I have noticed that the concept of the sea is used a
number of times in both the old and new testaments. Is this incidental or
significant? I would like to trace the motif throughout the bible and, in doing
so, to highlight the concepts importance for our biblical
theology.
Context
First, some cultural bridging is needed. For the modern
Western mind, the idea of the sea might conjure images of tranquillity, peace
or adventure. But what does it bring to the mind of an Israelite? What if lifeboats
and wet suits and cruise ships didn't exist? What if all we had to navigate it
was a small, rugged sail boat? What if the only way you could get by in life
was if the sea produced enough fish for you each day? And what if you knew
that, if one day the sea decided, you would most certainly either run out of
food or drown?
I think we can imagine a few associations it might have
for a biblical author. I suggest that among other things, it would convey these ideas:
·
Confusion, uncertainty
·
Chaos, futility
·
Loneliness, frailty
·
Being out of control
·
Unrelenting, unceasing force
·
Vast, engulfing force
·
Unfriendly, destructive force
In the beginning
Now let’s look to the beginning. Gen 1:2: “The earth was without form,
and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And
the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” The Hebrew word
for “the deep” (tehom) could also be translated the “great abyss”. It is
formless, unsupportive of life and created by God. Next He divides the waters
with the “Heaven” (Gen 1:6-8), and again dividing the lower waters with “firmament”
amongst it (Gen 1:9-10) “and God saw that it was good”. Next He calls the firmament
to bring forth plants that will yield fruit. So He creates a lifeless void and
then parts it. He could have just created firmament to bring forth fruit, but
He starts with the void and pierces it with fruit. I'm not going to slather this with theology just yet but I want you to keep it in mind. I also would
like to point out that once the creatures had been created it was Adam’s job to
have “dominion over the fish of the sea”. This is an important theme for
understanding the effects of the fall.
Noah
A few chapters on, man’s wickedness is punished and, out
of the many options, God uses a very particular means to do so. So, when God
destroyed every living creature with a global flood but ‘remembered’ Noah and
made a way for His family to be saved, both the wrath and the deliverance are imbued
with significance.
Firstly, like how God created the deep, not simply
divided it, the flood must be recognised as God’s own judgement (Gen. 6:5-7) not
a natural occurrence that God set about trying to repair. “Your judgements are
like the great deep, oh LORD” -Psalm 36:6.
Secondly, let us look the nature of this judgement. Why
is it appropriate? I have noticed that the ideas I suggested the sea was
intended to convey (confusion, futility etc.) are a lucid reflection of the
nature of evil itself. Which means this judgement is a horrible but natural end
to the trajectory of the wicked person’s life. The confusion the flood brought
them was a result of the confusion and foolishness of their godless lives. The
chaos and futility of the flood only followed from the chaos and vanity of
their lives. The loneliness and frailty they experienced in the flood mirrored
that of their decision to be distant from the good and sovereign God. And the
loss of their control was the final demonstration of God’s ultimate providence
over their licentiousness.
With this significance in mind, God rescuing Noah from His
own wrath of the waters is also layered with meaning. God is not just piercing
the deep, but bringing forth the firmament that produces life and fruit. The
firmament is godliness: rescue from His wrath. He provided assurance in the
midst of uncertainty (Gen. 8:21b, 9:11b), He blessed and mandated life and
multiplicity in the midst of chaos and futility (Gen. 9:1), He established a
covenant relationship with Himself as Lord, in the wake of a world who embraced
loneliness and frailty by distancing itself from God (Gen. 9:9, Psalm. 19:7),
and He gave control and dominion (restoring Gen 1:28) where, for the rest of
the world, the appearance of control God had ripped away (Gen. 9:2). In
summary, God saves Noah from the thrashing and heaving of evil and its judgement,
bringing him into blessed covenant with Himself.
Moses
So when we come to Exodus, should we think of it as
coincidence that God’s people encounter both evil and the ocean again? Notice that
it was God Himself in the pillar of cloud and fire who led them there. And let
us also consider again the correlation between the objects of wrath and the
means by which that wrath was executed. That is: the suffering they were
subjected to reflected the suffering they caused. Their confusion, futility,
loneliness and destruction of the ocean consummated that of their godless
lives.
