Habakkuk was possibly the last prophet to come before the captivity of Judah into Babylon. A contemporary of Jeremiah’s late ministry, these were not the best of times for the Babylonians beseiged Judah and Jerusalem anytime they had nothing else to do. Uncertainty was the rule of the day unless you closely listened to the LORD through His prophets which most countrymen did not. It was challenging to remain fixed upon God for circumstance argued against the LORD’s supremacy.
How difficult is it to remain fixed upon the LORD when everything we see says, “All is lost”? We likely know that depth of despair that Habakkuk is experiencing yet he looks to the LORD in, “Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.” While he does not know that trouble upon the invaders is at least seventy years away, he quiets the turmoil of his inner man with the assurance that God holds all the days and that God will accomplish in His time. There is a refreshing in his attitude of waiting quietly for God to show Himself God. Life is not currently plentiful, life has closed in upon the beseiged, depravation prevails yet he looks beyond into the LORD:
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lᴏʀᴅ; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. 2
‘Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD the Lord is my strength. He gives me stability wherever He takes me.
Have you experienced that kind of resource in your walk with God? Peace that allows for joy in your weakness, strength and stability founded in Him alone. He is still there waiting for those who would wait upon Him.