12 Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgement, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. 13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

14-15 You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, (i.e. his portion is fat) and his food is rich. 17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations for ever? (Chapter 2:1) I will take my stand at my watch-post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. Habakkuk 1:12 – 2:1 English Standard Version

We saw in the last reading from Habakkuk that God not only allows wicked nations seasons of power, but that they are even instruments of His righteous judgment upon other nations of the world! For Habakkuk, that included judgment upon Israel. But we see in vs 12 that, while he accepted that God had raised up the Babylonians to be a rod of judgment, it posed a deep problem for him which he expresses in vs 13. What is the 'complaint' he is making there?

He knows that God is everlastingly holy, and of much purer eyes than to just gaze idly at all the wickedness taking place in His creation. The implication of Habakkuk's words were that, yes, the people of Israel had sinned badly and deserved chastisement, but they were not nearly as bad as the Babylonians! He pictures the nations at that time as being like fish in the ocean who are caught in Babylon's dragnets. (vs 14-15) And what was the offensive result of that? (vs 16)

The Babylonians attributed their victories and 'success' to themselves – and to their gods. It was the powerful King Nebuchadnezzar who personified this as he gazed from his palace roof over Babylon and said: “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence, and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30) Is that not the attitude that all of histories conquerors have adopted? Sadly, it's certainly the attitude of ungodly leaders today as they crush the world with authoritarian rules, and seek to throw aside everything God has revealed in His word. And, like Habakkuk in vs 17, we might also be tempted to cry out “are these ungodly leaders going to keep on emptying their net and mercilessly killing nations for ever?”

If you are at all like me, then you will be looking on our present world with deep despair. Apart from the brutal wars taking place, the unleashing of viruses and the dictatorial rules that follow, and the climate change agenda and the draconian demands being enforced on people, all contribute to what looks like a bleak and dangerous future. So what did Habakkuk do as he looked at the dark clouds of his generation? (Chapter 2 vs 1)

While he was going to keep his eyes open, he was also going to wait to see what God would show him concerning the future. He had already expressed confidence in God's ultimate help when he said “Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.” He knew that God's ultimate purposes would favour those He loves, and who loved Him. So he was content to wait through the dark days while God's purposes unfolded.

Is that not the position we too should take in our uncertain times? The watch-post and tower for us could well be God's word, and the place of personal, and combined, prayer. By all means let us keep watch at what is developing in the world, but let us take our marching orders not from what the media tells us, but from what is written in the Scriptures. It was Jesus Himself who said to His disciples: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)