The Chiasm
The story of the Bible can be presented as a chiasm, where events unfold in a certain order which is that reveals the condition of mankind, and then events continue in a reverse order as God brings to completion the plan he intended from the begtinning
A – God formed an ordered universe of life and flourishing out of chaos, intending the universe to be a temple where he would rule with creatures who bore his image. God began his rule with his image-bearers in a special garden, Eden. But his image-bearers were instructed to fill the earth so that God’s rule would extend, with them, to the entire earth.
B — The image-bearers rebelled, bringing increasing chaos and death to the world.
D’ —– Out of Israel, God creates a new spiritual Israel, through which he will accomplish his goals
Unfolding the chiasm in the books of the Bible
Following the chiasm as it unfolds through the different books of the Bible. The books of the Old Testament are presented in the order as presented in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanach.
The Torah
Genesis
Primordial history.
A – God formed an ordered universe of life and flourishing out of chaos, intending the universe to be a temple where he would rule with creatures who bore his image. God began his rule with his image-bearers in a special garden, Eden. But his image-bearers were instructed to fill the earth so that God’s rule would extend, with them, to the entire earth.
God created the world as a good world and as a form of temple, a place where he would dwell with creatures who bore his image, who would serve as his priests, ruling God’s creation on his behalf. Their mission was to fill the earth, extending God’s rule to all of creation.
B — The image-bearers rebelled, bringing increasing chaos and death to the world.
God’s rule was a rule of love, a voluntary giving of one’s self to another. Toward that end, God’s image-bearing creatures were given the opportunity to make that choice. Although the image-bearers were well-provided for, they were provided with the choice to trust God to determine what is good and evil or to decide for themselves. They decided not trust God, not to wait for God’s timing to give them knowledge and wisdom about what is good and evil. Rather, they decided that they would determine what was good and evil for themselves.
This rebellion broke the relationships between the humans themselves, between the humans and God and even between the humans and God’s creation. Despite this rebellion, God promised that a rescue would happen through a descendant of the woman. But meanwhile, evil and violence rapidly accelerated to the point where God saw fit to “start over” by creating a flood that wiped out all humans except Noah and his family.
C —- The image-bearers continue to defy God’s desire and build a tower in Babel to make a name for themselves and God found it necessary to confuse their language to force them to spread through the earth and form nations.
Beginning with Noah, we see many hopeful personalities arise to be that potential “seed of the woman” God promised but end up falling short of being the rescuer God promised. Noah himself ends up naked and ashamed, recapitulating the failure in the Garden of Eden.
The rebellion that began in the garden continued as Noah’s descendants defied God’s desire that they spread through the earth and serve as God’s representatives. Instead, they decided to make a name for themselves by not dispersing and instead built a tower to “reach to the heavens.” God frustrated this rebellion by confusing their one language by causing them to speak in different languages. The resulting confusion caused conflict, causing the people to disperse and form different nations.
D —– Out of the nations, God chooses one family through which He will form a new nation, Israel, through whom he will accomplish his goals.
Patriarchal history
God still intended for all humans to serve as his priests to the rest of his creation. But to get there, from out of all the nations, God chose one man through whom the whole earth would be blessed. From out of all the nations, God would choose one man, Abram (later named Abraham), God to form a nation to serve as his priests to rest of the nations.
God called Abram out of Ur in the Euphrates River valley to go to the “promised land,” the land of Canaan where God would plant his nation of priests. Abraham was given a vision in which he saw his descendants become enslaved in a foreign nation, but in that same vision those descendants would come out slavery with great possessions and return to the “promised land.”
God’s promise would be continued through Abraham’s son, Isaac – who was born who was born long after Abraham’s wife, Sarah was barren at 90 years old and Abraham was 100 years old. The promise was then passed on through Isaac’s son, Jacob, who would later be named, Israel, the nation through whom God would bless the entire world. Jacob would have 12 sons. One of those sons, Joseph, would be sold by his brothers and would end up as a slave in Egypt. Through God’ providential care, Joseph would end up second in command to the Pharoah, where in the midst of a great famine throughout that part of the world, Joseph would have the resources to bring his family to Egypt where he could provide for their needs.
