Skip to main content

Overcoming Chaos

Isaiah 27
Can chaos be undone? The legend of Leviathan is an ancient story which pre-dates the Bible. It was first written down in the ancient city of Ugarit in Syria, at least 1,000 years before the prophecies of Isaiah were assembled. It tells how God, or in the Ugarit version one of the gods, slew the chaos monster Leviathan, who lived in the primordial sea, so that the earth and the oceans could be separated and an ordered creation set in motion.
Isaiah imagines a world where the chaos monster got away somehow. It wasn’t slain after all, it only went into hiding, lurking in the depths, waiting for a chance to re-emerge. And re-emerge it did, which is why the prophet thinks the world is in such chaos now.
That’s why the ancient kingdom of Israel was broken up and its people dispersed. Chaos was at work. But a day will come when chaos will at last be banished. ‘The sea monster will squirm and try to escape, but the Lord will kill him.’
Isaiah uses another ancient story, in which Israel was depicted as a vineyard planted by God. He built a wall around it and a watch tower. He watered the young vines, and they might have flourished, but chaos Israel disobeyed God, and all his good work was undone. Instead of vines, the vineyard produced thorns. And then the wall was broken down and the watch tower abandoned. Wild animals roamed across the vineyard. It was a mess. Chaos reigned supreme. It’s a picturesque way of describing how Israel was defeated and destroyed, and her people marched away into exile.
But Isaiah subverts the story. He imagines chaos being undone. Now the Lord is no longer angry. He will protect the vineyard and always keep it watered. He will guard it day and night to keep it from harm. If it continues to depend on him for protection, instead of going its own way, he will become the vineyard’s friend and be at peace with it.
This time Israel will take root so strongly that her blossom and fruit shall no longer be confined to the vineyard but will spill out over the retaining wall and cover the earth, Scorching heat will chase away her troublesome enemies, the wild animals that might have eaten her tender shoots.
Meanwhile, the world as it is now is still ruled by chaos, and Isaiah describes what it looks like. Israel’s fortress cities have been left abandoned. Cattle walk through the ruins stripping the trees bare of their remaining leaves. Women gather the broken branches for firewood, but they are just the remnant of a once proud nation, collaborators and marginal people, semi-nomads perhaps, who the conquerors were happy to leave behind. Isaiah calls them stupid or ‘without understanding’. They’re not the antidote to chaos, they’re a symptom of it.
But the time is coming when the Lord will shake things down and as a result of the shaking, or sifting, his scattered people will be brought together again. It will be like threshing grain to separate the wheat from the chaff. The people of Israel, who were dragged away in chains, will return and worship God on his holy mountain - the visible proof that chaos has finally been banished.
It’s a pious hope, but of course the story never came true. Chaos cannot be undone, except by a Cross. It’s Jesus’ death which finally vanquishes Leviathan, and not with a cruel, sharp sword, but with the power of love.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I don't believe in an interventionist God

Matthew 28.1-10, 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 I like Nick Cave’s song because of its audacious first line: ‘I don’t believe in an interventionist God’. What an unlikely way to begin a love song! He once explained that he wrote the song while sitting at the back of an Anglican church where he had gone with his wife Susie, who presumably does believe in an interventionist God - at least that’s what the song says. Actually Cave has always been very interested in religion. Sometimes he calls himself a Christian, sometimes he doesn’t, depending on how the mood takes him. He once said, ‘I believe in God in spite of religion, not because of it.’ But his lyrics often include religious themes and he has also said that any true love song is a song for God. So maybe it’s no coincidence that he began this song in such an unlikely way, although he says the inspiration came to him during the sermon. The vicar was droning on about something when the first line of the song just popped into his ...
14 comments
Read more

Luther and Loyola

James 1:17-27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Within Christianity there has always been a tension between two poles. At one end of the spectrum stands Martin Luther, who said that Christian faith is about trusting in God to put us right - or make us righteous - through the saving death of Jesus. Luther came to this conclusion when he was a professor of New Testament studies in a little town in Germany called Wittenberg. One year he decided to teach his students about Paul’s letter to the Romans and that’s when it suddenly dawned upon him that Christian faith is all about trust. At the other end of the spectrum , stands someone like Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Society of Jesus. He spent a lot of his later life in crisis, first struggling to overcome severe wounds that he had suffered when he was a soldier and then during two short periods locked up in a cell by the Spanish Inquisition. He came to believe that the Christian life is a similar sort of struggle, a lifelon...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sharing the Good News With People of Other Faiths

Together with other local Christians, clergy and lay people, I find myself – from time to time – giving thought to how we share our Christian faith with people from other religious backgrounds. It is a ticklish issue, because converting from one faith to another is a huge decision to make and it may not be appropriate for everyone. Becoming a Christian is always a life changing event, but for someone from another faith background it can sometimes cause immense dislocation and hardship, including estrangement from family members and friends who cannot accept their decision. It may even cut a person off from their entire cultural heritage, so it is not something that we can expect people to enter into lightly or thoughtlessly. Nor is it likely to be easy for them to make a gradual progression or pilgrimage to Christian faith. At some point they may have to choose whether or not to make a radical break with their past, unless they decide to be secret or closet believers. And they may deci...
2 comments
Read more