‘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 Saviour.”

Joe sits in church with a big smile on his face.  He has a lot to be happy about.  He has a lovely wife, a great job and delightful kids.  Indeed every Sunday in church Joe thanks God for all God has given him. 

But what if everything fell apart?  Supposing Joe goes into work that Monday and finds out that he is going to be a victim of the credit crunch.  He arrives home to tell his wife that he has lost his job only to find that she has left him for someone else.  In the months ahead his misery worsens as one of his children struggles with a debilitating illness.

What happens to Joe’s faith when life hurts?  Does he see any reason for thanking God now?  Can he trust the God who has allowed such terrible things to happen to him?  How can he hold onto his belief in the goodness of God when his world seems to be falling apart?   

This is something every Christian needs to learn.  You see the truth of the matter is life is not always easy.  All we have to do is live long enough and we will experience some kind of loss or suffering.  So how do we hold on to our faith when our world is falling apart?  Habakkuk 3 shows us!

Habakkuk knows that things are going to get very painful for himself and his people.  They are going to be overthrown by the ruthless Babylonians and taken from their land.  He will witness much that will surely give him reason to weep.  Yet as we read through this passage we see that it ends with a great expression of faith.  How does Habakkuk move from perplexity to praise and from fear to faith?

1. The big picture reminds him that God can be trusted (1-15)

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.  Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.  Here is a prayer for revival.  It’s a prayer based on the fact that the God who has acted with such power and might in the past can work in similar ways in Habakkuk’s day, and he can work in similar ways in our day!  Habakkuk had asked God to step in and stop the rot that was so evident in his society but he also prays, in wrath remember mercy.  We might look at this corrupt society, we might look at churches that have sold out on the truth and behave in ways that bring dishonour to God’s name, and we might pray that God would put an end to the evil that we see.  Indeed one day he will deal with all evil.  But we also pray, ‘Lord, save many on these wicked people.’  On the day of God’s final judgement we will see his righteous condemnation of the ungodly and we will also have ample evidence of the mercy by which he has saved ungodly people like us.

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.  His glory covered the heavens—One commentator writes, ‘His radiance, as he comes, lights up the sky above and is reflected on the earth below . . . the spreading of his radiance throughout heaven and earth is compared to the rays of the sun, diffusing its light far and wide’ (Bruce).  So often our Christian lives are simply centred on ourselves.  We imagine that God exists only to serve our desires and we fail to ponder his magnificence.  We are the poorer for our self-centred spirituality.  Let’s read verses like these and wonder at the glory of God.  Let’s praise God for who he is.  Then, with this in mind, let’s be amazed that this awesome God has time for us; that this holy God values us; that this perfect God takes pleasure in us; and that this sovereign God even works his purposes for our ultimate good.  Let’s remember that the God who owes us no good thing has been better to us than we have ever realised!

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