As we near Easter I’ve been thinking over the Passover narrative from Exodus 12. Some things have bubbled up to the surface that I had never really seen. Images from the actual event and different contexts within the Exodus narrative. And I want to take the time to share them. They’re probably nothing new to some of my readers but they are to me.

The first observation is going to take two posts to cover. And it is this, the Passover is the climax of the confrontation between the force of creation, the Creator, and the forces of anti-creation, sin and evil. And I break it up into two parts to focus on the characters and the actual confrontation.

Moses is called by Yahweh in Exodus 3-4. In Exodus 4:10-17 Moses gives his objection to go before Pharaoh to demand the liberation of the Hebrew slaves is a lack of eloquent speech. That shocks me given Moses was risen in the Pharaoh’s house as a prince. Not saying it’s out of the realm of possibility just that I found it shocking.

Yahweh’s answer is simple Aaron will speak for Moses. God will tell Moses what to tell Pharaoh and Aaron will say it. And it’s in 4:16 that we find this, “He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.” Moses is set up as God to Aaron, and Aaron as the prophet. And thus we have the side of the force of creation, the Creator, Yahweh.

And as Moses rival, Pharaoh is cast up as the anti-God, the force of anti-creation. In this narrative the personification of sin and evil, as Moses is the personification of God. Pharaoh, in the Egyptian pantheon, is said and believed to be the embodiment of The sun god Ra, the chief god. Pharaoh is the parody of the creator God. He is set up to be man’s attempt at replacing God.

And this confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh becomes something greater. Exodus 5-15 is really the confrontation between God and the evil that has attempted to depose him as king and thwart his redemptive plan began through Abraham and his family. The forces that would seek to defeat God’s redemptive activities will not go unchecked (even those in Canaan, but that’s another topic; Genesis 15:12-16).

As Admiral Adama told the mutineer Mr. Gaeda, “There will be a reckoning.” For Pharaoh, his time has come. And it will cost him and his people dearly, personally, economically, and nationally. And the climax of this reckoning will be the events of the Passover.

Greek Text of Romans 8:26-39
26 Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα συναντιλαμβάνεται τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ ἡμῶν· τὸ γὰρ τί προσευξώμεθα καθὸ δεῖ οὐκ οἴδαμεν, ἀλλὰ αὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα ὑπερεντυγχάνει στεναγμοῖς ἀλαλήτοις· 27 ὁ δὲ ἐραυνῶν τὰς καρδίας οἶδεν τί τὸ φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅτι κατὰ θεὸν ἐντυγχάνει ὑπὲρ ἁγίων. 28 οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν τὸν θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ εἰς ἀγαθόν, τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς οὖσιν. 29 ὅτι οὓς προέγνω, καὶ προώρισεν συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς· 30 οὓς δὲ προώρισεν, τούτους καὶ ἐκάλεσεν· καὶ οὓς ἐκάλεσεν, τούτους καὶ ἐδικαίωσεν· οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσεν, τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασεν. 31 Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν πρὸς ταῦτα; εἰ ὁ θεὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, τίς καθ’ ἡμῶν; 32 ὅς γε τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ οὐκ ἐφείσατο, ἀλλὰ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν πάντων παρέδωκεν αὐτόν, πῶς οὐχὶ καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα ἡμῖν χαρίσεται; 33 τίς ἐγκαλέσει κατὰ ἐκλεκτῶν θεοῦ; θεὸς ὁ δικαιῶν· 34 τίς ὁ κατακρινῶν; Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς ὁ ἀποθανών, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐγερθείς, ὃς ἐστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὃς καὶ ἐντυγχάνει ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν. 35 τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; θλῖψις ἢ στενοχωρία ἢ διωγμὸς ἢ λιμὸς ἢ γυμνότης ἢ κίνδυνος ἢ μάχαιρα; 36 καθὼς γέγραπται ὅτι ἕνεκεν σοῦ θανατούμεθα ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν, ἐλογίσθημεν ὡς πρόβατα σφαγῆς. 37 ἀλλ’ ἐν τούτοις πᾶσιν ὑπερνικῶμεν διὰ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς. 38 πέπεισμαι γὰρ ὅτι οὔτε θάνατος οὔτε ζωὴ οὔτε ἄγγελοι οὔτε ἀρχαὶ οὔτε ἐνεστῶτα οὔτε μέλλοντα οὔτε δυνάμεις 39 οὔτε ὕψωμα οὔτε βάθος οὔτε τις κτίσις ἑτέρα δυνήσεται ἡμᾶς χωρίσαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ θεοῦ τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν.

