Rebels and Exiles

A Biblical Theology of Sin and Restoration

Matthew S. Harmon, Benjamin L. Gladd

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780830855414
• eBook ISBN: 9780830843824
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Biblical Foundations Book Awards Finalist

Deep within the human psyche lies a sense that we were made for something more than this broken world. We all share an experience of exile—of longing for our true home.

In this ESBT volume, Matthew S. Harmon explores how the theme of sin and exile is developed throughout Scripture. He traces a common pattern of human rebellion, God's judgment, and the hope of restored relationship, beginning with the first humans and concluding with the end of exile in a new creation. In this story we encounter the remarkable grace of a God who wants to dwell with his people, and we learn how to live well as exiles in a fallen world.

Rebels and Exiles makes clear how the paradigm of sin leading to exile is foundational for understanding both the biblical storyline and human existence.

About the Series

Essential Studies in Biblical Theology (ESBT), edited by Benjamin L. Gladd and L. Michael Morales, explore the central or  essential themes of the Bible's grand storyline. Taking cues from Genesis 1–3, authors trace the presence of these themes throughout the entire sweep of redemptive history. Written for students, church leaders, and laypeople, the ESBT offers an accessible yet rich introduction to biblical theology.

Chapter One

HUMANITY’S ORIGINAL REBELLION AND EXILE

WHEN IT COMES TO A GOOD STORY, the opening line is often memorable and draws the reader in. Take, for example, Charles Dickens’s classic A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.1

Or this famous opening from The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien:

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventyfirst birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.2

What about this more recent example from Harry Potter?

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.3

These opening lines help set the stage for the story that follows and pique the reader’s interest.

The opening words of Genesis are some of the most famous in the world: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This line introduces us to the main character—God—and jumpstarts the story. It also acts as a title for Genesis 1:1–2:3, which lays out the six days in which God created the universe and the seventh day on which he rested. On each of the first five days, God speaks various aspects of creation into existence. Each day builds on the previous, leading up to the climactic sixth day when God creates humanity, his crowning achievement (1:26-31). Let’s take a closer look at this important passage.

CROWNED AND COMMISSIONED

In contrast to everything else made to this point, God announces, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).4 The concept of being made in the image and likeness of God is so important that it is repeated two more times in 1:27. In the ancient Near East, victorious kings would set up an image of themselves in territories they had conquered as a reflection of their glory and a reminder of their presence. In a similar (albeit far greater) sense, that is what God has done with humanity. God made us to be mirrors to reflect his glorious beauty to all of creation.

But there is more to being made in God’s image and likeness than simply reflecting his glorious beauty. Immediately after stating that humanity is made in God’s image, God blesses them and gives them a commission: “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” (Genesis 1:28).

In rapid-fire fashion, God gives five interconnected commands that describe his commission to Adam and Eve. The first three focus on God’s intention for humanity to become so numerous that they eventually fill the earth. God commissions his image bearers to reproduce fellow image bearers. The final two commands center on God’s intention for humanity to rule over creation. God is the great king who rules over the universe, but he has created humanity to rule as vice regents, mini kings and queens who rule under his ultimate authority. God exercises his rule over creation through humanity as they exercise dominion over all God has made.

God’s purpose for humanity is to reflect his glorious beauty by filling the earth and ruling over creation as his vice regents. With the pinnacle of his creation now in place, God declares everything “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and then rests on the seventh day as the sovereign king of the universe (2:1-3).

SET APART AND UNITED TOGETHER

Genesis 1:1–2:3 describes the creation of humanity with a particular emphasis on their role as vice regents. In Genesis 2:4-25 the creation of humanity is told again but from a different angle and with a different emphasis.5 The place to start is in verses 7-9:

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Whereas Genesis 1:26-27 focused on God creating humanity by his Word, here God gets his hands dirty, so to speak. He forms the man Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathes into him to bring him to life.

After creating Adam, God places him in the Garden of Eden. But this is no ordinary garden. Based on the remainder of Genesis 2–3 and later texts such as Ezekiel 40–48 and Revelation 21–22, the garden was created to be the Lord’s temple sanctuary here on earth.6 It was the place where God walked with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8). The presence of the cherubim as guardians of the garden once the sinful couple is exiled further suggests it is a temple sanctuary (3:24) since they are later present in both the tabernacle and the temple (Exodus 25:18; 1 Kings 6:23-35). The abundance of botanical and arboreal imagery that describes Solomon’s temple suggests that it was patterned after Eden (1 Kings 6–7), and later passages that anticipate the eschatological temple describe it in Edenic terms (Isaiah 60:13, 21).

But not only is Eden portrayed as the earthly sanctuary of God; the task that God gives Adam when placing him in the garden is a priestly role. According to Genesis 2:15, God “put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” This same combination of the verbs work (which could also be translated serve) and keep (or guard) are used elsewhere to describe the role of priests serving in the tabernacle and protecting its purity (Numbers 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 18:5-6; 1 Chronicles 23:32; Ezekiel 44:14). Immediately following this description of the priestly role, God gives his priest, Adam, a command for him to keep—not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:17). Like the later priests who were entrusted with God’s law, Adam was expected to obey it and prevent anything unclean from entering God’s sanctuary. This observation will become especially important when we look at Genesis 3.

As a priest, Adam was charged with mediating the divine presence to all of creation. Humanity would be the conduit through which God would make himself known. Through his faithful obedience, Adam and his offspring would expand the boundaries of God’s garden sanctuary and preserve its purity by ejecting anything unclean that sought to enter.

God did not leave Adam alone to carry out his priestly role. He created “a helper fit for him” by making a woman who corresponded to him (Genesis 2:18). Adam’s response when God presents the woman to him is worth quoting in full: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (2:23). His excitement is palpable. God has given him a partner to come alongside him and fulfill God’s purpose for both of them.

