Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. I started listening to Skip Moen’s course on the Hebrew worldview (how the Hebrew people saw the world). Wow! It’s totally fascinating and totally different from how we think. From things as seemingly small as their day started at sundown (not sunrise), to more monumental things like their perception of God, it’s obvious that the way the writers of the Bible saw things is completely and utterly backwards from how we view things today. And it makes me wonder how much of our interpretation of the Bible is off because we view it in such a backwards light. Anyway, that aside, one thing Skip said is that when God created the earth, not only is it the only creation story that doesn’t involve a war and the creation of good and evil, he organized things. The Hebrew word for “deep” in the verse above actually means chaos. So, the first thing God did was to start bringing order to chaos. He organized the universe. Maybe this is why we’re constantly trying to get organized in our lives… That’s not my point. My point is that life these days seems increasingly chaotic. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been run over by the world (whether it’s the government running me over or my job trying to do it). Things feel like they’ve gotten out of control. But that’s not really the case because God does bring order to the chaos in His perfect time. He’s not lost control. He’s still perfectly in charge and in control of everything that’s happening here. Another point that Skip makes is that we tend to view God and Satan as two equals fighting it out through history. We see this in society (other than our general struggles) in our hero stories, which Skip reminds us are actually pagan mythology repackaged. Every other religion in the ancient days had the good vs. evil with good finally winning. There were heroes and villains. The Hebrew world was different. God is all good. Everything He made was all good (yeah, my first thought was – what about the serpent in the garden? – he hasn’t explained how that fits this view – I’ll let you know). There is no good vs. evil because God’s already won. Even though the Bible talks about the angels fighting when Satan decided he wanted to be equal to God, I don’t think there was ever a doubt about who was going to win. One word from the Creator and the created would fall to pieces and become nothing. That’s the power of Creation. So, while we often view Satan on an equal footing with God, struggling to win this battle for humanity and the world, in reality, there’s no fight. There’s no question about who is stronger or more powerful in our world. God HAS won this – there was never any contest. Whether you think of it in terms of the Creator being more powerful than what He created, or in terms of Jesus’ redemption of mankind with His resurrection (which was another show that He could overcome death – the ultimate threat), God is the winner. There wasn’t ever a question about it, and there’s not any doubt in Satan’s mind that God is the winner. The trick is to make you question the win. The trick it to cause chaos and get me unfocused. The trick is to be nasty like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum. Remember, though. Ultimately, God’s already won. There isn’t a war. God is an organizer and brings order to chaos (yes, even our government). And God, being the amazing Creator and parent that He is, has chosen to let us have some autonomy because He loves us (I still have a hard time understanding why He loves us). What a crazy world!
I was reading in Zechariah again this morning, and despite its general encouragement and hope, nothing was sticking out. So, I went and read Skip Moen’s Daily Word blog (which is one of my favorites). The first one was about living water which reminded me about Zechariah 13:1 (On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and defilement.). It talked about how the living water actually referred to bringing order from chaos which is part of who God is. He is and part of His being is order. His resurrection brought order back to our chaotic world. At the end it asked what we’re doing to restore the Garden (a place of order). I kept reading and a couple of entries later (one of which was about The Song of Solomon and the importance of naming – awesome entry), Skip asked what we were doing to break chains (generational chains of continual sin), referring to Abram and Sarai’s sin (Hagar) and its parallels to Adam and Havvah (Eve and the fruit). So many questions made me wonder if there’s not something to think about there. My family has a lot of generational chains that I hope will be broken in my family or in my children’s. But, the questions really is, what am I doing? Are my actions bringing order and peace to my family? Are my actions working to break the generational sins and the do-it-my-way attitude that I tend to have? Those are good questions for me to think about. They’re really good for anyone to think about (especially if you have some generational chains that need breaking and some chaos that tends to sneak into your life, and who doesn’t?). Thanks Skip!