Habakkuk — a man who was anxious and full of righteous indignation towards sin.

The core of the book’s message, from the voice of God to the hearts of his people, is live by faith in unprecedented days, come what may. Even when judgement comes — mercy always corresponds to judgement. Although, the Chaldeans would come and be used as a form of chastening upon Israel, God’s mercy never left them. Judgement comes to destroy PRIDE and SELF-SUFFICIENCY, yet it will spare our soul if we allow it. Calamity is the grandest of opportunity — to be humbled in our pride and folly. It’s in these moments, we are able to look beyond the judgement and see God’s mercy and righteousness.

Habakkuk began to receive a deeper understanding of God’s sovereignty, thus he begins to cry out — O LORD, I have heard thy speech, [and] was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:2 (KJV)

Revive the dead O Lord — what was once alive, restore unto us the JOY of our SALVATION…

• God came down and stripped Israel of everything they had replaced GOD WITH…

• Every idol, every comfort, the god of ease was destroyed along with their foolish pride…

God doesn’t promise the anxious prophet that soon he’ll make things better. In fact, he promises to make things much worse before they get better. Utter devastation will come first, then deliverance. First total ruin, then final rescue.

Judgement and then mercy….

To the disoriented, panicked prophet, God exposes the folly of human pride, and issues a fresh call to humility and faith, to patiently receive God’s mysterious “work” of judgment.

To trust the divine in the toughest of times, in days of looming trouble — Calamity reveals the true object of our FAITH. It’s in these troubling times, we see God’s timeless call to his people, Habakkuk’s and ours: live by faith.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but othe righteous shall live by his faith.

When CALAMITY strikes —

You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 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 LORD; 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. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. Habakkuk 3:15-19 (ESV)

In other words, though our jobs be lost, the shelves be bare, and the economy becomes disoriented, and the virus comes to our own city, and street, and even home, yet — even then — this newly humbled prophet will rejoice in the Lord.

Will we? Not in our own security. Not in our health. Not in the economy. Not on the idols we have erected in our own lives. Not even in the defeat of the enemy.

There is one constant, one utter security, one haven for true joy in the most challenging of journeys: God himself.

He holds himself out to us as He removes our other joys. Will we lean anew into him? Is God alone, enough?

A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who addressed the words of this song to the LORD on the day when the LORD rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, O LORD, my strength. 2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; 5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

16 He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. 17 He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support. 19 He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. 20 The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. 21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. 23 I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt. 24 So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. 25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; 26 with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. 27 For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. 28 For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness. 29 For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. 30 This God–his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. Psalms 18:1-6,16-30 (ESV)