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August 6 - August 20, 2020
(1) the biblical description of our future existence has more in common with our present life than most people assume; (2) the concluding chapters of Revelation offer a window through which the main themes of the biblical meta-story may be studied.
Why does the earth exist? What is the purpose of human life? Arrogant as it may seem, this short book attempts to answer both of these questions. It does so by exploring a unique story.
Nonetheless, they produce a remarkably unified story that addresses two of life’s most fundamental questions: (1) Why was the earth created? (2) What is the reason for human existence?
There is not a book within the whole collection that can be interpreted satisfactorily in isolation from the rest.
Given the complexity of the Bible as a literary anthology, outlining its meta-story is not easy. The approach adopted here is to begin at the end.
The very strong links between Genesis 1 – 3 and Revelation 20 – 22 suggest that these passages frame the entire biblical meta-story.
As I shall argue, the new earth and the new heavens are very likely to have much in common with the present cosmos.
This brief study does not attempt to be exhaustive, but rather indicative, outlining some of the central themes that run throughout the Bible.
There is something of value in seeing the big picture, for it frequently enables us to appreciate the details more clearly.
With this remarkable vision of God coming to dwell with humanity on a new earth the biblical meta-story comes to an end.
By providing a closely matched beginning and end, the opening chapters of Genesis and the final chapters of Revelation undoubtedly frame the biblical meta-story.
Whereas Genesis presents the earth as a potential building site, Revelation describes a finished city. Underlying the construction of this city is the expectation that God will reside within it, sharing its facilities with people from every nation.
This event represents a major advance forward in the biblical meta-story, for God now resides permanently with one nation.
Consequently, for almost 400 years God coexists in a unique way with the citizens of Jerusalem.
The next significant development in the biblical meta-story is the coming of Jesus.
For this reason Jesus can speak of his own body as a temple,
With the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost God’s presence, previously associated with the Jerusalem temple, is now linked to the newly created church.
While the ever-expanding church replaces the Jerusalem temple as God’s residence on earth, the biblical meta-story records one further development before the process of God inhabiting the whole earth reaches completion.
As golden cubes, the Holy of Holies and New Jerusalem are clearly connected. Since God dwells inside both of these structures, we may reasonably conclude that the entire New Jerusalem is an expanded Holy of Holies.
Undoubtedly, in John’s vision the New Jerusalem is portrayed as a temple-city.
The garden of Eden is not viewed by the author of Genesis simply as a piece of Mesopotamian farmland, but as an archetypal sanctuary, that is a place where God dwells and where man should worship him. Many of the features of the garden may also be found in later sanctuaries, particularly the tabernacle or Jerusalem temple. These parallels suggest that the garden itself is understood as a sort of sanctuary.
the main similarities between the Garden of Eden and the tabernacle and/or Jerusalem temple:17 • Eden and the later sanctuaries were entered from the east and guarded by cherubim (Gen. 3:24; Exod. 25:18–22; 26:31; 36:35; 1 Kgs 6:23–29; 2 Chr. 3:14).18 • The tabernacle menorah (or lampstand) possibly symbolizes the tree of life (Gen. 2:9; 3:22; cf. Exod. 25:31–35).19 Arboreal decorations adorned the temple.20 • The Hebrew verbs ‘ābad, ‘to serve, till’, and šāmar, ‘to keep, observe, guard’, used in God’s command to the man ‘to work it (the garden) and take care of it’ (Gen. 2:15),
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• The Lord God walks in Eden as he later does in the tabernacle (Gen. 3:8; cf. Lev. 26:12; Deut. 23:15; 2 Sam. 7:6–7). • The river flowing from Eden (Gen. 2:10) is reminiscent of Ezekiel 47:1–12, which envisages a river flowing from a future Jerusalem temple and bringing life to the Dead Sea. The fact that Eden must be an elevated location, possibly a mountain, also supports the idea that it is a sanctuary, for God’s presence is frequently associated with mountains.23
On the seventh day we finally discover that God has been working to achieve a rest. This seventh day is not a theological appendix to the creation account, just to bring closure now that the main event of creating people has been reported. Rather, it intimates the purpose of creation and of the cosmos. God does not set up the cosmos so that only people will have a place. He also sets up the cosmos to serve as his temple in which he will find rest in the order and equilibrium that he has established.24
(1) Since the garden is a place where divinity and humanity enjoy each other’s presence, it is appropriate that it should be a prototype for later Israelite sanctuaries. This explains why many of the decorative features of the tabernacle and temple are arboreal in nature.28 (2) Because they met God face to face in a holy place, we may assume that Adam and Eve had a holy or priestly status. Only priests were permitted to serve within a sanctuary or temple. (3) Although it is not stated, the opening chapters of Genesis imply that the boundaries of the garden will be extended to fill the whole
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As Adam and Eve were to begin to rule over and subdue the earth, it is plausible to suggest that they were to extend the geographical boundaries of the Garden until Eden extended throughout and covered the whole earth.29
While Genesis 2 merely introduces the start of this process, the long-term outcome is the establishment of an arboreal temple-city where God and humanity coexist in perfect harmony.
