I watched the news with great interest when Japan had their major earthquake several weeks back. I remember seeing the tidal waves break through the levies and sweep away everything in its path; cars, houses, buses, trucks, trains and even huge buildings. It was incredible. The water was unstoppable. Nothing could escape! Genesis also tells of a flood in the days of Noah. During the deluge the waters engulfed all life.

Habakkuk is using that image of the floods to give us, in powerful symbolic language, the picture of a coming spiritual deluge. Yes, there will come a time when no one will be able to escape the grandeur and glory of God almighty. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Just as the waters overtook all life on earth, the knowledge of God will similarly overtake all life on earth.

Injustice and suffering will be totally destroyed. When Isaiah uses this same language, he says, “The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:8, 9 NIV). We live our lives in this world of evil, pain and much suffering with the conviction that God will set it all right in the end. We trust God to do what he said he’s going to do, and that helps us live with an optimistic spirit, like Habakkuk did, no matter how dark the days may be. We trust God.

Chuck

“The just shall live by faith.” Habakkuk 2:4