Can you still rejoice when everything falls apart? In Habakkuk 3:1-19, the prophet ends his book with a prayer of bold, unshakable joy — even though hard times are certain. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt traces Habakkuk’s journey from worry to worship. Habakkuk began his book anxious and confused, troubled that God would let evil go unpunished. By chapter 3 he has changed — not because his circumstances improved, but because he has remembered who God is. He looks back on God’s mighty acts in the past and finds courage for the future. Dr. Holt also corrects the popular saying “God won’t give you more than you can bear,” explaining that God’s promise is not escape from the valley but His presence in it. Habakkuk’s closing words are some of the most defiant joy in all of Scripture.

Questions this study answers:

1. How did Habakkuk move from worry to worship? By remembering God’s faithful acts in the past, he found peace for the present. His circumstances had not changed, but his focus had.

2. Is it true that “God won’t give you more than you can bear”? Not as people often mean it. God does allow more than we can handle on our own, but He promises to carry us through it with His presence.

3. How can we rejoice in hard times? By resting our joy in God Himself rather than in our circumstances. Habakkuk rejoiced in the Lord even when the harvest failed. “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines … yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” — Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Habakkuk Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

Have you ever heard the statement that God won't give you more than you can bear?

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Have you ever said it?

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God won't give you more than you can bear.

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God won't give you more than you can handle.

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God won't do this to you.

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Well, let me tell you something.

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It's not true.

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It's not true.

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Now, there is a verse.

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There is a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that says this,

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that God won't allow you to be tempted in such a way that you cannot withstand that temptation.

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He will always provide a means out.

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But that's not the same thing as saying that God will not give you more than you can bear.

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There is a difference.

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There are heartaches and hardships that will enter your life.

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And for some of us, it's already happened that we could not bear on our own.

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There's all manner of hurts outside these doors.

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There's all manner of nightmares in the world around us that do have the power to crush us into dust

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or to send us into deep depression.

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Who can bear the loss of a child?

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Which of us is strong enough to do that?

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Who can bear the loss of a spouse?

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Who can bear the loss of a parent?

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Who can bear to watch their city burn?

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Who can bear to watch their people starve?

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To watch the dead rotting in the streets as Habakkuk did?

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Who can bear that?

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Nowhere does scripture say, nowhere does it pretend that God will not give you more than you can bear.

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It's a twisted variation of an entirely different text.

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This world has all manner of things that can break you into a million pieces

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and leave you with nothing but despair.

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What God does promise us in those moments,

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what God does promise us

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when the nightmares come knocking

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and burst through the door,

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what God does promise us

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is that when those things happen,

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that he will be with us.

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Yea, though I walk through the valley

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of the shadow of death.

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Yea, though things will get worse and worse,

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perhaps for some of us in time yet ahead,

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that's exactly what's going to happen.

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Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

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the promise is not that you will yank me out of the valley.

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The promise is this, that you will be with me in the valley.

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Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me.

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Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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In today's passage, the prophet Habakkuk knows things are going to get worse before it gets better.

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He's got that figured out from what God has already told him.

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It's going to get worse before it gets better.

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Habakkuk knows it because he's on the outset of the judgment that's coming.

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He knows it will get worse.

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And the previous two chapters have made that clear.

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The people of Judah had done wrong.

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Grave apostasy, idolatry, paganism.

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They'd turned their back upon their God.

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They'd broken every law he'd given to follow.

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There are consequences because God is just.

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Yes, he's good and loving and patient and kind and merciful and all these things.

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He's also just.

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And he doesn't sweep sin into the coat closet of heaven.

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He deals with it.

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And if he is just, he had to deal with Judah.

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Now, at the start of chapter 1, throughout chapter 1, Habakkuk is worried about this.

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He has angst. He has concern.

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In fact, his angst built.

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He had angst even before the first word in chapter 1.

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And as chapter 1 goes on, he has more angst.

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He has more concern.

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But then, as we've gone through last week, and as we come to today's reading, something happens.

