Genesis and Matthew XVIX

Afterward the Canaanite clans were scattered abroad.


But when the crowd was thrown out he went in and took her hand, and the girl woke up.

We continue to see the effect of humanity on earth: towards disorder and chaos. We see how God comes in, sometimes personally, sometimes through emissaries such as angels, sometimes as humans like Moses, and in this last age, through His son, Jesus. God intervenes and restores order.

He set up a way of life for us: orderly families, orderly refuges, orderly communities, orderly churches. He knew that, left to ourselves, we start making up our own rules, and things get out of hand.

There has not been a single human being in history, that could establish order anywhere, without God's help. Dictators talk about setting up planned, efficient systems of government, that are run with an iron fist. But within the spirits of these citizens there is fear, and loathing.

Notice how God always cleans the place up, before establishing order. The nations grow, and they spread out. They expand their borders. But the more they expand, the more people there are that want to be in charge. First there is confusion, then disorder, then chaos, and sometimes, violence.

Families are a very simple system set up by God. Men and women meet, and covenant together to establish homes based on stability, deliberate love, security, and most of all, clarity, so that the children have a sense of belonging.

My Grandmother, for instance, knew her grandparents, and aunts and uncles, very well! Yet today, dozens of descendants of these same people whom my grandmother loved, are spread out all over the US, with very little awareness of each other! As a family, they have descended into disorder!

Christ comes in to a chaotic place. A little girl has just died, and in the home a party seems to be going on. The place is overrun with visitors and "well-wishers", but as so often happens, the mob loses a sense of focus and direction.

The first thing he does, is to send the crowd away. In the ensuing silence, order is restored. And in that setting, he touches the girl's hand, her breath returns, and she rises up from death.

Life and peace return. Order is restored.