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Foster Freed
September 24th 2020

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.

Habakkuk 3: 17-19

I never fail to be impressed by the way in which an ancient text--to be specific any number of the ancient texts collected in the book we call the Bible--can spring to life in new ways, even when the text in question is a familiar one. Over the past few months, that has certainly been my own personal experience with a number of cherished Biblical texts, such as the closing words from the book of the prophet Habakkuk. Familiar though they be, those words have taken on a deepened significance for me in the year of our Lord 2020: which is to say, in the year of COVID.

It should be noted that the prophet Habakkuk is not necessarily a household name for many of us, despite the fact that he is an honoured figure not only in many Jewish and Christian circles, but also in Islamic ones. Nevertheless, we know very little about Habakkuk, whose book provides us with no clues as to his identity: not even providing us with his place of birth or his father’s name. It is generally presumed, however, that he was roughly a contemporary of Jeremiah, which is to say that he lived through an exceedingly difficult time in the life of his people: not merely a time of challenge and national decline, but a time of national disaster. Indeed: one of the key clues has to do with the fact that the prophetic core of the book, found in its 2nd chapter, consists in a series of prophecies against the Chaldeans: in other words, the Babylonians. That emphasis, in and of itself, testifies to the unhappy events to which Habakkuk likely served as a witness and as a participant. No wonder, then!

No wonder the brief book that bears his name begins not with a word spoken against ancient Israel, but with a rather sharply worded series of questions hurled at the Holy One (Habakkuk 1: 2-3):

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see iniquity
and why do you idly look at wrong?

Much like his presumed contemporary Jeremiah--and not unlike the author of the book Job--Habakkuk hesitated neither to see the world truthfully nor to share his anguish with God when the world no longer made sense to him. And yet! In the end--in the beautiful psalm with which this prophetic book draws to a close--Habakkuk is able to affirm the goodness of God: even in the midst of a world that had, indeed, stopped making sense. Though the fig tree should not blossom/nor fruit be on the vines...yet I will rejoice in the LORD/I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

The prophet’s invitation to us, living as we are through a year unlike any year most of us have ever experienced, could not be more “on-point”. As a people of faith--as a people who have come to know not only God’s unending blessing, but who have also seen the face of God’s own anguish in the face of the Crucified Christ--we are invited to make Habakkuk’s affirmation our own: renewing our trust in the God who has come to us in Jesus, the God whose presence and whose promise remain unshaken and unshakeable, any and every piece of evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

May we--who like the ancient prophet find ourselves living through uncertain and unsettling times--find the wherewithal to follow his lead, renewing our trust in God and finding the strength to “take joy in the God of our salvation!”

Foster