Though there are no sheep in the pen, and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. (Hab. 3:17–18)
SIXTEEN SMALL SACK lunches are lined up and ready for the children to grab as they walk in the door. Various lunchmeats and condiments sit on a table alongside other nutritious snacks and fruit. Church members eagerly await the arrival of sixteen children.
As the sixteen children come and enter the modest fellowship hall, the church members surround them with nurturing hands. All summer long the children come to get fed what might be their only nutritious meal of the day. In their homes, their cupboards might be lacking and their meals sparse, but the sixteen children can be joyful. Help has come by God’s people doing something.
In Habakkuk’s day, this was not the case. Habakkuk longed for a salvation, rescue, and revival he would never see. He questioned why God delayed His reviving power. He cried out, “Though 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” (Hab. 3:17–18). Habakkuk wrote these words because he knew a day would come when evil would be rolled back.
Consider how you might see Habakkuk’s dream fulfilled by a church empowered by God’s Spirit.
Amy Knepp is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University and is a stay-at-home mother of four children.
