In the Bible, evil reigns in destruction of lands, chaos, murder and poverty. Wherever you find these things today in our societies, you find evil. I used to work as a missionary teaching in Vancouver’s ghetto, called the Downtown Eastside, for 9 years. What did I see? Poverty, drugs, violence, prostitution, misery and hopelessness among its people. In other words, it was an environment filled with chaos and disorganization. These same images are given to us in Isaiah 34: 9-13, “Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again. The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away. Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls.” There is nothing good in such an environment. Neither people of good conscience nor God desire it. Why? Because this condition of ruin is contrary to growth & prosperity, which is God’s desire for us. He wants us to keep striving ahead in holiness (Isaiah 35:8) until we reach Heaven. Holiness is that path to fellowship with God in eternal life. There is no other way to God. Jesus made that clear when he proclaimed, “I am the Way, Truth and Life” (John 14:6). Stunted growth, unfulfilled potential, waste, chaos and disorganization are all contrary to the path God wants for us to travel. A fulfilled life involves perpetual life-giving activity.
What Do We Make of Chaos?
