Habakkuk 1:5-17 (NRSV)
The wicked swallow the righteous
Look at the nations, and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.
For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
They all come for violence,
with faces pressing forward;
they gather captives like sand.
At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
and heap up earth to take it.
Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!
Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
You shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment;
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous,
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
The enemy brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
so he rejoices and exults.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine;
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
and destroying nations without mercy?
Look at the nations, and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.
For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
They all come for violence,
with faces pressing forward;
they gather captives like sand.
At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
and heap up earth to take it.
Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!
Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
You shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment;
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous,
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
The enemy brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
so he rejoices and exults.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine;
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
and destroying nations without mercy?
There's always a catch to these warrior references from the OT. The reality is that on most of my days, the enemies I face are much more subtle than this. And I also think there is danger in taking this prophets poem about enemies of Israel and transferring them to enemies of of the United States. The United States is not God's chosen nation in the same way Israel was, no matter how many ways we like to think so.
But there ARE days when groups of people and individuals feel caught up like a fish in a net of no mercy. That metaphor strikes me as the perfect one to describe how institutional evil sweeps people up into it's snares. What else to think when cuts in spending affect the most vulnerable while the growing gap between rich and poor gets greater and greater?
This particular passage doesn't end up the note of hope and promise that many do. The question to the Holy One is left hanging at the end: is he then to keep on emptying his net and destroying nations without mercy?
But in the middle of the reading the promise is there: O Lord, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment. Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
There is faith and trust that God will not let this matter stand. God's true nature is known and every now and then one of God's people reminds the Holy One that we do remember that nature. And it is there that our trust lies.
Oh Holy One: Many suffer like fish caught up in a net of despair. Remind us always that that is not your will. Move us to be your hands in this earth to help free them and let your justice be known. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment