Certain passages of the Old Testament give glimpses of a cosmic conflict that took place in the celestial world before the beginning of the human world. These passages mention about an entity created by the Creator God who was a cut above the rest. He was probably the leader of the angels and an entity with great imposing appearance and other noticeable features that marked him apart from others. The Creator God intentionally created this entity this way in order for him to have dominion and supremacy over the other beings and be a source of joy, happiness and satisfaction to God. But the fact remained that this entity was a created being and could in no way be elevated to the status of the Creator God.
For some time, things went well and this entity who was beautiful and impressive in every way served God well as he understood his place in the heavenly kingdom and did not try to change the arrangement set by God. But in the course of time, things began to change. This entity began to question the authority and sovereignty of the Creator. The entity began to exalt himself in such a way as if he was also no less than the Creator. He started to think that he might also be able to replace the Creator forgetting that he owed his very existence to the Creator God. Pride, arrogance, selfishness, ambition and suspicion crept into his heart and he began to challenge and defy the very being who created him and gave him all the power and prominence.
But the fact remained that this entity was a created being and could in no way be considered as equal to the Creator God. So when this entity rebelled against his Creator and tried to take the throne of the Creator God who created him and to whom he owed his very existence, he had to be thrown out of the heavenly kingdom as a created being can never be allowed to take the place of the Creator. Some call this entity Lucifer while others refer to him as Satan.
This is the story of the cosmic conflict which I wish to elaborate today. And if you think that the story of this cosmic conflict got over when the rebellious entity was kicked out of God’s kingdom, you are gravely mistaken. Today also we get to see reflections and glimpses of this cosmic conflict everywhere around as the dynamics of human nature and human relations have not changed.
The first replica of this cosmic conflict took place in the Eden Garden itself when the first man and woman disobeyed and rebelled against their Creator. God preplanned and prepared everything and placed Adam and Eve in the garden and gave them dominion and supremacy over everything there. And God interacted with them on a daily basis. All that they were required to do was to acknowledge, respect and worship the one who created them. In other words, they were required to never forget that they were created beings and that they owed their existence to their Creator.
But like in the case of the entity which God created to have dominion over the heavenly kingdom, in due course of time, Adam and Eve also began to question the authority of their Creator and rebelled against Him by eating the forbidden fruit. So God was again compelled to do what He did to the rebellious entity by chasing away the first man and woman from the beautiful garden.
Whether people realize it or not, the truth is that every family has in one way or the other experienced reflections of this cosmic conflict. In a way, the family is like the heavenly kingdom that pre-existed the human race or the Eden Garden where the fall of man happened. Children are born out of the physical union of the father and the mother. So, in a way, we can say that parents created the children and that children owed their existence to the parents because if the father and the mother had not been united in the flesh, the children would not have come into existence in the first place.
So, if the children owe their existence to the parents, it logically means that children are supposed to respect, obey and revere their parents. But there comes times in every family when the children would question, challenge and defy the authority of the parents. There is nothing to be surprised about this because this is bound to happen considering the inherent nature of man. So when we encounter conflict in the family, we should realize that something much greater than what meets the eye is at play.
But why did God create the institution of family and allow the parents and children to relive and experience the saga of this cosmic conflict? It is because God wants man to experience and realize what happened in the cosmic world between the Creator and the created being. God wants us to taste what He felt when the entity rebelled against him in the cosmic world and also what he went through when Adam and Eve disobeyed and rebelled against him in the beautiful garden.
The scriptures say that God created humans in His own image. In the same way, our children also bear our image. And so when our children who bear our image and who were supposed to be a source of joy and happiness to us defy and rebel against our authority, we find ourselves in the exact spot where God was when the ones whom He created and who bear His image challenged His authority.
So when God designed the family and made it mandatory for every humans to come into existence through the institution of the family, God is putting the parents in His shoes and the children in the shoes of the created beings so that through the conflicts we encounter in the family we all can understand and realize the dynamics that came into play in the creation story and the divine reasons and phenomena behind what meets the eye.
If you think you have drama in your house, you are not alone. There is drama in every house. But there is a divine reason and purpose behind these conflicts. It is pointing us to a conflict that happened long before we even came into the picture. These conflicts are just reflections of what happened between the Creator God and the created beings when pride, suspicions, selfishness and ambitions crept into the hearts of the created beings.
Talking about family drama, let us now ponder over a family drama which you might have never realized before. God promised to give a son to Abraham and his wife Sarah. Many years passed but there was no sign of a child. So Sarah told her husband to sleep with her maid Hagar. Abraham did so and a child was born whom they named Ishmael.
Some years later, as God promised, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son whom they named Isaac. After Isaac was born, Sarah’s attitude towards Hagar and Ishmael totally changed and she could no longer tolerate their presence in her home. But Abraham did not want to chase Hagar and Ishmael away because Ishmael was also his son. So the situation in Abraham’s family was that Sarah was mad at Abraham because he did not want to chase away Hagar and Ishmael, Abraham was mad at Sarah for suggesting to him to sleep with Hagar and Hagar was deeply hurt by the rudeness and cruelty of Sarah. It was a terrible love triangle and the most horrific part was that they were all living under the same roof. And so, if even Abraham who is called the father of our faith had such a drama in his house, there must be hope for us all.
To conclude, the most iconic reflection of this cosmic conflict was narrated by none other than the greatest teacher about 2000 years ago when He enlightened us with the story of the prodigal son who took his inheritance from his father and went away thinking that he could find joy, happiness and satisfaction even without his father. But at the end of the day he found himself in the hogs’ pit feeding the hogs and realized that he was nothing without the father. But the good news is that this story has a happy ending when the son realized his selfishness and wickedness and decided to go back to his father to whom he owed everything he ever had. So the saga of the cosmic conflict which we all encounter inside our homes is for us all to return back to our Creator God to whom we owe our very existence and all that we have.
