ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 Tusite Sanuali 3, 2023

 

תהו ובהו Tohu Vavohu 

GENESIS 1:2

THE EARTH WAS WITHOUT FORM AND VOID, AND DARKNESS WAS OVER THE FACE OF THE DEEP.

SENESI 1:2

Pea na‘e maomaonganoa ‘a māmani mo lala; pea na‘e fakapo‘uli ‘a e funga ‘o e loloto. Pea na‘e ‘ō‘ōfaki ‘e he Laumālie ‘o e ‘Otua ki he fukahi vai. 

When God starts something, it often looks as if nothing will come of it. Before he says, "Let there be light," the earth is tohu ("wasteland") and vohu ("emptiness"). Nothing here to make the angels cheer. Darkness blankets this water-soaked chaos. So far, things don't look good. Not yet anyway. The good, and the very good, will come as soon as the Father opens his mouth to speak the rest of creation into being by his Word and Spirit.

When Jeremiah warns the idol-worshipping Israelites that God's about to stomp their land into oblivion, he reaches back to Genesis to hammer home his point. He says the earth has become tohu vavohu yet again (4:23). Isaiah too, depicting the effects of humanity's rebellion, says "the line of confusion [tohu]" and "the plumb line of emptiness [vohu]" are stretched over the land (34:11). Sin undermines creation by rebelling against the very Word that spoke creation into existence. Instead of light and life, there broods darkness and death.

The Word thus becomes flesh, of creation, to redeem creation. Into a tohu vavohu world, Jesus comes to reform and refashion a new creation. "He has done all things well," the crowds say (Mark 7:37). Indeed, he has, this Creator who makes all things new (Rev. 21:5).

Put a new song in our mouths, O God, that we may glory in your creative love.