Chase Short of Glory

A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4335-8512-8
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

A Study of How Genesis 3 Influences the Whole Story of the Bible When looking around at the world, it is easy to see that all is not as it should be. This brokenness within the world and humanity finds its roots in mankind's rebellion against God. The fall, as recorded in Genesis 3, sets the stage for creation's need for redemption-ultimately found in Jesus Christ. In this book, pastor and professor Mitchell Chase argues that in order to understand the fall and recognize its profound impact on later Scripture and the world today, Christians must first understand Genesis 3. Chase identifies themes found in Genesis 3-temptation, shame, messianic hope, and more-and shows how they reverberate throughout the rest of the storyline of Scripture. Understanding Adam and Eve's fall is crucial to understanding the world as it currently is and the need for redemption through Jesus.  - Accessible: Clear and concise writing on one of the most vital chapters in Scripture - For Those Interested in Biblical Theology: Ideal for students, thoughtful lay people, and pastors looking to grow in their knowledge of inner-biblical exegesis and connections - Identifies Biblical Themes in Genesis 3: Including temptation, shame, and messianic hope - Written by Mitchell L. Chase: Professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the author of Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death

Mitchell L. Chase (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is an associate professor of biblical studies at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the preaching pastor of Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the author of several books. He blogs regularly at Biblical Theology on Substack.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chase, Mitchell L.

Leseproben

1

Sacred Space

When I think about a garden, I have memories from childhood. My maternal grandparents had a garden every year, and I helped till rows, plant seed, and pick produce. And in my earliest conception of the garden of Eden, I pictured rows of dirt and an assortment of growing plants. What I didn’t imagine was sacred space like a sanctuary, yet that would have been more accurate.

An Expandable Sanctuary

One way to tell the story of the Bible is with the theme of sacred space. It’s the kind of theme that locks the metanarrative together. Sacred space is given, lost, promised, and at last received again. As readers cross the threshold into Genesis 3, they come to a sacred place that God gave his people. God had made the heavens and the earth (1:1–25), and part of his work on earth included a garden in a place called Eden (2:8).

We shouldn’t conceive of Eden as a walled and bounded space. At the same time, though, Eden comprised only a small place in the ancient Near East. Conditions in Eden were not like conditions outside Eden. Part of the judgment in Genesis 3 was exile from the garden (3:22–24). Furthermore, in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:9), and these trees wouldn’t be accessible once exile happened.

According to the creation commission in Genesis 1:28, God told his image bearers, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Multiplication and dominion were key to this commission. What would happen as Adam and Eve had children and those children had children? Expanding generations would mean filling up the sacred space of Eden.

It is reasonable that expanding generations implied an expandable sanctuary as well, especially if part of the commission was to subdue and exercise dominion. Subdue what? Exercise dominion over what? Since the conditions outside Eden wouldn’t have matched life inside Eden, the task of Genesis 1:28 was to bring the glories of Eden to the rest of the earth. When Revelation 21–22 depicts a transformed heaven and earth radiating with the glory of God, we are seeing a vision of Eden’s goal, the trajectory set in the garden paradise.

The sacredness of Eden is confirmed by the tasks God specified: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15). Not just to “work” and not just to “keep”—both tasks were the plan. These terms occur in the Old Testament independently, but when they appear together, we can notice a context of priesthood. To “work” means to “serve” or “minister,” and to “keep” means to “guard.” For example, the Lord said:

Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle. They shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. (Num. 3:6–8)

And from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more. They minister to their brothers in the tent of meeting by keeping guard, but they shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites in assigning their duties. (Num. 8:25–26)

And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. (Num. 18:5–6)

Reading the Pentateuch as a whole, we can see that the priestly instructions had precedent in Adam’s garden responsibilities. More than a farmer attending to rows of crops, Adam was a priest in sacred space, charged with serving and guarding, or working and keeping, Eden.1 As J. V. Fesko put it, “Adam’s mandate is not merely to labor but to expand the garden-temple throughout the earth, fill the earth with the image of God, and subdue it by spreading the glory of God to the ends of the earth.”2 Knowing this about Adam, we can see his priestly failure in Genesis 3.

The scene in Genesis 3 involves the entrance of a deceiving creature into Eden. The dialogue and events of that chapter resulted from Adam’s failure to serve and guard the garden sanctuary effectively.

Adam was to “subdue” and “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). The serpent in Genesis 3 was a creeping thing “that moves on the earth,” and Adam should have exercised dominion over it.

Genesis 3 records, among other things, the defilement of sacred space.

A Promise of Land

God exiled Adam and Eve from Eden, and he placed cherubim on the eastern entrance to guard it (Gen. 3:24). Adam had failed to guard the sanctuary ground, so God appointed cherubim who wouldn’t fail at the job.

Mankind multiplied outside Eden, and there is no account of anyone entering it after Genesis 3. Bible readers have often wondered what happened to that garden land near four ancient Near Eastern rivers. No biblical author tells of its destruction, but the flood in Genesis 6–8 probably destroyed it. We shouldn’t imagine that currently somewhere in the ancient Near East is a place called Eden with cherubim guarding its eastern entrance.

In one sense the biblical storyline leaves Eden behind, but in a truer sense it doesn’t. The notion of sacred space continues, and the reverberations of Eden echo in later Scripture. God’s design was that his people dwell with him in a place set apart for his glory. This hope is echoed in God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis 12. God said to him, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (12:1). Abraham’s nephew Lot traveled with him and “saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord” (13:10).

Just as God relocated Adam to a place (the garden of Eden), he would relocate Abraham to a place (the promised land). And this place would be filled with a fruitful family. God said, “And I will make of you a great nation” (Gen. 12:2). Abraham would be a new Adam with the task of multiplying in and filling up a specific place. In order to understand the importance of the promised land, we must see it in the context of the first couple’s separation from Eden.

In Genesis 12, Abraham arrives at this land and travels through it, building altars and worshiping the Lord. The promised land plays a crucial part in the Bible’s storyline because it is an instance of sacred space where God’s word and glory are to be obeyed and treasured. Though Eden was in the past, the hope of Eden continues.3 God will have a people as well as a place for them.

The Holy Space of the Tabernacle

Long after the exile from the garden of Eden, and approximately six hundred years after Abraham received precious promises about a people and a place, God rescued the Israelites out of Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai. There at the bottom of the mountain, they constructed what God had directed them to build: a portable tent of meeting, called the tabernacle, where God would manifest his holy presence and glory in the midst of the people he had redeemed (Ex. 35–40).

A large courtyard surrounded this dwelling place, and the entrance was on the eastern side. When the priests entered the tabernacle itself, they entered the large room known as the Holy Place, and its entrance was also on the eastern side. Progressing deeper into the Holy Place, only the high priest could go into the last room—the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies). He would enter it once a year on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16).

Israelites could enter the courtyard, only priests could enter the Holy Place, and only the high priest could go behind the veil into the Most Holy Place. These levels of access reflected increasing holiness, as people approached the God who tabernacled among sinners. Degrees of access were reminiscent of Genesis 1–2. God had created the earth, and on earth was a place called Eden, and in Eden the Lord planted a garden. The existence of the tabernacle was about holy space. This space was holy because God is holy. Those who entered the tabernacle had to be set apart as his holy priests, and they were to represent the nation of Israel, which was called to be a holy people.

For those who lamented the loss of Eden, the tabernacle was a glimpse of glorious news: our holy God could draw near to sinners. Though cherubim prevented Adam and Eve from returning to Eden through the eastern entrance, the tabernacle...