Paul and the Faithfulness of God: Re-imagining the Symbols of the Jewish Worldview (Prayer; Land)

We are considering N. T. Wright’s newly released Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God) — a massive and masterful consideration of Paul’s theology.

We been considering Wright’s review of the various symbols at the heart of the worldview of the Jews of Paul’s day: Temple, Torah, Prayer, Land, Family, Battle, and Scripture. We pick up with Prayer.

Prayer

I’ve already covered, under the post regarding the Temple, Wright’s point that the Jews prayed either at or in the direction of the Temple. Christians, of course, pray through Jesus — in Jesus’ name — because Jesus does for us much of what the Temple did for the Jews.

You see, the Jews (correctly) saw the Temple as a place where heaven and earth were tightly joined. God himself dwelled in the Temple! (At least, he did up until the Babylonian Exile.) Therefore, the Temple was a special place for prayer.

For Christians, it is Jesus who joins heaven to earth, who is the bridge through whom we communicate with God.

In John 1, Jesus tells Nathanael, in effect, that he is Jacob’s ladder, the bridge between heaven and earth.

(Joh 1:51 ESV)  51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Wright next points out the centrality of thanksgiving — a form of prayer — to the Christian church. We modern Christians rarely note how often Paul urges  us to be thankful and to express our thanksgiving. The list of verses is quite impressive.

Just to give a familiar example or two, how many sermons have you heard about the thanksgiving commands found in —

(Eph 5:18-21 ESV) 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,  19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,  20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,  21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

(Col 3:16-17 ESV)  16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

An objective eye might even see thanksgiving as the central element of these passages — as truly indicative of what it would be like to be filled with the Spirit and richly indwelt by the word of Christ.

Land

God promised Abraham the Promised Land —

(Gen 13:14-15 ESV)  14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,  15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.”

The Old Testament often refers to the Promised Land as Israel’s “inheritance” —

(Exo 32:13 ESV) 13 “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'”

(Deu 12:8-10 ESV)  8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,  9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.  10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety … “

This language continues throughout the scriptures, even into the New Testament. During Paul’s day, the Jews were scattered across the Roman Empire, but they remembered God’s promise to give them the Promised Land as an inheritance, and they interpreted this to mean “without domination by Rome and anyone else,” and this helped lead to a series of futile Jewish rebellions.

Interestingly, however, the prophets had dropped some hints that the Promised Land would be expanded to include the entire earth. After all, when the nations are brought into the Kingdom, the boundaries of the Kingdom necessarily expand to include the nations.

Psalm 2 is a particularly good example —

(Psa 2:7-8 ESV) 7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.  8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”

— but there are others —

(Isa 2:2 ESV) It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it …

(Zec 14:9 ESV) And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised to hear Jesus declare —

(Mat 5:5 ESV) 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

— not “the Promised Land” and not “an incorporeal existence in the spiritual realms,” but “the earth.” Why?

Well, Paul (and Jesus) took the promise to Abraham of the Promised Land and, as the prophets anticipated, expanded the promise to include all of the heavens and the earth, as cleansed by the wrath of God on Judgment Day.

(Rev 21:1-4 ESV) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

John was shown heaven coming down to earth so that God might dwell on earth with his children in a purified, renewed world.

(Rev 21:5 ESV)  5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

This fits nicely with Paul’s explanation, based, I believe, on passages in Isaiah 65 and 66 —

(Rom 8:20-23 ESV)  20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope  21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Quite plainly, Paul says that the creation will be freed from the curse of sin. It won’t be destroyed but cleansed.

(Isa 66:22-24 ESV)  22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.  23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD.  24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

And so, we should reflect on this a bit. First, why “inheritance”? To my lawyerly mind, “inheritance” means “what you get from your parents when they die,” and that doesn’t really fit the usage of the word in the scriptures.

Rather, the thought seems to me to be more about “property that you may leave your children.”  After all, the Israelites were much more concerned with the welfare of their descendants than eternal salvation, at the time of the Exodus. They were motivated by a desire for their own land, a place to be free of oppression, and especially something for their children and grandchildren to have.

Intriguingly, the New Testament writers often use the same vocabulary —

(Col 3:23-24 ESV) 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,  24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

We assume that “the inheritance” means “heaven,” but no Jew would have read the text that way. Rather, “the inheritance” is land, but not just the Promised Land, it’s the entire earth, purified and redeemed by God for us to possess, free from all enemies, forever.

Thus, Paul does not “spiritualize” “inheritance.” Rather, he expands the promise to what was always implicitly there — the nations would be invited in and the entire earth would be subject to the reign of God through his Kingdom.

But why continue to speak of an “inheritance”? Who will receive my inheritance when I die? Well, me. So that makes no sense — unless we think about my children.

I think we should see our inheritance as the Israelites did — not just something for us to enjoy, but something we should claim by the power of God and then leave to our children. We should expect that our children will inherit the earth, just as we do — not because they carry my DNA but because I raise them to believe in such things. You see, if I do my job as a parent, my salvation is also my children’s salvation.

Ray Vander Laan makes another subtle but important point. While much of the land in Israel is owned by individual farmers, the wilderness of Judea, occupied by bedouins, shepherds, sheep, and goats, belongs to no one and everyone — anyone who wants to try to eke out a living herding sheep and goats in the desert.

For Westerners, it’s a struggle to think of land as owned in community in this sense. But it’s very natural for Easterners: “This land belongs to us.” There is no need to claim a spot as uniquely one’s own when you’re a nomad. You travel the land as the weather and the pasturage dictate.

I really don’t know just what the afterlife will be like. But I’m pretty sure I won’t be set up on my own plot of land, separated from the rest who’ve been saved. I don’t think I’ll have land to call my own at all. I don’t think it will be like an American subdivision. I think there will be land and to spare — and it will all be ours.

In short, it’ll kind of be like church.