How can we learn to trust God like the prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3:17-19)?

(Vv. 17-19). The outcome of the experiences of the prophet are summed up in the sublime burst of praise with which his prophecy closes. He had learned the ways of God in government, set forth in chastening His people, and in judging their enemies. He had seen a vision that told him all God's works in chastening and judgment, would lead to the everlasting salvation of His people, and, above all, to the earth being filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD. He may have to wait for the fulfilment of the vision, but, living by faith, in this glorious future and the One Who will bring it to pass, he is prepared to face all the trials by the way. Want may stare him in the face; for the fruits of the earth may fail, the fields may yield no bread, and the flocks no meat. Nevertheless the LORD is in His holy temple, and in the LORD he will rejoice, and joy in the God of his salvation. Weak in himself, he would find in the LORD God his strength, Who would enable him to walk in high places far above the distractions and sorrows of earth.

How encouraging to trace the way in which this God-fearing man is led from being on his face in anguish of soul before God because of the failure of God's people, to take his stand on the watch-tower, to hear the words of the LORD. Then, having learned the mind of the LORD, to see him on his knees in prayer with the result that finally he walks on high places with joy in his heart and praise on his lips.

But faith is different; it says, "Though the fig tree should not blossom," which means, not that there will be a poor harvest, or a late harvest, but no harvest at all. "Though my hands are empty, and every earthly resource has failed, and every human prop has been removed, and the whole world is a wilderness, yet will I confidently rest in the Lord." Faith can pass quietly through the storm; it does not look to any circumstance for help, but it takes hold upon God and finds Him to be greater than every circumstance. Faith can wait, and wait until God moves. It is distrust that is impatient and restless, and would take things out of God's hands, and seize upon the desired object prematurely. Look at Abraham and Sarah, distrustful and impatient, making a sad mess of things in the matter of Hagar; they could not wait for God. Look at Jacob and Rebecca, scheming, shamming, lying, deceiving; they could not wait for God. Look at Moses smiting the rock and speaking unadvisedly with his lips; he could not wait for God. Look at every man, good and bad, whose history God has given us. Most, if not all of them, broke down just here; Satan stampeded them at least once into action when faith would have been quiet and waited for God.

“Yet … ” adds the prophet. He lived by his faith and had accepted the promised deliverance as if it was already his. He did, however, not rejoice in the rest that he had not yet reached, not even in the salvation. He had a much higher joy: he possessed the Lord Himself, the God of his salvation. Him in whom he rejoiced and would always rejoice was the God who did not hide anything from him, who acted toward him as a friend, who made his most secret thoughts known to him. He could count on His mercy, even when all would fail, because He is the God whose blessings endure forever. “We will be glad and rejoice in Thee,” said the Shulamite bride, “We will remember Thy love more than wine” (Song 1:4). Thus God gives songs in the night (Job 35:10). These experiences gave the prophet full fellowship with the Lord. At first he had understood that “the Lord, His God and holy One,” is light and that He is “of purer eyes than to behold evil” (1:12-13). Now he rejoiced himself in Him, he enjoyed all the perfection of His person, and understood the love of “the God of my salvation.”

But the Lord was not only his joy, He was also the prophet's strength (v. 19) when he was powerless. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee” (Ps. 84:5). Thanks to Him our feet are made as hind's feet during a time of utmost weakness, when as yet not a single promise for the future has been fulfilled. We may rise up to our high places and walk through them with light, joyful, quick, and free steps. The heavenlies are for us, believers of today, the terrain where we find ourselves in Christ. What does scarcity mean to those who enjoy all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies?

He concludes his prophecy with the blessed result of all these precious lessons, namely, the expression of perfect confidence in Jehovah. He would rejoice and be glad in Him, if all the blessing should fail. Jehovah Himself was his strength, his trust, and his support, and He would set him on the high places of His blessing, giving him, as it were, hinds' feet to ascend there by His favour.

And then, at the very end, as the just man living by faith, whom the Lord's word had already told him of, (see Hab. 2) he utters his present full confidence in God. He tells, indeed, how the Lord's word about the coming of the Chaldean had frightened him, so that he was as one astonished, or as a dead man; but that now, as a man of faith, he knows that he has but to wait, through a season of discipline and patience, assured that all will end in the salvation of God. And in the joyous assurance of this, he sings to the chief singer on his stringed instrument; and as Jehoshaphat entered the battle with the song of victory on his lips, so Habakkuk now enters on the season of the vision, or of the exercise of faith and patience, in the joy of the Lord, and with a song prepared as for a day of glory.

This was enough for Habakkuk. His soul had dropped its anchor in the calm haven of God's unalterable purpose, and he could rejoice in the Lord. Everything around might seem to wax worse and worse. The fig tree might not blossom, nor the vines bear fruit; the olive trees might be barren, and the fields yield no crops; flocks and herds might be cut off; outward prosperity might all be a thing of the past; the power of evil might be in the ascendant, and those who fear the Lord a small and weak remnant. But the prophet's eye was not upon things of this sort. From all the failure and discouragement he looked away to the day of God's triumph, and his heart beat with gladness. He could joy in the God of his salvation. His portion was in "high places"' and he could walk there by faith already. His feet were like those of the hind, able to spring forward from this age of darkness and gloom into the age of glory and joy!

At the close of the prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet says, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail … yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Hab. 3:17-18). Three trees are spoken of, the fig tree that was used for food, the vine which yielded grapes for wine to rejoice the hearts of men, and the olive tree which produced the oil for the anointing of the head. These three trees are prominent in Scripture, and are sometimes used symbolically to illustrate the relationships into which Israel had been brought with Jehovah their God. Habakkuk was no doubt saying that even if all human resources failed, he would still find His resource and joy in the Lord Himself. Looked at symbolically, can we not also see the attitude of the godly remnant of Israel at all times of the nation's failure? Whatever the state of the nation, they would still confide in the Lord, rejoicing in Him.

Although however there is such a magnificent description of the sure judgment of the enemy in all its extent (not merely the Chaldeans now, but all their enemies), and although there is the assured salvation of the people of God, even the Jews, the prophet meantime answers to the faith of which he had himself been the preacher by one of the finest expressions of that faith which the Old Testament contains. "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:" none able to show them any good. "Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Jehovah the Lord is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments."

I want you to notice these words "The just shall live by faith," and if you want to know what it was for a Jew in those days to live by faith, read Hab. 3:17-19. That is a fine example of it.

And I would add a practical word upon the experience of Habakkuk, which is so blessed at the end. "I will rejoice in the Lord," he says, "although the fig-trees shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines."