- Theology and Identity
- Season 1
- Episode 2
- Airdate: 8 December 2023
- Please note this is a script, and not a transcript. There may be slight differences between this text and the actual broadcast.
- All Bible quotations taken from the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016)
Links
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I'm David Clark and the title of this podcast is theology and identity. Our aim in this project is to explore the interaction between the way we understand God and the way we understand ourselves. In our first series we're looking at the Old Testament texts to see what they tell us about the character of God and the character of the human person. We're approaching the text through the lens of narrative theology, wherein Yahweh and his people Israel as characters in the story. He has a plan and a purpose for this nation, which is deeply entwined with his desire to live with them in intimate loving communion.
In our first podcast we noted that the central theme of the Old Testament is the promise that God gave to Abraham - that through his family all of the nations of earth would be blessed. As we work our way through the Old Testament this is our point of reference. At each juncture we will ask ourselves the question: what does this have to do with the promise that God made to Abraham?
God told Abraham that through his seed all the families of the earth would receive blessing. Working from the narrative of genesis chapters 1 to 11 we determined that there are three components of this blessing. After sin has tainted humanity's relationship with God, their relationships with one another, and their relationship with the creation - the blessing that comes through the seed of Abraham will undo the consequences of sin. This means that through the seed of Abraham will come reconciliation with God, reconciliation among people, and reconciliation with the physical creation.
As we leave the book of genesis and come into the rest of the torah, a picture emerges of how this is all going to take shape. The essence of God’s plan is to make a covenant with the descendants of Abraham. The primary purpose of this covenant is relational: God lives in love relationship with the people of Israel, and he gives them commands to follow in order to maintain that relationship. But the commandments also speak to Israel’s mission or purpose in the world. As Israel obeys this law they experience the abundant life that God had promised to Abraham. They thrive and propser. And this does not go unnoticed. All of the families of the earth see how Israel has right relationship with their God, how Israel has right relationships with one another, and how the people of Israel live in harmony with the creation. Through this example the nations of the earth will recognise that the God of Israel is the one and only true God. They then forsake their idols and YWWH. When they turn from their sin and rebellion, they then become partakers of the promise given to Abraham.
So the key idea is this: Israel is called to abide in a love relationship with YHWH, and they are called be a model people, an example to the nations.
God had said to Abraham ‘I will bless you so that you will be a blessing’. Israel receives blessing through their relationship with God, and then they bless the nations through the example that they give.
So lets unpack these ideas in more detail. How exactly does Israel receive the blessing, and how do they give it?
First – how do they receive it? In our first podcast, we noted that God said to Abraham’ fear not I am your shield and I am your very great reward. Above wealth, above land about power, the greatest blessing that a woman or man can ever receive is relationship with God himself. The blessing given to Israel is first and foremost - intimate communion with God. Now Christians often misunderstand how relationship with God works in the Old Testament. Sometimes we think that in the New Testament salvation is by grace. And in the Old Testament salvation is by works. Relationship only becomes possible through obedience. This is a misreading of the text. God's relationship with Israel begins with grace. They did nothing to earn his favour or to deserve his blessing. Deuteronomy 7: 6-8 ‘For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers.’ In other words Israel had never done anything to earn or deserve relationship with God. He loves them and he calls them because this is what he promised to Abraham. So this is not salvation by works. This is relationship through grace.
What YHWH wants more than anything else is for the people of Israel is to love him.
We see this in what are the most important verses of the entire Old Testament in deuteronomy chapter 6
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
God calls the people to love him with all of their hearts, that is with all of their feelings emotions and passions. He calls them to love him with all of their soul. In Hebrew this word is nefesh. Now this is a very interesting word in Hebrew. The ugaritic and acadian cognates suggest that the root meaning of this term is the neck or the throat. And this reflects the ancient idea that the soul or the life of a person resided in their neck. When you sacrifice an animal you cut its throat when you want to kill someone quickly on the battlefield you cut their throat And so the idea is that in the human neck or the human throat is where our life, or our soul resides. So love God with all of your nephesh. Love God with everything that makes you alive everything that gives you breath everything that separates you from the dead.
