Sabbath Joy

The prophecy of Habakkuk closes with a lovely poem of joy in the midst of adversity and lack (Habakkuk 3:17-19). The poem opens with six lines that describe the barrenness of the land. It is a nihil-land; the Hebrew negative lo’ occurs twice (“fig tree does not blossom”; “the field does not make edible-things”), and the term “there is not” (‘eyn) twice more (“there is not fruit on the vines”; “there are no cattle in the stalls”). It’s a fourfold negation.

Every signal of Israel’s prosperity – fig, vine, olive, fruitful land, multiplying flocks and herds – is negated. When Solomon reigned, every Israelite celebrated a continuous feast of booths, joyful under his vine and fig tree (1 Kings 4:25). Habakkuk describes an anti-Solomonic age, an iron age declined from the golden age.

Six clauses of lack and loss: It’s an uncreation too. When Yahweh divided the sea and made the land appear, He called out grain plants and fruit trees from the earth. On the sixth day, he formed cattle from the ground. Third and sixth days are negated in Habakkuk’s time.

What makes the poem so lovely, and rescues Habakkuk from mere lament, is the sequel: In the midst of universal lack and loss, in the midst of a barren land without the joy of the vine or the fat of the olive, Habakkuk rejoices in Yahweh (v. 18) and confesses Master Yahweh as his strength who raises him to the high places (v. 19). Even though the land isn’t producing any of the materials necessary for temple worship (oil, wine, grain, flock- and herd-animals), still the prophet offers the worship he can, the fruit and sacrifice of his lips.

Six clauses of lack and loss; six lines of lament. But the poem doesn’t end at the six-fold decreation. In the midst of sixfold loss, the prophet speaks a seventh line of praise and exultation. In the midst of sixfold loss, the prophet experiences and expresses Sabbath joy and exaltation.