Here we are at the finale of our series: Why is the world the way it is? What a great journey it has been covering this topic through the eyes of the Ancient Near Eastern biblical authors. We have learned a lot together for which I am super thankful for.
Throughout this series I was reminded of how great a gap there can be between our modern interpretations of the biblical narrative and that of the authors and first hearers of the scriptures. Our hope is that you have been made aware of this as well.
While we usually give a single answer to the question of why is the world the way that it is, the biblical authors give a much more robust three part answer. In their worldview they believed the foundation for this answer was:
A proliferation of evil cause by three dual rebellions of both spiritual and human members of Gods family detailed in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis.
Over the span of the past 7 episodes we spent a lot of time covering these three dual rebellions, going over their impact on the world, and consequences they bore on future generations.
If you haven’t checked out those teaching yet please do so first here. Having gone through that material you will get much more out of todays content.
Why is the world the way it is?
The biblical authors used repetition to communicate deep truths to their audience. By the use of motifs these skilled authors were able to connect narratives spanning the whole of the Bible.
It is as easy as this: a known thought that communicates a recognisable meaning to the audience, once inserted into different stories, links those stories together via the repeating pattern.
This happened all the time in the Bible. In this series we focused in on the rebellion motif that is present in the three dual rebellions but which continues throughout the rest of the bible. Here is a quick reminder of the Rebellion motif:
“We have people who are living with in the ancient boarders of Eden, who have been given the same exact Edamic mandate to “multiply and fill the earth” while exercising dominion over creation. By different means an interaction with the spiritual world takes place. In the case of Genesis 6, and Genesis 11 after people multiply, although access to the spiritual world had been forbidden for human beings and these two worlds must now remain separated, the people make contact anyways. Disobedience ensues, and judgement is rendered on both the physical and the spiritual side of Gods family. Amazingly each time after all this a promise is given to humanity that one day God will provide a chance for redemption while the spiritual family is condemned forever. Further still God gives sinful humanity the moon not only by giving them hope for the future but by reestablishing with them the Edemic mandate within the ancient boarders of Eden.”
Why is the world the way it is? Part 5
This is repeated again and again throughout the whole of the Old Testament. All these rebellion stories are linked together using this motif. Gods newly created humans, pre-flood inhabitants, post-flood humanity at the tower of Babel, all communicate the same dual rebellions occurring in these narratives via these patterns.
The biblical authors reason for why the world is the way that it is doesn’t stop there. The three dual rebellions is just the foundation for how the world is initially corrupted. As we saw the motif continues.
God give them what they want
The Nations
At the heart of all these rebellions we pointed out how humanity is obsessed with a notion of an Eden without Yahweh. We also noticed that there was a pattern to how God dealt with these rebellions.
After the tower of Babel incident of Genesis 11, God puts the seventy nations of Genesis 10 under the authority of 70 spiritual beings who were to rule these nations as God would His portion.
“Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.”
Deuteronomy 32:7-9
The people wanted to be under the authority of spiritual beings other than Yahweh. So in the end God gave them what they wanted, albeit these spiritual being were supposed to remain loyal to Yahweh and His cause. No surprise to us these spiritual beings revolt against the Most High God and sought to be worshiped as gods by the inhabitants of their nations.
“God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?”
Psalms 82:1-2
This is the biblical authors explanation for the other nations gods in the biblical account. They are disloyal fakes who are created, not the True Creator God.
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Gods chosen people Israel
As a direct result of the Babel rebellion God calls Abraham to be the foundation of His new nation. The same thing that happened to the nations after the tower of Babel ends up happening to Gods Chosen people Israel.
Many years of the Israelites choosing to serve and worship these other flunky spiritual beings Yahweh has enough. He abandons Israel, and hands them over to the gods of the nations.
“Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim.”
Ezekiel 10:18-20
This is not good for Gods chose people nor for the world. God wants to share His authority with His family. We beat this drum here a lot on Critical Thinking Aloud because it is massively important to our Theology (thoughts about God).
In the same way God wanted to share His authority with Adam and Eve, then later with all the nations that Adam and Eves children became, and again after the flood with Noahs family who became 70 nations, God wanted to share His authority with His chose people Israel. They were to reflect who God is like to the other nations so that the other nations would want to enter into a relationship with Him.
The only hope
As we know that did not happen. This was no surprise to God. Remember the law was meant to separate Yahweh’s chosen people from all the others nations so they could see Gods otherness (or as we say holiness). The law was never intended to bring salvation to those who were obedient to observe it. You could never be saved by obeying the law.
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”
Romans 3:20
Ever since the first sin in the garden by Adam and Eve, Humanities only hope for being made right with God is by faith. Whether one lived before Jesus or for us now after, placing ones trust in Gods promise to redeem us from our sins is the only thing that has ever been able to save humans.
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Romans 3:21-22
Jesus is the fulfillment of Gods repeated promises to rescue humanity form their mistakes. Through out the Biblical narrative whenever the rebellion motif appears (which it does a lot) there is this promise given for humans to trust in Gods provision to be restored to Himself.
We saw in former episodes how the authors would invert the different elements in this same rebellion motif to contrast the loyal members of Gods family with the disloyal. Abraham, and Moses stand out against the rebellious nations because of their trust in Yahweh. It is even more clear with the promised one, The Messiah, Jesus.
