Habakkuk 1:15–17

Fishing was very common in Egypt. People used the net, and also the line and hook (Isaiah 19:8). The Israelites used the same tools. Nets are often mentioned, and the fish with the coin in its mouth was caught with a hook (Matthew 17:27). In Habakkuk 1:15 these same things stand as a picture of catching men for captivity. The Lord made His apostles fishers of men.

This wicked nation treated men as if they were only fish in the sea, or crawling creatures with no ruler to guide or protect them. They took hold of the weak and the helpless, and used them to give themselves a good portion and plenty.

God entrusts a government to men. He also has the right to take it all back, and to hand them over as prey to the men He gives the power to. This is what would soon happen to the nations Babylon conquered. The same fate would fall on Israel, which once stood as one whole under God's government. It had deserted the Lord, and it would end up with no king, no prince and no help against the enemy.

The Chaldean took men as if they were fish. A fisherman puts out his net and his dragnet; in the same way they catch men with net and dragnet. He gathers in the people with their wealth, and he rejoices and is glad.

The LORD had told the prophet that they would offend by crediting this very power to their god. So the prophet says back to the LORD that they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet, because through them their portion is rich and their food plentiful. Notice how he takes the little word the LORD had given him as a foundation, and uses it to plead reasons why He should not spare these merciless enemies of Himself and of His people. Nothing could be more beautiful. An eye fixed on one thing — an eye that knows the love God has for His own people, and above all for Christ Himself — takes hold of the truth that fits, and uses it for the good of the needy who cling to His name.

Their crowning sin is that they make a god of the power by which they have won their successes, and so set aside the true God.

He saw that the enemy took the power entrusted to him and made an idol of his "net" and his "drag." We may well ask ourselves whether things are any different today, even if they now take another form.

Nothing can be more beautiful than the way a single eye lays hold of the suitable truth and uses it for the needy who cling to His name. Such an eye knows the love God has for His own people, and above all for Christ Himself… Will the Lord then allow them to go on in this unsparing way? It cannot be. But the issue must be waited for.

This wicked nation was treating men as if they were mere fish of the sea, or creeping things that have no ruler to guide or protect them. Having taken possession of the weak and helpless, they used them to provide a good portion, and plenty, for themselves. What is more, their crowning sin is that they make a god of the power by which they have gained their successes, and so set aside the true God.

Then the prophet takes up the statement given by the Lord that the Chaldean would offend, and fall by his pride and the worship of his false gods… Is this then to go on continually? Shall he who empties his net, and throws it out to catch more, do this again with the nations forever?

He saw that the enemy used the power entrusted to him to make an idol of his "net" and his "drag." We may well ask ourselves whether things are really different today, even if the form has changed… The prophet's two great questions therefore concerned how God governs His people and how He governs the world. In the New Testament the First and Second Epistles of Peter give an answer to these questions.

The oppression and injustice of this nation cries aloud to God for judgment. As the LORD had used the Chaldeans to chastise His people and the nations, so now He uses the nations to judge the Chaldeans.

God never loses sight of His people. The Chaldean was guilty of looting and murder against the nations, and God would righteously avenge it. How much more, then, when he poured out his violence on Israel. God had to set His people aside for a time. But He will renew His relationship with them as soon as the judgments have passed. He never forgets those who truly belong to Him. When it pleases Him to chasten them, then woe to those who, in doing so, pursue their own advantage.

But the Chaldean was not only a real person, but a representative one. He stands out in the prophets as telling us of coming and final judgments. His sword visited not only Judah and Jerusalem, but the surrounding nations. His was a day in which the God of all the earth was rising up, and the world had to keep silence.