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From the book of Habakkuk, Chapter 3 verses 17 to 19 it states, “ Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines, though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will exult in the God of my salvation, God the Lord, is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.” Here the situation is one of outward failure which would in logical terms would mean that there is reason to stop and just forget about presenting opportunities as the means is no longer there. The type of situation described here, is rather complete in terms of things not happening. The fig tree doesn’t blossom and no fruit in on the vines, the produce of the olive fields fail, there is no yield in the other fields, the flock is cut off and there is no herd in the stalls. There isn’t one point that has some saving grace to it. Yet this individual will rejoice in the Lord. Here though the Lord is the source of enabling strength. He makes his feet like the feet of the deer. Maybe he is literally a fast runner and that is the case, but also symbolically, he is because of this able to proceed and tread upon the heights. The circumstances presented here, would normally stop him from proceeding, he doesn’t have the produce, the money, the means, the success needed to proceed. Yet in the context of his relationship with the Lord, he speaks of ultimate salvation but also having found an enabling power here and now in the Lord to where he can proceed, even to the heights. Details as to what this is, are left out, but the outline is there, that he is able to get to the very heights, whether it be the heights of this, or the heights of that, from his precarious situation of complete and total loss. Usually someone in that situation would be thinking, if I can just get my feet back on the ground. But here the enabling of the Lord appears and his feet are like the feet of the deer. He is able to take off running right from the worst possible position due to the enabling of the Lord. In those days especially, what had happened to him might have been seen as a sign of disfavor from the Lord. These verses give a lot to think about, as indeed any number of people have businesses, careers, relationships that were formerly thriving, and now they have gone by the wayside. This individual in these passages must have had formerly thriving fields, otherwise he wouldn’t have been tending to them in the first place. But now he was at a complete loss and really a stoppage. But the relationship with the Lord still gave him the green lights and the ability to go through green lights to the heights, and the means were provided in full as even his feet were now as fleet as the deer’s. So he could not only get there, but get there quickly. He may have needed to fold up tent on his business, but folding up tent on seeking the Lord, and what he might enable him to do would have been wrong and it would have been wrong to look failure in the face and say this is the story that must be told. The lesson is that the Lord may have something for you even in the middle of utter failure and he also has the enabling for you and can take you all the way there, to the heights of whatever he has for you and it can happen quite quickly and easily through the presence of his enabling power. What might is pointed to by enabling itself, which is a sign, if he is enabling you in a specific way, this is the sign towards. People of course might not actually believe this, but it can at least be tried and tested so that if you do have a good opportunity despite dire circumstances, do proceed with maybe the only means being the enabling help and power of the Lord and see this as possible despite the surrounding failures that you are experiencing. Take that first step into the grace and power of what might yet be.
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