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Habakkuk did something that I trust you can relate to in your own church experience.

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Habakkuk came to God in a spirit of worry.

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But through his interactions with God,

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he exits chapter 3 with a spirit of worship,

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with peace in his heart that he didn't have at the outset.

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And ultimately, to close chapter 3,

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he's got a conviction and a boldness

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that you don't see at the start of chapter 1.

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He says this, he says,

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even though the fig tree doesn't blossom,

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even though there's no fruit on the vines,

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even though the labor of the olive fails,

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Even though the fields yield no food, even if the flock is cut up from the fold and there's

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no herd in the stalls, even if there's nothing out there I can pin my hopes upon in the world

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around me, in my circumstances, in my environment, even if it's all gone, even if the stock market

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should crash, even if my health should depart, even if my friends were to leave me, yet I

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will rejoice in the Lord.

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He goes from worry to worship, worry to worship.

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Let's consider this further now.

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Let's return to verses one and two of our text and work our way throughout.

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Verse 1, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, on Shigonoth.

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O Lord, I have heard your speech, and I was afraid.

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O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years.

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In the midst of the years, make it known, in wrath, remember mercy.

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O Lord, I heard what you have told me, and I was afraid.

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That's how he starts the start of his prayer here.

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Now, why was he afraid?

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Why was he afraid?

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Well, I think his fear was vested in two things.

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Number one, when you encounter God in all his power and majesty and his authority,

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fear is frankly a natural reaction.

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When people just met angels, they were afraid.

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Every time in Scripture you meet an angel, people fall down.

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Well, in a sense here, Habakkuk has an encounter with God,

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and there's a fear when a sinful man stands before a holy God.

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So in a sense, that's a fear he might have.

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Second of all, Habakkuk would have been fearful about what God had told him,

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fearful about what God had to say.

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As we talked about, God had told Habakkuk that the Chaldeans were coming

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and they would be his rod of discipline against Judah.

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And given what Habakkuk knew of the Chaldeans, given how terrible they were,

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the rumors of their horrific nature disposition preceded them.

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Before you even saw them on the horizon, you feared the sound of them.

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When a hurricane is coming, your heart beats faster.

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Even though you can't see it, you know it's out there.

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You have angst and concern about what is coming your way.

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Habakkuk has this.

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He is unnerved.

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But God reminds him.

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He says, yes, they are coming.

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And I've purposed them to come.

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It's not an accident.

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I raised up Nebuchadnezzar to this end.

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I do all things for my glory and the benefit of my people,

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but you don't always understand what my ends are.

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My ways are above your ways as the heavens are above the earth.

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So in any case, God says, yes, I'm doing this,

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but it is going to bring about a good outcome.

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It is going to bring about a good and positive outcome.

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And in the midst of dark circumstances,

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even as he knew the storm was coming,

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Habakkuk was encouraged because he knew that in times past, God had used difficult things to revive the heart of his people and to strengthen the remnant.

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And so he entreats God in verse 2 to revive his work there.

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He says, remember mercy as you do this.

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He says, I know you're going to do it because you told me you're going to do it.

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Who is God that you should change his mind?

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I know that you're going to do it, but as you do it, dear God, remember mercy.

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Remember to be merciful.

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At this point, in chapter 3, that's all Habakkuk is going to say about the circumstances and the difficulties and what's coming.

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At this point, he's basically said, I get it, God.

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You're going to do it.

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Please be merciful as you do so.

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Now, his tone is going to change for the balance of the chapter, the balance of the interaction here.

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And as we said, he's going to go from the worry which he entered into chapter 1 with to worshiping God, the God who reigns over all circumstances.

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Let's look at verses 3 through 7.

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So God came from Timon, the Holy One from Mount Peron, Selah.

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His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise.

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His brightness was like the light.

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He had rays flashing from his hand and there his power was hidden.

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Before him went pestilence and fever followed at his feet.

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He stood and measured the earth.

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He looked and startled the nations.

