MAY 29, 2023
READ: Habakkuk 3:11–19
MEMORY VERSE
“I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:18
BACKGROUND
“I know Daddy’s coming home because he sent me flowers.” Those were my seven-year-old sister’s words to our mother when Dad was missing in action during wartime.
Before Dad left for his mission, he preordered flowers for my sister’s birthday, and they arrived while he was missing.
But she was right: Dad did come home—after a harrowing combat situation. And decades later, she still keeps the vase that held the flowers as a reminder to always hold on to hope.
Sometimes holding on to hope isn’t easy in a broken, sinful world. Daddies don’t always come home, and children’s wishes sometimes go unfulfilled. But God gives hope in the most difficult circumstances.
In another time of war, the prophet Habakkuk predicted the Babylonian invasion of Judah (Habakkuk 1:6; see 2 Kings 24) but still affirmed that God is always good (Habakkuk 1:12–13).
Remembering God’s kindness to His people in the past, Habakkuk proclaimed:
“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 God my Savior” (3:17–18).
Some commentators believe Habakkuk’s name means “to cling.” We can cling to God as our ultimate hope and joy even in trials because He holds on to us and will never let go.
By: James Banks
INSIGHT
The context of Habakkuk 3:11–19 is Habakkuk’s prayer in verse 2: “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.” The prophet implored God to perform such mighty acts once again.
Included among these miracles for the benefit of God’s people are:
the plagues against Egypt (v. 5; see also Exodus 7–13), Gideon’s victory over Midian (Habakkuk 3:7; Judges 6–7), the stopping of the sun in the sky as Joshua’s army fought the Amorites (Habakkuk 3:11; Joshua 10:12–14), and the deliverance of the Israelites through the Red Sea (Habakkuk 3:15; Exodus 14).
Habakkuk had an appropriate fear of his powerful God, and he knew he could trust Him to the end in any circumstance (Habakkuk 3:16–19).
By: Tim Gustafson
APPLICATION
How does rejoicing in God help you in difficult times? What can you do to praise Him today?
PR’s (PASTOR RICHARD) TAKE
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God” Corrie Ten Boom
‘Hope is called the anchor of the soul…Hope is not simply a ‘wish’…rather it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” R.C. Sproul
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God: for I shall again praise Him, my salvation” Psalms 42:5
PR’s RE-EMPHASIS (From Post)
“Sometimes holding on to hope isn’t easy in a broken, sinful world…But God gives hope in the most difficult circumstances.”
PRAYER
“Father, thank You that come what may, my future is bright with You!”
TODAY’s HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS”
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand…
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found:
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand…
READING THROUGH THE ENTIRE BIBLE THIS YEAR (DAILY)
2 Chronicles 7–9
John 11:1–29
