The Ultimate Fulfillment of the Land Promise

Some time ago, I did a series of posts entitled “Understanding the Land Promise“. It is still my contention that understanding how the Bible develops the theme of the promised land will do much to help one gain a fuller understanding of how the church and OT Israel relate. Abraham and his offspring were promised that “he would be heir of the world” (Rom. 4:13), and that singular promise according to Rom. 4:16 is guaranteed to “all his offspring… to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all”.

Recently as I read through Isaiah, I couldn’t help but be reminded of this great theme. Notice Isiah 60:19-21.

The sun shall be no more
your light by day
,
nor for brightness shall the moon
give you light;
but the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
Your sun shall no more go down,
nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.
Your people shall all be righteous;
they shall possess the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
that I might be glorified.

So possessing “the land forever” is in the context of God being the “everlasting light” which replaces the sun and moon. Doesn’t this sound a lot like these verses from Revelation?

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Rev. 21:22-23)

They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Rev. 22:5b)

So the land promise is connected with these heavenly realities which are ultimately realized in the eternal state.

Ezekiel 37:24-28 sounds a similar note:

My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

The idea of God’s dwelling place being with his people is connected with the fulfillment of the promise of Israel dwelling in the land. Again, see Revelation 21 for a comparison (verses 1-3).

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Of course Isaiah concludes his book with the promise of “new heavens” and a “new earth” (64:17, 66:22). The glorious restoration of Israel to their land is ultimately fulfilled in the eternal possession of the Heavenly Jerusalem, and the entire recreated, new heavens and earth by God’s people. And that possession and enjoyment of the land will endure forever. And redeemed Jews certainly will be enjoying that land along with the Church.

So my question is, why do we need a literal possession of the entire promised land by a national Israel when we know that ultimately an eternal possession of “the world” will be realized by believing Israel? And if this is the case, why all the fussing over the millennium? However you view Rev. 20, the next two chapters in Revelation make clear that the promises to Israel find their ultimate fulfillment in that eternal era. Remember that is when we all live in the city that is significantly named the “New Jerusalem”. Doesn’t the name itself speak volumes here?

One last point, as my series on the land promise makes clear, in some way the Church enjoys some level of fulfillment of these promises in the here and now. 2 Cor. 6:16 declares:

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For(AK) we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and(AM) walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people….”

So even now, we are enjoying God’s designation of “my people”. And we experience God as our God. Read my series on the land for more about how we enjoy rest and fellowship with God presently in a way that the OT experience of dwelling in the land was designed to foreshadow.

T. Desmond Alexander on Biblical Theology

Justin Taylor posted an interview of T. Desmond Alexander by Andrew Naselli on the topic of biblical theology. Biblical theology has revolutionized my understanding and appreciation of the Bible, and I thought this brief interview was a good introduction to biblical theology. I’m sharing the first part of this interview but encourage you to read the whole thing.

Consider picking up one of Alexander’s books on biblical theology, too. I have The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology on my shelf (it’s really good), and From Eden to the New Jerusalem is on my wish list.

1. What is biblical theology? How does it compare to systematic theology?

For me biblical theology is about understanding how the Bible as a whole should be read so that we can appreciate its message as the Word of God. I’m still a learner as far as this is concerned. What I’ve found to be helpful is discovering themes that tie together the big picture of Scripture. I’ve tried to convey something of this, hopefully in an accessible way, in my book, From Eden to the New Jerusalem. For me, it’s important that Christians grasp the grand story of what God is doing. Through the story, which I take to be historically true, we begin to understand something of ourselves and the world we live in.

It is this story dimension that sets biblical theology apart from systematic theology. While I think that there is an important place for a systematic understanding of what we believe, it is through Scripture that God speaks to people as they grasp the biblical metanarrative. Hopefully, good biblical theology sheds valuable light on how we should read the Bible. For this reason, I think biblical theology is exceptionally important.

2. Briefly sketch out an example of addressing a theme with a biblical theological approach (e.g., temple, throne of God, evil, lamb, tree of life, people of God, rest).

I’ve said something about most of the examples you list in my most recent book. So let me pick something that might not seem so obvious: the great city.

