For the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14 NIV
According to National Geographic, the ocean covers over 70% of the Earth's surface. It must have seemed far more significant to the folks in the day of Habakkuk who had no way of measuring such things. With the Red and Mediterranean seas close by, the people must have felt surrounded by water.
Today's verse is in God's response to Habakkuk's challenge. Israel had grown corrupt, and God's answer was to send the Babylonians to overthrow them. Habakkuk asks (my paraphrasing/, " Why God the Babylonians? They are even more evil and corrupt." God answered that no nation built on bloodshed and injustice would last. God may use them, but that doesn't mean he blesses and condones their rule. When governments lose sight of what is just and right, replacing God with idols, each nation is as bad as the next. Sin is sin; there are no gradations.
God doesn't leave Habakkuk in despair but gives him a promise. Not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but there will be a day when the glory is as great as the waters that cover the Earth. Then, everywhere people turn, they will observe and acknowledge his presence.
As followers of Christ, we have a sense of the enormity of his presence and have a foretaste of things to come. A day when everyone acknowledges that God is in everything seen and unseen. When the knowledge of Him permeates our words and actions, and we live not by the corruption of man but the righteousness of God.
God, we give you thanks for the foretaste of things to come. Please help us this day to live in your glory. Let all we say and do praise and magnify you. Come Lord Jesus come. Amen.
Blessings,
Pastor Tim
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