Slaying Leviathan; Cosmic warfare and the preservation and restoration of creation:
Leviathan is alive and well on planet earth. But the central point of such expressions was not simply to assert a piece of theoretical information the sheer existence of these various cosmic chaos creatures (Leviathan, Behemoth, Rahab, Yamm). This much at the time everyone took for granted. Rather, these hymns express the authors perception that the cosmos is besieged at a structural level with forces of evil that God himself must battle: evil is not a minor anomalous occurrence on the otherwise pristine stage of the world. They also express the deep biblical conviction that this same warfare is played out in the life of God's children as they confront their enemies.
This cosmic warfare is not a things of the past, nor is it a war that occurs "in the heavenlies," nor is it a war that God fights alone. To the contrary, the thrust of this last group of passages is to proclaim that this war is a present struggle, it occurs in human history, and it very much involves the human race, especially those who know God. The insight is that all who name the name of the Lord are called to identify and resist, in the power of God, the structural forces of evil that work to thwart God's plan for the earth in general and for humanity in particular. When we fight, we do not do so on our own power, but God himself reenacts his primal victory over these destructive forces through us. We might (and must) express and apply this ancient biblical conviction in our own times by identifying and then resisting "the cosmic serpent" in the structural evil that besieges our own culture and the church of God. For example, when we resist spiritual complacency and the empty religiosity that has deeply infected much of Western Christianity at a structural level, we participate in God's cosmic battle with Leviathan. When we fight the ongoing tendency to compromise the radicality of the gospel by identifying it with this or that political ideology, or by allowing it to be taken hostage by this or that cultural ideal or movement, we are resisting "the twisting serpent." But Israel's battle with hostile waters were not always religious in nature, and neither are ours. When we "take up arms" against corporate greed, and when we follow the call of the Lord in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, befriending the guilty, embracing the socially repulsive, and siding with victims, we are participating in God's cosmic struggle against cosmic chaotic forces of destruction. Similarly, when we strive to be responsible pg stewards of the earth we were originally given responsibility over (Gen.1:28-29) and resist the fallen tendency to rape it for our own convenience, we are fighting anti-creation forces that are attempting to thwart God's plan for the earth.
Moreover, when we refuse to benefit from another cultures (or our own) slave labor, and we come against governments that systematically oppress the masses, we are taking the arms against Rahab. When we expose and confront the many subtle forms structural hatred that presently choke our own culture, whether is the form of systematic prejudice, institutional injustice, or the demonization of other peoples in the name of nationalism, we participate with God in the same spiritual battle that has been going on since the dawn of history. In God's power, we are mandated to join in the fight.
(taken from "God at War" by Gregory A. Boyd pg.89-90)
The supremacy of Yahweh over these cosmic forces was always emphasized, but in contrast to the later classical-philosophical tradition, this was never taken to mean that the opposition of these forces was not ultimately real. There was, in fact, genuine battles Yahweh had to fight! As several exegetes have noted, the whole of the Old Testaments strong monarchial theology presupposes this much. On what basis could one celebrate a victorious military ruler, as the Old Testament frequently speaks of Yahweh, if there were no genuine enemies for the ruler to conquer? "The concept of a military ruler," Lindstrom argues, "presupposes that there is someone to defeat." Indeed, far from undermining the genuineness of Yahweh's battle with foes, Levenson rightly argues that in this tradition Yahweh's "victory is only meaningful if his foe is formidable." And again: "What makes this a confession of faith in YHWH's mastery rather than a shallow truism is the survival of those potent forces of chaos that were subjugated and domesticated at creation." This "survival of ... potent forces of chaos" is what permits classifying the Old Testament view as a warfare worldview. Yahweh's battles are not simply apparent, nor are they simply in the past: they are, for these authors, very real, and they are present, and they are even yet future. While some conservative exegetes fear that acknowledging the ongoing reality of this cosmic reality compromises Yahweh's "absolute sovereignty," the point of this early Old Testament tradition is to portray Yahweh's sovereignty as being all the greater precisely because he has engaged in such conflict and has been victorious. This gives them confidence that he shall do so again in the future.
In other words, Yahweh's sovereignty is no easy manipulation of controlled puppets; it is, rather, an admirable sovereignty that is won in the face of genuine, powerful, opposing forces which we humans could never begin to resist in our own power. This divine ability is one of the characteristics that distinguish Yahweh from humans and make him praiseworthy. We cannot capture Behemoth or pierce his nose (Job 40:24) Nor can we "press down (Leviathan's) tongue with a cord" or " put a rope in his nose" (Job 41:1-2) Such monster taming feats of valor are reserved for the one true God alone. All of this also implies that these authors understand the cosmic battles Yahweh engages in to be provisional. God's cosmic foes, and real and as formidable as they may be, are not ultimate. Levenson again expresses the well (referring here to Psalm 74):
the author ... acknowledges the reality of militant, triumphant, and persistent evil, but he steadfastly and resolutely refuses to accept this reality as final and absolute. Instead, he challenges Yahweh to act like the hero of old, to conform to his magisterial nature.
(taken from "God at War" by Gregory A. Boyd pg. 98-99)
Later on Boyd says:
"This insight, combines with the conviction that the Creator is all-holy and thus does not himself will evil, leads inexorably to the conclusion that these cosmic forces have made themselves evil. They have freely rebelled against their Creator, and thus ought not to be as they now are."
Maybe this is something someone needs to hear. Instead of waiting out the storm we should get involved in the battle!
No comments:
Post a Comment