In the last blog, we set out to examine the gospel, and I had proposed that the typical understanding of the gospel in most evangelical circles is too small. As this point, I haven’t even yet explained what I mean by that. But please let me assure you that we’re on the right track. We need to keep laying deep foundations before we’re ready to address the Christian gospel itself.
We had begun to examine the key concept of the kingdom of God. Let’s take this a bit further: what does it mean to say that God is king over the world? Well, we know that God the king is good, and wants to see his creation flourishing. We learned that God has delegated the responsibility for exercising his reign to human beings, his image bearers. God desires to see his human creatures living joyful, abundant lives in right relationship with himself and the people around them. He also wants people to watch over their surroundings so that the whole world can flourish.
If the creation is going to flourish, two closely related things must happen. First, human beings must acknowledge God as the highest good, and worship him accordingly. Worship is the expression of reverence or adoration. It’s the most central human activity, upon which every aspect of our lives depends. Human beings are created such that, whatever it is that they see as the highest good, they will order their lives accordingly. Another way of saying this is that “you become like what you worship.” If human beings acknowledge that God himself is the supreme good, they will consequently strive to imitate him. In this way, they will be conformed to the image of God, which is, as we’ve seen, precisely God’s desire for human life. When humans fail to acknowledge God as the supreme good, the worship instinct does not simply shrivel up or vanish. It will instead find other things to replace God as the object of reverence and adoration. Human effort will then be devoted to striving after things like money, sex, or power. These things are not inherently evil. But they become evil when they replace God as the highest good, and become the object of our worship. When that happens, the image of God in mankind is diminished or even destroyed. And when humans fail to bear the image of God, they are no longer able to carry out their divine task of properly caring for the creation.
The second key to the flourishing of creation is human obedience. In order for the world to function and flourish in the way God intends, human beings must order themselves and the world according to the wisdom of God. As I’ve said above, this second element is very closely related and even inseparable from the first, proper worship. Because if human beings acknowledge God as the supreme good, they will acknowledge too that God is the source of all wisdom. A good shorthand definition of wisdom is simply the ability to discern right from wrong, and choose the right. Wisdom is not the same thing as intelligence. The world is full of very clever people who are fully capable of applying their minds to the pursuit of evil. There are also lots of people who may not be rocket-scientists, but they have the wisdom to pursue what is right, and avoid what is wrong. Their wisdom is a blessing to themselves, their families, and indeed to the world around them.
The issue of wisdom is at the heart of the scriptural account of human sin. God says to the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Within this ancient story, the man can be seen as an archetype for the entire human race, and the garden a symbol for the world. God has given humanity the exalted role and responsibility to care for the world, to make it a place of goodness, beauty, and delight. But in order to do this, they must act according to God’s wisdom. God forbids the man from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; in other words, mankind is forbidden from using his own wisdom to discern what is good or bad, right or wrong. God alone is the wise creator. He alone knows what kind of behaviors and activities will lead to prosperity, joy and life, and those that will ultimately lead to poverty, misery, and death.
History teaches us that humanity has chosen over and over again to spurn the wisdom of God, and tragically sought to apply their own notion of right and wrong. So instead of the world becoming a place of goodness, beauty, and delight, the creation has been marred by greed, violence, poverty, and animosity. In the scriptures, this same drama of human rebellion is displayed in the life of Israel, God’s chosen people. When God had brought the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, they made a covenant together. A covenant is a contract or agreement between two parties. Each party who enters the agreement accepts certain responsibilities or obligations. And of course, each party expects to derive certain benefits from the agreement as well. (If there are no benefits, why sign the contract?)
So what are Israel’s benefits, and what are her obligations? Well, Israel’s benefits can be basically summarized in one word: blessing. Blessing is a huge word in the scriptures. If you don’t have a clear idea of what blessing means, you simply cannot understand the big-picture story of the Bible. The word “blessing” nicely summarizes God’s gracious purposes towards humanity and all creation. The Bible introduces the term right at the beginning, when God creates humans: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.'” As we’ve said, God wants to bless humanity; that is, he wants humans to live in joyful abundance, and he wants the whole creation to be a place of goodness, beauty, delight.
