Were you angry with the rivers, LORD? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory? – Habakkuk 3:8

Today's Scripture Reading (May 19, 2023): Habakkuk 3

Wind. It is a presence in all of our lives. On a hot day, we are thankful for the presence of a gentle breeze to cool the sweat sticking to our skin. On a cold winter's day, the wind blows the snow obscuring the landscape and stinging our skin. A tornado can suddenly rip apart our lives, and hurricanes are the nightmare of coastal centers worldwide. And all of it is a result of the wind.

Maybe we can blame global warming for the increased frequency of destructive storms, but we can't really blame the wind. But wind is also just a natural occurrence. It is the result of other weather phenomenon, geography, water temperature, and barometric pressure. When a winter blizzard interrupts our plans there is no use in blaming the wind. The storm isn't personal. It just does what is told without the power to refuse.

Habakkuk has a series of questions for his God. And he is focusing on Israel's release from Egypt. Our sense of the poetic shows its presence here. While we seem to like to vary our language, my grammar checker seems to continually remind me that I am using a word too often and should opt for a synonym, the root word for both "rivers" and "streams" is the same Hebrew word, transliterated as "nahar." And, while the word's translation is plural, it is actually two specific rivers in question. The first is the Nile. There, Moses stretched his hand over the water of the Nile, changing it to blood so that the people could no longer drink the water, and the fish living in the river died. The question directed at God was, "Were you angry with the river?" Repeating the word "nahar" seems to lead us to conclude that the second river was the Jordan. There, God rolled back the water to allow Israel to cross over into the Promised Land. And again, Habakkuk asks the question, "God, were you angry with the water of the Jordan?"

In the same way, the Sea indicated here would have been the Red Sea. God, when you rolled back the water of the Red Sea to allow Israel to cross, and when you drove the Egyptian horses and chariots into the water, was that because you were angry with the water of the sea? And, of course, the answer to all of these questions is no. Water, like the wind, only goes where it is told to go. It is a waste of energy to rage against the water, just like it is a waste to be angry with the wind. God's anger was with Egypt, and water was simply a tool God used to chasten them and try to correct their behavior.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 11