Fundamental to my understanding of biblical theology is the idea that God created this world with the intention that it should become his dwelling-place, a temple-city filled with people who love and serve him (as reflected in Rev. 20-21). This was the original creation plan. Adam and Eve’s betrayal of God threw the grand design into chaos. Created with the skills to be city-builders, humanity set about building god-less cities. Exhibit number one is obviously Babel. However, in Hebrew Babel is also the name for Babylon. Interestingly, the building of Babel/Babylon is associated with Nimrod in Genesis 10, who is also responsible for the building of Nineveh in Assyria. As a mighty hunter “˜against God’ (not “˜before God’) Nimrod is the founder of a city/kingdom that opposes God’s city/kingdom. Remarkably, the story in Genesis to Kings ends with what appears to be a victory for Nimrod’s descendants (the Assyrians and the Babylonians). The city of God, Jerusalem, is sacked, God’s house is destroyed, and the royal line through which the nations are to be saved is exiled.

Yet all is not lost, for the story does not end here. This big picture is important because it reveals how deep-seated aspirations to create human empires oppose what God desires. Obviously, the OT has lots to say about this (e.g., Habakkuk, Daniel). However, the NT picks up the same contrast. For example, the author of Hebrews has something important to say about the city of God, starting with Abraham. Likewise, the book of Revelation draws an important contrast between the here-and-now Babylon and the future New Jerusalem.

I hope that this very brief biblical-theological sketch of the city makes sense. We’re only scratching the surface. Yet it is a theme that pervades the whole of Scripture….

[Read the entire interview]

“The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation” by John H. Sailhamer

Few 600 page books on theology are intended to help the average Bible student as much as the learned theologian. Even fewer succeed in that aim. But I figured something was special about this book when John Piper encouraged everyone who cared about “meaning” to get this book, because it will “rock your world”. Rock my world, it did! And more.

I can’t claim this book is an easy read. I had to work my way through parts of it. But the effort was worth it. Sprinkled throughout the book are the kinds of takeaways that can truly change one’s life. John Sailhamer unpacks the meaning of texts and shows the relationship between various parts of the Old Testament. I came away with an enhanced understanding of OT Scripture and a greater appreciation for the unity of the testaments. In the following review, I will walk through the book, then I’ll focus on Sailhamer’s emphasis on authorial intent, the final shape of the canon, the poems of the Pentateuch and some of his conclusions about the meaning of the Pentateuch.

The book begins with a 46-page introduction setting the stage for what will be covered. The scope of what Sailhamer sets out to accomplish with this book is impressive. He is all about “meaning”, and showing us how we can go about finding the meaning of something as large as the first five books of the Bible — considered as one cohesive unit, the Pentateuch. Along the way, he offers thoughts on OT theology, and traces a history of biblical interpretation. This sets the stage for his discussions of authorial intent, verbal meaning, and the place of “historical meaning” in biblical texts. Ultimately he is pushing toward discovering the “big idea” of the Pentateuch, as expressed by the biblical author.

Once he introduces us to his stress on finding the author’s intent in the final shape of the canonical Pentateuch, he goes about doing fantastic exegesis of the Pentateuch itself. He explores how the Pentateuch was put together and composed, and shows how poetry frames the Pentateuch, offering textual clues to finding the author’s emphasis. He then goes on to trace several themes in the Pentateuch, finding corroboration in how the prophets and later authors of Scripture themselves interpreted Moses’ foundational books. That’s the book in a nutshell, but there’s so much more that could be said about it!

Sailhamer sees incredible importance in finding the author of the Pentateuch’s intent. He sees both conservative and liberal theologians as having erred in focusing too much on the questions of historicity. To this point, Sailhamer explains:

The Pentateuch may be compared to a Rembrandt painting of real persons or events. We do not understand a Rembrandt painting by taking a photography of the “thing” that Rembrandt painted and comparing it with the painting itself. That may help us understand the “thing” that Rembrandt painted, his subject matter, but it will not help us understand the painting itself. To understand Rembrandt’s painting, we must look at it and see its colors, shapes and textures. In the same way, to understand the Pentateuch, one must look at its colors, contours and textures. (pg. 19)

