Below is a guest blog from Liz Sutter. Get a cup of coffee and read each word. It's the truth that we KNOW that brings freedom, not the truth we speed read or glance over. Let the Word settle in so you'll know it and live free like your Savior intended.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though
the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the
olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in
the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I
will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in the God of my Savior,
The Lord God is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He
enables me to go on the heights.
These circumstances, or situations as stated above in vs. 17
portrays a very hopeless, desolate, defeated existence. The Hebrew further
words give further definition painting the picture of no signs of life, not
even a sprout, the land not yielding produce/food, no rain, laborious
press/demand, dead works with no fruit/oil, no meat or nourishment at mealtime,
no brightness/joy, picturing sheep cut off from the flock/fold as with Israel
wandering in their sin in the wilderness/Israel without a Shepard, exhausted of
weeping, strained at looking for relief or refreshment. Cut off from completeness, fulfillment,
accomplishment, prosperity. TO BE CUT
OFF FROM WHAT HAS BEEN FINISHED.
What we are looking at is a picture of ground that has been
cursed. Man was created on the sixth
day. In
vs. 17 there are specifically six sentences listed of lack. Six is the number of man’s labor, as distinct
from God’s true rest. It is the number connected then with human labor and
sorrow. It marks all that is not of
God. It is also 5 plus 1, the number of
Grace of God made of no effect by mans addition to it, or corruption of
it. It is also 7 – 1, coming short of
the spiritual perfection, thus the number of imperfection. Six is the human number, the man destitute of
God, without God, without Christ.
Doesn’t this explanation shed light on what is going on in this “type”
of ground? It is life without God…without the thought of God, without hope,
without meaning.
In vs. 18 Habakkuk then sees something different and says
something different. He is now rejoicing in the Lord. The Hebrew states he is
Triumphing, Jumping for joy, Dancing, Leaping for Joy, declaring The God of My
Help, speaking of The mighty deeds of His Right Hand, Delighting in Jehovah’s
bestowed benefits, in His salvation, in His rescue, In His victory.
A.
Habakkuk has had a change of perspective and
a change of speech.
Instead of looking at the cursed ground, he
is now looking thru the eyes of the cross.
He sees the mighty deeds of Christ who is at the Father’s right hand, he
sees the Victory won for himself and his people, he sees His salvation! What
could make him happier, that he could now declare to His people, God’s people, that
their freedom has come, their Hope has risen, and their life eternally rescued from
the grips of their enemies?!? This is what causes him to dance in delight and
leap for joy. He is now recognizing that
on the other side of trial, defeat, and hopelessness, there is triumph through
the work of the cross!! On the other
side of Trial, there is Triumph for those who chose to believe.
He declares the Lord God is my strength!!
The Hebrew picks this up with multiple meanings of the word strength:
An army, warrior,
wealth, prosperity, capability, my force, my captain of the host, my leader of
the army. The Hebrew language here
creates the picture that in the day of your warfare, It will be the day of the
sending of the ROD of the Messiah's strength out of Zion. The mountain of Zion is where He rules in
the mist of His enemies, and strikes through the enemy’s kings in the day of
his wrath.
For us in the new covenant promises of God, we are now kings
and priests of God bestowed with the authority of Christ, symbolized in this
passage with the ROD of the Messiah.
This Rod for us today is the Name of Jesus, that through that name all
must submit. It is the ultimate weapon
that has been given to us by the finished work.
This passage highlights God through Christ ruled in the mist of His enemies
so we could Rule in the mist of our enemies, and that no power of darkness
would be able to conquer us. That by
this authority now given to us miracles happen, devils are defeated, and we
reign in Life. Now faith through Grace and His Rod of authority comes on the scene and that which was
impossible with man, is now possible with God through the finished work.
The writer speaks of feet that are like the feet of the
deer…. feet symbolizing the response of man to God’s direction.
The Hind of deer are the most surefooted of all mountain
animals. They hold their head high and
don’t look down as they are moving towards their goals. Their legs are well suited for running,
chasing, and evading danger. They leap
effortlessly over obstacles and are always looking for pasture (rest), and
longing for water (the Holy Spirit). So
God is saying to us through Christ, we are:
1.
Spiritually
Strong - The Lord being our strength (giving us the transfer of authority
to reign in this life) Even in the presence our weakness, and shortcomings, He
sees us Strong because we are in Jesus!
2.
Spiritually
Swift for the race. Able to tread
upon mountains and evade danger. The Bible says we are not ignorant of the
devices of the enemy and we can command mountains into the sea.
3.
Spiritually
Successful - surefooted and confident that we are righteous in Christ. What a sure foundation for success. Because Christ has triumphed, I triumph. Even
as He is in this world, so am I. His
underserved favor and blessings cause me to be prosperous in whatever endeavor
I put my hand to.
Then Habakkuk states that God will make him to walk the
heights. In the Hebrew, this walking theme is further unfolded to mean treading
, marching, trampling, overtaking, subduing the enemy. That we are bow benders, we bend the bow(the
assaults of the enemy). This same scripture is repeated in 2 Samuel 22:34 says
the God causes him to stand on the heights.
This idea of standing includes: to Arise, to stand up against, to hold your
position, to endure, persist, remain, to have a fixed look, to make a
servant/to stand over, have
charge over, to takes ones stand in covenant, and to restore waste places.
These ideas of
standing are very clearly on the offensive as a believer. It depicts that we are to take what is our
rightful inheritance because it was bought for us by the blood of our Savior!
We have an assigned seat in the new covenant, the seat of blessing. All the cursed ground that looks desolate
when given into the hands of the master, can become places where He can show
forth His restoration power. He can
bring the power of His finished work to the things we see as “cut off from
being finished.”
The word “heights” has the Hebrew meaning of bama -the battlefield or
mountainous places, a place where the fight is going on. God has said we have the feet of the deer to
go upon top of the high place/or that we are on top of the battle. Even as He
was, when He was crucified on the mountain of Golgotha, the place of the
skull. Skull symbolizing death. Jesus was reigning over Death in all forms,
and He took our place, now we take His place of Victory over Death, over the
battle, over the mountain stronghold in our lives. The enemy is under our feet as it was under
His feet as He finished His work. Thank God today we stand on the top and not
the bottom, that we are the head and not the tail, that we above and not
beneath, that we are blessed, not cursed.
This high place above the battle, is a place of elevation - as
we are seated with Christ in Heavenly realms far above every principality and
power. It is a place of where our
problems cannot unsettle us, a resting.
A place where the problem is not seen through the eyes of
the curse, but the eyes of the cross.
Where instead of
considering the places where “the work is cut off from being finished, we consider the work that was
finished. Reality for the
believer is the cursed ground, although factual, is not the truth of the
situation. It is not the whole picture
for the believer. There is another side. God is
the Alpha and Omega, He has the final say, the final word in the circumstances
in our lives when we believe in Him, and He says to us that the truth of the
cross has changed everything. The truth
is we have the promises of Abraham that are covenanted to us by faith, not through
the law, or our own efforts.
B.
Habakkuk believed the promise of the
finished work , the works of Gods mighty Right Hand.
By believing the Lord was His strength, His victory, His
triumph.. He received His provision.
C.
Habakkuk received
his provision. He was restored His
inheritance. The Hebrew states that Habakkuk
came into his promised land.
So he changed his Perspective, believed the Promise and
received his Provision. I believe this
is what God wants us to do today as well to fully come into our inheritance of
all the blessings, promises and benefits of the finished work. Why settle for the “cursed ground” when Jesus
paid the price for our disease, lack, and sin. The curse has been reversed for
the believer.
