Why God Must be Sovereign - Agility

Habakkuk continues: "He makes my feet like the feet of a deer". But what could it mean? Oddly enough, King David gives us a clue: ‘As for God, his way is perfect: the Lord ’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord ? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You make your saving help my shield; your help has made me great. You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way. 2 Samuel 22:31‭-‬37 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/2sa.22.31-37.NIVUK Psalms 18:30‭-‬36 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.18.30-36.NIVUK So what on earth could this mean? Deer have incredibly small hooves, but I doubt if Habakkuk or David are refering to having feet so small that they can shop in the children's section and avoid paying VAT. The book of 2 Samuel explains the context of these words as follows: David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 Samuel 22:1 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/2sa.22.1.NIVUK These words are words of a grateful man, singing about his deliverance from his adversaries. He says that the Sovereign Lord has made his feet like feet of a deer because he believes that God has made him swift and agile, able to escape from capture and death. So how could this apply to Habakkuk's situation? Unlike David he was not heading for victory. Instead, he and his people were looking at a brutal defeat. So why would he copy David's verses here? I believe he is saying that the Sovereign Lord will give him the agility to escape capture by the enemy. I believe he is saying that in the midst of deep darkness and unfathomable tragedy, the Sovereign Lord will enable him to be calm and trusting, taking the right decisions at the right time, and will get him through the horrible situation in which he finds himself. Consider a hill walker or a mountain climber. They often go up mountains they have never been to before. They often have to make a quick assessment of the terrain, the rocks, the tree roots and the ledges, to check that they will be able to bear their weight. They have to decide which way is safe and which will lead to certain doom. They often have to take these decisions very quickly. They need to know where it is safe to tread. Now consider a deer running from its hunter. The deer has to make the same decisions, and quickly - avoiding traps and crevices, mud and potholes, trailing undergrowth and obstacles, in order to stay alive and avoid the hunter's gun or knife. This, I believe, is exactly what David and Habakkuk are referring to here. In fact, the idea of escaping from a hunter is not at all unique to these verses. David uses it in several other places in the Psalms: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord , ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. Psalms 91:1‭-‬6 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.91.1-6.NIVUK Praise be to the Lord , who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord , the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalms 124:6‭-‬8 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.124.6-8.NIVUK Now, we are not being hunted. And if we're out hill-walking in these conditions then I'm afraid we really should reconsider. However, we still need agility. We need agility to decide who to trust, who to listen to, who to follow. There are a multitude of people there, all sharing what they call "facts", some of which are completely false. As Christians, we need to know how to tell the truth from the lie, how to tell the true from the false. Even when it comes to Bible teaching, we should be less gullible and more like the Bereans: As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. Acts 17:10‭-‬12 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/act.17.10-12.NIVUK We must always examine the Scriptures. Please, weigh my own words up in exactly the same way too. Because, you see, we need to know where it's safe to tread. We need to know where to go and how to live. There are too many people out there who lie for their own selfish gain or for the gain of their particular cause. We must be able to know who to trust. We must know where to tread. How does belief in a Sovereign God help us with this? I believe that trusting ourselves to a God who is both sovereign and good gives us peace that He is at work, that He has not abandoned us and that our circumstances will end someday. This gives us the calmness and cool-headedness to take the right decisions at the right time. I don't doubt for one second that we all need this. There are those of us who are working in healthcare and making split-second life-or-death decisions every day. There are managers and company owners who have to make decisions for everyone they work with. There are fathers and mothers and carers who have to make decisions about the people they are responsible for. We all need to be able to do the right thing at the right time. More than ever, we need the Sovereign Lord to help us, give us peace and equip us with wisdom. This, I believe, is what both David and Habakkuk mean here. Around three years ago, the announcement was made that the office where I worked was closing and the majority of the three hundred people working there would be made redundant. Obviously this was a severe blow. I had worked there for ten years when it was announced. I have a family. I had bills to pay. I had no idea what would happen next. The uncertainty was enormous and the pressure huge. I went into work the following day. The atmosphere was awful. People I had worked with for years were in a mess. Some were in denial, trying hard to pretend it wasn't real. Others were angry, determined to overturn it. Among them were managers in my department, including my own manager. Some were just in shock and disbelief. I had to decide how to react. I'm not saying I got everything right. My next few job moves after redundancy were perhaps not the best. But the way I decided, with the Lord's help, was a massive help to me at the time. Firstly, I accepted it. It was happening. There was no way out. The decision had been taken and it wouldn't be reversed. Secondly, I believed that God was in control, that He was working for my good, and even if I couldn't see how, He would look after us and see us through this. Thirdly, I set out to control what I could control. And what could I control? My thoughts. My attitudes. My approach. My professionalism. I might have been asked to hand over my job to someone in India, but I wanted it to be the best handover they had ever seen. Yes, I was losing my job. Yes, I didn't know what would happen next. But I believed that if I did what I could and left the rest to God then He would work it out. And He did. My redundancy payment was increased because of the work I put in. And I found a new job. I was hurting. I was sore. I was in pain. My head was a mess. But the Lord somehow made me agile enough to cope and to find my way through it when others were falling apart around me. He did it for me then. I know He will do it for me now. He can do it for you too. As well as strength and agility, belief in a Sovereign God also gives us IMPREGNABILITY.