Choppy Seas

"Then 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." Revelation 21:1

So I have been thinking quite a bit on this verse, when pondering the continuity between the earth now and how it will be transformed in being made new. In Romans 1:21-22, we see that at Christ's second coming, all of creation will be set free from its bondage! Not destroyed, but set free from its bondage. Likewise, we see in Revelation 21:1 that the first earth will be transformed into the new earth. Evil and pain will be abolished from the earth we live on as it is transformed; made new.

So what about this statement regarding the sea? Thinking back on the stories of Jonah, God parting the sea for the Israelites, and creation, where God's new order emerged from the dark primal sea, we begin to understand what the sea represented for the Jewish people. "The sea came to symbolize...the dark power of evil, threatening to destroy God's good creation, God's people, God's purposes. In books like Daniel, the sea is where the monsters come from" (N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, p. 52). Consequently, just as we see Jesus' power of the agents of chaos in His calming of the storm (Mark 4:35-41), we see that God's visible defeat of chaos and evil will occur at the second coming of Christ. Balancing the idea of the "already and the not yet" we see that Christ has already defeated the forces of evil at the cross, but the final, visible nature of this defeat will be inaugurated in his second coming.

But the main reason I wrote what I have is as an introduction to the next passage. Psalm 107 is a community thanksgiving that accompanies the offering of sacrifices for the Israelites. The thanksgiving has many parts, but in verses 23-30, we find the people extolling the Lord from rescuing them from the dangers of the sea. These verses triumphantly proclaim the power of God over the raging sea, but with Scriptures such as those already outlined, they also attest to God's power over the forces of evil; the forces of chaos.

"Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
they saw the deeds of the LORD,
his wondrous works in the deep.
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They mounted up to heaven;
they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits' end.
They they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
They they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven."
-Psalm 107:23-30 (ESV)