Water, Water, Everywhere!

Our story today provides an example of how God’s order, can return to chaos. As we mentioned in the very first episode, Genesis 1 explained that God created order out of chaos. Chaos, or in the Hebrew Tohu vaBohu, represented the darkness, deep, and formless void before Creation. It also represented the depths of the ocean. In the ancient world, chaos was often a monster from the sea, the depths or a pit, a serpent, or a god who ruled the underworld. In the Hebrew Bible God controls the deep, the sea monster, the ocean, the pit, or the serpent. These forces are constantly battling with Yahweh, but God controls, overpowers, and forces them to submit. The story of the Bible is that God establishes order, structure, and beauty out of chaos. As we read in the last episode, sin and rebellion began to grow within the people created in the image of their God. While all nature obeys the voice of God, humans struggle—yet we still are given free will. The first man and woman, along with their son Cain made wrong choices, which in turn began to affect the earth. The land was cursed due to Adam and Eve’s sin, continued to be cursed when Cain murdered his brother Abel, and cities became the norm. Sin harms not only human relationships, but the earth.  This culminated in a story of the flood. The flood was more than a destruction by water, it represented the return of chaos. However, as always, God had another plan. In the midst of water—hope, peace, and salvation. Let’s turn to Genesis 6 and find the hope offered by the God of Second Chances.