Yet I Will Rejoice in the Lord

My Dad died the end of May. Those who have lost a parent or a spouse have walked this grief journey. It’s different than losing a close friend (which I did a couple years ago) or even a grandparent. Part of my reading recently was in the book Habakkuk. It reflects suffering, grief, and rejoicing. That odd mixture I’ve been feeling of joy and grief. Joy that my Dad is now fully in the presence of His Savior. No more suffering, pain, and tears (Revelation 21:4). A week after my Dad’s passing, we were the photographers for a wedding and went to a graduation. Both times of joy, but still there is the grief.

The book of Habakkuk falls into the minor prophets category of the Bible, but it is different from the other prophecy books in that the prophecy is revealed in Habakkuk’s dialogue with God, expressing his own struggles and questions of faith as well as God’s responses. There doesn’t seem to be a clear time of when Habakkuk was written, but it is likely in the time between the Assyrians taking Israel (the Northern Kingdom) captive and before the Babylonians taking Judah captive (which is what God tells Habakkuk will happen). “The “theme question” of Habakkuk is, how can God use a wicked nation such as Babylon for his divine purpose?”[1]

Habakkuk is in anguish, wrestling with the truth that God is still sovereign, always sovereign, even when it seems like He isn’t acting or isn’t acting in a good way. Habakkuk knows that sin completely contradicts God’s holiness, so why would God use sinful nations to discipline Israel and Judah? Obviously, situations are different between Habakkuk and my family losing my Dad, but there were truths that have helped me, and like Habakkuk, to grow in my faith.

A few days before my Dad died, the nursing home ran out of the morphine my Dad was supposed to have regularly. It was a day of immense suffering and pain for my Dad. My Mom and I felt helpless as he whispered, “Help me.” I understand when Habakkuk cried to God, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear” (vs 1:1a)? Our family was pleading for God to bring my Dad home, to see His Savior face to face, for the suffering to end. I know others have experienced the same with loved ones. We understand death is inevitable. My Dad knew where he was going when his earthly body failed, but it is a struggle to understand God’s purposes when suffering lasts and the end does not come quickly.

For my family it was the weeks and months leading up to my Dad’s death, but for others it may be something different, but the extended suffering is the same. There is a young woman from our church who had the joy of getting married in January, but immediately came down with mono that has persisted these five months. Her fever comes and goes. The fatigue has restricted her to staying at home. I can imagine she also echoes Habakkuk’s cry of “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?”

As I cried while holding my Dad’s hand, I told him that this was not how God created things to be. My Dad’s suffering was a result of Adam and Eve’s sin, a fallen world that is groaning as in the pains of childbirth, waiting for redemption when all things will be made new (Romans 8:22-23).

God answered Habakkuk’s complaints and questions in part by saying: “but the righteous shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4b). And Paul continued in Romans 8: “For in this hope [redemption] we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (vs 24-25).

In those days as I sat by my Dad’s bedside, as I held his hand as he took his last breath, I clung in faith to God’s Word. This life is not all that there is. To be absent from the body is to be with the Lord ( 2 Corinthians 5:8). My Dad’s failing and dying body was not the end. All those in Christ, will receive new glorified bodies when Christ returns (1 Corinthians 15:53). Because of Jesus’ atoning death, resurrection, and ascension, death has lost its victory and sting. Suffering and death do not have the final say. God does.

I clung to the truth that God is good and does good in every situation including what my family was enduring (Psalm 119:68), and that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39). My Mom spoke Psalm 23 to my Dad. With God as our Shepherd, we shall not want. He cares for us, restores our soul, leads us in righteousness. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives including these days, and my Dad will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. My heart was breaking and still is because this side of glory I will never hear my Dad say, “I love you” again. I can’t hug him or talk to him, hear his laugh, see the twinkle in his eye.

Habakkuk ends with a prayer and rejoicing.

17  Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

       the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

       the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

18    yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

19    God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the deer’s;

he makes me tread on my high places.[2] (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

I don’t think Habakkuk suddenly stopped grieving at what would happen to the Jewish people, but in faith he could also rejoice. His complaints and questions turned into faith and joy. He rested in “God is…” and “God does...” – God is my salvation, my strength. God does make my feet like a deer’s and to tread on high places.

Grief is Biblical. Sin has tainted every aspect of the world we live in. It is right to grieve what is not how God designed it to be. Yet, we can also rejoice because God is our salvation and strength. He is good and does good. We rejoice because something infinitely better is coming, and all the present suffering will seem like a light momentary affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory.

Reflection

1.    How have you experienced grief and joy intermingled?

2.    How do you respond in grief? Do you turn to things of this world, or do you turn to God? Do you turn to God in complaint as Habakkuk did in the beginning, or do you turn to God in faith and joy?

3.    What “God is…” and “God does…” truths have helped you in times of grief to grow in faith and choose joy?

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Hab.

[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Hab 3:17–19.