How to Bring Order Out of Chaos

Immediately following the baptism of Jesus, He is driven out into the wilderness by the Spirit. Here, Jesus is tested as the Israelites were tested in the wilderness. This time, however, the situation will be a little different. But before we go there, let’s go back to the beginning.

The very beginning.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty…

Tohu va’vohu, we once said. Formless and void; wild and waste. If you put nothing into a blender and hit “whip.” Chaotic nothingness. Chaos.

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.

The word for “spirit” in the Hebrew is ruach. Ruach is used for “spirit” and “breath” and “wind.” Surprisingly, the same three words are interchangeable in the Greek, as well; the word is pnuema and it means “spirit/breath/wind.”

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light…

God speaks and order begins to come from the chaos. God places man in the center of this story and invites him to partner with the Creator in managing, stewarding, exploring, and enjoying this new order. But this partnership is tested, and, as we all know, the testing ends in great tragedy.

If we break down this story of creation, it centers around chaotic waters. Large bodies of water always symbolize chaos (and eventually evil) in the Jewish mind. We could whittle the story of creation down to this:

CHAOS
WATER
SPIRIT OVER WATER
GOD’S SPOKEN WORD
ORDER IS EXPECTATION
TESTING/TEMPTATION >> TRAGEDY


What is the next story with large bodies of water? The flood. Consider the list above in light of the story of the flood:

CHAOS — The world had descended into chaos.
WATER — God covers the world in chaos.
SPIRIT OVER WATER — The ruach blows over the water and the water begins to recede.
GOD’S SPOKEN WORD — God speaks to Noah, commanding him to come out of the ark and…
ORDER IS EXPECTATION — …partner with God to bring order to chaos.
TESTING/TEMPTATION >> TRAGEDY — But this partnership is tested and ends in tragedy.


What is the next story with large bodies of water? The exodus from Egypt.

CHAOS — The Israelites had descended into chaos.
WATER — The Red Sea stands between them and order.
SPIRIT OVER WATER — The ruach blows over the water and the water divides.
GOD’S SPOKEN WORD — God speaks to Moses (either at the Red Sea or Mt. Sinai, you pick) and sets up a…
ORDER IS EXPECTATION — …partnership with God to bring order to chaos.
TESTING/TEMPTATION >> TRAGEDY — But this partnership is tested and ends in tragedy (whether this is the testing in the desert or the Golden Calf).


What is the next story of large bodies of water? The crossing of the Jordan.

CHAOS — The land of Canaan had descended into chaos.
WATER — The Jordan River stands between the Israelites and order.
SPIRIT OVER WATER — The ruach blows over the water and the water is stopped up.
GOD’S SPOKEN WORD — God speaks to Joshua and asks His people to…
ORDER IS EXPECTATION — …partner with God to bring order to chaos.
TESTING/TEMPTATION >> TRAGEDY — But this partnership is tested at Jericho and ends in tragedy as Achan refuses to follow instructions.


It’s my hope that we’re seeing a pattern, yes? Well, this pattern is still found in the story of Jesus’s baptism. Consider:

CHAOS — The world finds itself in chaos.
WATER — Jesus comes down to the Jordan River to be baptized.
SPIRIT OVER WATER — The ruach hovers over the water (and Jesus, who is in it); the “hovering” has not been seen since the story of Creation. Could the author be insinuating that we have a “new creation” on our hands?
GOD’S SPOKEN WORD — God speaks from heaven…
ORDER IS EXPECTATION — …and Jesus will now spend the rest of his ministry partnering with God to bring order to chaos.
TESTING/TEMPTATION >> TRAGEDY — But this partnership needs to be tested…

But now, the testing will — for the first time in human history — end with a victorious triumph over chaos. And in this story of Jesus’s testing, we are given a blueprint or a formula (if you will — I write this very tongue-in-cheek) for success. How does Jesus model for us what it looks like to bring order to chaos?

This time, when man is tested, He will respond: “It is written…”

Jesus has the Text in Him. Jesus is prepared and ready. Jesus knows the path.

But just like we looked at with the Essenes, it’s not enough simply to know the path. A man must walk it. He must trust the story of God. He must be willing not only to get the Text in himself, but he must also trust that Text. So, first I ask you: What would have happened if Jesus didn’t have the Text in him? And I know that many Christians would say that the Spirit would provide the answer, but that’s not what Jesus modeled! The Spirit wasn’t what provided the answer; in fact, the Spirit is the one who drove Him into the desert to be tested in the first place.

So what would happen to you if the Spirit drove you into the desert this week to be tested? Would you have the Text in you? Would you be ready? Jesus was.

But it’s not enough only to know the Text. You also have to trust it. Satan knew the Text, as well; he quotes it during the second test. (Did you know that he misquotes the Text? How would we know that if we don’t have the Text in us?) So, simply knowing the Text isn’t enough. You also have to walk in it. It’s not enough for Jesus to know that “Man does not live by bread alone…” He actually needs to wait upon every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

To know the path.
To walk the path.
To bring order to chaos.
To be a part of the new creation.