Thursday, March 6, 2014
Habbakuk 3:1-14
I looked up today’s passage in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary to get an idea of what I might say. One of the ideas that struck me most was the notion of God doing battle with the Sea and the forces of chaos. I like this idea; I can easily picture a Poseidon-like character wrestling with great creatures in the storming waters.
It is this image of God as both beautiful and very wild that is so poignant, because it resonates with Habbakuk’s fears and hopes, and the suffering of his people. He is afraid of the Lord, just as a sailor is afraid of a storm on the ocean, but he also welcomes the mighty hand to smite the enemy, just as the sailor welcomes the strong wind that will blow him home.
This is the wonder that we can see in God, that God can seem to change in an instant – to our eyes – but will endure, just like the sea, beyond all instances. If we trust in God, and place our hope in God, then eventually the storm will break and the winds will turn, and God’s wildness will be at our side.
- Joshua Zentner-Barrett
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