We're exploring the theme of the Chaos Monster in the Bible.

From the opening pages of scripture, we encounter a destructive force that the authors of

the Bible depict as a serpent, bent on deceiving humanity.

Again and again, we see that God's human image bears choose to side with chaos instead

of with God.

And so become themselves Chaos Monsters as well.

Today we open up the scroll of Isaiah and we see the prophet Isaiah warning Israel that

they have become the Chaos Monster, aligning with death and destruction instead of partnering

with Yahweh.

And so God has to deal with the chaos that Israel has brought.

The fire is coming and the fire is Babylon.

Here's the surprising thing.

The nation of Babylon is also a Chaos Monster.

So God's going to use a bigger, battered Chaos Monster to judge Israel.

And if that's the case, then who's going to deal with Babylon?

Even the monster that God summons to bring that fiery purification, even that monster

that is Babylon will be itself held accountable to divine justice.

In today's episode, we'll also examine a question that's been on my mind from the beginning

of this series, which is what do we mean when we talk about the sea serpent, the Chaos Monster?

We want to sympathetically enter the imagination of these authors.

They really want us to entertain that there's another dimension of reality with creatures

that are intelligent like us that are being described by these images.

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