E —— God raises a leader, Moses, to bring that chosen nation, Israel, out of captivity in Babylon. Moses serves as a prophet, priest and king for Israel, but fails to be the perfect human who can deliver the people from their sin.
Exodus
Leaving Egypt for Sinai
After a period of enslavement, God called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Through a plague that killed the firstborn of everyone in Egypt, except in those households whose door frames were sprinkled with the blood of the Passover lamb, the Pharoah was convinced, temporarily, to let Israel leave. However, Pharoah’s heart was hardened, and he ended up trying to recapture Israel only to have Israel escape through the miraculously dry land in the Red Sea while Pharoah’s army ended up drowning.
The Law and the Tabernacle
Israel arrived at Mt. Sinai ready to be a “nation of priests” but because of fear and disobedience ended up being a “nation with priests.” Through Moses, Israel was given a set of instructions to guide the people in how to live and instructions on how to build a tabernacle where God could be present in the midst of the nation. At the beginning of Exodus, Moses could meet with God face-to-face, but things happened such that even Moses could not meet God face-to-face.
Leviticus
Ritual and moral purity for the priests and the people
Leviticus provides means, through rituals and behavior, for the people and the priests to become holy so that they come into God’s holy place in the tabernacle. Impurity is not sinful and is a temporary condition. The rituals involve offerings made in the tabernacle and the celebration of feasts. Behaviors involve moral righteousness and ritual holiness.
Day of Atonement
In the center of those expectations for rituals and behavior, is the Day of Atonement, where the high priest would perform ritual offerings for his own sins and for the sins of the people. The observation of the rituals and behaviors described in Leviticus made it possible for Moses to meet with God face-to-face once again.
Numbers
The wilderness revelation
Leviticus provided a way forward after Israel broke the covenant through idol worship. Israel then began the journey to the land promised them by God. To begin the trip to Canaan, God told Israel to take how to take a census and how to arrange their camps around the tabernacle. As Israel left Sinai to journey to Canaan, more tests awaited. There were complaints about hunger and talks of returning to Egypt, Miriam and Aaron started to oppose Moses, and then there was rebellion as most of the spies who were sent into Canaan gave a discouraging report of how Israel would not be able to capture the land of Canaan and that they should go back to Egypt. This caused the people to rebel against God’s plan, causing God to condemn the adults to die in the wilderness and that only their children would be able to enter the land of Canaan.
The wilderness preparation
Israel would spend 40 years in the wilderness and would still continue to rebel against God: a group of Levites led by Korah challenged Moses’ authority, Israel complained about hunger and thirst more, God sent a plague of venomous snakes causing many to die. Despite Israel’s failures, God remained faithful, and Israel managed to overcome attacks by the tribes of the wilderness, including attacks from Moab whose king unsuccessfully tried to get a prophet to prophecy against Israel. At the end of Numbers, Israel arrives near the Jordan River across from the land of Canaan, another census is taken and some tribes begin to make settlements.
Deuteronomy
Those who were children when they left Egypt were now, 40 years later, adults ready to enter the land of Canaan. For this generation, Moses summarized the story of Israel’s rebelliousness and God’s faithfulness, and then reiterated and summarized the instructions God gave at Mt. Sinai. Moses then told both of the blessings that await Israel if they love God and walk in his ways and the curses of God if they turn from Him. But even as God commissioned Joshua to lead the people into the land of Canaan, God also foretold how Israel would continue to rebel against Him and the consequences of that rebellion.
The (Former) Prophets
Joshua
Joshua leads Israel
Joshua is presented as the new Moses. Joshua commanded the people to obey the Torah, sent spies into the land, led Israel across the Jordan River, restored circumcision and celebrated the first Passover in the new land.
Israel battles with Canaanites
When Israel was faithful, God brought success to Israel’s battles, but even when one Israelite was not faithful, God caused Israel to lose battles.
