In Genesis 1: 2, after learning that God in the beginning had created the heavens and the earth, we see a big problem:
“The earth was formless and void (empty) and darkness was over the surface of the deep.”
This was not the way God had created the earth. For one thing, Isaiah says that God had not created the earth to be a waste place (Isaiah 45: 18); for another, there is no darkness in God, rather, He is light (I John 1: 5, 7), and St. Paul says He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6: 16).
Yet here, we see empty darkness. Something had happened! Something before Genesis 1: 2 … concerning the angels, principalities and powers of the air, and satan himself. Biblical details are scanty, but we learn in Jude v. 6 that there were angels in this ancient time who didn’t keep their proper abode, and are even now kept in darkness. 2 Peter 2: 4 says there were angels who sinned, and were cast down into hell. And Jesus told his followers that He “saw satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10: 18) It is sometimes said that angels have no free will, but sin is the deliberate choice to disobey God; you cannot sin without free will. And satan fell from heaven; he wasn’t pushed, it was his choice. All these instances (and there are others mentioned in scripture) are shadowy allusions to a pre-creation age when the chronic misuse of free will by its inhabitants caused the earth to be shrouded in darkness and inundated by water.
God did not take this lying down. After all, He always has been, and always will be, God. His remedy to this cosmic rebellion was not to destroy this disorderly planet, but to bring it back to order, beginning with light and dry land. But notice, he destroyed neither the existing heavens nor the existing earth, and he did not destroy the darkness or the water; rather, He controlled them. On the 1st day of creation God separated the light from the darkness, and on the 4th day He created the great lights to govern them. But even then we see the superiority of light over darkness: the day was ruled by the greater light, and the night was governed by the lesser light. (Genesis 1: 16) This was a firm reminder that the light is always greater than the darkness. God further reminded man of the true state of things when He said: “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day ... the second day …” on through the sixth day. Evening came first, a type of the pre-creation darkness. In this further symbolic movement, evening is always superceded by morning, in which the light progresses and increases until high noon, the end of the day, when evening begins another new day.
All this was to be a reminder to man: This creation is not a total copy of God’s Kingdom in heaven; there is darkness here to remind us of what happened before. God’s plan was to create a universe which would include a newly restored earth and a newly planted Garden which would be the venue for His finest creation, man, to practice and exhibit before those beings who fell previously the proper use of free will. Two trees were planted to facilitate that free will. All went well for a period of time; we don’t know how long. It has not been revealed to us.
But, besides the presence of darkness, Eden was unlike heaven in one other aspect: the presence of a tempter. And so, a second fall occurred. Like those who fell before, man chose to misuse his free will to please himself rather than God. He chose to ignore the reminder and warning of the presence of darkness, and what could have been a simple act of obedience returning righteousness and justice to the universe became a long, long trek that is still ongoing today.
God’s act in Eden set a pattern: When He sees man misusing his free will in a way which is not beneficial to His Kingdom He sets out a warning, which, if ignored, is followed by discipline; all with a view to opening man’s eyes to God’s true will for him. Jeremiah put it this way: “Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will cause them distress, that they may be found.” (Jeremiah 10: 18) Disobedience to God brings distress, for the purpose of man realizing his error and changing his ways. God sends discipline as a reminder: All is not well! You’re going the wrong way! We must never forget the difference between discipline and punishment:
Discipline is birthed out of love, and the purpose is growth, a positive change.
Punishment is birthed out of anger, and the goal is to cause pain and get revenge. While there will come a day when God deals with those fallen beings from the previous age in this way, He deals with man through discipline, not punishment.
Scripture is full of examples of this principle. One of them is a simple verse in today’s Psalm reading:
“Fools, because of sin, were afflicted.” (Psalm 107: 17)
After the affliction had gotten the attention of these “fools”, God then restored them.
A similar example occurred in my own life. Around a year after we had moved to Hong Kong, there came a knock at the door of our apartment. Upon opening we found there a couple of policemen and the superintendent of the building, asking to come in. After scanning the place they asked to be allowed to enter a closed door, which was the bedroom of our children. We opened it, and found inside one of the kids busy taking the toys from their toy box and tossing them, one at a time, out the bedroom window. Some were simple things like bits of Legos and such, but some were little toys which perhaps weighed a pound or more. This might not have been an issue if we had lived on the first or second floor, but our place was on the 27th floor, and the area below our window was the children’s playground for our building. We were advised to instruct our child to cease such activity, or else the authorities would pay us another visit with a lesser level of mercy and understanding.