And then the text says that they must love God with all of their might. Once again this is a very interesting term in Hebrew. The word is meod. And its root meaning is: that which overflows.
imagine that I have a glass in my left hand and in my right hand I have a picture of water. I fill the glass all the way to the top. But then I keep pouring and the water overflows down the sides of the glass. That overflowing water is meod. And so the idea behind this commandment is to love God abundantly generously . not with half measures, not with reluctance, not with grudging compliance but with overflowing passion.
This is the blessing that Israel receives. The blessing of love relationship with Yahweh. From this relationship flows a willingness to abide in Yahweh to follow his ways and to follow his commands.
And this leads into that second part of the promise that God made to Abraham. Israel is called to be a blessing to the nations of the earth, and that blessing comes by the example that they give. In deut chapter 28 God said
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
First comes the love relationship. Then comes obedience to the commands. Through obedience to the commands comes peace and prosperity and life in abundance. And what becomes clear as we read through to deuteronomy 28 is that the nations around Israel will be taking note. In verse 10 it says ‘all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be in awe of you.’
God's ultimate vision and God's ultimate strategy is that the reference that they have for the people of Israel will all nations to the worship of Yahweh.
This is idea is powerfully expressed in Isaiah ch 2: 2-4
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, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Isa 2:2-4
The nation of Israel will be set above all the nations of the earth and people will recognise that God is with the descendants of Abraham. They will recognise that the gods that they have been worshipping are no gods at all, and that Yahweh the God of Israel is the one and only true God. They say let us go to Jerusalem and let us ask the people of Israel to teach us about their God so that we too may worship him.
As this happens the nations of the earth receive the blessing. The promise made to Abraham is fulfilled. They are reconciled with God. They are reconciled with one another. And they're reconciled with creation.
I’m here going to pause for just a moment to make an important point about theology and identity in the OT ? In this era, the people living in Israel did not discover their purpose in life simply on an individual basis. Rather they found their purpose through their belonging to chosen community. Identity in the OT is not established on a purely individualistic basis. Who they were was not defined by their individual characteristics, their personal gifts, strengths and ambitions. Their identity was found in who they were as members or a family, of a people. How they related to God, and how they understood themselves was rooted and grounded in the community of which they formed apart.
Now, in our last podcast we noted that the Hebrew word for seed is zera, and this can mean many people or it can mean one person. As we work our way through the Torah what becomes evident is that God's initial purpose was to bring blessing to the nations through the community of Israel the people of the 12 tribes. The ‘seed of Abraham’ denotes a plurality or a community of people through whom his purposes would be fulfilled. At this moment in history, the ‘seed of Abraham’ would not have been thought of as a single person.
So God has a plan to bless all families of the earth through the nation of Israel. But the success of this strategy is dependent upon Israel’s faithfulness to the covenant. And now we ask: What exactly are the terms of this agreement that God made with Israel?
Old Testament scholars will often point to 4 elements or four pillars therein. These are monotheism, election, Torah, and tabernacle.
Let's briefly consider each of these.
The first pillar is Monotheism. We've already discussed the great commandment of deuteronomy chapter 6: 4-5. In Jewish tradition this verse is known as the shema and that name comes from the first word ‘hear’ oh Israel . . .
In these words we see the essence of monotheism. The God of Israel is not one God among many gods. And the different deities worshipped among the nations do not represent alternative paths to the same higher power. YHWH the God of Israel is not known by other names, nor is he worshipped in different forms. In the Old Testament Yahweh speaks of himself as the one God and the only God, and he declares that the objects of worship found among other nations are no gods at all. And so the command to Israel is to worship and live in loving relationship with the one true God.
This is the idea of monotheism.
The second pillar in Jewish practise and faith is the idea of election. There is only one nation to whom he has revealed himself and that is the nation of Israel.
Deut 7:6
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Now to be clear this does not mean that Israel is the only nation or the only people that God loves. The very heart of the promise given to Abraham is that god’s desire is to bless all nations of the earth. But what we must understand is that in the Old Testament text, the seed of Abraham is the one and only means through which the blessing of God can reach the nations. Only through abraham's seed. There is no other way.
