Friday, September 11, 2015
Jeff Lampl
Jeff Lampl
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV2011)
One
of the big problems in the world is chaos, which destroys, wrecks lives, and
wrecks the planet.
In the Bible’s second verse, we see God, having first created the
raw materials of the cosmos, now preparing to tame and order those raw materials
into a home where He and those He is about to create in his own image can
together thrive.
To
the people of the ancient near east, not just the Hebrews, the
serpent or snake was a common symbol for chaos.
It was a creature that brings disorder, in this case through deception.
“Now
the snake was the most clever of all the wild animals the LORD
God had made. One day the snake said to the woman, “Did God really say that
you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?“
Genesis 3:1 (NCV)
Among
the scholars who study these things (doing their best to help us get our reading
of the bible right!) are those who see the snake representing evil or Satan.
There are also those who see no evidence that an Israelite would
associate the snake with Satan.
Either way though, present right there in the garden, the plot of land
where the first humans were given the responsibility to represent God on earth
with trust, responsibility for creation, and humility, was a cosmic force of
chaos or evil with the attendant temptation to succumb to it, thus giving it
entry into God’s good world.
It
appears to me that not only was Eden good, it was also dangerous.
It was a wonderful world, yet it came with the temptation to forsake it
all for the temporal pleasure of getting the quick fix of being “like god”,
the quick fix of living on my wisdom rather than God’s.
Just
as the good world of Eden provided the first human beings everything they needed
for a flourishing, loving, vibrant, and purposeful life with God and each other,
it also contained either the cosmic force of evil itself or the potential for
it, which means that our world, perfect as it may seem at any given moment,
contains
at
every moment the potential for losing it all (expelled from Eden).
God
graciously cautions and warns us about this temptation with the stories of our
ancestors, be they in Eden or outside of it.
That temptation always lurks as it did with Cain when he became
jealous of his younger brother.
That jealousy brought God’s warning,
“Why
are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will
you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at
your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:6-7
Today
is 9/11.
What is our greatest existential threat?
What is yours?
Iran, Iran getting nuclear weapons, Al Qaida, ISIS, North Korea, Russia,
guns?
Is it our enemies?
It is racism, poverty or immigration?
Is it Satan?
Or is it
“sin, crouching at your door desiring to have you, but you must rule over it”
“sin, crouching at your door desiring to have you, but you must rule over it”
Perhaps
on this anniversary it would wise for us to consider the possibility that our
reaction to the evils of this world, be they perceived or real, can be as great
a force of chaos, as great an evil (or greater!) than what we’re reacting
against.
Sin is always crouching at our door which is why we need constant warning
to “do what is right”.
How do you define “right”?
Does it match God’s definition of right?
Or does has it been twisted by deception?
In
what area of your life is the cosmic force of evil, or chaos, or satan, or the
potential for evil to “have you”, “crouching at your door”?
One
of the surest ways that I know of to determine your personal vulnerability to
the deceptive power of evil is to ask yourself if you think that you are
vulnerable to it.
The more invulnerable you feel you are, the more vulnerable you actually
are.
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
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