Finally, let us see that God does not let the water cover
everyone. He divides it with firmament, and there, between the many waters, He
puts His special people and promises abundant life for them (Ex. 3:17.)
Jonah
Let us also heed the book of Jonah. ”the word of the Lord
came to Jonah” (Jonah 1:1) giving him the commission to prophecy against Nineveh. But
instead of obeying, Jonah flees from the “presence of the Lord” and into a boat
going to Joppa. “The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there
was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.” Consequently,
the men cast lots, telling them that God brought the storm on them because
Jonah was “fleeing from the presence of the Lord.” “So they said to him, “What
should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming
increasingly stormy. He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the
sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on
account of me this great storm has come upon you.” And they did, and it
did.
At this point let’s recognise two points of the emerging pattern:
1. God Himself caused the threat of the sea, and 2. It was rebellion from God
that provoked it.
But another important concept is suggested: Jonah urges them
to throw him into the ocean in order to calm the storm. Why? It tells us that
sin is not easily acquitted, that God’s wrath is not easily placated, that it
is just and fitting for a man who fled the surety of God’s presence to die in
the tumult of the sea, but most importantly, maybe it is even suggesting that
many can be saved from the storm of God’s wrath when a man of God gives up his
life as the punishment of sin.
Once this had happened, “the Lord appointed
a great fish to swallow Jonah” where he prayed a thoroughly Psalm-like prayer (Jonah 2),
borrowing much from passages like Psalm 18. Again God divides the waters and
plants life: He appoints a fish and Jonah repents. Jonah is rescued from the
chaos of the sea so he can be rescued from the chaos of godlessness. He is
delivered so that he might return to the word of God and obey it. This is
important for our understanding of what it means to be rescued from the ocean.
[1]As
we read through redemptive history the sea takes on massive significance for
our biblical theology. Its confusion and futility is a picture of both human depravity
and God’s destructive wrath, it demands to have those who resist the precepts
of God, and deliverance from it can come only to God’s chosen people: those who
love Him and obey Him.
In light of these things, let us approach their
fulfilment.
Jesus
The account of Jesus calming the storm is found in each
of the synoptic gospels (Mt 8:23-27, Mk 4:35-41, Lk 8:22-25). I will suggest a
summative outline but don’t take my word for it without looking for yourself.
Setting the scene
·
the raging storm
·
Jesus sleeping
Main body
·
the disciples bemoan their danger
·
Jesus asserts their lack of faith
·
Jesus calms the sea
·
the disciples profess Jesus’ authority
The first relevant thing to notice is why each account
records that Jesus was asleep. The most obvious reason is it clearly echoes
Jonah who was also sleeping in the inner part of the ship. It indicates that
Jesus is a continuation and fulfilment of what was taught in the book of Jonah.
Possibly what shouts the loudest about this passage is what is left unspoken.
Jesus does echo Jonah sleeping and calming the storm but does not echo Jonah
being thrown into the ocean, nor being swallowed by a great fish, nor on third
day being spat out. The picture is not
complete. He has not entered the raging sea, but he will. This must be borne in
mind.
Secondly, it highlights a powerful contrast. Isaiah
57:20-21 says “the wicked are like
the tossing sea, which cannot rest... “There is
no peace,” says my God,
“for the wicked.”” The disciples had no
peace: they were distressed. Jesus, on the other hand, was utterly peaceful, he
slept through the storm. The restlessness, confusion and futility of the sea
did not reach him.
The second question that strikes me is why is it a lack
of faith to be afraid of a storm? Were the disciples not just being realistic?
I have asked that question more than once but I only felt
like I reached a satisfying answer when I happened to be reading 2 Corinthians recently.
“To the one we are
the fragrance of death unto death; and to the other the fragrance of life unto
life.” (2 Cor 2:16). We are the fragrance of death to those who are the dying and of life
to those who are living. What is the fragrance? The fragrance is of Christ and
the gospel that we bear. Why does the message of the gospel smell like death to
some? Because the concept of salvation by faith alone is not good news for
those who do not have faith: if they had faith they would have known they were
protected. In fact, God’s justice reeks of judgement and destruction to them. They
fear wrath because they know they are not protected from it.