Tribes are assigned their lands
Israel was not numerous enough to fill all the land. So even when Joshua had gotten old, there were still large areas not yet conquered by Israel. Even so, God had given this entire land to Israel and so the entire land, including the land not yet taken, was divided up and assigned to the different tribes. Meanwhile, the land had rest from war. Before Joshua died, he reviewed Israel’s history, recounted God’s faithfulness, warned of Israel’s inability to serve God and then had Israel renew their covenant.
F ——- Israel continues to rebel, even rejecting God as king so that they could be “like everybody else.” In the generations of Israel that follow. The continued rebellion causes God Israel to be brought into captivity and they live in exile for 70 years. No one like Moses arises.
Judges
The book of Judges repeats the pattern in Genesis, when the presence of sin led to accelerating decay and violence. After the death of Joshua, different tribes of Israel were led by different leaders called “judges.” In the account of each judge there is a pattern which emerges. As the Israelites settled into their territory, they would forget the Lord and begin to do evil. To discipline them, God would allow neighboring tribes to harass the Israelites which eventually caused the Israelites to call to God for help, then God would raise a leader (judge) to rescue them, then Israel begin to follow the Lord for a period of time before Israel would again begin to do evil again – and the cycle would repeat. Judges started with a few good leaders, but the morality of leaders grew worse as time went on. By the end of the book, Israel was unrecognizable as the people of God. The theme of the book is “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
Samuel
A king like everyone else
By the end of Judges, Eli, the high priest, and his sons are taking care of the tabernacle that God has long abandoned. In parallel with Sarah, who became miraculously pregnant, a woman, Hannah, was barren but became pregnant after worshipping at the tabernacle and Eli asked that the Lord grant her what she was asking of God. Hannah’s response was to dedicate Samuel and honored God by giving him to the Lord and giving him to serve with Eli at the tabernacle.
God accused Eli and his sons of having dishonoring Him and warned Eli of the consequences. When the Philistines were attacking Israel, Eli’s sons foolishly brought the ark, out of the tabernacle and into battle where it was captured by the Philistines. Eli’s sons were killed in the battle and Eli died upon hearing of the demise of his sons and the ark.
Samuel replaced Eli as the high priest and served as the last of the judges. Samuel’s sons did not walk with the Lord as Samuel did, so when Samuel grew old, the people of Israel rejected God and asked for Samuel to anoint a king – “like everyone else.” God told Samuel that Israel was not rejecting Samuel, but God himself, so God gave them a king like everyone else. a king like themselves, Saul, a king who was tall and handsome but a king who rejected the Lordship of God.
Saul was successful in defeating many of Israel’s enemies, but Saul did not have the heart to follow God and did not take too long violate God’s commands causing God to reject Saul as king. While God allowed Saul to serve as king for many more years, God raised up someone else to replace him.
A king after God’s own heart
After Saul was rejected as king, God called Samuel to anoint David as king. In the long and complicated period that followed the anointing, David at times served under Saul and at times was being pursued by Saul to kill him. During Saul’s pursuit to kill David, David had two chances to kill Saul, but he did not. David decided not to “grab” the opportunity but rather to wait for God’s timing – this is why David is called a man after God’s own heart. Eventually, in a battle with the Philistines, Saul’s sons were killed, and Saul fell on his own sword.
Saul’s death opened the way for David to become king. David was very successful in defeating Israel’s enemies. He did many things that were right and just for Israel. He brought the ark, which had long been separated from the tabernacle, to Jerusalem, not to be secreted in the tabernacle but in the open to serve as the center of praise and worship.
For all of this, David was not perfect. His parenting was fraught with problems, he became ensnared in political intrigues, and he even succumbed to adultery and murder. When confronted with sin, David would repent, but the sins reaped painful consequences.
Kings
A king with a divided heart
After David, Solomon became king. Solomon asked God for wisdom, which God granted him. But despite the great wisdom God endowed him with, Solomon failed to follow the warnings of scripture about accumulating wives and wealth.
With his wealth and his influence, Solomon oversaw many building projects, including a magnificent temple to replace the tabernacle. The building projects required a lot of forced labor similar to that of the Pharoahs. These projects also required much taxation, putting a significant burden on the people.
