There are two books I love about order and chaos.
The first is a book a friend wrote called Chaos and the Kingdom. It’s a bible study guide for small groups designed to help them understand the chaos imagery in the Old and New Testaments and how it plays into key biblical stories.
You might want to know what on earth chaos has to do with bible stories. Well, to summarize, the ancient Hebrews (and other ancient cultures) thought of order and chaos as being fundamental forces, if you will. Kinda like the Light and Dark side of the Force, but less moral and more primeval or elemental. These forces are in conflict, and chaos especially, personified by the sea or ocean, is this huge, threatening, all-consuming, nearly all-powerful force that at times seems barely held in check by Creation or by the power of God. Human beings get themselves into a lot of messes by trying to manage or beat the forces of chaos on their own–and making their situation worse in the process.
I love this book because it has helped me practice what it means to ask for God’s help in chaotic situations…which are legion.
The other book, or books, really, since there are three of them, are the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan, which are books bringing to life ancient Egyptian mythology. Love these books for many reasons, but the little shadows and hints and resonances of the Old Testament throughout gives it deeper meaning and depth for me. I reread the trilogy last weekend, and was particularly struck by this passage which has our heroes on mission to the Sea of Chaos:
I [Carter Kane] concentrated on the glowing white obelisk–our lighthouse in the storm of Chaos. I didn’t know if that spire was really the first part of creation, or how that myth jibed with the Big Bang, or with God creating the world in seven days, or whatever else people might believe. Maybe the obelisk was just a manifestation of something larger–something my mind couldn’t comprehend. Whatever the case, I knew the obelisk stood for Ma’at [order], and I had to focus on it. Otherwise I was lost.
The Serpent’s Shadow, p 298
In this description, creation is this little sliver of land, always in threat of being gobbled up by the sea of chaos. And Ancient Egypt is the heroic little island (or obelisk) of order standing against the overpowering chaos.
This is pretty easy for me to relate to. We all get scared of getting eaten by the chaos monster sometimes. What really strikes me about the chaos-as-bad-guy imagery is that it is pretty one-sided. Chaos is always the threat, but order doesn’t seem to be. Chaos bad, order good, done. And the first time I thought about it, I thought the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures backed up this view of the cosmos. The sea, Leviathan, chaos–bad. Order, creation, wisdom–good. Really, the Hebrew imagery and the Egyptian imagery agree with each other.
But, thought I, what about the control freaks and the perfectionists? What about those of us who cling too tightly to order, or try to rigidly control and neatly package everything such that we just squeeze the enjoyability out of life…or just squeeze the life out of life? Surely, chaos isn’t the only threat. Isn’t an excess of order…just…well…nothing?
I recently–and unintentionally–watched a YouTube video by Veritasium about the relationship between order, entropy, and information. Basically, what he argues is that although you might think that order and information are pretty much the same thing, the opposite is the case. Maximum order is meaningless. Maximum information (or entropy) doesn’t really work either, because there are no ordered patterns to recognize and pull meaning out of. The video is worth a look if you like physics, but the point is that you need some kind of happy medium between randomness and patterns, chaos and order, in order to have meaning.
Another way of looking at this might be to think about binary as a computer “language” that conveys meaning. An infinite series of zeros isn’t going to express anything. Having ones in the mix allows for patterns to take form. You need to be able to contrast patterns with randomness in order to see the patterns at all.
How then, says I, can chaos be the unambiguous bad guy and order the unambiguous good guy? How could the biblical writers miss something so fundamental?
It turns out, I’m not so sure they did. Upon reflecting a bit, I think there’s something different going on in the Old Testament stories than what’s going on in the Egyptian stories. If you take the biblical creation stories, while the turbulent nature of chaos or the void is recognized, the chaotic sea isn’t so much depicted as a threat as it is the stuff out of which God molds the heavens and the earth. It’s more like Aristotle’s prime matter taking a form than anything else. Also, God’s response to chaos isn’t exactly to order it, like a “summoning ma’at” spell would be for the Kane kids, it’s to bring good things forth from it. Creation happens, not accounting. It’s true that creation and order seem related in the Genesis stories, but the act of creation, the life-giving, form-imposing, meaning-imbuing word of God is the answer to creation, not a dead ordering.
Also, the bible isn’t huge on order, it is huge on wisdom and law. Wisdom, like God, is often personified as a craftsman, ” Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars” (Proverbs 9:1), and it is no coincidence that Jesus’s family craft is carpentry. (Thank you, Nathanael, for that info.) They are all builders. Wisdom takes the raw, chaotic stuff of creation and turns it into something good–something beautiful and life-giving and wholesome.
I think, too, there is a connection between Egypt’s fear of chaos and Israel’s experience of Egypt as mitsrayim–constriction. (Chaos and the Kingdom, ch 3). Egypt, having lost the knowledge of God, struggles with chaos by herself. So, in her attempt to win the battle between order and chaos, she intentionally or unintentionally creates an oppressive regime that strips freedom from other peoples. She relies on order and magic to deal with chaos, rather than the help of Yahweh.
Order, by itself, is dead. It will not save you. In fact, it can be its own oppressive little trap that is little better than living in a sea of chaos. (Just think about the Borg on Star Trek.) I found this out by accident this weekend while I was decluttering my bedroom in preparation for a move. My bedroom was definitely the most orderly I have EVER seen it while I’ve lived at this apartment. But you know what? It’s still ugly. There was nothing beautiful or unified about it. There was no happy or joyful spirit to it. People talk about “Outer order, inner calm”, but a better saying would be, “Outer beauty, inner joy.” Because a dead order isn’t refreshing and it isn’t life-bringing. Order itself needs to be brought to life by a hand or eye skilled in beauty and wisdom.
What brings about wisdom instead of order? Is it merely the application of skill and knowledge? I don’t think so. There’s something living about Creation–there’s something about the Spirit of God brooding over the waters that is needed to bring forth life. (Genesis 1:1) Wisdom and Spirit are connected, and creation is birthed by the Word sent forth from the Spirit to transform the chaotic void into something good. Living beings, and human beings in particular, have a special share in the creation by virtue of the wisdom conveying Spirit God-breathed into them. (Genesis 2:7)
Wisdom’s Invitation
Wisdom has built her house;
Proverbs 9: 1-5
she has hewn her seven pillars.
2 She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
5 “Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
This passage is trying to convey the invitation of wisdom for everyday life. It is an invitation by the Spirit to be free from both chaos and a dead ordering by living according to life-giving wisdom. On the hardest days, life may seem like a barren void, formless and incapable of bringing forth life or joy. We are in need of an animating principle that is more than order or reason or logic. Order, by itself, does not make happiness or meaning or fulfillment, although it may help in the process of cultivating those things. The good life requires help from a skilled laborer who already lives a good life. These things, the good life, happiness, meaning, satisfaction: they are not the sort of things that will result from randomness or chance or inattention or ignorance. They are things that often seem fragile: they may seem threatened or imperiled in many times and in many ways–but the invitation of wisdom and the life-giving power of Spirit are generously and continuously present for all who seek them.