So,
if our work in the Old Testament tells us that the ocean is a picture of God’s wrath,
and 2 Corinthians tells us that those
who have no faith will fear wrath (understandably), then the disciples fearing
the ocean, however understandable, would demonstrate a lack of faith. This is why
the master biblical asks "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no
faith?"
My next question is, why exactly does Jesus calming the
sea provoke their faith? Faith in Jesus as what? Neptune? A really good weather
man? What did the act of calming the sea claim about his identity? We saw that
in each OT passage, it was Yahweh himself who brought about a means of escape
from the ocean. This is because, ultimately, only the covenant-maker can
stipulate how the covenant-breakers are dealt with. Only the sinned against can
pardon sins. Only God can calm the sea. If that’s the case, “Who is this? Even
the wind and the waves obey him!” He can only be the covenant-maker, and the
sinned against. By saying he is the one ho calms the ocean, he is saying he is
Yahweh. This is why it provoked faith in the disciples. This is why they
recognised it as a claim to divine authority. This is the explication and the
climax of all that it has previously meant to be God’s special people whom are
saved from the sea. Those who live in the chaos of godlessness will enter the
chaos of the ocean, but those who live in the wisdom of recognising Christ’s
supremacy will be saved from the ocean. Knowing Christ is the life and fruit
that is planted in the firmament that divides the waters.
To summarise, we can reaffirm that God both ordains the
sea and ordains deliverance from it. Furthermore, recognition of all that
Christ is, including his death, is the pinnacle of what it means to be saved
from the ocean, because faith in Christ casts out fear of the ocean.
Paul
With this in mind, let’s turn to Paul’s epistle to the
Ephesians. It will enrich our understanding of what it is to be
taken by the ocean and what it is to be saved from it.
“And he gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,
the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of
ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and
carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness
in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are
to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph 4:11-14).
I see two main semantic fields:
1. That
of the ‘body’: where the work of our
lives and sanctification is headed
2. That
of the sea: where our former lives were headed
They are described as parallel opposites. The first
centres on the idea of ‘oikodomōn’
which means to build, equip or edify. Each particular part of the body is
to work as it should, in love, so as to ‘build up’ the whole. Each is to strive to attain to full maturity in the work of the ministry, and the wholes unified
understanding and faith in Christ. The picture is of a loving, wise, powerful,
focused, effective, God-centred, organically identical, interdependent,
self-sacrificial, Spirit filled, grace driven body (see also Eph. 1:15-23,
2:10 and 3:14-19).
The second semantic field is a supporting concept,
flowing from the first. The second is employed to describe, negatively, an
aspect of the first. Christ’s body is
not carried by the waves. His mature body is not tossed to and fro by the waves
of every deceitful teaching. The members are not broken or divided in terms of
doctrine. Why? Because, by speaking the truth in love, each body part utilises
its gifts so that the whole sees the truth of Christ, and the whole trusts the
truth of Christ, and the life of the whole converges with the truth of Christ.
Herein the body grows into perfect consolidation with Christ Himself: the head
and the solid ground. The confusion, futility, loneliness and relentless
destruction of the sea is the home of those who are willing to comply with any
philosophical trend and, and its effect is dissention and division. It is home
to the whole world in Genesis 6, and to the Egyptians in Exodus 3 and to
thousands of millions of other people. But it is not the home of the body of
Christ. The home of the body is a unified recognition of Christ as Yahweh
through the truth being spoken.
In the end
Finally, these ideas culminate
in the apocalyptic prophecy of Revelation. This passage needs little exposition
when it emerges from its precursory passages. Let us submit to its full force.
Rev. 20:13-15: “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death
and Hades gave up the
dead that were in them... Then
death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone
whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. 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.”
The sea will be no more. No more uncertainty, no more
fruitlessness, no more oppression, or loneliness or frailty. No more tears.
When the ocean is engulfing you, know that God has parted
the waters and planted life at the cost of the cross. He has put to death the
vast power of godlessness. You are not helpless. Trust in Jesus who is Yahweh.
Use your individual gifts to edify the whole body, recognise and speak the
truth of Christ, and know that in the new earth, there will be no more ocean.
[1] There are many other
pertinent passages that we don’t have time to look at here but I hope when you
read them now, their meaning for you will be enriched as a result of the this
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