The Earth Will Be Filled - Habakkuk 2:14

Habakkuk 2:14 – "But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." On the whole today we make a thing about seeing and putting things in context, and that’s absolutely right. Context is important. When we don’t take it into account we run the risk of being irrelevant. When we do take it into account we have a much better chance of engaging with the particular situation.

However, just occasionally, I think, we need a word, or an action, that is out of context, that, to put it another way, bucks the trend. Such a word challenges us in a different way, offers an alternative perspective and can say something really critical.

This verse from somewhere atound the middle of the second chapter of Habakkuk is, I think, such a word – "but the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." It’s a very depressing chapter, chapter 2 of Habakkuk – that’s why I only read a small section. There’s a recurring refrain. It uses different words in English, depending on the translation, but they all mean exactly the same. In the New Revised Standard Version it’s "alas for." It’s there in verse 6, verse 9, verse 12, verse 15, verse 19. The Good News Bible has "you are doomed!" And the Revised English Bible has "woe betide!"

The people are in a difficult situation.

Things are not going well and they are not reacting well. Each little section begins with a wailing lament – woe to .... The prophet is here speaking the prophetic word and, as so often, that is a word full of challenge. It is a word devised to transform the activities and reactions of the people. It is a word that looks for real change in society. The word here is essentially a word of judgment. The people need to change their ways – and that is what the prophet here challenges them towards. The big Biblical – or theological - word for that is, of course, repentance. That is how transformation comes. That is what is needed.

And in the middle of this devastating series of indictments comes this word of hope. The last word does not lie with the unjust structures. Transformation is possible – and that is the vision that must be proclaimed - – "but the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

Now it is only fair to point out that this verse should be regarded as a later insertion, and not part of the original comment – and yet that doesn’t prevent it from being a word that we need to hear in such a context. We are people of faith. We are people of hope. And it is faith and hope that ought to be our driving forces.

I don’t want to try and draw too many close parallels, not least because I don’t want to take the time to engage adequately and appropriately in such an exercise. But I don’t think we need to go into too much detail before we accept that we live in a time where there are plenty of what the prophets would call ‘woes’ around. I am not going to try and analyse any such things, but we all know that the news is full of expressions like recession, credit crunch, financial crisis, crash and so on. We know, too, on a slightly broader plain that we don’t have to look very hard to find concerns about knife crime, drugs and so many other things. On a still broader plain there are many concerns about violence and persecution, about debt and famine, about injustice in a whole range of ways.

Let us not avoid the challenge to face and tackle these issues. Let us not try and minimise the pain and horror. But let us recognise that God is with us in every situation – however bad or however good. – "But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."