Knowing God through Journey and Pilgrimage

A Scriptural Study of Journey, Jesus' Pilgrimages, and Their Significance to the Feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles

Lee

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781498274029
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The Hebrew/Christian Scriptures include many allusions to pilgrimage customs and practices, yet the information is scattered and requires a considerable amount of reconstruction. It is posited that the pilgrimage paradigm, including the journey motif, has influenced the thought patterns of the writers of both the Old and New Testaments. To follow Jesus' journey to Jerusalem on the three feasts of pilgrimage in Luke-Acts and John, and their relevance to the way he revealed himself and taught his disciples, this work begins with the creation and patriarchal narratives, examining how the pilgrimage paradigm relates to discipleship. Reviewing the history of the people of God including the Exodus, the Exile, and restoration, this book establishes the significance of pilgrimage as a paradigm for Israel that eventually shapes Judaism. Seung Y Lee points us to a neglected fact that the three feasts of pilgrimage have developed their own characters and meanings for the momentous events in the history of Israel, and both Luke-Acts and John reflect the significance of the pilgrimage paradigm for Jesus' self-understanding and his teaching.

1

Pilgrims and Disciples, Mixed Metaphors?

The Creation story plays a significant role in the biblical canon, not because it comes first in the whole Bible, but because it lays the foundations for understanding the other books of the Bible.1 Thus many different dimensions (full of symbols and imagery) can be traced in the themes and tones of the account. Having appreciated that we might diminish what is given when the story is focused too closely on any single meaning or intent, we shall discuss Genesis chapters 2 and 3, showing how a pilgrimage and discipleship perspective develops as the account unfolds.2

Adamic pilgrimage

[T]he Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground . . . The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Gen 2:7, 15). Adam gave names to the creatures (v. 20), exercising dominion and the perceptibility of thinking.3 Why is Adam granted this mandate? Because it pleases God that humanity should be his partner in an adventure of voluntary obligation and relationship.4 God, however, looks at Adam and declares, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (v. 18). Recognizing this, God provides a suitable companion (vv. 21–22), and pronounces the union of man and women (v. 24). They are one. Emphasizing the essential corporate nature of humanity, God blesses their relationship that is to be a reflection of Adam’s relationship with God.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8). Emphasis is given to a new act. Before they had not heard and now they do hear. As Umberto Cassuto points out, it is possible that the Lord God had already been walking in the garden prior to this.5 The words, “as he was walking in the garden,” from the Creation account reveals the account of “Yahweh’s brief sojourn in the garden”6 as “an example of Biblical anthropomorphism.”7 F. J. Helfmeyer offers a theological use of “walking %“l;h’ as God’s going.”

Yahweh “goes for a stroll,” he takes “his daily walk” in the garden when the wind blows through the treetops (cf. 2 5.5:24)—perhaps an answer (etiological?) to the question of the origin and nature of the cooling breeze, but more likely (for J) an expression of the intimate relationship between Yahweh and mankind, for the presentation of which “everything is transposed into human terms.”8

Gordon Wenham also confirms that the Hebrew term walking %“l;h’ is subsequently used of God’s presence in the tabernacle (Lev 26:12; Deut 23:15; 2 Sam 7:6–7), emphasizing the relationship between the garden and the later shrines.9 The Lord God called to the man . . . He answered (Gen 3:9–10). God engages man in dialogue. God who is present and active in the world speaks directly only to mankind. The fact that God walked in the garden and engaged man in dialogue clearly indicates that the linkage of Creator and Creation is “relationship,” grounded not on coercion but full trust and commitment. Relationship (to be with his God) is the original purpose for mankind. God created Adam to have a trust relationship with him, a corporate relationship with his wife (Gen 2:20), and a stewardship relationship with Creation (Gen 1:27–28).10 The garden of Eden, therefore, is not only the paradisiacal place of joy and fellowship with God, but also the place where Adam has to implement the relationships that are delegated to the human community of trust, unity, and stewardship.

We may consider further analogies to the garden of Eden and Adam. Having noted that the presence of God in Eden and Ezekiel’s identifications of Eden,11 particularly the ornamentation of the king of Tyre,12 William Dumbrell believes Genesis 2:9–17 depicts Eden as a garden sanctuary, which gives to the original inhabitant of the garden, Adam, a pronounced priestly/kingly character.13 The analogies between Adam’s role in Eden and the relationship of Israel to Adam are significant for the later understanding of Israel’s vocation.14 For Israel, like Adam, is put into a sacred space to exercise “a corporate, royal priestly role”15 (Exod 19:4–6). The priestly/kingly role of Adam in Eden makes the connections between Eden and the later Jerusalem Temple a strong possibility. The presence of cherubim (Gen 3:24) and the description of the garden as the place where the Lord God walks (Gen 3:8) contribute to understanding this place as a holy tabernacle. When observing the similarities between Eden and the later sanctuaries, it is hardly surprising that the garden of Eden becomes a prototype for the later tabernacle.16 Dumbrell sums up the point well:

Eden was the garden of God, and God’s presence was the central aspect of the garden. That Eden is customarily understood in the later biblical narratives as the earthly center where God was to be found is clear from Isaiah 51:3, where Eden and the garden of Yahweh are paralleled. As such, Eden is the representation of what the world is to become, as indicated by the fact that the new Jerusalem is presented in terms of the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple (Rev 21–22; see again Ezek 36:33–36). As part of this association of the garden with the sanctuary, the Jerusalem Temple is pictured as the forthcoming source of life-giving streams for the world (Ezek 47:1–12; cf. Joel 3: 18).17

The first man and woman in the garden experienced an incomparable privilege to be able to have a close relationship with God face to face. The experience is not comparable to the limited direct access into God’s presence in the tabernacle and later the Jerusalem Temple. The incomparable privilege, however, comes to the end.

She took...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Pilgrims and Disciples, Mixed Metaphors?
• Chapter 2: Pilgrimage as a Paradigm for the People of God
• Chapter 3: Jesus and the First Two Passover Pilgrimages
• Chapter 4: Jesus and the Tabernacles Pilgrimage
• Chapter 5: Jesus and the Final Passover Pilgrimage (John 12–19; Luke 9–19)
• Chapter 6: Jesus and the Pentecost Pilgrimage
• Chapter 7: Summary of Conclusions
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• About the Author