(Read Time: 7.5 mins)As goes Adam, So goes Israel
If the First Testament
were to end on that note we could easily draw an Ecclesiastic meaning from
the Israelite saga, but it doesn’t end there. It finishes with the hope of a
Messiah, and in order to understand how the plight of the Israelites
contributes to the overarching story of the biblical message we have to see
their story not as anticlimactic. Instead it must be understood as the build up
to the most climatic event in all of history; the life, death, and resurrection
of Christ, the hope of the Israelites and all mankind.
To
frame the themes of the First Testament that contribute most directly to the
overarching narrative of the Bible I think the easiest place to begin is “in
the beginning.” (Gen1:1) While there is scholarly debate over the intentions
and authors of the first 12 chapters of Genesis I believe that thematically we
see the story of Israel paralleled throughout the remainder of the First
Testament and pointing toward the renewed covenant in Christ. So to draw
attention to the most poignant themes of the First Testament I will use the
story of Adam and his descendants to frame the larger story of Israel, for as
goes Adam so goes Israel.
Genesis
1 begins with God creating a world, giving form to the formless, and purposing
that without purpose. On Day 1of the creation account we see a deep and chaotic
vast amount of water that makes the cosmos uninhabitable. Throughout the
creation narrative and the rest of the biblical story we see God moving
creation away from chaos and toward order by establishing order where there was
none before and restoring it where it has been destroyed. God is introduced as
the creator of all things and the tamer of all chaos. Through that process He
created mankind to be his image bearers and have dominion over the rest of
creation; purposing humanity to be its caretakers, to bring healing to the
hurt, and to promote justice and mercy in his cosmic temple. (Gen 1:27)
But
the First Testament isn’t simply the story of humanity; it is the story of
Israel, God’s chosen people, and no one is more representative of Israel than
Adam. (Gen2-3) We see Adam brought from dust and into a Garden of abundance. As
he enters the Garden he is given one commandment to follow – do not eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam can’t follow this one rule he
is warned “On the day he eats of it, he will surely die.”(Gen2:17) To say the
least this is a strange rule to be given to Adam. After all, if Adam is going
to be God’s primary image bearer and have dominion over creation isn’t he going
to need to know right from wrong, isn’t that what God wants to teach him?
Like
Adam we see Israel given a purpose as God’s chosen people to show the world who
the one true God is and what it looks like to serve Him. Israel is God’s
representative to all nations. From nearly the beginning of the story of their
people we see the descendants of Abraham drawn from the dust and chaos of
slavery and wilderness into a land flowing with milk and honey. They are given
the chance to walk faithfully with their God, to show the world what it means
to live within His blessing and promise. They are to live in obedience to God
and follow the commandments that he has given them. These commandments, made
clear through Moses, are to teach them right from wrong so they can live pure
and faithful lives.
In
Adam’s story, despite his privileged position, he chooses not to take the long
hard path to grow up in godly wisdom through obedience. He doesn’t set out to
gain a proper understanding of good and evil as taught by the Creator. Instead
Adam tries to take a shortcut to get to the very thing God wants most for him. But
he fails to understand that The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; a fool despises wisdom and instruction.
(Prov1:7) The serpent (Gen 3) with a knack for making that which is evil
look good and that which is good look evil easily twists the truths of God’s blessing,
and in an attempt to arrive prematurely Adam fails to live within God’s
promise.
In
the same vein we see Israel continually fail to become who God’s chosen
people were meant to be. Not only were the books of the law written to help light the path (Psalms 119:105) of Israelites so they could walk in
God’s promise, but many of the Psalms and Proverbs were written to teach them
to pursue wisdom and run from wickedness. Despite God’s continual efforts to
pursue them, generations passed without the people fully grasping the need for
obedience of the laws given through Moses.
Similarly to the Orthodox interpretation of the Garden of Eden, Israel like
Adam experienced a failure to launch and mature on God’s terms. They
continually fell into temptation, constantly distracted by false idols rather
than the one true God.
God
told Adam that if he were to eat of the fruit then he would immediately
experience Death. (Gen2:17) As punishment for their sin Adam and Eve were
driven out from the Garden and not allowed to return. They were exiled, sent
away from living within the abundance of God’s promise. They would no longer
experience order and blessing, but instead would return to a life of dust and
chaos. For Israel, death, both physical and spiritual, was much the same. God
had promised that they would live in the land He had given them, and David’s
descendants would rule that throne forever. (2 Sam 7) But the result of their
disobedience would be exile. All that they experienced from walking with God
would be gone, even the temple where they could offer sacrifices for their sins
and communicate with God. They would feel rejected and cut off from God, the
giver of love and life. Their failure to live up to being God’s representative
nation meant they had chosen to live as if they were no longer his people. For
both Adam and Israel disobedience to God’s laws meant a disregard for the way
He had ordered creation, disobedience meant death, and death meant exile,
slavery, and a return to dust. As Adam
lost Eden, so Israel lost Canaan.
