Sea War
Man was created to be a warrior. Since he is in the image of the Man of war (Ex 15:3), it should be no surprise. In the first commission given to man, it is implied that he must be prepared for battle. Before the fall, the man was told to “guard” the Garden (Gen 2:15). Somehow, in an unfallen world, there would be a threat to the Garden for which man would need to be prepared to fight. As history unfolds, we discover that threat.
The war intensified after the fall as God sets enmity between the serpent and the woman and between his seed and her seed (Gen 3:15). The ground executes the curse on the man bearing thorns and thistles. It is not only the ground that fights man. He must battle the entire creation. But this is his God-given mission. He must take dominion “over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen 1:26).
When John records Jesus’ fifth of seven signs, this battle takes a specific focus on the sea and all that is in it. On the fifth day of creation, God created all that is in the sea. There were great sea creatures like Leviathan and “swarms swarming” of all sorts of marine life. The sea was a threat to God’s people. To be under the waters was to go back to the primal creation when the world was nothing but water existing in darkness (Gen 1:2). The flood of Noah’s day was an act of de-creation. The Red Sea that drowned the Egyptian armies took them to their watery graves. God’s people desire to be delivered from the waters (Ps 69:1) and the great sea creatures.
The sea is also a metaphor for the nations. John records in Revelation, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters’ … Then he said to me, ‘The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues’” (Rev 17:1, 15). The Gentile nations were the unformed creation with creatures that stood as a threat to swallow up God’s people.
But they must be tamed. That is the mission.
When Jesus walks on the water to the disciples’ boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, or the Sea of Tiberias, he demonstrates that he is the Man who has come to tame the sea and all the creatures in it. But that is not what the disciples were thinking at the time. They were afraid when they saw Jesus walking on the water. The way John records this scene is intriguing. This is the Sea of Tiberias (Jn 6:1), named after the Roman emperor. John says that “the sea arose because a great wind was blowing” (Jn 6:18). There is a similar scene in Daniel 7. The four winds of heaven stir up the Great Sea, and four beasts arise from the sea. These four beasts are one empire that began with Babylon and ends with Rome, the empire in which the disciples of living. The Sea they are traversing bears his name. Winds stir up the Sea, and a beast arises out of the sea. What they don’t realize at this point is that this is the King of Beasts, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the slain Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes (Rev 5). He is the Great Beast who is establishing a kingdom-empire that will not be destroyed (cf. Dan 2).
The disciples are commanded to go into these waters, discipling the nations. They face the untamed waters and the beasts within them. But they are not alone. When Jesus approaches the boat, he tells them, “I am. Do not be afraid.” He is the great “I AM” who led the children of Israel through the Sea. He is with them in their mission. He is with them in their war.
From fighting with our own sinful desires to battling with geopolitical principalities and powers, our mission will not be easy. We must fight. But the Man of War is with us, the one who subdues the greatest of the sea creatures, is taking us to the other side of the sea, and will ensure that the mission is completed.
Pray for peace. Prepare for battle.
The post Sea War appeared first on Kuyperian Commentary.