The Oracle of Habakkuk, Chapter 1
(This prophecy confirms once more the importance of our time for ancient prophets. Habakkuk speaks of people who have conquered the whole world, use cars, fly through the air in an aggressive way, conquer with money, run a justice system based on corruption and fill up prisons. Therefore Habakkuk's "Babylonians" have to be the Anglo-Americans representing our worldwide "Western Civilization".)
(1) The vision which Habakkuk the prophet saw.Habakkuk complains:
(2) O LORD, how long shall I cry, and you won't listen! I cry out to you because of violence, and you won't save! (3) Why do I have to look at injustice, and why do you tolerate evil? Destruction and violence are everywhere, conflicts and hostilities break out. (4) Therefore the law is weak, and justice is never done; for the corrupt wins over the righteous and perverts justice.(The class justice system has a long tradition in Britain, America and countries who have followed these examples. In the majority of cases dealt with in these courts it is who you are and how much you can pay that matters both in criminal and in civil law-suits.)
The LORD answers:
(5) People, look at the nations, watch and be completely amazed for I will do something in your days. Nobody will believe it, even if he was told. I will raise up the "Babylonians",(Anglo-Americans representing our worldwide "Western" Civilization. The term "raise up" has two meanings: 1. bring them to power, 2. make them riot. In the context of the raising up being unbelievable this suggests that the present Anglo-American world-order, which cannot be challenged by any foreign power, will come to an end through violent crime, riots or civil war.)
that fierce and immoderate people, who sweep across the whole world, to possess living places not their own. (This sentence proves that the prophecy cannot be about an ancient empire, because countries, empires and cultures with worldwide importance have only been around for some 500 years.)
(7) They are feared and dreadful, they are a law to themselves and full of pride. (8) Their horses are faster than leopards, more dangerous than lonely wolves.  |
(See Isaiah 2:7.)
Their riders run everywhere, they go a long way. They fly like an eagle diving quickly to devour.  |
(The American idea that prison is the solution for the shortcomings of education, drugs and other social problems is rapidly spreading, especially in Britain. The threat to become a victim of crime is rising everywhere. So is the number of prison inmates and the cost to run such an evil system, which has degenerated from a public service into a money making racket for the people who run it. This destructive tendency is another nail in the coffin of our present civilization, see Isaiah 42:22.)
(10) They treat kings with contempt, and play with dictators, they laugh at all protected cities, they collect earth, and seize them. (As in the Revelation "earth" symbolizes money, which is the modern weapon of conquest in worldwide buying and bribing campaigns.)
(11) Then they sweep on further like the wind, these people whose own power is their god.Habakkuk complains again:
(12) O LORD, you have been here from the very beginning, my God, my Holy One. You will not die. O LORD, you have chosen them to punish; O mighty God, you have made them strong to strike. (13) Your eyes are too sacred to look at evil. You cannot tolerate wrong. Why do you tolerate people who act like criminals, and why are you silent, when the wicked swallows up people who are more righteous than him? (14) You have made men like fish of the sea, like creeping things who have nobody to guide them.(It has been one of the doubtful achievements of our liberal age to abolish the principle of moral and political leadership by single, specially qualified individuals. Instead, we did not get Democracy, as our corrupt leaders want to make us believe, but the absolute, international and faceless dictatorship of money interests described by the prophet in the following verses.)
(15) Evil people pull them up with hooks; they gather and catch them in their nets. Then they are glad and shout for joy about their catch. (In the context of the following verses, this only makes sense, if we understand "hooks" and "nets" as meaning money, see verse 10. Indeed, looking at the way finance people speculate and the effects of their transactions money has become a weapon to rob like hooks and nets in ancient times.)
(16) Therefore, they worship their nets 
(Modern politics, the dealings of banks and stock exchanges can be interpreted as a ritual of worshipping money, see Revelation 14:9. Victims of poverty are human sacrifices for this religion.)
because these nets