Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.
God has just named the Chaldeans as the rod He will use on His own people. Now the prophet watches that conqueror haul in whole nations like fish, then worship the net that caught them.
Men Caught Like Fish
Start with how this conqueror saw the people he caught.
Hamilton SmithThis wicked nation treated men as if they were fish in the sea, or crawling creatures with no ruler to guide or protect them. Once they had seized the weak and helpless, they used them to provide a rich portion and plenty for themselves.
So why were these nations left with no one to protect them?
H. L. RossierWhen God has entrusted a government to men, He has the right to take it away from them completely. He can hand them over as prey to those in whose hands He puts the power. That is what would soon happen to the nations Babylon conquered.
Sacrifice Offered to the Net
The sacrifice and the incense are real worship, aimed at the wrong object.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThen the prophet takes up what the Lord had said: the Chaldean would offend, and fall by his pride and by the worship of his false gods. He sacrifices to his net. He burns incense. He makes the thing that prospers him his idol, his god.
When the Tool Took God's Place
Cruelty was not the Chaldean's worst offence. There came a point where he stopped seeing himself as a tool in a larger hand.
H. L. RossierInstead of seeing himself as an instrument, he went beyond the task given to him, and in that he sinned. It isn't as if he had not sinned a thousand times by his cruelties, pride, and idolatry. But the time came when his own strength took the place of God. The power that God had laid into his hands became his god. He worshipped that power: his power. He trusted in it, he honoured it.
Hamilton Smith puts the charge in one line.
Hamilton SmithTheir crowning sin is that they make a god of the power by which they have obtained their successes, and so set the true God aside.
The Prophet Turns It Into a Plea
Notice who is speaking. God gave the prophet this word first. Habakkuk now hands it back to God as a reason for judgment.
William KellyJehovah had told the prophet that they would offend by crediting this very power to their god. So now the prophet tells Jehovah that they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag. See with what skill he takes the little word Jehovah had given him and makes it the ground of his plea. He asks God not to spare these ruthless enemies of Himself and His people.
The Same Idol in Modern Dress
The net was a Babylonian idol, but the instinct behind it outlives Babylon.
H. L. RossierHe saw that the enemy used the power entrusted to him to make an idol of his net and his drag. We may well ask whether things are any different today, even if the form has changed.
The same sin can take a spiritual form.
The Bible TreasuryTo boast of spiritual gifts and attainments as if acquired by our own skill is even more offensive to the Lord, Who alone gives as it pleases Him. It is to put God's blessings and favours in the place of God Himself.
Summary
- Net — He hauls in helpless people like fish and lives well off the catch.
- Incense — Then he worships the net itself. Whatever makes him rich becomes his god.
- Crossing the line — God lent him the power. He owned none of it, yet his own strength took the place of God.
- Plea — Habakkuk takes the word God gave him and hands it back as a reason not to spare such a man for ever.
- Today — The idol changes shape, not nature. Credit your gifts to your own skill, and you put God's blessings where God Himself belongs.