows they went, at the shining of your glittering spear, you marched through the land in indignation, you trampled the nations in anger. It's getting to be that time of year again, and I noticed in this one area in our house, ants are starting to crawl in again. I trampled them in my indignation. You trample something in indignation, right, you are absolutely powerful above them, right? God tramples the nations in his indignation. How great is God? And notice it says that you went forth for the salvation of your people. For salvation with your anointed. I think if we look through each of these, you see how God in the past had worked judging Egypt, for example. how God had worked in the past, judging the Canaanite nations. You even see how God would judge his own people, Judah. He will bring Babylon into Judah, but then God will judge Babylon. But I think we see, even looking forward from this, that God will not only judge these nations that have opposed his people, and even judge his own people who have opposed him, but God will judge Satan himself. You went forth for the salvation of your people. Yes, God works for the temporal salvation, the deliverance of his people from the earthly calamities and difficulties of life. But more importantly, I think, even in this passage, is in view, though dimly, the salvation of the souls of his people. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed. And notice, you struck the head from the house of the wicked. We think all the way back to Genesis chapter three, where it's promised that the seed of woman will crush the serpent's head. And this is what Jesus does. to bring the salvation to his people. We looked at this this morning, how we share in that victory. That's one of the things we can rejoice in, that we have overcome the wicked one. Not because we're all that great, we overcome by the word of God in the power and strength of the Lord. Not because of our greatness, but because of the victory that is accomplished by Christ at the cross. The prince of this world is judged. And the anointed one strikes the head from the house of the wicked. Laying bare from foundation to neck. And again, this is something worth reflecting on. We see in verses 14 and 15, or verse 14 in particular, how God will turn the weapons of the enemy against themselves. This is how powerful God is. And even we have seen God over and over do that, the very point where God's enemies thought that they had God's people defeated or bested, God would use the very things that they were attempting to use against his people against them. And of course, the greatest display of this is the cross. There at the cross, Satan, no doubt, felt that there was some victory. After all, the Son of God there hangs bleeding and dying. But it is through that death, through the weapons of the enemy, that God brings about his own victory. You thrust through with his own arrows the head of his villages. Though they would come out like a whirlwind to scatter, Me, Habakkuk says personally, he's speaking here, no doubt, looking at the impending invasion of the Babylonians, which will devastate Judah. They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. You walked through the sea with your horses through the heap of great waters. God has the last word. And in these verses we see that God is greater than every foe. There's no one, no enemy of God or enemy of the people of God that can come close to the description of God in this passage. He is the one who triumphs over all of them. And that is very good news. That's a God worth rejoicing in. A God greater than the worst enemy of your soul, Satan. God greater than the enemy that we face in the world system around us. Hostile to God. God even greater than that enemy we find within us. Our old flesh and sinful nature. God greater than any force or foe that would exalt itself against Him, that would seek to destroy the people of God, God is greater than all of them. And God will judge them. What do we have left when we have nothing left? We have a God who is greater than every foe. And He's worth rejoicing in. But I think this passage not only teaches us that God is greater than every foe and that that is something worth rejoicing in, but also that God is greater than every fear. God is greater than every fear. We see a note of fear at two points in this passage. First, at the very beginning, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, on Shigionoth. Oh Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid. Certainly, the news of God's devastating judgment on sin is something that is terrifying. We, perhaps in our culture today, have lost that aspect of the fear of God. We sometimes bend over backwards to talk about how the fear of God really doesn't mean being afraid. Well, it may not only mean being afraid, but it Fear of God is a worldview that puts God in His place and us in ours. And God being in His place and us in our place, there are things about God that are scary. I've given this illustration before. You guys, no doubt, have read or some of you have read the Chronicles of Narnia and the encounter Aslan. That lion, which represents Christ, in another reality, of course. And Lucy asked Beaver if he is safe. And Beaver says, safe? Of course he isn't safe. He's not safe. But he's good. And there are things about God and his work which truly are terrifying. And this passage begins with trembling. which is a very natural response to the news of God's judgment. In fact, it was a natural response of people who encountered God. Today, there are people that speak about having visions and encounters with God, and they use it to pad their resume, and it's, you know, as simple as saying hi to your neighbor. You look at people in the scriptures that encountered God, and the number one response that they had was they were face down in the dirt. When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, the trade of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah's response is, woe is me for I am undone. He thought he was worthy of death. And so it begins with a note of trembling, which is very natural. We think of God's judgment. But in that trembling, the prophet is longing for God to revive his work publicly. that that nation of Judah which is in spiritual decline and would be in social and national decline, he is praying and longing that God would revive that work. And though he knows that judgment is coming and there's a sense in which that's absolutely terrifying, he prays that in God's wrath he'll remember mercy. This note of fear, is again mentioned in verse 16. Having encountered this theophany, this appearance of God, having heard the voice of God, he says, when I heard my body trembled, my lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered my bones, I trembled in myself. I remember watching years ago this documentary, some of you may have watched it, documentary called Project Grizzly about this man who had encountered a grizzly bear in the wild and as a result of that terrifying experience went on this quest to develop a bear proof, grizzly proof suit in which he could go out and observe a grizzly bear more closely. It's quite the quite the compulsion that drove him, but he described encountering that bear and how absolutely devastating that it was. We see this kind of devastation when people are in utter terror. And this is what Habakkuk describes of himself. Body trembling with fear, lips