My Translation of Romans 8:26-39
26. In the same way also the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groaning. 27. The one who searches the heart knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to God’s will. 28. And we know that God works all things together for good to those who love him, those who are called according to his purposes. 29. And those who he foreknew he also predestined to be formed into the image of his Son, that the Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30. And those God predestined he also called. And those he called God also vindicated. And those God vindicated he also glorified. 31. Therefore what will we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32. Indeed God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for all of us. How will he not, along with giving his Son, graciously give us all things? 33. Who will bring an accusation against the elect of God? It is God who vindicates! 34. Who will condemn? It is the Messiah, Jesus, who died–more than that he was raised–who is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us! 35. Who will separate us from the Messiah’s love? Will it be tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword? 36. Just as it is written, “For your sake we are put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep for the slaughter.” 37. Rather in all these things we are completely victorious through the One who loved us. 38. For we are convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things that are present nor things that are far off, nor any powers, 39. neither height nor depth nor anything in all of the creation can separate us from God’s love in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.

My Translation
1. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those in the Messiah Jesus. 2. For the law of the Spirit which gives life in Messiah Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and brings death. 3. For what was impossible for the Torah, weakened because of the flesh, God himself, when he sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh 4. so that the righteous act required by the Torah will be fulfilled in us who do not live by the flesh but by the Spirit. 5. For those who are belong to the flesh think according to the flesh, and those who belong to the Spirit think according to the Spirit 6. For the mind set on the flesh is dead, but the mind set on the Spirit has life and peace. 7. For the mind belonging to the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit to God’s Law, nor is it able to submit. 8. Those who are in the flesh are unable to please God. 9. But you are not in the flesh, rather you are in the Spirit if after all the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, they don’t belong to him. 10. But if the Messiah is in you, though your body is dead because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because of righteousness. 11. And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised the Messiah Jesus also will make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit living in you.

I was reading one particular narrative in Mark 1:40-45 that is seated in between narratives that use resurrection language to describe Jesus’ healing acts. This particular story is that of the leper who comes to Jesus and asks to be healed. Upon being asked, Jesus gets angry (yes, I don’t believe that Jesus took pity based upon the textual evidence) and heals the leper. Why he gets angry the text doesn’t say and therefore I won’t comment. But after healing him Jesus commands the leper, “Look, don’t tell anyone. Go and show yourself to the priests and offer up what Moses commanded for you cleansing as a witness to them” (Mark 1:44). There are other miracles where Jesus commands the same, such as in Luke 17:11-19 and the healing of the ten lepers.

What I am seeing here is this, the resurrection fulfills what the law commands. The Torah, mediated through Moses, taught and instructed Israel on who to live as Yahweh’s “son,” his representative agent through whom Yahweh rules over his creation and is present with his creation. Therefore it demanded the strictest purity and absolute moral uprightness. Israel was to represent God to the world. When the world looked at Israel, they were to see God himself through their actions. When there was a breech in this strict physical and moral purity, sacrifices were made to restore the Israelite and the nation back to the level of perfection it was to have.

In the resurrection, the persons who experience Jesus’ raising him or her up as part of the kingdom of God over which he reigns will be raised up free from the moral and physical impurities. In other words, the resurrection raises the believer up in the condition that fulfills the law. The cross is most definitely the offering that is prescribed by the Torah, all offerings summed up into one perfect sacrifice. But it is the resurrection that creates us to exist in the condition the Law prescribes God’s representative people to exist in.

