This scene first
introduced into the Scriptural narrative through the Adam story, would repeat
itself, on the whole, with Israel. Primarily, the covenant people would
repeatedly fall into idolatry. Therefore,
rather than perpetually enjoying the blessings of their God (though the record
suggests that there were times of great blessing), times of cursing were their
regular lot. The cursing was exile, meaning they were relegated to a
place outside of their God’s purposes for them.
This generally meant subjection to a foreign power (whether inside or
outside of their promised land, though even in the exiles, the land was not
emptied), which can be regularly seen from the time of the Judges (following
the death of Joshua), right on through the entirety of their history that led
up to Jesus.
Their God’s cursing
meant death, destruction, shame, and exile, which meant that Israel, which
defined itself as a people according to their exodus, was in almost constant
need of exodus. Because shame and exile were the equivalent of death,
Israel was constantly in need of resurrection. They were in constant need
of eternal life, which would mean rescue, deliverance, redemption, salvation,
restoration, and new creation (not an endless eternity in heaven after death),
all of which are well summed up in “resurrection.” Their position
however, because they did not trust a God that is shown forth as having continually
proved Himself to be faithful in both blessing and cursing, was that of
constant perishing.
The Creator God’s
intention for Israel was for it to be a light to all the world. Not only does their history suggest that did
they not achieve this, but by the time of Jesus, Israel is shown to have turned
almost completely inward, choosing only to be a light for itself, to what would
appear to be the exclusion of the rest of the world. Clearly, this was
not what the covenant God intended for His one and only son, be it Adam or
Israel. Thus, taking all of this into consideration, as would Nicodemus,
it could be said that the Creator God of Israel loved the world that He had
created so much, that He raised up Israel, His son (after the failure of Adam),
and gave him a commission and an ordination to be the representative of His
love and power into the world.
This, of course, would
be completely contingent on Israel believing in Him and in His covenantal
promises. Had they believed, then they, and the world through them, would
have enjoyed eternal life. However, they are shown to have not believed
wholeheartedly in their God, so ultimately, the perishing of an almost
continuous exile had been their experience.
Because of that, the world did not experience the Creator God’s glory
and redemption, but remained in its perished condition as well.
It has been demonstrated
that both Adam and Israel were positioned as sons of God. This has been done so that it would be
possible to rightly comprehend the engagement between Nicodemus and Jesus, with
its rooting in Jewish hope and expectation according to the history of the
world and the history of Israel. Both of those histories are related to
the redemptive history that had been playing out according to the Creator God’s
covenant faithfulness, and this is the framework that has been built for an
understanding of Jesus and His mission.
By using the language
that is to be found in John 3:16, one can not only find that Jesus understands
Himself along this historical-redemptive line, but that Jesus also wants
Nicodemus to understand His purposes according to the historical-redemptive
pattern set forth in the history of Israel as a nation, and in that of mankind
as recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures.
No comments:
Post a Comment