quivering at the voice, It's like rottenness enters his bones. It's like the entire structure within him no longer is solid. It's a description that we might say is someone that loses their strength. They're about to faint, right? Rottenness has entered their bones rather than bones being firm and holding him up. And I trembled in myself. God and his awesome power is more terrifying than any of the fears that might come from any foe. Now, verse 16 reads a little bit strangely to us, but I want to try to explain what's going on here. He says all these things about his fear, and then he talks about, that I might rest in the day of trouble. And it seems to us kind of a strange, how do those two thoughts fit together? This is the intention of what this verse is trying to say. It is saying, but we don't easily grasp it. Even though God in his judgment is terrifying, even though what God is going to do is absolutely terrifying, there is a sense in which when that day comes, Habakkuk is going to rest quietly. This is what this word rest means. The idea of resting quietly. Resting and the terror of experiencing God's wrath at the hands of the Babylonians don't seem to fit together. How is it that he can even speak of rest in this day of trouble that's coming? Well, the reason that he can do this is because ultimately he is resting in the person and plan of God. That God is going to do what is right. That's his rest. You see then this move from fear or in the midst of fear to rest. From the beginning of this book, raising pointed questions to God, now to resting quietly in the plan of God. How is this possible? It's possible only when you have a God that is greater than the worst of your fears. I've pointed this passage out many times, and I no doubt will point it out again, remembering Mark's account of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples in the boat are absolutely terrified. They think they're going to go down. They think they're gonna drown. Master, don't you care that we're gonna perish? Jesus stands up. and he rebukes the wind and the waves and he says, peace, be still, right? Now you would expect there was a huge storm. They're afraid they're going to drown. Jesus says, peace, be still. You would expect the next verse to say, and they were all relieved and went and rested. That's not what it says. It says rather than their fears being extinguished or even diminished, their fears are actually intensified. Then they were greatly afraid and said to one another, what manner of man is this that even the winds and waves obey him? There are theories about how religion, all religions, have come to be. One theory is that what we have done as humanity is that we have simply taken our fears and attributed a god to each of our fears. That's polytheism. But then as we become more sophisticated, we kind of consolidate all of those fear-representing gods into one deity. And it's basically our way of dealing with scary things in life. But the Christian worldview and the biblical worldview is that as terrifying as those things may be, God is more terrifying still. But in his sovereign glory, we can rest if we are on his side. It'd be a very terrifying prospect to face this God, the righteous, sovereign, perfect, omniscient judge. But if we are on his side because of our relationship with Jesus Christ, that changes everything. We now have a God who is for us. And if God be for us, who can be against us? What do we have when we have nothing? What do we have left when we have nothing left? We have God, and that is enough to rejoice in. Why? Because God is greater than our foes. Why? Because God is greater than our fears. Greater than every foe. Greater than every fear. And finally, God is greater than every loss. Is he with me in verses 17 to 19? Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail and the fields may 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. Look at how this description of loss intensifies. First of all is figs. Fig tree knot blossom. Figs were tasty, but more of a delicacy, not something that was absolutely necessary for their diet or for their economic stability. You could survive without having figs. And it says no fruit on the vines. Well, you know, it's a bit tougher. It's nice to have juice. It's nice to be able to eat fruit. But you know, there are other things still that can be eaten. Still, if you lost all your figs and all your fruit, that's bad. But he says, the labor of the olive. Well, that's a bit worse now. The olive produced oil that was necessary for daily life and even a part of the worship. But it doesn't end there. He says, and the fields yield no food. All the crops gone, everything. Now we're talking true devastation. We're talking famine conditions that would certainly result if there's no food in the fields. None of the crops being produced in the fields. And that is if that were not bad enough, there's no flock in the fold. All right, so out in the pens, we don't have any flocks. That's pretty bad. And then, to cap it all off, not only are there no in the folds, there are not even any in the stalls. This intensifying picture, cumulative picture, is one of complete devastation. One in which people would not only certainly suffer, but many would die. I know right now in our world we got runaway inflation, we got crazy things happening, but we're not any close to these kind of conditions. If these kind of conditions were to hit our nation, there would be massive, massive repercussions. So Habakkuk is not saying, hey, if everything goes right, I'll rejoice in the Lord. If I got a full bank account, if I got lots of food on my plate, if I have the best clothes, I'm gonna rejoice in the Lord. He's talking about rejoicing in the Lord when everything's gone. Why is that even possible? Because God is the God of his salvation. What do you have left when you have nothing left? You have God. The God of your salvation. If you have Him, you have cause for rejoicing. Even if everything else in this life is taken away. Verse 19, the Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet. King James readers, Heinz feet. He will make me walk on my high heels. High heels, not high heels. Clarify that. High heels. What is that about? God is greater than every loss. The picture here is of a deer walking in mountainous, treacherous regions. Or the prophet walking in mountainous, treacherous regions. Figuratively speaking, here he is in this area that any stumble, any misstep, and he could fall. But he says, no, in the midst of all of this, God will be my strength and my stability. He'll give me the feet that can walk upon the mountains of affliction without falling. So God will enable those who trust in him not to fall. in the worst that life may bring and the worst that life may take. So brothers and sisters, I don't know what lies ahead in our lives. I don't know how runaway inflation will get. I don't know what loss or gain we will face in the future. What would it be like if everything was taken away? What do we have left? We have nothing left. Well, we have God. And if we have God, we have cause for rejoicing. Why? Because the God that we have left, and we have nothing else left, is a God who is greater than every foe, a God who is greater than every fear, and a God who is greater than every loss. Brothers and sisters, let's rejoice in the Lord in every circumstance of life. Rejoice in the Lord. Joy in the God of your salvation. Amen.