Your country has a long history of battling the sea. Around 26 percent of your land is at or below sea level. Authorities who oversee flood control and water quality go back and forth on water management. A folktale embodies your country’s relationship with water.
A young boy, not the water board, acts to avert a catastrophic flood in his town. The boy sees a leak in the dike while returning home. He plugs the leak with his finger and stays there through the cold night until daybreak when villagers notice him.
The quick-witted Dutch boy demonstrated true activism with resourcefulness and determination. The individual agency of the boy embodied self-sacrifice and bravery. He knew what was at stake for his community if he didn’t do anything.
Water Management
The opening of the creation account in Genesis (Genesis 1: 1-2) presents a primordial scene. The earth, formless and empty (tohu wabohu), was completely covered by a deep (tehom) sea. The sea, here and elsewhere in scripture, symbolizes non-order, chaos, danger, and the unknown and uncontrollable aspects of nature.
When God answers Job, he speaks of setting boundaries for the ocean, commanding it to stop at specific limits. The sea, chaotic and powerful and going where it will, is brought under control. The primeval waters are restrained. Non-order is ordered.
“Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?
The psalm about creation, Psalm 104, also speaks of God ordering the watery chaos in vs.5-9:
He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.
Deliver Us from Evil
The Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.
When mankind’s disorder, chaos, and evil covered the earth (Genesis 6), God, faithful to his creation and knowing what was at stake if he didn’t do anything, removed the threat of destructive evil by releasing the primeval waters of chaos (Genesis 7).
“The waters of the flood are understood as the primeval waters of chaos or the waters of the abyss (Gen. 1:2; 7:11), which God in creation had restrained and held at bay, but had not abolished (Gen. 1: 6-7). They symbolize the power of nothingness to undo creation, a destructive potential which remains to threaten the created universe with reversion to chaos.”[1]
The punishment fits the crime. Order is restored through a faithful remnant.
Destroying the “destroyers of earth”
The judgement of the Genesis flood account is alluded to in the Revelation of John (Rev. 11):
The twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, singing, . . .
The nations raged,
but your wrath has come,
and the time for judging the dead,
for rewarding your servants, the prophets
and saints and all who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
At the end of the Revelation of John (Rev. 21) there is talk of a new heaven and a new earth and . . .
“The waters of the primeval abyss, that represent the source of destructive evil, the possibility of the reversion of creation to chaos, are finally no more.”[2]
The sea symbolizes disorder that God controls and brings order to, reinforcing His authority over creation.
~~~
Staying Above Water
The Little Dutch Boy Who Saved Holland “effectively depicts the Dutch spirit of resilience and ingenuity, emphasizing their continuous fight and victory over the unyielding sea. The narrative of the little Dutch boy stands as a profound metaphor, symbolizing the nation’s persistent struggle with water and their unwavering efforts to safeguard their land and people.
It also highlights their innovative water management systems, a testament to Dutch resourcefulness and determination.”
Behind the 1965 folktale by American writer Mary Mapes Dodge is the reality of the Netherland’s “complex network of dykes and flood barriers, demonstrating the country’s proactive water management strategies . . . [the Dutch are] globally recognized for their pioneering flood control techniques, embodying the same spirit as the little Dutch boy who protected his homeland from imminent catastrophe.”
The folktale goes beyond the Dutch relationship with water and the need for water management. It represents a national identity of resilience in the face of adversity and communal responsibility. It is everyone’s legal duty to maintain the edge of the land touching the water.
The folktale embraces moral wisdom: bringing order to non-order and averting a potentially chaotic and deadly situation. The Dutch boy’s “finger in the dike” reminds us that small actions can prevent great disasters.
~~~
Holding Back or Holding Back?
I remember a bumper sticker from my church days: “Some people are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.”
The gospel, as I was repeatedly reminded growing up in Bible churches with countless altar calls, came down to accepting the formulaic four spiritual laws by which one could go to heaven when you died. The mission henceforth was to evangelize with the four spiritual laws and get people to heaven and rapture ready. But the Bible’s gospel, the Bible’s good news, is first and foremost this: Jesus is Lord.
That confession is both personal and political. There is no salvation if that gospel is not accepted. There is no “Thy will be done in earth, as it is heaven” if that gospel is not accepted. Escapism doesn’t accomplish the Lord’s prayer.
Acknowledging that “Jesus is Lord” isn’t touchy-feely gooey, inclusive and One-Worldly. That was never the point!
Acknowledging that “Jesus is Lord” is political. Power seeking political isms – socialism, communism, Progressivism, Islamism, LGBT-ism, feminism, Zionism – WILL NOT acknowledge “Jesus is Lord.” But one day everyone will confess “Jesus is Lord” (Phil 2).
Right now, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, Kim Jong-un – all dictators and tyrants who have died are confessing “Jesus is Lord.” One day Zohran Mamdani will confess “Jesus is Lord.”
Where am I going with all this?
Could it be that 41 million born-again Christians are expected not to vote in the upcoming election?
Could it be that evangelicals do not participate in elections?
Could it be that you, Christian, express disinterest in politics?
Could it be that you, Christian, dislike all major candidates?
Could it be that you, Christian, feel that none of the candidates reflect your views?
Could it be that you, Christian, believe your vote won’t make a difference?
Could it be that you, Christian, think the election is rigged or manipulated?
But when did you decide to let foreigners, fraudsters, and fanatic Islamists and socialists take over your country, your state, your community, your neighborhood, schools, and your tax dollars?
When did you decide to let Matthew 25 go on Progressivism steroids?
When did you decide that justice meant letting felons back on the street to kill and rape again?
When did you decide that your hard-earned tax dollars would be spent to fund all manner of evil?
When did you decide that election integrity was a threat to “Democracy?”
When did you decide that speaking up and even joking was “hate speech?”
When did you decide that it was OK for the DSA to overthrow our Constitutional system?
When did you decide to let America die?
When did you decide to define social justice in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion, inclusion, and inclusion without regard to what that would mean?
When did you decide that the migrant/Antifa-style riots in France and Italy need to come to the U.S.?
When did you decide to hold back from holding back chaos and the destructive forces of evil?
When did you decide that your Christianity was too good for creation which, as scripture reveals, God wants to deliver from evil?
Go Vote on or before Tuesday Nov. 3rd and put a stop to the chaotic and destructive flood waters called the Democrat party! What If We Don’t Do Anything!
~~~~~
This Is Perhaps The Most Dystopian Thing Ever… | ZeroHedge
Paris Is Burning. Is Washington Next? | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Is Europe Doomed? – The American Conservative
Italy unleashes huge military force to save Milan from rioters and violent migrants… – Revolver News
[1] Bauckham, Richard. (1993/2018). The Theology of the Book of Revelation. Cambridge University Press, 1993. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511819858. PP 53
[2] IBID, PP53