Luckily for Adam and for
Israel, Adam’s story does not end in eternal isolation from his Maker. Like Israel, many of Adam’s decedents will
embrace chaos. He will bore sons who embrace chaos and a destructive lifestyle
outside of the wisdom of God. His children will be unwilling to make the
necessary sacrifices to return to the Promised life, and they will turn against
each other in jealousy. (Gen 4) But despite their persistence to go their own
way, God chooses to leave his dwelling place and pursue a relationship with
them. (Luke 15:11-32) As God did not leave Adam alone in the wilderness, he
also followed his people into Babylon. For it is more important to think the
story of the First Testament not in terms of its people, but more so about a
loving God who is unwilling to ever fully let them go. His desire is always to
bring them back to paradise and promise.
Hope for the line of Adam was not lost in the survival
of Cain and the death of Abel. Even amongst the disorder and brokenness of
their sins God produced Seth, a faithful son. The line of Seth will not go on
to be perfect as we see over and again throughout the Genesis story, but they
will remain faithful to their God; and it is Seth’s line that will eventually
give birth to Abraham, the father of all Israel. Within the banished line of
Adam there still remains a small portion, a remnant that will remain faithful
to their Creator. With Israel we witness this same theme throughout their
history. Within the line of Abraham and then of David there remains a remnant
of the faithful few who even in exile choose to put the God of Israel first
even when the rest of their nation chooses to serve other gods. We see that in
the life of Daniel, Isaiah, and the prophets God is faithful and makes
provisions for those who continually live in obedience. God provides peace,
order, and calm even in the chaos of exile and slavery. He cares for his people
even as the world falls apart around them due to their own unfaithfulness.
Where there is a remnant there is a hope for the future that God will reconcile
and elevate his people to the promised life.
The prophets predicted that Israel would be brought
back from exile, and so they would be. Like Adam they had experienced the same
faint of death as exile. In Ezekiel 37, the prophet had a vision of a valley of
dry bones. Those bones represented Israel in Babylonian captivity, dead in
their sins and cut off from God. But those bones were brought back together
from their dusty graves, given flesh and bones, and the breath of renewed life.
The death of exile is reversed, and Israel’s separation from God is over. God
has not given up on his promise, but the covenant has been fractured by the
actions of his people. The Israelites cannot simply reenter their covenant
relationship and resume dignified roles without renewing their vows. If order
is to be restored the covenant must be renewed.
As with Noah, a descendant of Seth and the line of
Adam, God did not allow chaos to reenter the picture simply to scrap what did
not work. They were not thrown back into the vast void, and the promise
dismissed forever. But for the promise to work, for land, people, and purpose
to be restored, the promise must be reinstated. Noah would have to serve as a
second Adam, not forgetting the old promise, but starting afresh so that it
could be fulfilled as it was intended. Noah would have to make the sacrifice to
do and be for the line of Adam what was necessary to start again.
As for Israel, they could not simply go back to the
promised life. Generations had proved that they could fulfill the role God
intended for them. If the covenant was to be renewed then it must be expanded,
keeping aspects of the old covenant and establishing aspects that would be
new. Since the people of Israel cannot
manage to obtain and maintain their role and purpose a provision by God must be
established in order to bridge the gap and heal the wounds of their broken
relationship. So Israel too would need to find a second Adam, a Messiah who
could serve as a Mediator between God and man.
This brings us not to the end of Israel’s story and
the First Testament, but points us toward its climatic event in the New
Testament. The Messiah has arrived. He has deconstructed ours and the
Israelites idols and ideals to restore us to a proper relationship with our
Creator. In him we see what it means to live according to God’s promise. Jesus
would make the sacrifice to do and be for Israel what was necessary to start
again and renew their covenant. He would experience exile and death in a place
of dust and bones. He would be forsaken by God; the temple destroyed. All this
not was not done in order to destroy the Law but to fulfill it making a way for
others to come before God. So that Israel and humanity would not have to find
themselves in a continual cycle of exile and repentance, he became the holy and
pure path through which they could travel, the Mediator for all. This would be
accomplished in His return from death; the temple would be rebuilt in three
days. The covenant would be renewed in Christ.
Like Noah, a new day would dawn on creation bringing
hope for all humanity, and a symbol would be placed so that His people would
know the promise had been renewed and expanded to the ends of the earth.
Christ’s Spirit would dwell in those who were faithful to Him, a sign that God
is present within people.
For more thoughts like these read the Old Testament in its entirety, preferably in chronological order of its intended audience. Also read people like Walter Kaiser, John Walton, and Peter Enns.
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