The Battle between Good and Evil

A battle between good and evil, regarding the character of God, His law and sovereignty over the universe, has been with humanity from the start.

The opening lines of Genesis describe a world of total chaos, a watery abyss that covers everything, and black darkness.” The world was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water.“

 (Genesis 1:2)

The world was without day and night. There was no need to mark time because the world had no purpose, no meaning.  It was a world of death, devoid of light. – Whatever God creates is perfect. He does not create chaos. Something must have happened to devastate the world.

The Bible tells us that before the earth was created, the Lord created angelic beings. A conflict must have originated a long time ago in heaven, when one of these heavenly beings tried to exalt himself above the Most High and became God’s adversary, leading into rebellion a portion of the angels. (Read Isaiah 14).

That spirit-being later introduced the spirit of rebellion into humanity – in form of a snake -who led Adam and Eve into sin.

It distorted the image of God and brought disorder into the newly created world.

The Bible explains in Genesis 6:11: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” (וַתִּשָּׁחֵת הָאָרֶץ, לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים; וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ, חָמָס.) The Hebrew text mentions the word Hamas, meaning violence. The great flood brought back these same images, as all life perished and the world returned to its primordial state. It was a world without law, without meaning, without purpose, without norms, without order. 

It is from the chaotic place at the beginning of Genesis that God spoke the first words. ‘Let there be light!’  The entire first chapter of Genesis describes God’s methodical creation of a universe in which life is possible. The first chapter in the Torah is the story of creation, that teaches us that above all, God is about life.  

Any person who invokes the name of God and embodies a death cult of destruction, desecrates God and God’s plans for this world.  They diminish the imprint of life and blessing and return the world to the dark primordial abyss. 

Anyone who claims that Hamas represents legitimate resistance fails to understand that Hamas and groups like them do not want peace and understanding.  They are willing to destroy anything and everything- including their own people- to fulfill their death drive. People who support them are accomplices, plain and simple. Hamas has crossed the boundary between civilization and savagery. They have given us a window to see the dark, violent, and turbulent abyss that proceeded God’s proclamation of light and life. The manifestation is evil and demonic.

The people from Gaza, and all of us, suddenly saw the darkness of destruction from those who deny the sacredness of all life, and so embracing the terrifying darkness we all fear.

According to the opening verses of the Torah, God declares there to be light and divides the light from the darkness. That light mentioned here is not a physical, but a spiritual light- the light of righteousness reserved for the upright. Other sources of light- the sun, moon and stars- were only created on the fourth day. 

Just as God created a physical world, God initially created a spiritual world to reflect the light of righteousness. In the opening chapters of Genesis, death and suffering only emerge because of the actions of people rebelling against the Divine will.

We must choose life. We cannot allow chaos and death to reign unchecked. Like God, we must keep these demonic forces at bay.  We must fight, we must stand up for truth, we must stand up for life like God. In the terrible murder of thousands of fellow Jews, not only has the state of Israel been violated, but the Divine image of every human being.  Hamas did not merely kill Jews; they violated the very definition of what it means to be human.

The battle between good and evil is a battle between life and death, between order and chaos.