In Greek mythology, chaos is the name of a place. Sometimes many of us feel like we live there, that chaos is the place of our abode. In Genesis 1:2, chaos is a condition. The writer of Genesis declares, “The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” It was chaos.
In its very first verse, Genesis declares that “God created the heavens and the earth.” That phrase, “the heavens and the earth” was a Hebrew way of saying everything. It was the absolute beginning. Scholars call it creation ex nihilo, creation out of nothing.
It was God who created the earth. It was God who created the deep (the water). It was God who created the darkness. It was God who was moving to mold and shape His creation.
The earth was tohu wabhohu, without form and void. In Hebrew, tohu describes nothing. Bohu indicates emptiness. Thus, the earth was empty nothingness. That was the first step in God’s creation. But God was not willing for the earth to remain in the condition we call chaos.
Verses 3–5 describe God’s first steps to bring order out of chaos. God created light and separated the light from the darkness. Day and night emerged. The following verses chronicle God’s activity in molding and shaping the chaos until at the end of the chapter God calls His creation “very good.”
God’s Spirit brought order out of chaos. It is God’s way. He is never satisfied with empty nothingness. God desires productive order for His world.
Productive order in a world where gunmen threaten to blow up a theater with hundreds of hostages inside? Productive order where a sniper randomly shoots people? Productive order does not seem to be a part of our world.
Nor does it seem to be a part of many individual lives. Relationships fracture. Health fails. Economic security crumbles. Death separates. Dis-appointments prevail. For many, chaos is more than a condition. It is an address. Sometimes we all seem to live on Chaos Street. All of our efforts, all of our plans, all of our hopes fail. Try as we will, we come up empty. But God’s Spirit still moves over the empty nothingness of our world and of our lives.
Romans 8:28 assures that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (NASV). The traditional reading of “all things work together for good” has caused some people to forget that God is in control. The result has been a kind of pantheism that says “things are going to work out for good.” Not so. Things are not in control. God is.
Even here, however, there is a condition. God causes good “for those who love God.” The condition is loving God. The greatest commandment, Jesus said, was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” That is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ.
For those who love God, for those who respond to God’s purpose of salvation through faith in Christ, God works for good. It is His Spirit that moves over the chaos of life to bring order. The life that is open to God responds to God’s impulses, follows God’s leading. The life that shuns God has a hardened heart. Such a life will not acknowledge God nor allow God to work in it.
Romans 8:28 does not promise that circumstances will work out as one desires. It does not promise that life will be better than before. But it does promise that chaos will not win. God’s Spirit works to bring good, to restore order and to make life productive once more.
The apostle Paul knew this truth well. In a letter to the church at Corinth, he reflected, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8–9).
In all things, the apostle was “more than a conqueror,” and he calls us to that same kind of living.
For all, chaos will be a condition of life at some time or another. For many, chaos will seem like a permanent address. In such times, it is strength to know that for those of us who love God through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Spirit is still moving in all things to bring about good.
God is still in the business of bringing order out of chaos.
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