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And the everlasting mountains were scattered, the hills were bowed.

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His ways are everlasting.

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I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction.

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The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

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Now, something that you might notice, if you look at these verses carefully,

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and if you understand kind of what he's doing here, this is, in essence, it's a psalm.

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That's basically what Habakkuk is doing here.

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It's a psalm of sorts, about God's glory.

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You could take the same text, and you could overlay it against the psalms that David wrote,

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and you'd see a lot of similarities.

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Beyond this, beyond writing in the form of a psalm, so to speak,

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what Habakkuk is doing is he's looking back.

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He's looking back at what God has done in times past.

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You know, one of the most helpful things

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as you're facing a scary future

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is to remember what he did in the past.

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To remember how God has spared you

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and saved you and strengthened you

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and answered prayers on things in the past.

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Retrospect is a wonderful faith builder.

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You look back at what God has done

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and it reminds you that the God who did all that,

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the God who loved me in these various ways

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that I can recall so carefully,

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he hasn't retired and his arm hasn't grown short

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and he still is willing and able

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to run to my assistance in my time of need.

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In a sense, that's what Habakkuk is saying here.

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The God of power, the God of might, the God who did all these things in times past, he's still here.

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And actually what he's doing in these verses right here is he's going back to the time of Moses.

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He's recalling, and there's great similarities here to something you'll find in Deuteronomy.

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Let me actually read Deuteronomy 33, verses 1 and 2.

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You're going to hear the similarity.

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It says this.

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Now this is the blessing with which Moses blessed the children of Israel.

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The Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir.

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He shone forth from Mount Paran and he came with 10,000 saints.

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From his right hand came a fiery law for them.

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I'll stop there for a moment.

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The point is this, Habakkuk is making a parallel statement with the words of Moses.

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That's a parallel declaration.

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Now, why is he doing it?

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Well, as I said before, the most helpful thing to consider

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when you're apprehensive about what's coming in the future is to remember the past.

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Remember how God has come to the aid of his people in centuries long ago.

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God regularly wanted his people to remember the past.

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Regularly.

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I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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The God who led my people out of Egypt.

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God wants his people to remember who he is and remember what he did.

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Micah 6.

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O my people, what have I done to you?

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How have I wearied you?

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Testify against me, for I brought you up from the land of Egypt.

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I redeemed you from the house of bondage.

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Oh, my people, remember what Balaam, king of Moab, counseled and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him.

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That you may know the righteousness of the Lord.

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God wants his people to remember.

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I had someone once tell me, they said, you know, I'm a New Testament Christian.

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I stood back, I said, what is this of which you speak?

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A New Testament Christian? Pray tell, how does that differ?

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What is a New Testament Christian?

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And the person went on, they said, well, you know, the Old Testament, that's for different people, different age, different culture, long ago.

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All we need to know, we find in the pages of the New Testament.

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Now, you can imagine, my eyebrows shot up about 10 feet, and I said, dear heavens, the New Testament reveals promises and types and shadows of the Old Testament.

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And in the Old Testament, we see God's character and his attributes laid out meticulously across centuries.

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The God who doesn't change, the immutable God, what he did in Habakkuk's day,

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what he did in the day of Moses, has bearing on what he'll do today.

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A well-rounded understanding of God, a well-rounded faith this morning,

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a well-rounded Christianity, is a Christianity that savors and reads the entirety of the book.

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That looks back to what God did long ago because it still has bearing on the here and now.

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God has called us as a church to remember, to remember who he is and what he has done.

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As an individual, he has done the same thing with you.

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He says, remember, before you even face the problem you're facing today,

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I formed you in the womb.

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I wired you together.

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I knitted you together is the language of scripture.

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I raised you up.

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I provided the resources you need to become the person you are today.

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And in hours of affliction you faced in the past, I didn't depart.

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I didn't stare at you through a telescope to see how you would do,

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but I was with you, and I'm with you still.

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Whatever you're facing, whatever challenging obstacles you have today or this upcoming week, it's good to know that.

