Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Epilogue
[Bible references: Genesis 10, 12, 13; John 2:21; 1 Corinthians :19-20; Ephesians 2:19-22; Revelation 21:22]
The Cosmic Temple
We need to put to the side our current modern western controversies about trying to interpret the pre-modern biblical text of Genesis 1-2 as if it was meant to have scientific meaning about the beginnings of the universe and of humanity. As we can understand it now, the text in Genesis 1 was meant to be interpreted as the dedication of a temple.[1]
Before the point of dedication, the universe was in a state of chaos. Imposing the pattern of a temple onto the chaos brought order out of the chaos. The dedication took place in the first “six days.” The “seventh day,” does not end with the phrase “there was evening and morning.” That is, the seventh day is supposed to be ongoing. Putting this all together, the cosmos/temple was finished being dedicated on the 6th day and from that time forward was meant to be lived in. The entire cosmos was now dedicated for the rest of eternity to be a place where God, introduced in Genesis 1 as Elohim, would meet with his image-bearing creatures.
In Genesis 2, God is now introduced by his personal name, Yahweh, as he introduces us to those creatures who will bear his image, creatures who he intends to have a personal relationship with. Between Genesis 1 and 2, we can see that God has intended that his image-bearing creatures are intended to serve as his stewards, as co-regents in the temple he created, particularly in the garden where he placed his first image-bearing creatures. God’s kingdom was complete, all of cosmos was now the place of God’s perfect reign and rule.
Rebellion in the temple
To make image-bearing creatures who could be capable of responding with love to the love he has shown them, Yahweh had to give his image-bearing creatures free-will, that is, to have the ability to choose to not respond in love. And it is in Genesis 3, where we see those image-bearing creatures turn away from Yahweh’s love and choose to go their own way. The sad result was the breaking of relationships, between God and his creatures, between the creatures themselves and between the creatures and the land they were supposed to steward. The rest of the Bible tells the story of God’s plan to restore all those relationships, to restore His kingdom.
God’s plan of restoration would unfold only gradually, over, at least what seems to us, would be a long, long time. Despite the rebellion of his image-bearers, God still intended to act through those image-bearers as his co-regents. All sorts of things were broken, but God did not revoke his expectation that his image-bearers would be stewards of the now-broken kingdom. God still intended to carry out his will through his image-bearers.
Many generations would pass, and God’s people would multiply and from those people nations would form. From out of those nations, God selected one particular man through which begin to visibly begin to carry out His plan of restoration. God would work through that that one man to form one family among others through which God would form one nation among others, through which God would eventually bless the entire world, restoring the entire world to himself.
Within the context of that entire plan, God would speak through his prophets, and through scripture, to show us through patterns of time and space how we can participate with him in restoring His kingdom.
After the rebellion, one of the first patterns we see is the silence and apparent absence of God. The pattern we see emerge is that our rebellion destroys God’s order, bringing chaos back to God’s creation with the resulting apparent absence of God. Fortunately, even though the God’s apparent absence is a natural consequence of our rebellion, that apparent absence can also be used by God to help us draw near to him. This then, becomes one of the patterns God reveals to us, showing us how we can be restored to Him.
Patterns of the place where Yahweh intended to be with his people
While the first people were still in the Garden of Eden, God merely “walked” among them. If all of cosmos was the temple where God would be with his people, then the Garden was the sanctuary within that temple. The rebellion caused God’s people to be put outside that sanctuary, but God would use the Garden of Eden as a pattern to create other spaces where God would be with His people.
Throughout scripture we can find the images of Eden in the ark,[2] in the tabernacle and the temple,[3] in Jesus, in our bodies, in the church. Then finally, we will see, that all those patterns point to the moment when all of creation is restored and the whole of heaven and earth finally and fully joined together and the Kingdom of God is fully complete.
[1] Walton, John. “The Lost World of Adam and Eve,” Proposition 3, pp. 35-45 InterVarsity Press. 2015 Kindle Edition; Driver, Cory. “Commentary on Genesis 1:1-5” Working Preacher 10 Jan 2021 www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/baptism-of-our-lord-2/commentary-on-genesis-11-5-5; Carlson, Reed. “Commentary on Genesis 1:1-2:4a 12 Working Preacher Sept 2011 www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/creation-by-the-word/commentary-on-genesis-11-24a-5; Throntveit, Mark. “Commentary on Genesis 1:1-2:4a Working Preacher 1 Sept 2011 www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/creation/commentary-on-genesis-11-31-21-4
[2] Powell, Mark Allen. “Noah’s Ark as Mosaic Tabernacle” Academia.edu www.academia.edu/25255095/Noahs_Ark_as_Mosaic_Tabernacle; Holloway, Steven W. “What Ship Goes There: The Flood Narratives in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis Considered in Light of Ancient Near East Temple Ideology” James Madison University 1991; Triolo, Joseph. “The Tabernacle as Structurally Akin to Noah’s Ark: Considering Cult, Cosmic Mountain, and Diluvial Arks in Light of the Gilgamesh epic and the Hebrew Bible” SBL Pacific Coast Regional Conference 2019
[3] Morrow, Jeff. “Creation as Temple-Building and Work as Liturgy in Genesis 1-3” Wisdom in Torah http://www.wisdomintorah.com/wp-content/uploads/Creation-as-Temple-Building-and-Work-as-Liturgy-in-Genesis-1-31.pdf Seton Hall University
Dancing In The Kingdom 