Solomon ended up with hundreds of wives, many from foreign lands. Solomon’s heart became divided because he loved his wives more than God, and, in desiring to please his wives, he allowed and practiced idolatry. The division in his heart would lead to the division of the kingdom.
A divided kingdom
When Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam became king. Rehoboam foolishly acted to tax the people of Israel even more than Solomon, causing the Kingdom of Israel to split into two: the northern kingdom of 10 tribes and the southern kingdom of 2 tribes. The northern kingdom produced no good kings and was eventually captured by the Assyrian Empire who scattered the people of the northern kingdom throughout the empire, never to be heard from in history again. The southern kingdom, had only a few good kings and was eventually captured by the Babylonian Empire which had also overtaken the Assyrian Empire. The Babylonians took the best and the brightest Israelites into captivity in Babylon to serve the empire.
The (Latter) Prophets
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve
(The Twelve: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)
The Latter Prophets served in various times and places during the times of the divided kingdoms, the exile, and the return from exile. While the details of what they spoke about varied, the basic content was always the same.
- God despises idolatry and injustice. Israel’s continual practice of injustice, idolatry, and oppression of the poor will result in exile. God also despised idolatry and injustice among other the nations, even the nations God used to discipline Israel. Those nations would also experience God’s justice.
- But after the exile is over, God’s kingdom will come, and all nations will see his glory. God will create a new Jerusalem, which will be the intersection of heaven and earth and he will fill it with the remnant of his people and all nations will come there and experience peace on earth. God will transform the hearts of Israel so that they will be able to follow him.
- God’s justice is not meant to destroy, but to purify, heal and transform and through His great love he will bring flourishing, safety and peace. The faithfulness with which God exercises judgment gives hope that God will be equally faithful in exercising his mercy, fulfilling his promises, and establishing his kingdom on earth. God will bring salvation to those who put their trust in Him and repent.
- Occasionally, God would give the prophets visions through which he would reveal the spiritual dimensions of what is happening in the world. These visions were meant to give hope to God’s people, that in the midst of evil that he still is in control of events and all people will see his justice.
The (Wisdom) Writings
Psalms
Collections of songs of devotion to God contributed by people from Moses to Solomon that was compiled after the exile. The beginning focuses on songs of lament but ends with songs of praise and hope when God will send a new prophet. the Psalms are like a new Torah about prayer.
Proverbs
Wisdom, which begins with reverence of the Lord, is the application of knowledge of how to live in a moral universe. Proverbs are to help give skills for living well in God’s world. Fear of the Lord is a healthy sense of reverence and awe concerning God. Wisdom and fear lead to success and peace. folly and evil lead to ruin and shame. Wisdom is the accumulated insight of God’s people through the generations to live in a way that honors God and others.
Job
The world is amazingly complex, and so the causes of suffering and the implementation of justice are more complex than we can imagine, and God has his eyes on all of it. Job and his friends are not like God, they do not have sufficient knowledge and wisdom to make accusations against God. God brings up two well-known mythical creatures that symbolize disorder and danger. These creatures are not bad, but they are not safe. God’s world is good, but it’s not perfect. It is ordered and beautiful but wild and dangerous. The world is not designed to prevent suffering. We have no option but to trust God and his wisdom.
The (Five Scrolls) Writings
Song of Songs
Read during Passover. The Song of Songs is love poetry expressing the delight of free and uninhibited love as it was in the Garden of Eden before the corruption of sin, pointing to how God’s love will ultimately permeate our lives. The poetry is not meant to be dissected, but to simply be read and enjoyed.
Ruth
Read during Shavuot. Ruth is the story of how a woman from Moab decided to leave her homeland and its gods to follow her mother-in-law and Yahweh. The faithfulness and dedication of the Moabite woman ends up putting her in the family tree leading to the Messiah, showing how the human actions can be used by God to achieve his eternal purposes.
Lamentations
Read on the 9th of Av. Five poems of lament about the loss of Jerusalem. But the same faithfulness that causes God to bring justice, causes hope that that same faithfulness applies to God’s mercy and his promise to restore Jerusalem.
Ecclesiastes
Read during Sukkot. Since everything we may try to achieve in our life is only a vapor, we should enjoy the good things as a gift of God and live according to the commands of the one who will judge all things in the end.
Esther
Read during Purim. Even though God is not mentioned, through a story filled with ironic reversals and coincidences, Esther still God is at work, even among Jews living in a foreign city 100 years Babylon took them into exile.
(Uncategorized) Writings
Daniel
Daniel and his friends remain faithful to Yahweh even as they are taken into captivity in Babylon. God rewards their faithfulness with wisdom and protection. Through dreams and visions, God reveals that Babylon is just part of a series of empires that are built upon one another and that, in the end, God will destroy those empires and rule the world himself.
F’ ——- After the time of exile, only a remnant of Israel returns to the promised land which is now controlled by foreigners. Even Jerusalem and its temple are only a remnant of what they were. People increasingly anticipate a political rescuer.
Ezra-Nehemiah
Originally written as a single scroll. Depicts the second temple period as a series of anti-climaxes. The rebuilding of the temple did not seem to fulfill the vision of the New Jerusalem that had been prophesied. Three times, a Persian emperor allowed a leader to bring Jews back to Jerusalem with supplies to fulfill their task (rebuilding the temple, the community, the walls around the city) and each attempt brought some kind of failure: rebuilding the temple did not bring God’s presence and then Zerubbabel rejected help from the community when the temple was supposed to bring the nations together, rebuilding the community ended with Ezra’s decree for the people to divorce non-Jewish wives – and God hates divorce, rebuilding the walls ends with Nehemiah’s reforms being ignored. This is the end of Old Testament history and the promises of changed hearts and the establishment of a New Jerusalem are unfulfilled.
Chronicles
Chronicles was written after the return from exile and the second temple was built. Ss the last book of the Hebrew Bible, it summarizes all of Jewish scripture and, in the face of second temple which is a diminished version of Solomon’s temple and certainly not the new temple promised by the prophets. Chronicles emphasizes the positive aspects of King David and the good kings that followed him in order to inspire hope in the coming of the Messiah.
E’ —— God raises a rescuer like Moses, Jesus, to bring his chosen nation out of the captivity of sin. Moses serves as a prophet, priest and king for Israel and succeeds in being the perfect human who can deliver the people from their sin.
The Gospels
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
The four accounts provide a composite picture of Jesus’ life: He is the promised Messianic King whose coming was foretold in scripture, during his time of ministry he called people to follow him as bought physical and spiritual healing and taught as one with authority, he was fully human and yet fully God, prophet, priest and king, who came to die that we might live. The accounts reveal how people interacted with Jesus with reactions from profound belief to skepticism and unbelief, from awe to hatred. He was misunderstood to be king who came to militarily defeat the secular powers and instead he came to defeat death and the powers of the dark spiritual world. He came to fulfill scripture and not to dismiss it.
D’ —– Out of Israel, God creates a new spiritual Israel, through which he will accomplish his goals
Many followers gather around Jesus, but Jesus selects 12 of those disciples to be his apostles – the who, after his resurrection, form the leadership of the disciples and who will be sent into the world to spread the good news of Jesus.
C’ —- At the celebration of Shavuot, Jews gather from throughout the world and the confusion of languages set in place at Babel is reversed.
The Acts of the Holy Spirit
This book shows the work of the Holy Spirit empowering the disciples as they launched the church into a new era. Jews from around the world gather to celebrate Shavuot, the Festival of First Fruits. As the apostles gather to celebrate and pray, the Holy Spirit visibly manifests as wind and fire, giving the apostles the ability to speak in different languages; thus, reversing the action at Babel, where God confused the languages to cause the people to separate. Now language is used by the apostles to bring the church together.
B’ — Enabled by the Holy Spirit, the chosen nation is now sent to all the nations to bring the Kingdom of God and life and flourishing to the world.
The Kingdom of God was now visibly launched, with powers to bring healing to the nations, calling all people to belief in Jesus as the Savior of the world, first in Judea, then Samaria and then to the ends of the world.