In theological terms we refer to these notions as universality and particularity. Universality speaks of gods desire to bring people from all the families of the earth into relationship with him. No one is excluded. There's no region that is left out there is no race, culture or people group that is left out. The promise given to Abraham covers all of humanity. That's the idea of universality.
Particularity speaks of the way or the path to this blessing. what's very clear in the Old Testament is that there are not multiple paths. There is one path and one again, that lies with the seed of Abraham. Apart from the seed of Abraham there is no way to relationship with YHWH. And so the people of Israel we're called to live in this awareness. The fulfilment of God's plan depended upon them. They were the seed of Abraham. They were the elect. Chosen by Yahweh to be the instrument a blessing, reconciliation, and restoration for the whole world. This is the idea of Election.
The third pillar in the covenant that God made with Israel is the Torah. As we've noted above, the the Torah or the law is not a means by which the people of Israel can earn their salvation. They are given the gift of relationship with God by grace, and obedience to the Torah is the means by which they preserve and fulfil the purposes of this relationship.
Now there are many elements of the Torah that may not make sense to us today. The commandments may at times seem random. But if we look at the laws of the Torah through broad lens, it's not difficult to discern god’s overarching purposes therein. We recall that the idea of blessing has three elements: reconciliation with God, reconciliation with other people, and reconciliation with the physical world. In one way or another all 613 commandments of the Torah are meant to accomplish these objectives. In that particular historical context, obedience to the commandments of the law will result in abundant life for the people of Israel. Deut 7:12-14
And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples.
The fourth pillar of Jewish faith and practise is the Tabernacle. Leviticus chapter 16 explains the purpose of the sacrifices made on the day of atonement. Speaking of the high priest it says.
. He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.
The English word atonement is another way of saying at one meant. The idea is bringing people and God back into right relationship. We've been noting that sin causes separation sin separates us from God it separates us from one another and it separates us from the creation. The purpose of the temple sacrifices was to reconcile and restore these broken relationships. When sin had occurred, there was here an opportunity to obtain forgiveness healing and restoration through the sacrifices and offerings made in the Tabernacle.
So these are the four pillars of Old Testament faith and practise monotheism, election, Torah and Tabernacle.
God is giving to Israel everything that they need to succeed. If they live in love relationship with him, if they follow the commandments, then they will be a light to the nations. They will be blessed and they will be a blessing. The promise to Abraham will be fulfilled through the community of Israel.
Today we’ve seen in the Torah how God planned to fulfil the promise he made to Abraham through the nation of Israel.
- Israel was offered blessing, which above all else was intimate love relationship with YHWH.
- Israel was given the chance to be a blessing – and this would occur as they lived as a model people, showing the nations of the world how to have healthy relationship with God, how to have relationship with one another, and how to live in harmony with the creation.
The appropriation of these promises would come through faithfulness to the Mosaic covenant. Love God with all of your heart, nefesh and medo. Practice monotheism, don’t worship other Gods. Live as the elect – remember that the salvation of the world is riding on you. Follow the commands of the Torah – these reveal the way of life. And remember that when you fail, the offerings and sacrifices of the temple are given to you as a means of restoring your relationship with God.
This was the essence of Israel’s theology, and Israels identity in the OT.
I closing I will note that my aim in this survey of OT theology and identity is not to read the text through the lens of 21st century culture, nor even to read the OT through the lens of the New Testament. If we really want to understand what’s happening in the historical narrative, we have to try and place ourselves in the moment. As we look at the Torah, I want to know what God was thinking and feeling as he made a covenant with the Israel. And how were the people of Israel thinking and feeling? How did they understand their identity and their purpose in the world?
In our next session, we will evaluate how successful Israel was in keeping their end of the bargain. Did Israel become a model people? Did they set an example for the nations to follow? I hope you’ll come back again to find out.
I’m Dr David Clark, Thanks for joining me in this session of the podcast theology and identity.