Finale Revelation and Imagination Daily Devotional- 51

REVELATION 21:1, 4 | ¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.

PSALM 89:9 | ⁹You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.

JOB 38:8-11 | ⁸“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, ¹⁰ and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, ¹¹ and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?

What do you notice in our various readings today? The sea is a  biblical metaphor for turbulence, chaos, and “restless insubordination.” This last phrase is from Bruce Metzger, and it captures neatly the idea that there is a kind of rebellion within creation. The Israelites were not much of a sea-fearing people and were terrified by the vast and dangerous oceans, always in motion and full of strange creatures. “The sea it was no more,” means that there is no more chaos or disorder in creation—no threats, monsters, or forces of disintegration.

One of the differences then, between the old and new cosmos is the absence of things negative or fearful. Nothing more to terrify,  nothing to make us cry or mourn. Death is banished, disease vanquished. The powers Jesus exercised in individual cases are now universally established. Health and healing are permanent realities.

Have you ever experienced terror on water?

What element of chaos do you most want eliminated? 

Tags: chaos, eliminated