As parents, how would we deal with that? The child was too young to understand much reason. The only practical (and successful) plan was to administer discipline; not in anger, for we were not angry with the child. Actually, it was kind of funny. They simply didn’t understand how dangerous their actions were, and the only way to insure they would not do it again was through loving discipline. Sure enough, their toys remained in their toy box from then on. (However, the kid’s playground remained cordoned off for the next six months, as a precautionary measure.)
Another instance of God employing discipline as a method of warning is in today’s Old Testament reading. Israel had been in a state of rebellion since its formation, and during the Exodus from Egypt tested God repeatedly. After one such period of questioning the Lord and His servant Moses, God warned them with serpents—then used a bronze model of the same serpents as a source of healing. Again, God warns through discipline, then brings restoration through mercy. The people were not saved from the serpent’s bite by looking at Moses’ bronze serpent, but by the very presence of the serpent being there. Nevertheless, they still had to look at it to be healed, as the Lord told Moses:
“Everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” (Numbers 21: 8)
This is a precursor of John 3: 16. We are saved by God’s loving act of giving His only begotten Son to us. Herein is our salvation. Nevertheless, we still have to believe. As the Israelites had to look at the serpent to receive healing, we have to look to Jesus for our salvation.
But we have to ask the question: Where is the hope in this situation? History, in its biblical, secular, and personal forms, shows an unrelenting pattern: warning, discipline, forgiveness, repeat. Is there any hope to break the cycle? We know the Israelites failed again shortly after the incident with the serpents, and kept on in their failure right into the Promised Land. Finally, after seven or eight centuries there they were exiled, and eventually cut off from the land entirely. Seven or eight centuries seems like a long time, but the promise of God was that they would possess the land forever. In light of eternity, a few centuries are like a drop in the ocean.
But the Good News is: Yes, there is hope for mankind, and for us as individuals, to break the cycle! For while looking at the serpent healed a person’s body, it did nothing for the heart. Rebellion and stubbornness, refusal to submit one’s free will to God, remained. But beholding Christ on the Cross heals the body, and the soul, as well. As 2 Corinthians 3: 18 tells us, beholding His glory transforms us from glory to glory; the glory of a will submitted to God. We are transformed into the image of Him Who learned obedience through the things He suffered (Hebrews 5: 8)—not a toe stubbed against a rock on the roads of Judea, or even the slings and arrows of the Pharisees, or even the suffering of the cross, but the suffering of a daily offering of His free will unto His Father.
By the love of the Holy Spirit poured abroad into our hearts (Romans 5: 5) we take on the likeness of Him Who said to the Father, “I’d really rather not drink this cup before me. It’s not my will. Nevertheless; not My will, but Yours be done.” We learn and are enabled to pray and live the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6: 10) You see, that prayer is not just us saying, “Whatever you want to do, God, its ok with me.” That’s no different than ‘bahala na.’ This petition in the Lord’s Prayer is a cry from our hearts saying, “Lord, may I, by the submission of my free will unto you, practice the proper use of free will, to the praise of Your glory.” It’s a prayer for and commitment to our own involvement in that functioning of the will of God, here on earth as it is in heaven.
This is the goal of God, the same as it has been ever since the creation of the universe and Eden: that, as Isaiah and Paul put it, “At the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father that Jesus is Lord.” But this must happen because every knee and tongue want to, not just because they have to. It must be an act of free will.
And we know that it will happen. How long it takes is not that important to God. As the only eternal creature in the universe, what’s a few thousand years here or there to Him? But we do know that, as Isaiah and Revelation says, when Christ returns and the Kingdom comes to earth in fullness, there will be no more darkness, no need any more for sun and moon, for the chronic misuse of free will will be a thing of the past.
And the judgment against the world, that “the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil,” (John 3: 19) will be a thing of the past, because “God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world.” (John 3: 17) No, it will have come to pass that “Those who practice the truth (Walk in God’s will for them) come to the light, that their deeds might be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John 3: 21) In other words, man finally shows to those beings from the previous age that fell into darkness that the proper use of free will is truly the way to life and peace, and justice and righteousness flow from God’s throne in an ever-flowing stream.
