The land has given its crops. God, our God, blesses us. (Verse 6)
Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines. There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields. There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns. But I will still be glad in the Lord. I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Lord God is my strength. He makes me like a deer that does not stumble so I can walk on steep mountains.
Habakkuk 3
Every day I walk through my house and thank God I live in it. When I open my refrigerator and see food there, I am truly thankful. My car is ten years old and still running. I don't take that for granted. I am sixty-four years old and still running, too. That is miraculous. God, my God, blesses me. My children are healthy, beautiful and productive, and they love their Father. No one has more amazing grandsons than I. Though my country is in the throes of disheartening change, I still live in the best nation on earth. I am so very thankful for God's blessings!
But I ask myself the question: Is my love for God tied up in what I have? Do I measure His pleasure with me based on whether this year I had a bumper crop of blessing? I took a walk on the beach to think about this. To pray over what my Father wanted me to learn from this part of the psalm. Here is what He showed me. Jesus.
Born in a barn to a very young girl who had traveled to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey. No room for Him. He was placed next to the other lambs that night. Wealth certainly didn't define his childhood or early adult life though it seems He had enough. The Son of God learned a simple trade, lived in a small one-horse town from which "nothing good" sprouts, and started His itinerant ministry by walking around asking random people to follow Him. Never did Jesus own a home or even have a garden from which to glean a good crop of wheat. The Christ wandered from place to place dependent upon the benevolence of God as provided through the people He met. Death was His destiny. Outside of the city walls, with criminals, bleeding instead of blessing as the Messiah was supposed to do. No kingly coronation at which He mounted the temple steps and took over Rome. Not even a tomb in which to put the dead body of God. They borrowed one. Yet.....yet....
Five loaves and two fish feed over five thousand people. Water in ceremonial washing jars becomes the best wine at a wedding. A boat cast about in treacherous seas carries God asleep in the bow. Daunted disciples awaken Him only to see Jesus calm the water and speak to their fears. A widow has lost her only son. Too late for doctors, but not too late for God. Ten lepers languish outside the gates of the city picking their sores and cowering. Money cannot fix them. Doctors will not touch them. Jesus does not call an ambulance but calls on His Father. A woman has been bleeding for so many years she's lost count. Spent all her blessed money on doctors and still she hemorrhages. Just a touch of His robe and all she has hoped for is hers...and more. Peter cannot pay his taxes. Christ doesn't reach into His back pocket, because it's filled with air. Instead He knows a fish, out there close to shore, who has swallowed just enough for this one who follows the Messiah. Jesus is glorious but poor. His account at Wells Fargo has little in it and Judas Iscariot has pilfered much of that. God didn't decided to come to earth as abundantly ostentatious. The Father loves the Son as He loves Himself. They are One. Why would He come to earth to look so "unblessed?" Death was His destiny. Looked like it couldn't get worse for the promised Messiah. But the Father always has a plan. The best crops in the world could not buy a resurrected King. There was not enough bounty to purchase an emptied tomb and a Spirit let loose upon the world. Rich. Rich is our God. Sovereign and benevolent. Yahweh is enough!
Jesus had the right to tell us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear. Our Father knows what we have need of. That is how the Son lived before us. Without fear of lack of provision and without attachment to the stuff we think makes us blessed. Taxes, meals, madness and death -- Jesus came to show us our God is more than enough. He is our blessing. Stuff comes and goes. Our God remains forever. It's from God all blessings flow.
That is why Habakkuk finally says, it doesn't matter if it looks like it's all falling apart. If I know God is still sovereign over my history and the larger scope of worldwide justice, I can rejoice. Because....I am glad not in the bigger barns I build, but I am happy in the Lord Who is my provision and my strength.
Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines. There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields. There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns. But I will still be glad in the Lord. I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Lord God is my strength. He makes me like a deer that does not stumble so I can walk on steep mountains.
Habakkuk 3
Every day I walk through my house and thank God I live in it. When I open my refrigerator and see food there, I am truly thankful. My car is ten years old and still running. I don't take that for granted. I am sixty-four years old and still running, too. That is miraculous. God, my God, blesses me. My children are healthy, beautiful and productive, and they love their Father. No one has more amazing grandsons than I. Though my country is in the throes of disheartening change, I still live in the best nation on earth. I am so very thankful for God's blessings!
But I ask myself the question: Is my love for God tied up in what I have? Do I measure His pleasure with me based on whether this year I had a bumper crop of blessing? I took a walk on the beach to think about this. To pray over what my Father wanted me to learn from this part of the psalm. Here is what He showed me. Jesus.
Born in a barn to a very young girl who had traveled to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey. No room for Him. He was placed next to the other lambs that night. Wealth certainly didn't define his childhood or early adult life though it seems He had enough. The Son of God learned a simple trade, lived in a small one-horse town from which "nothing good" sprouts, and started His itinerant ministry by walking around asking random people to follow Him. Never did Jesus own a home or even have a garden from which to glean a good crop of wheat. The Christ wandered from place to place dependent upon the benevolence of God as provided through the people He met. Death was His destiny. Outside of the city walls, with criminals, bleeding instead of blessing as the Messiah was supposed to do. No kingly coronation at which He mounted the temple steps and took over Rome. Not even a tomb in which to put the dead body of God. They borrowed one. Yet.....yet....
Five loaves and two fish feed over five thousand people. Water in ceremonial washing jars becomes the best wine at a wedding. A boat cast about in treacherous seas carries God asleep in the bow. Daunted disciples awaken Him only to see Jesus calm the water and speak to their fears. A widow has lost her only son. Too late for doctors, but not too late for God. Ten lepers languish outside the gates of the city picking their sores and cowering. Money cannot fix them. Doctors will not touch them. Jesus does not call an ambulance but calls on His Father. A woman has been bleeding for so many years she's lost count. Spent all her blessed money on doctors and still she hemorrhages. Just a touch of His robe and all she has hoped for is hers...and more. Peter cannot pay his taxes. Christ doesn't reach into His back pocket, because it's filled with air. Instead He knows a fish, out there close to shore, who has swallowed just enough for this one who follows the Messiah. Jesus is glorious but poor. His account at Wells Fargo has little in it and Judas Iscariot has pilfered much of that. God didn't decided to come to earth as abundantly ostentatious. The Father loves the Son as He loves Himself. They are One. Why would He come to earth to look so "unblessed?" Death was His destiny. Looked like it couldn't get worse for the promised Messiah. But the Father always has a plan. The best crops in the world could not buy a resurrected King. There was not enough bounty to purchase an emptied tomb and a Spirit let loose upon the world. Rich. Rich is our God. Sovereign and benevolent. Yahweh is enough!
Jesus had the right to tell us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear. Our Father knows what we have need of. That is how the Son lived before us. Without fear of lack of provision and without attachment to the stuff we think makes us blessed. Taxes, meals, madness and death -- Jesus came to show us our God is more than enough. He is our blessing. Stuff comes and goes. Our God remains forever. It's from God all blessings flow.
That is why Habakkuk finally says, it doesn't matter if it looks like it's all falling apart. If I know God is still sovereign over my history and the larger scope of worldwide justice, I can rejoice. Because....I am glad not in the bigger barns I build, but I am happy in the Lord Who is my provision and my strength.
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