Though the fig tree does not bud
Devotional for October 26 · Habakkuk 3:17 · 13-minute read
2O LORD, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O LORD, of Your deeds. Revive them in these years; make them known in these years. In Your wrath, remember mercy! 3God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, and His praise filled the earth. 4His radiance was like the sunlight; rays flashed from His hand, where His power is hidden. 5Plague went before Him, and fever followed in His steps. 6He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations; the ancient mountains crumbled; the perpetual hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting. 7I saw the tents of Cushan in distress; the curtains of Midian were trembling. 8Were You angry at the rivers, O LORD? Was Your wrath against the streams? Did You rage against the sea when You rode on Your horses, on Your chariots of salvation? 9You brandished Your bow; You called for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10The mountains saw You and quaked; torrents of water swept by. The deep roared with its voice and lifted its hands on high. 11Sun and moon stood still in their places at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear. 12You marched across the earth with fury; You threshed the nations in wrath. 13You went forth for the salvation of Your people, to save Your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked and stripped him from head to toe. Selah 14With his own spear You pierced his head, when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though ready to secretly devour the weak. 15You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters. 16I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us. 17Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, 18yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! 19GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.
Context
Chapter 3 is a prayer made to be sung. Verse 1 introduces it with a musical term, Shigionoth, the word Selah appears three times, and the ending carries a note for the choirmaster. It was probably used in worship. The book travels a path: it begins with complaint (ch. 1), moves through waiting (ch. 2) and ends in song (ch. 3). But the circumstances did not change along the way. The Babylonian invasion is still on the horizon, and the prophet himself says he will wait for the day of distress.
Verses 3-15 recall God’s ancient appearances with images from the exodus and the conquest: God coming from Teman and Mount Paran, the waters churning, the sun and moon standing still in the sky. Then v. 17 makes a list a farmer in Judah would understand at once: fig tree, vine, olive, fields, sheep and cattle. This is not a bad harvest; it is the collapse of everything that sustained life in an agricultural society. In practice, the list describes famine.
What the text says
- v. 2: “In Your wrath, remember mercy!” Habakkuk does not ask for the judgment to be canceled; he asks for mercy within it. The prayer begins by accepting reality.
- v. 16: The prophet trembles all over and says he must “wait patiently for the day of distress.” The faith of this chapter does not cancel fear; it lives alongside it.
- v. 17-18: After six concrete losses comes “yet I will exult in the LORD.” The verb is in the future, as a decision. And the object of the joy is the LORD, the God of salvation, not the situation.
Reflection
Some texts only make sense when read whole. Cut off from the rest, v. 17 becomes a pretty picture on the wall. Read right after v. 16, it is something else: the one singing is trembling. His body trembles, his lips quiver, he feels as if decay had entered his bones. This is not the joy of someone who feels nothing. It is the joy of someone who feels everything and, even so, chooses where to plant his feet.
Look at the list. These are not luxuries. Figs, grapes, olive oil, grain, flocks and cattle were food, income and future. For a family in Judah around 600 BC, losing them meant going hungry. Habakkuk does not say these losses do not matter. He says something else: even if everything I counted on disappears, there is Someone I can still count on. “I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!” (v. 18). The joy has an address, and that address does not depend on the harvest.
How does he get there? Through memory. Before v. 17 come vv. 3-15, a long song about what God has already done: he came from Teman, trampled the sea, opened a way for his people. Habakkuk sings the past so he can face the future. And in v. 2 he asks God to revive his deeds in these years. The faith that sings in the dark is not made up on the spot; it is fed by what God has already done and by the confidence that he is still the same.
The ending is a mountain image: “GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer” (v. 19). A deer walks with sure footing on steep places. The text does not promise that the mountain will disappear; it promises feet for it. For the Christian, the greatest work of God to remember is the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. Paul, writing from prison, said he had learned to be content whether well fed or hungry, because Christ gave him strength. It is the same school as Habakkuk’s.
If you are in a season where going without is not a figure of speech, because unemployment, a diagnosis or grief has come, this text does not ask you to smile. It offers you words. Honesty to say you are trembling. Memory to recall what God has already done. And a decision to say, even quietly: yet. Maybe today your joy is small, just one sentence. Say it anyway. Name what is missing, as Habakkuk did, and after the list add that one word.
Connections
- Philippians 4:11-13 (cross-reference): Paul learned to be content in plenty and in need, because Christ gave him strength.
- Psalms 18:33 (cross-reference): David uses the same image of feet like those of a deer, secure on the heights, to speak of the strength that comes from God.
- Romans 8:35-37 (editorial reading): Neither famine nor danger can separate us from the love of Christ; Habakkuk’s joy finds its full foundation in the gospel.
To apply
- Heart: does my joy today have its address in God, or does it depend on the harvest turning out well?
- Relationships: who around me is in a season of lack, and how can I be present without offering ready-made phrases?
- Today: write your own v. 17 list, with what is truly missing, and end it with the sentence from v. 18.
Prayer
Lord, you are the God of my salvation and my strength. What you did in the past shows who you are. I confess that my joy often depends on what I have, and that when something is missing I shut down and forget you. I also confess the fear I feel about what may still come. I lay my list of losses before you, hiding nothing. Teach me to say yet. Give me sure feet for the high and hard places, and hold me up in Christ, who conquered death. Amen.
To memorize: Habakkuk 3:17-18
Today's step: In the next 24 hours, whenever you notice something missing, stop and say one sentence of praise to God for who he is, not for what he has given.
To go deeper: read Habakkuk 3 and get to know Joy.