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Man alive, the captain of your salvation is at your side.

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Whether you recognize it or not, it's a different story.

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But he stands with you.

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And when you pray, it's not wispy trial balloons that just float up to heaven and maybe he hears and maybe he doesn't.

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He hears every last word, every last thought that you might think.

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And he responds.

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Oh my goodness, he responds.

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He loves to answer prayer and he loves to validate the smallest mustard seed of faith.

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He will do these things.

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Habakkuk, in this discussion, as God looks back to the past,

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he looks back to the past and says, I remember God.

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I remember that men like Moses long ago, they were scared and apprehensive too.

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They didn't know who you were or what you'd do.

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Moses, when he was tending his father-in-law's sheep,

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which has got to be about as crummy a job as there is,

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for 40 years he did this he didn't know what god was going to do in the future but god knew and

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he's going to bring a great and glorious outcome for moses the people were oppressed under the

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egyptians the people were oppressed under the romans in the first century they didn't know

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exactly how or when god would act but they knew this that god will vindicate the faithful and he

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will deal with the wicked does it come in the hour you want it to no no but i'm glad i'm not

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the overseer of when things should happen because I'm not omnipotent. I'm not all-knowing. If you

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and I were to bend reality to fit our wills and our wants, that reality would be a perverted reality

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indeed because the heart is deceitfully wicked. Who could know it? I'm glad that it's a perfect

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God who ordains the future, who decrees it from eternity past and nothing less, nothing less will

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do. Let's look at verses 8 through 16. And again, he's talking about the strength and majesty of God

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and this has a psalm-like quality. Oh Lord, were you displeased with the rivers? Was your anger

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against the rivers was your wrath against the sea that you rode on your horses your chariots of

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salvation remember i told you before he's drawing this from the time of moses you can see it embedded

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in these words your chariots of salvation your bow was made ready oaths were sworn over your arrows

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say la you divided the earth with rivers the mountains saw you and trembled the overflowing

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the waters passed by the deep uttered its voice and lifted his hands on high the sun and the mood

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stood still in their habitation you remember that story from the old testament at the light of your

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arrows they went at the shining of your glittering spear you marched to the land in indignation you

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trampled the nations in anger you went forth for the salvation of your people for salvation

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with your anointed and the new king james this is capitalized because this is pointing to the

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person of jesus christ you struck the head from the house of the wicked by letting bear from

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foundation to neck say la you thrust through with his own arrows the head of the villages they came

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out like a whirlwind to scatter me the rejoicing was like feasting on the poor and secret you

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walk through the sea with your horses through the heap of great waters. When I heard my body

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tremble, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered my bones. I trembled in myself that I

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might rest in the day of trouble. You know, in our day, we've done this weird thing with God.

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We still call him God. Even the culture around us calls God, God. The problem is they've devalued

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the word God of any meaning. God is more like genie in the culture around us. God is something

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less. God is God with a lowercase g. God is not all powerful, all knowing. He's not sovereign.

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He's not transcendent.

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He's just a big, gentle giant above us who, if we rub the lamp, so to speak, will pop out and help us.

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That's the God of our age.

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That is not the God of Habakkuk.

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That is not what we saw here.

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The mountains saw you and trembled.

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You marched through the land in indignation.

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You trampled the nations.

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Our culture thinks God doesn't care about sin.

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He winks at it, nods at it.

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He's progressive and just allows new and different sins than what he allowed before.

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No, he doesn't change.

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He's immutable.

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Well, he hates sin every bit as much as he's always hated sin, and he will deal with it in his time.

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You went forth to the salvation of your people.

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You struck the head of the wicked.

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That is a reference to Genesis 3.15, where the Satan shall be crushed beneath the feet of the anointed one, of our Christ.

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Habakkuk had good theology.

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He knew what the book said to you.

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When your hour of need comes, it's helpful to draw riches and gold out of God's word

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and apply them to your heart and your circumstances.

