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Who's In Charge Here?

 

By Joe Graber

 

Psalm 2 gives us a great look at God's omnipotent and perfect control of time and history.  God is never taken by surprise, and He works all things for the good of those who love him.  But, the human condition is such that I want to be in charge.  I want to be my own God, and I want to do what is right in my own eyes. 

 

In C.S. Lewis' book Perelandra, the second in his space trilogy series, Lewis gives us a great analogy of God's rulership from our perspective.  The book is clearly a thinly veiled metaphor for the Genesis account of original sin, so, I'll use the biblical names to relate the story.

 

Adam and Eve are alone on the planet where they live on huge, floating islands of vegetation.  These islands role with the waves and move around the planet by the currents.  God has instructed them that they might venture onto dry land but not stay there through the night.  Satan comes to the planet to try to convince Eve that she should stay the night on the dry land even though God has forbidden it.  A struggle of wits and argument ensues between Satan and the main character of the story, Dr. Ransom.

 

In the end, Adam and Eve don't give in to the temptation (in the book), and eventually come to realize that the real temptation wasn't Satan at all.  Satan was devising schemes to make the whole thing seem plausible, but the people were tempted by the lusts and desires of their own heart.  Rather than living on the floating islands and submitting to God's direction for their lives, they wanted to live on dry land so that they could direct where they would be tomorrow.  They wanted to be their own gods.  They wanted to direct the future.  Just like me.

 

In Perelandra, God rewards the submission of Adam and Eve by eventually guiding them to the dry land to live in submission to Him.  They lived there because that's where God wanted them rather than their want to live as gods.

 

People want to recapture the Edenic, peaceful life...but the lesson is clear.  Eden required submission and obedience.  When we struggle to get back to Eden rather than struggling to submit and obey, we will never get back.