Interpreted along these lines, the opening chapters of Genesis enable us to reconstruct God’s blueprint for the earth. God intends that the world should become his dwelling place.
When Adam failed to guard the temple by sinning and letting in a foul serpent to defile the sanctuary, he lost his priestly role, and the cherubim took over the responsibility of ‘guarding’ the Garden temple: God ‘stationed the cherubim … to guard the way to the tree of life’ (so Gen. 3:24; see also Ezek. 28:14, 16).30
By obeying the serpent, rather than God, Adam and Eve fail to maintain the sanctity of the temple-garden.
Human beings set about building a city with a tower that will reach up to the heavens in order that humankind will not be dispersed throughout the earth. This reverses the divine plan, for God is interested in making the whole earth his residence by filling it with holy people. In marked contrast, the people of Babel34 attempt to access heaven and avoid filling the earth.35 Babel represents the antithesis of what God intends.
various sacrificial sites existed that, according to Beale, were ‘impermanent, miniature forms of sanctuaries’.
First, they are normally associated with theophanies that involve God restating the commission in Genesis 1:28 that human beings are to be fruitful, fill the earth and rule over it
Secondly, linked to the theophany is the construction of an altar, sometimes on a mountain
First, as already noted, the tabernacle has features that associate it closely with the Garden of Eden.
Secondly, the tabernacle becomes the dwelling place of God on earth.
Another pointer to the tabernacle being a divine residence is the fact that Moses met regularly with God at the tent.
Finally, God’s presence inside the tabernacle was reflected in the exceptionally holy status attributed to the Holy of Holies.
Taken together, the six regular rites performed inside the tabernacle … are at once seen to embrace almost all the human senses, and to cater, as it were, for almost all man’s possible needs. The incense provides for the sense of smell, the lamps for the sense of sight, while the loaves of bread are a symbol of the need for food. The bells attract the sense of hearing, the stones on the ephod and the breastpiece awaken the ‘sense’ of memory, and the diadem on the high priest’s forehead evokes the ‘sense’ of grace (for even these last two qualities could be conceived, by the ancients, as
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Thirdly, the tabernacle was probably also viewed as a model of the cosmos.
As overseer of tabernacle construction, Bezalel is filled (Exodus 31:3) with ‘wisdom’ (ḥokmâ), ‘understanding’ (tĕbûnâ), and ‘knowledge’ (da’at), precisely the same triad by which God is said to have created the world in Proverbs 3:19–20. To this is added that Bezalel is filled with ‘all crafts’ or ‘all works’ (kol-mĕlā’kâ), the very phrase used in Genesis 2:2–3 for ‘all the works’ that God completed in creation. Therefore, not only does the tabernacle replicate in microcosm the macrocosmic sanctuary of the entire created order, but these verbal resonances suggest that Bezalel’s discerning
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As models of the ideal cosmos, the tabernacle and the temple are designed to remind people of God’s original purpose for the world.
Linked to both Eden and the cosmos, the tabernacle, as a model, conveys the idea that the whole earth is to become God’s dwelling place. ‘The temple was a small-scale model and symbolic reminder to Israel that God’s glorious presence would eventually fill the whole cosmos.’59 Furthermore, in reality it represented an important step towards the fulfilment of this project, for with its construction God took up residence on the earth.
God’s choice of David as king is confirmed by his choice of dwelling place; the thrones of the Israelite king and the divine king are now located side by side in the same city.
Through a wordplay on the term ‘house’ (bayit), God promises that he will build a house for David (i.e. a dynasty) and that David’s son will build a house for God (i.e. a temple). This divine commitment is called a ‘covenant’ in Psalm 89:3, although this term is not used in 2 Samuel 7, where these events are narrated.
When the Jerusalem temple replaces the tabernacle as God’s earthly abode, the Edenic and cosmic features associated with the tent transfer to the permanent building.66 In line with this, the decor of the temple includes arboreal imagery, with, for example, carvings of lilies and pomegranates decorating the tops of the pillars.67
Consequently, Jerusalem/Zion becomes a model of God’s creation blueprint and reflects in microcosm what God intends for the whole earth. However, it is not the final product.
This explains why certain psalms praise the Lord by extolling the virtues of Jerusalem as the city of God.
If gold, as used in the tabernacle and the temple, is associated with God’s presence, then the presence of gold throughout Jerusalem signifies that the whole city has become his dwelling place.69
In sum, the pilgrimage was like visiting paradise and temporarily recapturing the primordial peaceful and abundant relationship with God. It involved both holiness and pleasure, sacred and aesthetic space. It was an experience imbued with holiness, the beauty of the divine dwelling, and the very presence of God. The pilgrims’ experience in the Temple was global in its effects. It saturated the psalmists’ senses with all kinds of wonders: abundant food and incense, music and singing, gold and silver, palm trees, water and cherubs. This joyful experience led further to an experience of awe and
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