From the very first verses of Genesis, holy Scripture gives us an impression of
chaos—the deep, dark, formless, “the waters” churning with mystery and untamed
potential. Above it all God rules. His Spirit hovers over “the waters.” That’s the
fundamental truth we see throughout the Bible: God above reigns, no matter what it
looks like from below. Paul reminds us, “For God is not a God of confusion but of
peace” (1 Cor. 14:33).
In the imagination of the Ancient Near East, the sea was terrifying. Israel
wasn’t a seafaring people like their Philistine neighbors; to them, the ocean
manifested danger, unpredictability and periodic destruction. So it’s no surprise that
when judgment comes in the days of Noah, it takes the form of a great flood—a sort
of unwinding of creation, God “baptizing” the sinful world of man in “the waters” of
death, the primordial abyss (cf. 1 Pet. 3:20ff). Or the Israelites, when fleeing Egypt,
find the sea standing in their way, impassable—until God splits the waters and gives
birth to His nation, the “baptism” of His people (cf. 1 Cor. 10:1-2).
Again and again, the Bible reminds us that God is sovereign over the waters.
Daniel’s visions, for example, paint the sea as a cauldron of upheaval, a place from
which very human and very monstrous empires rise—Babylon, Persia, Greece,
Rome. But they don’t last. Like sons of men, they each are mortal, until, eventually,
Daniel sees the true Son of Man coming on the clouds—notably not rising up from
“the waters”—to establish an unshakable kingdom in the midst of the earth.
So arrives Jesus. He walks on water. He rebukes the storm, and the winds
hush. And in the greatest display of power, Jesus Himself passes through the waters
of death and rises victorious. And in the new heavens and new earth, the sea will be
no more—chaos, danger, destruction: “the waters” are gone.
Yes, the world is full of turmoil. The storms rage, the nations roar, chaos
murkies the present and the future looks uncertain. But our God sits enthroned in the
heavens, and He laughs. Be not dismayed, whatever betides: your God rules over
the waters.
Maranatha,
Jordy
