Sunday 23rd July
Read Habakkuk 1:14-17
“You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his drag-net;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his drag-net,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
17 Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy? (NIVUK)
Rarely are people compared to fish in scripture. Sheep, yes. But fish? Perhaps the comparison with fish is designed to alert us to their voicelessness. Sheep can at least bleat before destruction, but fish, leaderless and voiceless, are completely at the mercy of fishers. Caught up in increasingly secure ways, hook, hand net and drag net – an inexorable demise – emphasised at the end where the net is ‘emptied’, and the people are destroyed.
It is this brazenness that Habakkuk lays before Yahweh. Habakkuk knows there is evil in the world, but this evil, this consequence-less evil, allowed by Yahweh to go unchecked and unpunished distresses him. They don’t acknowledge the source of their victories. They bow down to their nets and not to Yahweh. How long will Yahweh allow this to go on? Can Yahweh’s honour tolerate it? The Law is powerless. When will God’s righteousness be revealed?
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:21-22a) (NIVUK)