So that, in the new heavens and new earth, the new creation, the aim that Yahweh had in giving Torah to Israel will be complete. The people the Law commanded to exist will in fact exist. Thus in raising Jesus from the dead, Jesus begins God’s restoration project that brings the Torah, God’s Law, to the aim and goal it had from the beginning: create a people who can represent God to his creation.

Before getting into the text I want to make some observations. First is the matrix in which Paul understands Jesus’ soterological work in relation to believers, namely union with Messiah. In Romans 6 Paul over and over again brings up Christians being “baptized intoChrist Jesus [and] his death” (Romans 6:3), we are “buried with him” (Romans 6:4), “we have been united with him” (Romans 6:5), “died with Christ…live with him” (Romans 6:8), “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). It is in the context of our union with Jesus that Paul sets out our salvation. It must be understood in this union. John Calvin describes this union like that of Jacob and Esau when Jacob obtained Esau’s blessing. Isaac blessed Esau, but it was Jacob appearing before Isaac as Esau that brought Jacob the blessing. So too with us and Jesus. God blesses Jesus with all the blessings, and because we appear before God as one with Jesus, dressed in him and his accomplishments, we share in the blessings that Jesus is given.

Secondly, the language that Paul uses in these paragraphs is not one of Day of Atonement but rather Passover and Exodus. Notice some of his language. In Romans 6:6 Paul says, “we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” In Romans 6:9 Paul says of Jesus, “death no longer has dominion over him.” Liberation from the great Egypt of sin and death is how the Apostle understands Jesus death, just like in the Passover and Exodus was about freedom from bondage to Egypt and Pharaoh.

I feel the text breaks down into three sections. Section A (Romans 6:1-4) is the objector, Paul’s Jewish dialogue partner throughout the letter, objecting to what Paul has spelled out thus far in his letter about the saving righteousness of God revealed in Jesus the Messiah, specifically as stated in Romans 5:12-21 and Paul’s initial response. Section B (Romans 6:5-6) spells out how Jesus’ death accomplishes salvation in its own right. Section C (Romans 6:8-11) spells out how Jesus’ resurrection accomplishes salvation. Sections B and C hinge together on Romans 6:7.

In the next post I’ll look at Section A.

Jesus opens his prayer in both Matthew 6:9 and Luke 11:2 with, “Sanctify your name.” The Greek verb for “Sanctify” is ἁγιάζω. The connection to Ezekiel 36 comes at this point. Ezekiel 36:23 says, “And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them…” The Hebrew term וְקִדַּשְׁתִּי, “And I will vindicate the holiness” is translated by the LXX as ἁγιάζω. Let us explore Ezekiel 36 before moving on to get an idea of this background issue.

In Ezekiel 36:1-15 God promises to restore the land to its former bounty and glory after the he poured out his wrath upon it. The Land will be rebuilt and its cities repopulated. Although the land has become a reproach among the nations, God will restore the Land when he brings Israel back to it so that it is no longer seen as a devourer of its people.

In Ezekiel 36:16-21 God announces why Israel was carried off into exile by Babylon. In their idolatry, they had become as unclean as “the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity” (Ezekiel 36:17). So out of a concern for the holiness of his name God poured out his wrath upon the people and scattered them among the nations. They were in exile because by their sinful idolatry, they had profaned God himself and his great name.

Thus we come to Ezekiel 36:22-32. In order to maintain the sanctity of his own name, God is going to restore Israel to her land and bless her bountifully. In doing so, she will remember her sin and how she defiled not only herself and the land, but also God and his great name. Thus God vindicating the holiness of his name is him bringing back Israel to her land, renewing her heart to ensure obedience and thus securing her place in the promised land for ever before the Lord, never to defile God again. Through his Spirit, Yahweh will cleanse the people and deliver them from their impurity. The Spirit of Yahweh will indwell the people to guarantee their obedience to Yahweh and the covenant.

