“The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places…” (Habakkuk 3:19).
A hind is a female deer. What is the significance of God making our feet like the feet of a female deer? If you’ve ever wondered what that meant, this story will give you understanding:
A certain man had come to a place in his life when he felt that he was a failure, and everything was falling apart. He decided to take a break from his daily life and took some time off to work on a Dude Ranch. This is where one does hard hands-on ranch work, and he busied himself with all the work that had to be done: grooming and feeding horses, cleaning up, etc. Before long, he began to feel much better. He especially enjoyed riding the horse he had been given to ride.
One day the regular ranch hands were going on a ride to take something up to what is called the Sixth Mesa. A mesa is a high elevation with a flat top seen in the southwest of the country. They asked him to ride with them, and he was excited to join them. They reached the first four mesas easily, but on the fifth mesa, they told him that he would not be able to go with them to the sixth mesa. He would have to wait there for them to return. He was disappointed and replied:
“I really feel like I can handle it with no problem. I want to go along.” But they resisted: “No, you can’t make it.”
He pressed them: “But I really think I can make it! Please let me go with you!”
Again, they said no, explaining: “It’s not you—it’s your horse that can’t make it, because your horse cannot track.”
They showed him what they meant: Each one prodded his horse to go, pointing out how the horse’s back hooves stepped into the same print made by its front hooves. This is called tracking. Every horse did it. Then they prodded his horse to go, but it did not track. Therefore, its trot was out of track, off-balance, wobbly, and all over the place.
“Your horse would not be able to climb the steep sides and vertical slopes of Mesa Six, because it doesn’t track,” they explained.
So they left him there, and he said he would wait for them to return. When they had gone, he got down on his knees and prayed: “Lord, now I know what’s wrong with my life. I have been out of balance, and I need you to help me to get on track.”
I think we have all been in this place at some point when we felt like our life was off track. Maybe you feel this way right now. When the prophet Habakkuk wrote this, the people of God were going through a time of judgment and oppression by their enemies. Habakkuk knew that sometimes God used wicked nations to judge His people and to bring correction (1:12). In his short three chapters, Habakkuk recorded God’s words of judgment as well as His promises of restoration. This gave him hope that God would bring them out of hard times. In faithful trust, he declared:
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fall, and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation” (3:17-18).
This speaks of times of economic failure, and we have certainly seen these since the Covid pandemic of 2020. Some businesses have failed and gone out of business altogether. Others have not asked employees back to work on site, permanently terminating them. We have all felt the sharp increase of the cost of everyday things, including food, gasoline, personal products, building supplies, and literally every consumer product we use.
Of equal concern, if not greater, is the falling away of Christians from church attendance. Their routine of consecration has been broken, and they no longer feel their need for or their commitment to the house of the Lord. They are content to fold laundry, do paperwork, or other chores while they tune into live stream services with one ear and eye, fooling themselves into believing it is the same as being there in person. Like the horse that could not track, they are out of balance and cannot climb the steep slopes of adversity to the high place of God’s Presence.
In Ephesians 5:15 Paul said, “See that you walk circumspectly…” The Greek word is akribas from which we derive our English acrobat. It means to walk precisely, accurately with a clear head, like a tightrope walker high above the ground. He ponders every step, pausing when necessary to keep his balance. One misstep could result in disaster. To walk proudly, hastily, or over-confidently could mean a great fall. The Wiseman stated, “Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established” (Proverbs 4:25-26).
We must do what Habakkuk did, and cry out to God to make our feet like hinds’ feet, to keep us on track and in balance with His Word. Much of the church world today is out of balance. To appease the carnal and the worldly, they preach a lopsided gospel that God is love, leaving out the attributes of His justice and judgment for sin. Their steps do not track, because they are not fully walking in the commandments of the Word: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2Timonty 4:2). They latch onto the exhort part and disregard the others as judgmental and harsh.
It is time for us to fall on our knees as the would-be ranch hand did and cry out to God: “Lord, my walk with You has been out of balance, and I want to get back on track. Make my feet like hinds’ feet so I can walk in the imprint of your footsteps and climb the steep slopes of this troubled world to the high places of Your Presence.”
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