Sailhamer’s history of biblical interpretation focuses on the increased attention paid to the historical background to the OT text. There was an attack on the historicity of Scripture, and Sailhamer acknowledges the apologetic value of historical studies. But they have served to distract OT scholars from their real mission. “Filling in the biblical narratives with additional historical material may teach us things about the events of which the biblical writers were speaking, but the evangelical’s goal in interpretation and biblical theology is not an understanding of those events as such. The goal, as evangelicals must see it, is the biblical author’s understanding of those events in the inspired text of the Bible (OT).” (pg. 104)

Questions of authorial intent, when it comes to the Pentateuch, inevitably run into the various source theories. This is where Sailhamer parts course and advocates a “compositional approach”. Some have read Sailhamer and conclude he rejects a Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, my understanding is different. I’ll let Sailhamer explain at some length.

…an evangelical compositional approach to biblical authorship identifies Moses as the author of the Pentateuch and seeks to uncover his strategy in putting the book together…. As far as we know, the Mosaic Pentateuch is identical with the canonical Pentateuch with only few exceptions…. Two notable examples are the account of the death of Moses in Deuteronomy 34 and Moses’ final words in Deuteronomy 33. Such comments, though possibly spoken by Moses, were added late in Israel’s history, likely as part of a “new edition” of the Pentateuch (“Pentateuch 2.0,” in the lingo of today’s computer world). Contrary to the prevailing view of biblical authorship, both critical and evangelical, the compositional approach suggests that the Pentateuch was not the product of a long and complicated process of literary growth, but comes to us more or less as an updated edition of a single earlier Mosaic composition. The present canonical Pentateuch is thus an updated version of the Mosaic Pentateuch produced, perhaps, by the “author” of the OT as a whole (Tanak). (pg. 48)

Such a focus on the “final shape” of the canonical Pentateuch is best suited to a vigorous pursuit of the author’s intended meaning given to us through the text. To that end, Sailhamer sees an importance in the poems which frame the narrative sections of the Pentateuch. Gen. 49, Ex. 15, Numb. 23-24, and Deut. 32-33 are all large poems which function as a frame for the stage upon which the narratives of the Pentateuch are played out. These and other poems in the Pentateuch “serve a didactic purpose without being didactic.” Sailhamer explains further:

They are intended as commentary, although, being poetry, what they add to the narrative is not merely commentary, but also the opportunity of thoughtful reflection. The poems, as such, slow readers down and challenge them to reflect on the narrative through the eyes of a poet. Ultimately, the reader is left not with a narrative meaning, but with a poetic one. The reader joins the narrator in filling in the sense of the story. Although this may challenge the patience of modern readers, it adds an essential feature to the meaning of biblical narrative. (pg. 319)

When one looks at these four chief poems, an emphasis on a kingly messiah figure is apparent. Furthermore, three of the four poems are specifically said to be related to “the last days”. Sailhamer explores the intertextuality of these poems and other sections of the Pentateuch and even with the Hebrew OT as a whole. He then offers a decisive verdict: the Pentateuch is decidedly messianic in focus. The laws given on Sinai are not central, rather the new covenant Moses foretells and the coming of a kingly Messiah — they are the focal point of the books of Moses.

Following the lead of the poems, Sailhamer finds several important themes in the Pentateuch itself. Some of them sound very much like ideas we find in the New Testament. He sees a stress on a singular “seed” rather than a collective “seed” as the ultimate fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise (and Gen. 3:15), the importance of faith as opposed to a mere law-keeping perspective, and the idea of salvation coming to those who believe and hope in God. Along the way, Sailhamer also explains the Messianic structure in the arrangement of the Hebrew canon (the Tanak) and within the psalter. Three additional points from Sailhamer’s book were especially helpful to me.

First, was the discussion of Matthew’s use of Hosea 11:1. Sailhamer shows how Matthew’s use of the text in Hosea is not entirely novel, as many interpreters believe. Rather, Hosea himself is reading the Pentateuch in a messianic way. Hosea quotes Numb. 24:8, one of the messianic poems which frame the Pentateuch. So he has in mind a messianic application in his use of the text. Matthew is merely following suit. Second, was the discussion of how Gen. 49 and the surrounding chapters about Joseph’s story, actually serve to use Joseph as an example of the future kingly Messiah. In other words, the very structure of the Genesis account of Joseph is designed intentionally to see Joseph’s life as a kind of type of the future messianic kingly leader who was to come from Judah’s line.