And it’s at this point we return to the prayer of our Lord in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4. When Jesus prays, “Our Father, who is in heaven, sanctify your name,” he has in mind God fulfilling this great prophecy. We are told to pray that God will end Israel’s exile and restore her to the land. We are to pray for God to send his Spirit to renew the hearts of Israel and create in her hearts and spirits that will obey their covenant and Creator God to always remain in the their promised land.

And that’s what this is all about. Look at how Matthew 6:9-10 works. First, “Vindicate the holiness of your name, Father.” Then, “Bring forth your saving reign.” And finally, “Exercise that saving reign so that your perfect will is done on earth as it is in heaven.” Is not Israel God’s kingdom? And is not renewing and changing the hearts of Israel so obey God by his Spirit making his will done on earth as it is in heaven? This opening triad is baptized in Ezekiel 36:22-32. Jesus is teaching his Jewish hearers to pray that God will fulfill the promise he made in and through Ezekiel. And that’s fantastic news for Israel!

And it’s good news for the Gentiles as well! When God brings Israel back to her land and fully restores her under the Messiah, God will bring the Gentiles back to himself, ending the exile that all of humanity has been in since Adam failed in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. The story of Israel is a narrative for Gentiles to understand our own story in Adam. And the return of Israel to her land is a narrative for Gentiles to understand their own return to the Garden. Israel pictures for Gentiles their own salvation, their own redemption, their own restoration.

And as Paul said in Acts 13:32-33, “And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.”

In the first post I looked at how Jonah illustrates and points the reader the character of God see in Exodus 32-34. In the second post, I looked at how in Jonah, God’s desire to relent from executing his judgment upon Nineveh goes back to his purpose to redeem all of creation through the family-seed-nation promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. In this post I want to talk about what it is that Jonah most clearly and powerfully illustrates.

3.) Israel had become blinded by her position as Yahweh’s elect people and ignored her function as the channel through which God’s promise to redeem creation, not just Israel, comes into the world. As we saw in the previous post, God’s promise and covenant with Abraham was not so much to create a people to love and redeem but rather to be his instrument through which his redemptive plan and purposes for the entire creation would be executed and put on display. In the God tells Israel when they approach the Mount of God in Exodus 19:6 that Israel is to be “a kingdom of priests,” who will represent the world before the Creator God and offer up worship on behalf of creation while at the same time teaching and instructing the world what it means to live in covenant with Yahweh–defining what a clean/pure life is versus an unclean/impure life.

However, Jonah’s reaction to God saving Nineveh from destruction through the prophet’s preaching shows that this purpose of God is not being realized. When one reads through the history of Israel, particularly in Judges and 1-2 Samuel, one can see a negative view of those peoples outside of Israel beginning to take shape. Consider David’s comments regarding Goliah in 1 Samuel 17:26, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” This is a couple of centuries before Jonah was called to Nineveh. As the “uncircumcised” continued to oppress the people of God, the Hebrew people began to see themselves and their elect status come to mean an exclusion of the pagan Gentiles and that the uncircumcised should be destroyed because they are the enemies of God’s people and therefore enemies of God himself. They were not being the channel of God’s blessing to the whole of creation.

Consider further Deuteronomy 7:6, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” It is easy to see how Israel and Judah would look down upon the other people and exclude them from taking part of the people of God and God’s blessings. It’s easy to stop reading after that as to why God chose them over all the other peoples, not because they or their ancestors were more worthy, but because it was God’s purpose for Israel and Judah to be the vessels through which the world would be reconciled back to its Creator.

Living in Louisville, KY, I was asked by one of the youth at my church why there were not black people at our church. I’m too knew to the church to know the demographics of the area it ministers in. But it is a good question. And, sad to say, one honest answer is that when looking at the church body, it is mostly middle-class white Americans. And we don’t want to change that and bring in a person from another demographic. I praise the pastoral staff for challenging this attitude while preaching through Acts. But it is sad that it has to be addressed. I also praise the pastoral staff for reaching out to the large Hispanic population that is developing near our church. It is awesome to see that this attitude in Israel that Jonah reflects isn’t being allowed to be comfortable in our church.

