From Although To Yet

From Barren Fields to High Places: The Unshakable Joy of Faith

Text: Habakkuk 3:17-19

Introduction: A Prophet's Honest Struggle

I want to invite you into the world of a man who was not afraid to argue with God. His name is Habakkuk. We often come to the prophets and see them as untouchable spiritual giants, but Habakkuk was refreshingly human. His book doesn't start with a lofty oracle, but with a raw, honest complaint. He looks at the violence, injustice, and evil in his nation of Judah, and he cries out to God in chapter one, "O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!" Does that sound familiar? Have you ever felt that way? "God, where are You? Don't you see this mess? I'm praying, I'm crying out, but all I hear is silence."

God's answer to Habakkuk is shocking. He says, "I am doing something. I am raising up the Babylonians-a bitter and hasty nation-to judge my people." This was like telling an American during the Cold War that God was going to use the Soviet Union to bring about justice. It was unthinkable. Habakkuk is stunned. He wrestles, he questions, he waits. He climbs his watchtower and says, "I will watch to see what he will say unto me."

The entire book of Habakkuk is this journey of a man moving from a place of deep confusion and complaint to a place of unshakable confidence and praise. And the pinnacle of that journey, the grand crescendo of his faith, is found in our text today. It is a song sung from the ashes. It is a declaration made not when everything is perfect, but when everything has fallen apart. And it is here that we find the roadmap for our own faith when we find ourselves in barren fields. Our journey today will follow the path Habakkuk lays out for us: first, by honestly acknowledging the reality of our 'Althoughs'; second, by making the radical resolve of 'Yet'; and finally, by embracing the divine result of 'He Will'.

I. The Brutal Reality of the "Although" (Verse 17)

Let's first look at the foundation of Habakkuk's song, which is a stark and honest inventory of loss. Read verse 17 with me, and feel the weight of each word:

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: Let's not rush past this. This is not a poem; this is a detailed economic collapse.

"Although the fig tree shall not blossom..." The fig was a staple food, a source of sweetness and sustenance. For it not to even blossom means there is no hope for a future harvest. It's not just a bad season; it's a failed promise.

"...neither shall fruit be in the vines..." The vine was the source of joy, of celebration. No grapes meant no wine. The gladness of the harvest was gone.

"...the labour of the olive shall fail..." The olive tree was their economy. Olive oil was used for cooking, for light in their lamps, for medicine, for anointing. For its labor to fail means all the hard work, the pruning, the tending it all came to nothing. It was wasted effort.

"...and the fields shall yield no meat..." The word 'meat' here means food in general, the grain from the fields. The pantry is bare. Daily bread is gone.

"...the flock shall be cut off from the fold...and there shall be no herd in the stalls." This is the final blow. The sheep for wool and sacrifice, the cattle for milk and plowing-their assets, their wealth, their protein, their power source-are all gone.

My friends, this is total devastation. It is what we might call a worst-case scenario. It's the business failing, the pink slip arriving, the doctor's bad report, the marriage ending, the child walking away from the faith.

And what is so powerful here is that Habakkuk does not pretend this isn't happening. Faith is not denial. Faith is not putting on a plastic smile and saying "everything's fine" when your world is on fire. Faith has the courage to look at the empty barn, the barren field, the silent phone, and say, "This is real. This hurts. This is not what I wanted." The Bible gives us permission to grieve, to lament, to be honest about our pain. The first step toward Habakkuk's joy is acknowledging Habakkuk's reality. What is your "although" today?

II. The Radical Resolve of the "Yet" (Verse 18)

After this bleak, unflinching list of everything that has gone wrong, Habakkuk performs a spiritual pivot that changes everything. It is perhaps the most powerful use of the word "yet" in all of human literature.