Third, was Sailhamer’s discussion of the law as being given successively over time and in response to the sin of the Israelites. He revives the earlier teaching of John Calvin and Johann Coccejus based in large part on both Gal. 3:19 and a careful reading of the Pentateuch itself. The golden calf as well as Israelite sacrifices to goat idols (Lev. 17:1-9) are narrative sections that frame different collections of laws. Sailhamer also points out that there were laws mentioned as operative prior to the account of the giving of the 10 commandments even. This perspective merits further study especially as it doesn’t fit the mold of either covenant theology or dispensationalism’s teaching on the laws of Sinai.

Time prevents me from offering a fuller discussion of these matters. One must get the book and hear Sailhamer out. Even if one differs with some of Sailhamer’s conclusions, he must appreciate Sailhamer’s exegetical insight and the great care he has to listen to the text itself. Like John Piper implied, Sailhamer cares about “meaning” , and so should we. If you do, you will benefit from studying what John Sailhamer has to say on the Pentateuch. You may never look at the Old Testament in the same way again.

Pick up a copy of this book at Westminster Bookstore, Monergism Books, Amazon.com or through Inter-Varsity Press.

This book was provided by Inter-Varsity Press for review. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

Meditating on Mediator-Types

Last week, our pastor taught on Noah and the Flood. As we read Gen. 8:20-22, I started thinking about Noah as a type of Christ. This got me thinking and I came up with the beginning of a list of Mediator-Types in Scripture.

The following pattern merits further mediation and study.

God’s punishment and/or wrath for sin > a Mediator > a burnt offering for sin and/or prayer > God stops his judgment and blesses mankind

Flood destroys the earth > Noah > burnt offering Gen. 8:20-22 > a new covenant and pledge to preserve earth

Sodom & Gomorrah’s judgment > Abraham > prayer Gen. 19:27-29 > rescue of Lot

Death of firstborn > Moses > Passover lamb, blood applied to doorposts Exod. 12 > Destroyer passes over

Angel of the Lord destroys 70,000 > David > burnt offerings on the threshing floor of Ornan
1 Chron. 21:14-17, 26-27 > Angel sheathes his sword

Any other examples come to mind? I realize this is just a bare sketch, but it the Mediator theme in the Old Testament is a great study.

Quotes to Note 16: Paul a Minister of the New Covenant

A while back I finished Jason Meyer’s excellent new book The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology (Broadman & Holman). It was there that I first grasped the significance of Paul’s declaration in 2 Cor. 3:6 “who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant“. Meyer argues that Paul was a minister of the new covenant in the same way that he ministered the gospel (see 2 Cor. 4). In other words, the new covenant is intimately related to the gospel. Let me allow Jason Meyer to explain.

…The source of Paul’s competence is not himself… it comes from God… God’s sufficiency surges within God’s new covenant, the base of operations for Paul’s ministry. God’s sufficiency is inherent or intrinsic to His new covenant…. Paul says this new covenant consists “not of the letter, but of the Spirit”….the Spirit defines the new covenant and makes it what it is….

These conclusions should not cause one to miss the semantic and grammatical links between “minister” (diakonos) and “covenant” (diatheke) in v. 6 Porter observed that “minister” (diakon-) words appear throughout the covenantal context of 2 Corinthians 3. The fact that Paul connects the service of his ministry to the concept of covenant is important in determining the relationship between the new covenant and the gospel. Paul presents parallel claims as a servant (diakonos) of the new covenant (kaines diathekes) and a servant (diakonos) of the gospel (euaggeliou). Further evidence emerges in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 where the new covenant is parallel to “gospel” (euaggelion), especially in light of the repetition of previous themes like “glory” and “veiled”…. (pg. 75-78)

This understanding, that the very gospel Paul preached is connected to the new covenant, fits in with Jesus’ inaugurating the new covenant at the Last Supper. It fits with Hebrews 8 and 10 which apply the new covenant to the believing church of today, not a reconstituted Israel or house of Judah in years to come. The new covenant’s promise of a radical experience of the Spirit, fits with the New Testament’s emphasis on the Spirit’s present role in believers. We are living in the age of the new covenant. It is already here, but it is not yet here in the fullest sense.