Sometimes life tumbles in. Sometimes you really are on a bed of affliction. Sometimes the wolf is at the door. Sometimes your child is missing or sick or near death’s door. All of us have struggles and when they happen it is hard to imagine that anyone else has ever been so lost or felt so helpless.
600 years before Christ was a time when life was tumbling in for God’s people. A powerful army was bearing down upon them and would soon burn their homes, steal their property, and lead them away as slaves. Most of them would never be free again. Many of them would be killed. In times like that Habakkuk uttered these words:
“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, will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
If the power of this verse is lost on us, maybe it is because we do not care if the fig tree buds or whether there are grapes on the vines. Most of us never grow food in our fields, nor have any sheep or cattle. Because those things are not a part of our experiences, we may not feel the pain in this verse. It might feel different if this verse were written in modern times and said, “though every grocery stores and restaurant closes down and every factory in America is empty, though the stock market drops to zero, ‘Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, will be joyful in God my savior.'”
Habakkuk is saying that his joy does not come from things and stuff and junk. His joy comes from God. His joy is not circumstantial, but is founded in the One who can change the circumstances.
When life tumbles in, when you are on the bed of affliction, when the wolf is at the door, find your joy in the Lord. He is the only source of joy that will not change.
Lonnie Davis