We also find this critical concept of blessing in God’s promises to Abraham. (initially Abram) “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all people on earth will be blessed through you.” God’s covenant with Abraham is a key moment in the scriptures. God had intended goodness and flourishing for humanity and the world. Instead, humanity refused God’s wisdom and sought to define right and wrong according to their own wisdom. As the result, the world had been plunged into a sea of sin and darkness. What is God now to do? His creation is in ruins. How will he respond? God’s covenant with Abraham represents the moment when God began his mission to rescue and redeem the creation. When God promises to bless all people through Abraham, this language makes direct reference back to the original blessing given by God to humanity. God is committing himself, through Abraham and through Abraham’s family (Israel), to bring about the blessing he desired to bestow upon creation right from the beginning.
Let’s now return to the covenant God made with Israel. The benefits of the covenant are most fully spelling out in Deuteronomy chapter 28. “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock – the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.” God desired joyful abundance for humanity at the beginning. Faced with human sin and ruin, God promised that first to and then through Abraham and his family (Israel), he would bring that blessing to the whole world. God’s covenant blessing to Israel is the first step in setting the whole world right again.
So then, Israel’s covenant benefit is blessing. What then are her covenant obligations? Well, we have already discussed these obligations, because they are the same two elements which are necessary for the flourishing of creation: 1) Worship and 2) Obedience. Israel’s covenant obligations are nicely summed up in the Ten Commandments. As has often been noted, the first four commandments emphasize proper worship. Israel shall have no other gods before the LORD. They shall not bow down or worship an idol. They will show proper reverence for God by not misusing his name, and by honoring his Sabbath day. The next six commandments emphasize obedience: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, etc. We have noted that these two elements, worship and obedience, in Biblical thought, are so closely related that they are essentially inseparable. For people who worship God, recognizing him as the supreme good, will inevitably strive to obey him.
Let’s now glance at what God said to Moses and the people of Israel in Exodus 19:5-6, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” “Kingdom of priests” is a key Biblical phrase which denotes the same two covenant obligations we noted above. The function of a priest is to lead in proper worship. The function of a king is to rule; in other words, to make sure there is obedience to the law. This compact little phrase then is an excellent summary of Israel’s covenant requirements.
So what then are God’s covenant obligations? Well, if Israel holds up her end of the contract, offering God proper worship and obedience, then God fulfills his responsibility by blessing them. These terms of the covenant are repeated, over and over and over again throughout the Biblical narrative. (Try reading the book of Deuteronomy sometime in one sitting, just to get a sense of how powerful this theme is.) Israel’s obedience and God’s blessing, obedience and blessing, obedience and blessing. Among nearly countless examples, Deuteronomy 7:12-13: “If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers.”
So how does God benefit from the covenant? Why did God choose to make a covenant with Abraham and Abraham’s children Israel? The answer to this question shines a bright light upon entire, strange, sprawling story of the Bible. God made this covenant in order to reverse the disastrous consequences of Adam’s (mankind’s) sin. God’s original purposes had been thwarted. Instead of reflecting the image of God and bringing flourishing to creation, mankind had instead embraced rebellion, bringing misery and death. The covenant God made with Israel was designed to overcome this tragedy. Israel was called to step into the role marked out for humanity at the beginning. They would reflect God’s image and thus flourish as God always intended. But the loving purposes of God were never intended for Israel alone. God chose Israel so that they might then be a light to all nations. This utterly crucial logic can be clearly found in God’s original promises to Abraham: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” The very same idea is found in God’s covenant with Israel: “Observe [my decrees and laws] carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8)
We can now see the proper sense in which we can say that Israel is God’s chosen people. God did not choose Israel because he arbitrarily loves them more than any other people. As the apostle Peter says, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34) God does not love ethnic Jews more than anyone else. No: God chose Israel so that he might reveal himself to the whole world. God made his covenant with Israel and promised to give them the land of Canaan. If Israel would honor the covenant they would receive his blessing. They would live in peace and security, joy and abundance. In a word, they would flourish. Then all the peoples of the earth might look at Israel and understand what human life was meant to look like. Then they too might seek to follow in the same path. In this way, God’s gracious purposes might extend to all the world.
To summarize, in this blog we’ve explored the two key elements that make God’s kingdom possible: human beings offering God proper worship and obedience. We’ve also studied God’s covenant with Israel, and noted how these same elements form the backbone of Israel’s divine contract. We’re now creeping much closer to understanding what Jesus meant when he said, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news (gospel)!”
