Order out of Chaos
The Bible describes the creation of the world as a rectification process. First there was darkness and emptiness. God then created light and separated it from darkness. The Bible describes how God gathered the waters so that there can be dry land and how the luminaries were placed in the heavens in their appropriate places.
The impression we get is that the original creation is disorderly and it is only with the order imposed by the Creator that life is possible.
There is an underlying message in the creation story. This story is giving us direction and guidance. The commandments of God were given to us so that we can live (Leviticus 18:5). When man rejected the order ordained by God and allowed chaos to reign in their own personal lives then the order ordained by God in creation also regressed and the flood waters destroyed them.
God chose Noah as the righteous foundation upon which to establish His new world (Proverbs 10;25). As a means to accomplish this goal, God gave Noah the detailed commandments of constructing an ark. This commandment gave Noah an added opportunity to bring his life in line with the order ordained by God. Noah’s obedience to the commandment elevated and sanctified him to the degree that God saved the world through Noah and God built the new world on the foundation of his obedience.
This serves as a lesson for our own personal lives. The appeal to move away from God’s commandment is an appeal to death and destruction, while the call to obey God’s command is a call to life. Obedience to God’s command is not only beneficial for us. Following God’s word elevates and sanctifies our surroundings. Obedience to God is participation in His creation, for after all, didn’t all of creation come into being in obedience to His word? (Psalm 148:5).
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Thank You
Yisroel C. Blumenthal
That’s a beautiful image. You can also see the singular trust-and-obedience of the Shema implicit in it. Who brought order out of chaos, and whose word is our light? Not many powers of nature, but just Hashem.
I don’t know if it literally describes a process either, but it truly shows that warring ‘gods’ are silent before Him. If we knew that more fully we would be wiser…
Figuratively speaking about the warring gods, I think, I meant.
I’m studying genesis for about the last 3weeks. This a new way to look at it. Thanks.
Ahem, that’s genesis and how it compares to noah and the ark. I’ll sit down now.
Both the creation and Noah stories deserve a great deal of study as there is much more to these stories than the surface words alone. They have wide implications to all of us in our world today.