2.) God’s promise to Abraham was to redeem all creation, not just Abraham’s posterity, and Abraham was to be the vessel through which this redemption comes. Here I have to admit a heavy influence by N. T. Wright. But consider again Abram’s call in Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV),

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Let us get the flow of the narrative of Genesis to see what this call was to initiate. God creates the universe, heaven and earth and all that is in them. In Genesis 3, humanity was enticed to rebel against Yahweh by taking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result God put humanity into exile from his Garden of Eden and put a curse upon all of creation. Humanity degenerated so far into the hold of sin that God flooded his creation so that all but one family was wiped out from existence. Humanity continued in its sin by building a mound to heaven. But they refused to populate the entire earth so God took the one family that lived in one place on earth and confused their language and spread humanity throughout the planet.

As one can see when they see this call that it comes on the heels of the tower of Babel. God is going to take Abram and make him a great nation, a great family. In Abram God was going to send blessing to his creation. The promise of the seed that was given in the Garden of Eden (cf Genesis 3:15) and was passed to Abram. Abram was to be the beginning of God’s move to redeem and restore and save his creation from the curse he placed it under, to reconcile the scattered families back into one family, and to end the rebellion began in Genesis 3. The family that was to come from Abram was to be the channel through which that reconciliation was to occur; the land that Abram’s family was to live on was to begin to end the curse upon the land.

In Jonah, the author reminds us of this cosmic purpose of God that is to come through Abram’s family-nation, Israel. He does so by taking us back to a time when Israel and Judah were strong and Assyria was weak, though still a big boy in the neighborhood of the Ancient Near East. God sends Jonah to Assyria to command their repentance so that God may relent from the destruction of the city. God was going to destroy the entire city and everything in it, from the people to the animals. But it is God’s purpose to redeem all of creation and so Jonah was sent.

Jonah’s character illustrates a profound problem the existed in Israel in his day, and continued until Jesus and Paul’s day in the New Testament era. And that problem is that they believed that Israel was the people that God wanted to save, and that the land that was promised to Abraham was to be the land that was to be redeemed. They lost sight of God’s promise to Abraham was for all the families, not just Abraham’s family. Abraham’s family was to be the vehicle through which God would bless all families by ending the exile and the scattering.

Then in the second post, Domain and Psalm 72, I discussed the poem in a little bit more depth. But I saw there that the poet prays that Yahweh will expand the borders of the kingdom to include the whole world which would thus bring this saving righteousness of God to the whole world through the king and his kingdom. The wicked of the entire earth will be defeated by God through his king and the righteous poor will be prospered. God grants the king his own righteousness, and then gives the whole world that righteousness by bringing the world under the domain of his king.

In the following post, I want to conclude my look–yes I wrote the first two in August and it’s now March, my timing is off–at Psalm 72, namely Psalm 72:15-19. First let us look at the text,

15 Long may he live;
may gold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field!
17 May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
May people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!

18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
19 Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!

The text in this post examines the final petition for the king, the third jussive found in 72:15 (cf. 72:1; 72:8) and the concluding prayer of praise offered up to Yahweh. The petition found in 72:15-17 forms an inclusio of sorts, with vv. 15 and 17 speaking of blessing. There is a progression found here in that 72:15 speaks of the king being blessed and in 72:17 the people are blessed in him and bless him.

First in 72:15 there is the possibility that, “Long may he live,” could also be taken as an vav-imperfect form that expresses purpose/result of the preceding line, 72:14, that the poor is to live long. But the following line, “may gold of Sheba be given to him,” does not follow in that line of thinking. The jussive reading of the verb with the subject being the king, Solomon in this case, goes better. Thus this king who has established God’s righteousness upon the earth is to live forever and receive gold from Sheba. The whole earth is to lift him up in prayer and petition blessing from God upon the king.

In 72:16 we see what happens when God extends his righteousness and justice throughout all the earth, through his king, food becomes abundant and population increases. God provides abundant resources and the people to use them. He prospers the earth and his people.

