The Fowler of Retribution: God's Net Upon the Proud

"I will spread My net upon them; I will bring them down as fowls of the heaven." So declares Yahweh through Ezekiel of Israel fleeing to Egypt and Assyria for help in their difficulties. The work of retribution operates as a fowler's craft—precisely, inexorably.

First comes entrapment. The retributive providence of God employed the Assyrians as a net so thoroughly ensnaring the Israelites that escape became impossible. History witnesses this pattern repeatedly: Joseph's brethren trapped by their own jealousy; the architects of Christ's crucifixion ensnared by their hatred; Luther at Wartburg; Bunyan at Bedford. The net that entangles sinners is not manufactured in heaven but forged on earth—by the sinner's own hands.

Second comes abasement. However towering men may soar in worldly prosperity, pride, and ambition—rising like eagles into invisible heights—retribution possesses missiles to bring them down. An ancient philosopher, questioned about Jupiter's occupation in the highest heaven, replied: "He pulls down the haughty, and exalts the humble."

The dove, brought down from its almost viewless height and fluttering weakly beneath those same meshes, pictures the self-dependent spirit humiliated. Overwhelmed by inevitable evils against which it impotently struggles, it glimpses escape yet remains held fast as if bound in iron. Self-reliance without Adonai's grace cannot withstand the fowler's net.