The Letters
Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James 1&2 Peter, 1&2&3 John, Jude
The letters were written by some of the apostles to individuals or churches in response to various situations. In that context, they explain how the gospel applies to those various situations. The following is a summary of some common themes:
- God always does what is right and is faithful and just to fulfill his promises.
- All nations are trapped by sin and idolatry which distorts our humanity and makes us guilty before God.
- We have a new status (right with God and forgiven), new family (we are included with God’s covenant people), have a new future (by our transformed life. By faith we are “in Christ”
- Choosing to follow Jesus means leaving old nature. Baptism is a symbol of that transaction where what was true of Jesus is now true of us. We are liberated to love God and neighbor.
- Being a member of ethnic Israel did not make one a member of the covenant family. God had always selected a subset from that family. God used people’s rejection of him to accomplish his purposes.
- Unity will come from love and a commitment to love and forgive each other, serving one another, in humility and reconciliation.
- We need to show grace to one another and respect our differences. God works through everybody, and we should work in a unified way to serve the well-being of the others.
- We should not be concerned about status or self-promotion but rather being slaves to Jesus.
- People are not justified by works of the Torah but by faith in Jesus.
- Abraham and all his spiritual offspring are justified by faith in God.
- Torah was given as a temporary measure: it magnified sin and imprisoned everyone under the power of sin, but also acted as a schoolteacher to keep people in line until the coming of the Messiah. Laws did not give power to people to obey them. It is the spirit of God which produces the fruit of the spirit.
- We are one unified (not uniform) body in the spirit, one lord, There is no Greek or Jew, slave or free.
- We should live in the present as if the day of the Lord is already here.
- We should respect our leaders, not be idle, encourage and help each other, be kind, joyful, praying, thankful in all circumstances.
- The world will keep producing rulers that rebel and exalt themselves, but Jesus will return and confront all who bring evil and deliver his people.
- We should not fuel apocalyptic speculation – especially about those things that divide the church and create controversy.
- True teaching results in love and genuine faith. The purpose of the Torah is to expose the truth about the human condition and the need for a messiah to come to save sinful broken people.
- Elders and deacons should be men of outstanding character and integrity who exhibit healthy relationships in their families, demonstrating that they could promote healthy relationships in the church.
- Beliefs shape how we live, so beliefs need to be critiqued. The church should be known for integrity and service to others out of devotion to Jesus.
- Scripture is God-breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, training in righteousness – so that we are prepared for doing good.
- Christians should be ideal citizens: peaceable, generous, pursuing the common good.
- Jesus is superior to Moses. If the Israelites failed to enter the promised land because of their hardened hearts, how can we avoid failing to enter the Sabbath rest if we harden our hearts.
- The Aaronic sacrifices were daily and yearly. Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all and is the foundation of the new covenant which forgives all sins.
- Walk in the light (to keep Jesus’ commands, and when you fail, repent and begin over)
- Love one another as he loved us. Don’t love the world (pride, sexual corruption)
A’ — The image-bearers continue the project of extending the life and flourishing of the Kingdom of Heaven to all the earth. At the appointed time King Jesus will return to complete the ordered universe, by fully eradicating chaos and death and making the whole earth a place of only life and flourishing.
Revelation
Revelation is a prophetic and apocalyptic type of literature. It contains symbolic visions that reveal a heavenly perspective on history so that the present could be seen in perspective of our final outcome. Revelation borrows symbols from the Old Testament that would be familiar to those who knew scripture. Symbols such as Babylon which represent all nations and empires that resist God, the Lamb which represents Christ. The message of Revelation is meant to encourage people to continue in the faith by showing the ultimate triumph of God over evil.
Revelation brings to a close the intentions God had from the beginning, to create a good world inhabited by creatures who bore his image and who would serve as his representatives (priests) ruling God’s creation on his behalf. The battles fought in Revelation depict God’s triumph over those forces of evil that caused his image-bearers to rebel and corrupted all of creation. Jesus was the seed of the woman prophesied in Genesis, the one that the whole Old Testament was waiting for who would restore our relationship with God. Pentecost undid the confusion of languages at Babel. The temple, the place where heaven and earth intersected and God would meet with his image-bearers, now encompassed the entire earth.
Transcendent Touched 