On a popular level it is believed that God created a perfect world, and that it was ruined by the “Fall.” This is not what one finds when reading the opening Genesis texts closely. A perfect world was not created; and, the “Fall” is not even a biblical term (except where editors who supply headings add the term).
Genesis 1 follows a typical ancient Near East (ANE) story pattern: a title/summary statement (1:1), the opening, pre-actions conditions that function like a stage setting (1:2), and the start of the action (1:3).2 One must understand the opening conditions (1:2). The text presents three symbolic elements of chaos that all function contra life: a) land with indistinguishable features encased in b) watery deep and all in c) darkness. Into that chaos, God’s creative activity brings order: initiating light and separating it from darkness (1:3-5), separating the watery deep into waters above the heavens/firmament and below it (1:6-8), and gathering the waters below to form dry ground (1:9-10). As a result, order that can support life exists within chaos.
This start of creation with unexplained chaos is typical of ancient creation stories. It makes perfect sense phenomenologically. This is our life setting. Human survival – the survival of all life – is about overcoming the forces of chaos that are contra life. For example: if one wants to have a garden, one first brings order out of chaos, but then, also must constantly labor to prevent chaos from encroaching on the plants until they are harvested.
A problem with such a beginning to the Bible is that modern people do not like matters like unexplained initial chaos – or any problematic biblical text. They want to make the Bible answer all our questions and fill in all the blanks. Therefore, people have come up with speculations to provide answers. (One popular answer to our text is: 1:1 is a first creation that was ruined (1:2) by the “fall of Satan” – a matter of misreading a text in Isaiah – which is followed by a second creation (1:3). However, the reality is that our first biblical narrative begins with unexplained chaos.3 As a creation account, it made perfect sense to a person in the ANE as it does to many today who do not experience the conveniences of modernity. That is life!
Application:
Although there are many possible points of application, one speaks
loudly to me about the nature of God’s role in the difficulties of life. What is sometimes called surd evil, the
chaotic and destructive forces of our natural world, is something all humans
face daily from birth to death to one degree or another, from weeds to
hurricanes, from sniffles to cancer, etc.
Life is hard. It is a constant
struggle against chaos. Most importantly
to me is the realization that God’s activity in our lives does not suddenly make
everything idyllic for us. A Christian
conversion does not create a life free from chaos. Rather, like the portrayal in Genesis 1 in
which God breaths order into chaos, so God breathes order into our daily chaos,
holds it at bay with God’s life-giving Presence. Moreover, biblical eschatological texts
promise us a new heavens and earth (e.g. Isa 66:22; 2Pet 3:13; Rev. 21:1. In our world, chaos and order co-exist, but
Divine Order will ultimately defeat all chaos.
An example comes to mind. A pastor friend had a physician sister who ridiculed him for his faith and vocation. She thought of herself as a scientist who knew better than foolish Christians. However, as she worked in a hospital among dying patients, she observed Christian patients who met their deaths differently than others. They had a sense of peace, a kind of peace that she wanted. Seeing the Presence of Order in the chaos of their deaths led to her conversion.
Lord, whenever I suffer defeat, depression, disappointment, or
disease, enable me to know your Presence, to know your order and your peace in
the midst of that chaos. You are my
Rock; all else is ephemeral.
-----
1. See the previous post “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Background.”
2. For those who know Hebrew discourse grammar, these three parts
are set apart by their clause types.
3. A practical perspective from physics about the chaos of nature
in our current world is that we could not exist without it. The very forces of nature that result in
suffering from the micro-level on up to earthquakes are also necessary for
life. A cosmos of total randomness could
not support life, but neither could a cosmos of total, crystal-like order. Life in our cosmos is due to a balance of
chaos and order.
Really helpful presentation, Rod. Thanks. One of my constant questions as an ordained academic . . . how do we take this material and help pastors/preachers teach/preach it in a way that draws people to want more?
ReplyDeleteRod, these are important insights. My experience is that when new ideas are presented to students as good news (which is what you are doing here) they are likely to receive it as good news.
ReplyDeleteThanks. This is refreshing.
ReplyDelete