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If you don't know the book, if you don't read the book,

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if it's gathering dust on your shelf,

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then when your hour of difficulty strikes, you don't have a place to go.

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And you're more likely to buy in with Oprah or book clubs

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or anyone else that has the same culture around us.

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Habakkuk looked up.

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Furthermore, he looked to God's established word,

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what God had already said, and that helped answer his question.

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Even as his lips trembled at what it might mean,

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They give them confidence to know that God is there.

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Our culture, as I said before, sees God as something less than he is.

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Kind of a wallflower on the periphery of mankind.

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God the shrinking violet.

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Or God the lonely old man.

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Just desperate for you and I to cast our gaze skyward.

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What a lonely fellow this God is.

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We should reward him and please him with a smile and a tie and so forth.

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No. No.

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God is not a lonely old man.

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He is not a shrinking violet.

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He is not a wallflower.

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He is something more.

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And in time, he deals with wickedness.

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Habakkuk knew this and it gave him comfort.

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Now let's look at how the comfort manifests itself in our final verses.

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Verses 17 through 19.

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Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines.

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This is a picture of that which provided sustenance for the people.

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This is equivalent of saying, though Wal-Mart should be empty.

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Though Rouse's should have no food.

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Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food,

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though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd at all in the stalls,

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yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

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It says, even if everything, every crutch, every support system, every hope for tomorrow,

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was to vanish off my radar right now.

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Verse 18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

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Habakkuk knew that he had a need to be saved.

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This is a godly man, a prophet.

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And yet he knew he still needed to be saved.

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And his joy was not in his circumstances.

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His joy was in his Savior.

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There's a difference.

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There's your joy vested in this morning.

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I will rejoice in the Lord.

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I will join the God of my salvation.

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The Lord God is my strength.

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He will make my feet like deer's feet.

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He will make me walk on my high hill.

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This is a wonderful picture.

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Let me ask you a question as we look to wrap up this morning.

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Do your circumstances have to be perfect or idealized in order for you to be happy?

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In order for you to be happy and joyful and content in your Christian walk,

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does everything need to be going well?

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For some of us, this is the case.

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For some of us, in order for us to have joy in God, joy in our Savior,

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happiness in our faith, contentedness,

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things have to be going pretty well around us.

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And when they're not, not only are we troubled by the world around us,

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our relationship with God, endures fractures. Do your circumstances have to be perfect or

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idealized in order for you to be content? For some people, when the storm clouds roll in,

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might feel very little comfort or consolation from their faith. And it's only when things pick

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up again that they're able to have joy. Now, unfortunately, in our age, there's a lot of just

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brutal theology, brutal theology that confirms this. Things like the prosperity gospel, that's

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what it's all about. If you're not at the pinnacle of peace and prosperity in your life, then it's

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your fault, or you just need to give more. Habakkuk says the opposite to the prosperity of teachers

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and the like, verses 17 through 19. See, Habakkuk knew that if you live in a fallen world, and let's

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be honest, this is a fallen world, we can be deluded into thinking it's not when we look out

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and things seem to be going pleasant around us. You know, the shrubs are neatly trimmed and the

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like out there, the cars are shining in the parking lot, right? We can delude ourselves

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into thinking that everything is reasonably fine,

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everything's going pretty well.

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But the reality is that living in a fallen world

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will subject us to fallen ills.

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And there are cancer, there is cancer,

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there is heartache, there is pain,

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there is broken relationships, there is loss.

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If you haven't lost someone or something

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that you deeply cared for, just give it time, it'll happen.

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That is reality.

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Christ never ran from reality, neither did the prophets.

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They didn't try to pretend you can carve out utopia

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in a war zone, they told you just the opposite.

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Be prepared for battle.

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Gird yourself up.

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Habakkuk knew that living in a fallen world,

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especially with the noise of the Babylonians on the horizon,

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he knew life was going to get more difficult.

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And so he says, even if, even when the fig tree doesn't blossom,

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even when I go through seasons, even when you go through seasons,

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where there's no fruit on the vine, so to speak, no herd in the stalls,

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yet the prophet says rejoice.

