Crushing Chaos Begins with God’s Order

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Genesis 1:2 (NIV)

The main emphasis [of creation] is not on a process from nothing to something, from nonexistence to existence, but on a process from confusion to distinction, from chaos to order.

James Barr, “Was Everything That God Created Really Good?” (Emphasis Added)

Anxiety coiled itself around a young girl while she was standing in our church lobby on a Wednesday night. Minutes before our weekly worship service, she was fighting to breathe and relentlessly wiping tears from her face. I offered up prayers, seemingly in vain. My job was to protect and love these young people, but I felt powerless over the chaos of panic that had engulfed her.

Crushing Chaos Through God’s Design for Order

Eventually her wave of anxiety subsided, but I never forgot this moment. I had preached dozens of messages about anxiety and panic. We had devoted prayer and ministry time specifically focusing on anxiety, but clearly, we hadn’t cracked the code on the path to peace. After months of reflecting on this moment, I remembered that the creation account in Genesis has a whole lot to say about Chaos and that it describes the original state of creation as a deep, wild, raging ocean of Chaos. The opening words of the Bible declare:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2, NIV)

How Creation Reveals God’s Strategy for Crushing Chaos

God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was “formless and empty.” In Hebrew, those terms are tohu and va-vohu, which translate into English as “wasteness . . . that which is wasted, laid waste . . . a desert . . . emptiness, vanity . . . nothing” and “emptiness, voidness,” respectively. Other translations are “place of chaos,” “wilderness,” and “barren.” And the Hebrew term tehom (“deep”) can be translated as “abyss.” (We’ll look at these terms in more detail in later chapters.)

Simply put, Scripture’s first words declare that creation was a chaotic, untamed mess and that the Spirit of the Lord God was brooding over the surface of this barren, unintelligible, chaotic ocean abyss. Pretty epic visual, if you ask me. However, God didn’t bring peace to this chaos. God began organizing the creation and moved the earth from chaos into order. God began to separate, pull apart, gather, and bring structure to the chaos of creation. Look at this description in Genesis 1:6–7:

God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it.

What did God do? God separated.

Why Crushing Chaos Requires Separation and Structure

The beginning of creation reveals a God who knows how to rearrange, organize, unclutter, clean, uncomplicate, simplify, and structure life. God’s solution for the Chaos found in Gen- esis wasn’t to bring peace; it was to establish Order. Ironically, peace is always a natural by-product once Order takes root in the cosmos, and I have discovered that God’s strategy for responding to Chaos hasn’t changed.

Order was the missing key in our ministry approach, as anxiety was simply a result or by-product of chaos. I had spent all my time focused on the check engine light of anxiety

instead of popping open the hood and actually checking the engine. Anxiety is just a symptom of the real, undiagnosed chaos living deep within us. I had been preaching about peace, essentially medicating pain and providing temporary quick fixes, instead of addressing the root of the problem. The good news is that there’s a cure for Chaos, and my discovery of that cure is what this book is all about. The cure for Chaos is Order.

There’s an Order to life that’s revealed in the Scriptures.

Order as God’s Answer to Inner Turmoil

Take sex for example. The Bible’s vision: Sex goes after marriage, not before. Confusing this sequence will inevitably create chaos.

Unnecessary heartbreak.

Soul ties with multiple individuals.

Insecurity. Possessive behavior.

Children born outside of wedlock.

Baby-mama drama. Child support.

This is absolute chaos.

And it creates abundant opportunities for anxiety to thrive. It doesn’t matter how much we pray for peace—peace will never be permanent in the soul of the person who rejects God’s order.

Crushing Chaos in Our Families, Churches, and Communities

Our families, churches, and institutions can flourish only when they are well ordered. God’s order for families involves mothers and fathers who are present, engaged, and invested in the flourishing of their children. Mothers and fathers who exercise healthy authority over their children to guide, teach, and protect them. When this order is ignored or rejected, chaos ensues.

Dr. Manny Arango is the author of Crushing Chaos: Calm Your Storms. Order Your Life. Find Your Peace. and 30 Days to Crush Chaos: A Devotional for Finding Peace, both published by WaterBrook. He’s also the founder of ARMA Courses, an online educational platform that helps Christians become biblically literate. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Arango was a teaching pastor at Social Dallas under Pastors Robert and Taylor Madu, and is now the lead pastor, along with his wife, Tia, of The Garden in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Northern Seminary in June 2024 with a doctorate in New Testament studies. He’s also host of the Bible Department podcast and regularly speaks at churches and events around the country. Dr. Arango has been married to his beautiful wife for more than a decade, and they have a son named Theophilus. For more information visit MannyArango.com and @mannyarango