Habakkuk 3:17-19
Oreamnos americanus—better known as the Rocky Mountain goat—makes Barnum and Bailey’s tightrope walkers look like amateurs by comparison.
In search of pockets of vegetation rooted in sheer rock faces, these shaggy cliff-climbers make us gasp in amazement at their surefooted acrobatics. And just when it appears they are stuck—can’t go forward and no room to turn around—they defy gravity by turning their stubby legs into pogo sticks that launch them ten feet or more to a new perch.
In the summer, when the cliffs are free of ice, the mountain goat’s sharp-edged hoof can hook over the slightest piece of rock projecting from a cliff face. Which is exactly what it needs—the hotter it gets, the higher it climbs. Why? They have confidence in the high places—food is available, predators can’t touch them, and it’s cooler than the stifling heat below.
The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk never saw an American Rocky Mountain goat—but he had seen plenty of similar sure-footed creatures: The deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. They were as confident in dangerous places as he wanted to be in the place where he was. It was getting hot in Israel, but not because of the weather. An army of human predators from Babylon was bearing down on Israel to reap God’s judgment. He had been fearful—he knew that the crops and livestock they depended on for their sustenance were about to be destroyed. But he also had learned that the righteous live by faith, not by sight (Hab. 2:4). And suddenly, like hind’s hooves, Habakkuk’s faith was taking him to high places: “Let the heat come!” he thought. “The hotter it gets, the higher I’ll climb on the mountain that is my God.”
What do you do when the heat rises in your life and the predators who would steal your faith come near? Fear, insecurity, worry, discouragement—they will always attack. But start climbing. God has given you feet of faith like hinds’ hooves that will allow you to live where no predator can follow—in the high places of God’s protection.
God’s Promise to You: “If you will only climb higher, I will keep you from falling.”