Thus, in addition to the royal role that God gives humanity to rule over his creation, he also grants them a priestly role. As kings and priests, humans were to work together to accomplish God’s purposes in this world so that his glory would be on full display through his obedient image bearers.

REBELLIOUS AND JUDGED

This idyllic picture did not last long. Genesis 3 opens with the ominous note that “the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made” (3:1). By questioning the goodness of God and the truthfulness of his word to the first couple, the serpent deceives the woman into eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and she in turn gives some to her husband (3:1-6). Within moments the consequences of their actions began to sink in: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (3:7). Although their nakedness was not a problem before they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (2:25), now it was a source of shame, something to be hidden. In their desperation “they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (3:7).

Instead of welcoming God later that day when it came time for him to walk in his garden sanctuary, Adam and his wife “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8). When God confronted Adam about whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit, he shifted the blame to Eve (3:9-12). The woman made a similar move when questioned by God, blaming the serpent for deceiving her (3:13).

Before looking at God’s pronouncement of judgment, it is worth pausing to reflect on what has happened. Adam was commissioned as king, charged with ruling over creation by filling it with image bearers. But instead of exercising dominion over the serpent, he allowed the serpent to exercise dominion over him by listening to and agreeing with the serpent’s slanderous invitation to disobey Yahweh. Adam was also commissioned as a priest, charged with mediating God’s presence in the world, keeping his law, and maintaining the purity and holiness of his garden sanctuary here on earth. But instead of ejecting the unholy serpent from the garden and remaining obedient to God’s law, Adam not only permits the serpent to remain in God’s sanctuary but joins with him in his uncleanness.7

Throughout the centuries there have been many attempts to describe the sin of Adam and his wife. One of the more prominent ways is to classify it as pride or selfishness. After stating that pride is the beginning of sin, Augustine contends that pride is “the craving for undue exaltation,” which is “when the soul abandons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself. This happens when it becomes its own satisfaction.”8 Another prominent way of framing Adam’s sin is to describe it in terms of breaking God’s covenant. Understood this way, Adam failed to fulfill his responsibilities as God’s servant when faced with his first probationary trial.9 Along these lines Cornelius Plantinga defines sin as “the smearing of a relationship, the grieving of one’s divine parent and benefactor, a betrayal of the partner to whom one is joined by a holy bond.”10 It is also possible to frame sin in terms of “faithlessness on humanity’s part born of a lack of faith in God’s character and God’s Word.”11

While each of these proposals has merit, two particular ways of describing Adam and Eve’s sin are especially relevant for our purposes. The first is rebellion. God made Adam to be a king who ruled under his authority, reflecting the beauty of the Lord as he exercised dominion over God’s creation. But instead of humbly submitting to Yahweh as his sovereign, Adam rejected his authority by determining good and evil for himself. Instead of living as a mirror to reflect the beauty and glory of his Maker, Adam sought that glory for himself. Instead of stepping in to exercise authority over the serpent and protecting his wife from lies, Adam passively sat by as the serpent undermined both God’s authority and his. Instead of fearing the Lord and thus growing in true wisdom, Adam pursued a shortcut that led to folly. Considered from multiple angles, Adam’s sin was an act of treasonous rebellion.

A second way of describing Adam’s sin is idolatry. In the most basic sense, idolatry is loving anything or anyone more than God. The Lord created Adam to be a priest who mediates God’s presence, keeps his law, and preserves the purity of God’s garden sanctuary. His first priority was supposed to be complete devotion to Yahweh. But instead of cherishing the presence of God above all others, Adam prioritized the presence and approval of the serpent. Instead of keeping the law of the Lord at any cost, Adam believed the lies of the serpent over the truth of God’s word. Instead of guarding the purity of Yahweh’s garden sanctuary, Adam entertained the impure serpent and eventually joined in his evil ways. Adam’s sin was a brazen act of flagrant idolatry.

As a result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion and idolatry, sin now affects every aspect of a person’s existence.12 Our minds, our hearts, our desires, our inclinations, our wills, our actions, and even our physical bodies are all stained by the effects of sin (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7:18; Ephesians 2:1-3; 4:17-19; Titus 1:15-16). While the image of God still remains in every individual human being (no matter how sinful he or she is), it is marred, obscured, and distorted by the effects of sin. Sin affects not only the individual but also humanity on a social and communal level, shaping and distorting its various systems, structures, and organizations.

In light of this rebellion and idolatry, God’s judgment falls swiftly and terribly. First on God’s docket is the serpent (Genesis 3:14-15). Just as he is more crafty than all the beasts that God had made (3:1), he is now cursed more than any of them (3:14). Slithering on his belly and eating dust will be his lot (3:14). Even more ominous is Yahweh’s assertion of perpetual conflict between the offspring of the serpent and that of the woman, which will culminate in the woman’s offspring dealing the serpent a mortal blow, yet not wit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Series Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: Sin and Exile in Contemporary Experience
• 1 Humanity’s Original Rebellion and Exile
• 2 The Threat of Exile If/When Israel Rebels
• 3 The Reality of Exile When Israel Rebelled
• 4 Return from Exile When Israel Repents
• 5 The End of Exile Inaugurated Through Jesus’ Life and Ministry
• 6 Restoration Through Jesus’ Death, Resurrection, and Ascension
• 7 Life as Exiles in a Fallen World
• 8 The End of Exile Consummated in a New Creation
• 9 The Practical Implications of Sin, Exile, and Restoration
• Recommendations for Further Reading
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Scripture Index
• Notes
• Essential Studies in Biblical Theology
• Praise for Rebels and Exiles
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright