Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
The prophet has just watched a cruel empire haul in whole peoples like a fisherman hauling fish. Now he puts his last question to God: will the killing go on forever, and will God ever call to account the nation He is using?
A question pressed on God
Habakkuk takes the words God had already spoken to him about the Chaldeans and turns them into an argument in prayer. One commentator describes the kind of eye that prays this way, and where the plea lands. The translation he used reads "they" and "their net," of the Chaldeans as a people:
William KellyNothing 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.
Men treated as fish
The verses just before this one describe how the Chaldeans treated the peoples they caught.
Hamilton SmithThis 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.
The net emptied and thrown again
The prophet's question leans on God's own verdict about this nation.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThen 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?
The same sin in a new form
One commentator turns the picture on the reader, and then points to where the answer is found.
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 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.
God judges the instrument too
Later in the book God turns on the oppressor, using the very nations the oppressor had plundered.
Hamilton SmithThe 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.
One commentator adds what this reversal means for the people under God's hand.
H. L. RossierGod 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.
A picture larger than Babylon
One commentator reads the Chaldean as pointing beyond his own day.
J. G. BellettBut 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.
Summary
- Net — The net never stays empty. He tips it out only to throw it over the nations again.
- Worship — The crowning sin is not the cruelty alone. He makes a god of the power that prospers him, and so sets the true God aside.
- Today — The same idolatry lives on in a different form. Peter's letters answer the prophet's two questions: how God deals with His people, and how He deals with the world.
- Reversal — The instrument does not escape. God judges the Chaldean by the very nations He had used to chastise.
- Waiting — Faith is certain: "It cannot be." Faith also waits: "the issue must be waited for." God never forgets those who belong to Him.