2019 Prayer and Fasting, Day 17

A couple nights ago, my girlfriend shared with me a Psalm that was encouraging:

Psalm 74:10-22, New International Version 

10 How long will the enemy mock you, God?
Will the foe revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!
12 But God is my King from long ago;
he brings salvation on the earth.
13 It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
15 It was you who opened up springs and streams;
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.
17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.
18 Remember how the enemy has mocked you, Lord,
how foolish people have reviled your name.
19 Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;
do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant,
because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
21 Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
may the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.

The Psalm was in context with her church's sermon series "Genesis 1," which has been going on the last few weeks, almost perfectly concurrently with my church's sermon series on prayer and fasting.

I'm not going to be able to do justice to her church's sermon series. It's a fresh take on the story of creation, and a fresh take on the God both Christians and Jews worship and serve. For starters, the entire Old Testament (or Hebrew Scriptures for any Jewish readers in my audience) that dates to before the Jews' exile to Babylon had been destroyed by the Babylonians when they invaded, conquered, and destroyed everything, including the Temple. So everything, from Genesis and Exodus, to the Psalms and even the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest), had to be re-written from scratch. Why the first chapter of Genesis was such a big deal can be traced to the Babylonians' version of how humans came to be on this earth. I'm not going to try to regurgitate all the details, but the short version is that there were multiple gods in the heavens, who got into a fight, and one of them (a goddess, I think) died. From her ruins human beings were created. In the Babylonian version of things, humans were created specifically to serve and please the gods, which was an impossible task anyway. As such, life was nasty, brutish, and short (I borrowed that one from philosopher Thomas Hobbes), and there was no point, no relationship between God and humanity beyond what meager attempts us humans can do to please them.

Genesis 1 essentially kicks the Babylonians' story in the pants. Our God, the God of both the Jews and the Gentiles (eventually), created the universe out of chaos. The first two verses from the Book of Genesis point this out:

Genesis 1:1-2, New International Version

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

In this case, the waters that this passage is referring to is chaos. So He created the universe and the earth from chaos. And in this story, our God, once He created humans, gave us a choice: to love and serve Him, or to just do what you want with no regard for God or anyone else.

[That choice, mind you, is still very much in play today. Anyone who isn't a Christian who claims that evolution is the correct story; who claims that there is no God (or that there might not be a God (or god)); or who even claims that if science can't prove it or verify it, then it must not exist... they too are making a choice to live for themselves and anything else that is not part of the agenda of the God of the Bible.]

In this past Sunday's sermon in this series at her church, the pastor also brought up Revelation 21, a promise God makes at the end of time that He will once again remove all the chaos in the world.

Revelation 21:1, New International Version 

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

The "sea" reference is the same as the earlier "waters" reference: chaos. I sure hope it doesn't take a Jesus follower to realize that there is chaos and evil in the world. (I hope even the atheists and agnostics are aware of that!) Not only that, but I think it can be agreed on that the world is getting worse and worse, with more acts of terrorism, with racism and sectarianism and tribalism, etc, on the rise. Despite our best human efforts, we will not make the world better on our own (and really, I don't think we ever have, not without Jesus). As such, it will require Jesus coming back, in full force, for the world to be made right. And yes, it will be a scary day when it happens. But those whose hearts truly are on our Lord, then it'll be ok for them. But not for those whose hearts aren't.

As a last comment, I have a coworker who has said on multiple occasions regarding religion, that "the winners write the history books." I've wrestled with that for a while, but I've actually come to agree with that statement. But what I've also come to at this point is that what separates the Christians apart from the other religions, and from all the nations of the world, is that not only do we write the history books, but we also write books of history yet to happen. And in that history yet to happen, we do once again win. It's called the Book of Revelation. And all of us who have ever been alive in the flesh, past or present, we are all part that history book yet to happen. The question is: which side will each person be on when the end comes? The winning side, or the losing side? What determines that is simply this: will you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, accept Him as both Savior and Lord of your life, and willingly enter into relationship with Him? If yes, you automatically win. If no, you automatically lose. It's as plain and simple as that.