A NEW HAPPY DANCE

Lord God spoke to Dancing Instructor Angel, handing him a new assignment. 

"The time has come for those who trust in Me on Planet Earth to learn the steps to a new happy dance. I want you to teach them to leap and whirl around and turn cartwheels with joy and hilarious celebration!”

“Oh, that's so exciting, Lord God! What is the occasion? Are they going to have some 'welcome home' festivities for the return of a prodigal son?”

“That party is already going on day and night because many prodigals on Earth are returning to My House. Always there is joy in Heaven with angels rejoicing and singing and dancing because they see what my children on Earth are doing. But that's not the reason I'm assigning you to teach them to sing and dance a new dance.”

“Did the shepherd find his one lost sheep? Or the woman find the coin she lost? Is that why they are to dance?”

“Both found what they were looking for and then called their friends and neighbors together for a big party. But that's still not the reason I want you to teach them a happy dance and be ecstatic with joy,” replied Lord God.

“Is it time then for Your Son to 'descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God'? Are we going to rehearse the dance we will have with those who rise in the glorious resurrection and with the living ones who will join in the jubilation?”

“That time has not yet come, but it's in My eternal schedule. We will not rehearse that glorious event. It will come suddenly like a thief in the night.”

“Well then, Lord God, You are always generously blessing Your children with bountiful goodness and mercy all the days of their lives. They must have tons of blessings to celebrate. Is that why you are sending me to teach them a new dance?”

“It is good to 'come before me with joyful singing and to enter My gates with thanksgiving and My courts with praise.' But I have a special season of time for which they will need to be prepared. It is for that occasion I want you to teach them a new song and a happy dance to the accompaniment of stringed instruments."

“Oh Lord God, I can hardly wait! What are the words to the music that is to be played for the dance that I will teach them?”

“Listen carefully then: 'Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food; though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls....'”

“Oh Lord God! Those can't be the right words to sing with joy. Were such things to happen it would be utter disaster, catastrophe, total calamity! How could such words accompany a happy dance? The music would be a dirge—a funeral song, a mournful lament!"

“Dancing Instructor Angel, it is my faithful servant Habakkuk who wrote the words of the song and the steps to the happy dance that should accompany it. Although total devastation faced his nation and enemy invaders were storming in over its borders to devour and lay waste the entire land and slay the people, and though he trembled with distress and his lips quivered, he waited on Me and trusted in My providence.”

“But Lord God, that was worst case scenario! Habakkuk said that violence and bloodshed were sweeping over the land and wickedness, strife, and contention were everywhere. Laws were disregarded, justice was never upheld, and the wicked surrounded the righteous breathing threats. The whole economy of that day was collapsing! He described horrible things in his book!”

“Not unlike conditions for my children today. Listen to My servant Habakkuk so you can teach My people in distress how to sing and dance with holy joy even when facing their worst nightmare—personal or national:

'Yet I will *exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places.'”

“I am silent before You, Lord God. I don't understand how Your people can sing and dance under such dire circumstances, but I bow before You because I know You are always working all things for good.” 

“I AM working on the eternal picture. I have the nations and their leaders and My people in My hands. In My omnipotent wisdom and loving judgment, I may even have to resort to using godless nations as rods of chastisement for a blessed and favored nation that forgets Me and insists on going its own way.”

“I will do Your bidding, Lord God. I will teach Your children to dance a happy dance with holy joy no matter what befalls them. Your plans for them are for their welfare and not for calamity to give them a future and a hope!”

And so it was that Dancing Instructor Angel fulfilled his assignment faithfully. Sounds of music and happy dancing echoed over the hills and valleys and from sea to shining sea of the Land called Beautiful for Spacious Skies. Behold, those who trusted in Lord God whirled about in joyful celebration and praise to Him despite the collapse and chaos and calamity around them. 

 

"Let all who take refuge in Thee be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and mayest Thou shelter them, that those who love Thy Name may exult in Thee. For it is Thou who dost bless the righteous man, O Lord. Thou dost surround him with favor as with a shield" (Psalm 5:11, 12).

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*Various versions of the Bible translate the word “exult” as:

 "rejoice, be glad, shout loudly, take great delight, sing a song of holy joy, sing a happy song, sing loudly, celebrate, rejoice with great happiness, engage in hilarious activity, jump about, truly find joy in, triumph in, proclaim victory, turn cartwheels of joy, whirl around in a dance, be ecstatic about."

Background selections from the entire book of Habakkuk. Especially 3:17-19. Also Luke 15:1-32; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; 4:13-18; Psalm 100; Rom. 8:28; Phil. 3:1; 4:4; Jeremiah 29:11-14a