A complet reversal
Jesus completely reverses the 3 dual rebellion narratives in the open chapters of the Bible.
Genesis 3
Adam and Eve are deceived by The Devil to disobey God in His home of a lush mountain garden where they literally had everything provided by God. Jesus overcame the same attacks by The Devil to disobey God only He was in a hostile waste land in the middle of the desert. Jesus knows that Eden is only Eden because its Gods dwelling place and He provides for the needs of His family members. Even in this barren place God gives Jesus all He needed.
Genesis 6
The rebellious Sons of God (spiritual beings) having rejected the spiritual world came down and after having sexual relations with human women they born giants. As noted before this counterfeit attempt to reunite heaven and earth apart from God fails miserably while also trespassing multiple forbidden barriers.
Jesus as the Unique Son of God is conceived by the Holy Spirit. Where as the rebellious sons of God and the human women were moved to disobedience by their lust, Jesus’ conception through the Holy Spirit was a product of complete submission to Gods will.
Jesus in humility takes on the form of a man to become the savior of the world. Mary humbly disregarded all of the shame of being pregnant out of wedlock that she would have been subjected to in her day. In their obedience God reunites heaven in earth in the man Jesus Christ.
Genesis 11
Remember the whole of the city complex of the Tower of Babel was a temple. The Tower itself was a ziggurat which is a temple structure to have spiritual beings descend upon. For all intents and purposes it was a gateway to the spiritual world. Even though God had commanded these two worlds to be separated apart from Him humanity cannot stop trying to access this world without Yahweh.
Jesus is the only true spiritual gateway. He is the true way back to Yahweh and permissible access to the spiritual world is only available through Him.
“He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
John 1:51
“Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
John 10:7-9
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
Rebellion motif of the Israelites
Again the motif is:
“In the ancient boarders of Eden God blesses a people, they multiply, they seek contact with the spiritual world apart from God, disobedience from both spiritual and human beings takes place, a judgement is pronounced, a promise given to humanity, God re-establishes the Edamic mandate set in the ancient boarders of Eden with the people again.”
Why is the world the way it is? Part 7
Jesus fulfills this inverted motif perfectly and this shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us by now. Jesus is born in the ancient boarders of Eden, and is heralded as the one who is going to bless the whole world.
“And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:10-11
Jesus like Israel is sent to Egypt to save His life and returns back into the promised land of His forefathers.
Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth. He talked about this all the time. He would teach, heal the sick, cast out evil spiritual beings, raise the dead, saying “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Jesus came from the father. He is the corporeal form of the invisible God.
Jesus remains faithful to His father in every situation. Even though He never did anything wrong nor ever sinned. In order to pay our debt and take on our judgement He was sentenced to death by crucifixion.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5
By trusting in His sacrifice alone to be made right with God, Jesus Promises Humanity redemption. Being resurrected on the third day proved His sacrifice was accepted.
Ultimate gift
Jesus is Human. Humans have sinned and a human must pay the price of sin which is death.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23
God cannot die for He is eternal. If God could die He would not be God. God is Jesus, and Jesus is God. The fact that God took on the form of humanity to save them from their own destruction is the most amazing event that will ever take place in the history of the universe.
Jesus is 100% God and 100% Human and this ManGod alone is able to redeem us from our sins!
Humanity sin had cosmic repercussions. We spent the first half of this series talking about the impact these three dual rebellions of both physical and spiritual beings had on the world. The consequences of these rebellions was literally universal. The apostle Paul wrote this which sums it up nice.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
Romans 8:22
Even though God still pursues a relationship with us when humans sinned against God they lost their right to live with Him in the spiritual world. Because of a continued desire to forge for them selves an Eden without the Presence of God, Humans repeatedly lost their chance to share Gods authority and rule with Him. By trusting Jesus we gain these right back.
Stand up for your right
See the biblical authors employ their use of familiar motifs to end the biblical narrative. There is a new earth, a new Jerusalem, a new Eden. The old is gone and the new remains forever. The invisible God with Jesus on the throne shares His authority with all those who believed in Him by re-establishing the Edamic mandate with His people.
Loyal spiritual and physical members of Gods family are reunited and abide on Gods cultivated mountain, in His city, again taking care of His garden, living with Him in His home for eternity. Further more those who have remained loyal by trusting in Jesus displace the flunking spiritual beings who ruled over the nations and we will reign with Christ.
“To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.”
Revelation 2:26-27
“Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!”
1 Corinthians 6:3
The disloyal members have been dealt with and all who opposed the Creator have vanished. Death is no more and all rebellions have ceased.
God gets what He has always wanted. Humanity is restored by trusting in His promised redeemer. You must place your believing loyalty in Jesus to make you right with God, and If you do that you will be saved.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Romans 10:9-10
This applies to everyone. Every one should and any could be saved if they humblely admit they cannot save themselves. Salvation comes only by placing ones trust in Jesus to provide what is needed to make them right with God. This is the Gospel.
Thank you so much for joining us through our series on Why is the world the way that it is? It has been a pleasure to explore this series with you and we hope you have enjoyed it. We are looking forward to getting into more topics together here on Critical Thinking Aloud.
Let us know your thought about our series in the comment section. If you have any topics you would like to suggest please let us know and we will add them to the list of future subjects we will covered.
Check out this short video series on Spiritual beings by our friends over at The Bible Project by clicking here. They are amazing and super helpful to better grasp what we will be covering in this series.