As the waters cover the sea
Habakkuk wrote in a dark time, when evil seemed to be winning. Into that moment God gives a picture: one day the whole earth will be as full of His glory as the sea is full of water.
Not a puddle, not a pond: the sea. The work of making Christ known may look small and slow, but God’s promise is large and certain. Every faithful act is a drop in that ocean.
Lord, fill the earth with the knowledge of Your glory. Use my small drop today, and help me trust Your promise when the work feels slow. Amen.
תִּמָּלֵא (timmale (tim-mah-LAY)). “It will be filled.” The verb is used for a vessel filled to the brim. God’s glory is not meant to trickle across the world but to fill it completely.
Habakkuk prophesied in the years before Babylon conquered Judah. The picture in this verse echoes Numbers 14:21 and Isaiah 11:9, so the promise that God will fill the earth with His glory runs through the whole Bible.
John and Elisabeth Stam, young American missionaries, were married in Jinan, China. In 1934 Communist forces captured them and they were killed; they are remembered for their faith.