And thus the poet returns to his theme of blessing the king in 72:17. He prays that this king will live forever with an eternal name. That everyone will in him be blessed and in turn bless the king.

To conclude his poem (72:18-19), his psalm, of prayer the author praises not the king, but Yahweh. He blesses God. Only Yahweh can do such a thing. Only Yahweh can grant the king God’s righteousness. Only Yahweh can expand the borders of the kingdom. Only Yahweh can make the grain abundant the people blossom in the cities. Only Yahweh can. So the psalmist praises God and asks that God fill the earth with his glory. The concluding note echoes Habakkuk, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea,” (Habakkuk 2:14) and that of Isaiah, “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). As God extends his saving righteousness throughout the earth, so to will his honor go forth.

In light of this and other considerations, I have decided to take an opportunity to present my definition of the gospel of Jesus Messiah. But to do that, I want to first tell the background story to the gospel. I feel that because the Bible is the story of God–both from and about–one needs to know the story before defining any single part of it, like the gospel.

Creation and Fall
The story starts with God. God creates the entire universe, both heaven and earth and everything in between. And God created vice-regents, creatures who were to bear his image and represent him upon the earth on he created. They were to take dominion over the creation and fill it with his image through procreating and spreading to the farthest corners of the earth. These vice-regents were called adam, human. The only prohibition God gave his vice-regents was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequences would be death.

Something went horribly wrong. One particular creature, the serpent came to the humans. The man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, were tempted by the serpent to eat from the fruit of the forbidden tree. And here not only a failure but an inversion, a reversal, occurred. The humans, both Adam and Eve, failed to take dominion over the serpent and subdue his shrewdness and ate the fruit of that tree. In doing so, they forfeited their authority over to the serpent and to the creation. As part of God’s curse upon his vice-regents, he placed them under the creation so that they were forced to do labor to take dominion over the earth. War would erupt between creation and its vice-regents. Procreation would now be a process of pain. The humans were exiled from the presence of their Creator. And so began Humanity’s rebellion that will plague its relationship with its Creator until this very day.

Jealousy, envy, and murder ended up taking root in humanity in the next generation as Cain, the eldest child, murdered his younger brother, Able, when he failed to present the prescribed to Yahweh and was rejected. Eventually humanity, the vice-regents, were so repulsive to their Creator that Yahweh wiped all but one family out in a major flood, something no one had ever seen before. They were given the same charge as Adam and Eve, take dominion and procreate. But humanity failed to do so and so God cursed them by creating different languages to drive humanity to the different parts of the earth.

Hope
When Adam and Eve sinned, resulting in the entire created order being cursed by God, a promise to undo the curse was given. A child of Eve would crush the head of the serpent while the serpent crushed the foot of the child. God would raise someone up to reverse the awful curse and restore creation and humanity to the way God had created them and had designed for them to be.

This promise sustained the people all the way through Noah. Then God called out from a pagan world a man named Abram. He promised to give Abram land, seed, and to be a channel of blessing to all of humanity. In short, God chose Abraham to begin to fulfill his promise to undo the curse and exile that he placed upon his creation with Adam and Eve’s failure.

God grew that family into a large family named Israel. This people had twelve tribes, named after the sons of the man from whom they take their name. And God promised to one of these sons, Judah, that he would give Judah’s line the scepter to rule of God’s people and creation. Before God took Israel into the land promised to their father, Abraham, God put them in Egypt until he was ready to pronounce judgment upon the people who lived in that land.

Taking Possession
During Israel’s stay in Egypt, they were made slaves of the Egyptian people–exactly as God told Abraham centuries before. The people of Israel cried out to their God for deliverance and freedom and for the land they were promised. After four hundred years in Egypt, God answered. He raised up Moses and Aaron to rule over the people and to speak on his behalf. These two men went to Pharaoh and demanded he free Israel. Each time Pharaoh refused, resulting in God unleashing ten total plagues upon Egypt. The tenth and final plague destroyed all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, including Pharaoh’s heir to his throne. Israel left, pursued by Pharaoh, and crossed the Red Sea to freedom. At the Red Sea, God destroyed Pharaoh demonstrating his power and showing Israel that he is their God and will fulfill his promise to take the Land.