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The prophet says rejoice in the Lord.

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If you need idealized circumstances in order to rejoice in your walk with God,

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then you are making an idol out of your happiness.

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If you need idealized circumstances in order to be content with your God,

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you're making an idol out of your happiness and of your situation.

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Today, your job may stink.

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Today, your finances may be bad.

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Today, your health may have question marks.

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There's no guarantee those things won't occur if you live in a fallen world.

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In fact, the testament of guys like Habakkuk or the Apostle Paul seems to assure it.

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Apostle Paul, good gravy when you read what kind of life he lived.

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It was a life lived for Christ, lived sacrificially, but it was also a life of hardship.

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He was persecuted.

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He was chased out of town.

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He was stoned one time until they thought he was dead.

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He was shipwrecked.

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All manner of things happened to him.

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Ultimately, he was martyred.

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Ultimately, he died.

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The ministry of men like Paul and Peter and still others remind us we are living in a war zone.

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And it helps if someone's realistic to you about this.

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But the good news, the good news that even though this is true,

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even though there are hardships on this side of glory,

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that you and I are appointed for a season and a time and a place

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where none of those hardships exist.

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I told you there's good news.

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The good news is that, as I shared last week,

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the here and now is just a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of eternity.

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The hardships you're facing now, you will not always have.

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The hurts and the pains and the spiritual scar tissue

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that is even now on your back will be healed.

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The balm of Gilead.

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You will be spiritually, physically redeemed

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in ways that you don't totally understand at this time.

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It is coming.

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There is victory.

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There is hope on the horizon.

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We lay hold of that, even as today is stormy.

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The just shall live by faith.

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Faith that the story ends well.

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You know why I get excited as a pastor?

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I know how the story ends, and I know it ends well.

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And when I counsel people as they're going through hardships, as I interact with sinfulness,

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as a pastor, you lift up the hood on a lot of things that you wish you hadn't.

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You encounter all manner of darkness.

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And if that's all I thought that my future held, I would be in despair.

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But I get excited knowing this.

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There is a good shepherd, there is a great physician, and in his time, he will heal every illness,

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and he will wipe away every tear.

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And it's really not that far off for us.

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The day speeds ever closer.

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Christ is coming back or you're going to him.

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But one way or another, you're going to be able to lean on the everlasting arms that we heard this morning.

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And that's exciting.

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That's encouraging.

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Even though the fig tree doesn't blossom for you tomorrow, even though there's no herd in the stall, so to speak,

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yet I can rejoice in the Lord.

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You and I can rejoice in the Lord.

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We can join the God of our salvation.

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Even if God should permit us to endure certain difficulties today or tomorrow, we know how the story ends.

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Whatever you're going through today, it will pass.

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It will pass.

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As a believer, you have a future that's more bright and glorious

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than you could even imagine were you to write it down right now.

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And in the present, while things are dark, while the clouds have come in,

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again, there's hope in knowing this, that you're not alone as you face it.

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As we said earlier, not only is the season limited and finite

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and an end date has been appointed and creed by God for your hardships,

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not only will they end, but while you're in the midst of it, Christ is with you.

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While you're in the midst of it, there is one you can turn to.

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Even as the weight of the world comes down on your shoulders this day, this week,

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he is there to help you to bear it up, to bear it up,

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and granting you feet like a deer, as Habakkuk said, feet like a deer.

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Picture a deer bounding across fields, not weighted down,

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not slow-moving and trudging, but bouncing through the fields.

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That's the picture.

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Feet like a deer across a hard and an unforgiving landscape.

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That's God's promise to Habakkuk.

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He says the day is coming, even if you can't see it yet.

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It's true for you and I as well.

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was God's promise to Habakkuk, and in time, Habakkuk saw it. Habakkuk would see his faith

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validated. He lived to see his prayers answered. He saw God use even the worst to bring about the

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best. In God's time, you will too. Let's pray.