Under Moses, God gave the people the laws and ceremonies that would define them as his people and were required to live in the land he had promised. If they failed to live by them, breaking commandments and not offering up the proper sacrifices, God would bring upon them certain curses. If they lived according to this law, God would bring upon them certain blessings.

Then God raised up Joshua to lead them in battle against the people who lived in the land. Israel’s conquest was as much God judgment of these sinful people as it was fulfilling his original promise to Abraham. God gave Joshua success and Canaan, the promised land, was subdued. Possession of the land was taken.

The Monarchy
However, the people rebelled against Yahweh and did not follow the law he gave them. So God would invoke the curses and raise up neighboring nations to conquer Israel. Then in mercy God raised up leaders from within Israel to free the people from their captivity. After centuries of this, the people demanded a king. The first king was a king like the surrounding nations would have to show Israel that their desire to be like the nations was evil and sinful.

Then he raised up David, from the line of Judah, God’s king. David ruled over the people as God would have had him, executing God’s justice and protecting the people. David made sure the people obeyed the law and performed their worship as they were supposed to. So God promised David that his family would always sit on the throne in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. His son Solomon took the throne. Solomon’s son Rehaboam succeeded Solomon, and so forth and so on. God kept his promise.

However, David was imperfect and committed sin. God punished David by dividing his own house into a heinous disaster. Solomon committed idolatry with the hundreds of wives and mistresses he surrounded himself with. To punish Solomon, God split up Israel, ten tribes in the north under another monarchy, while the remaining two tribes stayed under David’s house.

However, both monarchies failed the people of Israel (north) and Judah (south). So God sent prophets to Israel and Judah to plead with them to repent of their sin and return to Yahweh. He was waiting with open arms and forgiveness. He still loved them. Judah made strides, Israel did not. So God invoked the covenant curse of exile upon both nations for their repeated failures. Assyria took Israel in 722 BCE, almost completely depopulating the nation. Babylon took Judah in 586/7 BCE when she destroyed Jerusalem.

The Promise
But these prophets did not leave Israel and Judah without any hope. God made a promise to his people. He would recreate the world and restore it to God’s original purpose for it, and humanity to its original purpose.

First, God would send his Spirit into his creation and raise up for his people, Israel and Judah, a king from the house of David. This Spirit would empower this Davidic king to rule over Israel and Judah as if it were God himself. This king, also called God’s Servant, would perfectly obey Yahweh and obtain the covenant blessings that Yahweh has promised.

Second, God would end the exile of his people and bring them back to the land of Israel and Judah. There they would be ruled over by this Davidic king. And they would experience the blessing that would come with such a ruler, one who would rule over them as if it were God himself. And under this Servant-King, God would establish a new covenant with the people, ensuring their obedience as well. And Israel would again experience the blessings that God promised them.

Thirdly, God would recreate the land. No longer will lions eat man and cattle, no longer will the wolf stalk after the lamb, no longer will the venomous viper be a threat to little children. Men will live lives longer than they can possibly imagine. The land will be a new heaven and a new earth, bountiful beyond the imagination.

Fourth, God will draw the Gentiles to this new heaven and new earth inhabited by Israel and ruled by this Davidic Servant-King. They will be drawn out of their pagan darkness and into the light of their Creator, Yahweh. And the whole world will be as it is supposed to be. All of the families of the earth will experience the blessings of God, not just one. Shalom and justice will inhabit the land. The paradise that was once lost will be restored in this new creation.

When Israel and Judah returned from their time in exile, they returned to Judah, the land, but none of the promises above were really fulfilled. In point of fact, God raised up more prophets to continue preaching these same promises to this post-exile community of Israelites and Judeans. God would one day recreate this world under the his Davidic Servant-King, and set the world to right. In fact this Servant-King would be the very priest who would mediate the new covenant of between Yahweh and his people. They had to wait for Yahweh to move.