Creation Care by Douglas J. Moo & Jonathan A. Moo & Jonathan Lunde

Author:Douglas J. Moo & Jonathan A. Moo & Jonathan Lunde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2018-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

The Land

We begin with an interesting and controversial matter: the place of the land of Israel in New Testament teaching. As we have seen, a particular piece of geography was one of the basic components of God’s original promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3). This land has a prominent role in the subsequent development of God’s redemptive plan in the Old Testament. After their deliverance from Egypt and their testing in the wilderness, the people of Israel ultimately come to possess the land God promised to them. But, as we have seen, God makes clear through Moses that Israel would continue to enjoy that land only if they obeyed the law God gave them. If they failed to keep the law, God would remove them from their land. As early as the latter chapters of Deuteronomy, it becomes clear that Israel would indeed fail to maintain their covenant obligation and forfeit their possession of the land (Deut. 31:15–18). Yet, even in the midst of these dire warnings and pessimistic predictions, a clear note of grace and God’s continuing faithfulness is sounded: after the people’s exile, God would bring his people back to their land again (e.g., Deut 30:1–5). This sequence outlined in Deuteronomy becomes a template for the long history of Israel and the land described in the Old Testament. The people fail to obey the law they were given; God expels them from their land because of their disobedience; and God promises that he will bring his people back from exile and settle them again in their land.

It might appear that the Old Testament ends with these promises fulfilled: under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people of Israel return to their land, rebuilding their temple and establishing a degree of political autonomy. However, the situation of Israel in the land at the end of the Old Testament is a far cry from the picture the prophets predict. Only a minority of Jews are back in their land; the repeated wars and occupations by foreign powers make a mockery of the prophets’ predictions of peace and security; and the people fail to display the spiritual vitality and faithfulness to God that was to characterize the Israel of the “last days.”

At the time Jesus begins his ministry, then, it is fair to say that Israel is still “in exile,” at least in some sense. Both Jesus and the apostles announce that God in Jesus is fulfilling prophecies about the restoration of Israel, thereby bringing Israel’s exile finally to its true end. But how has that exile ended? The very word “exile” generally connotes some degree of geographical reference. An “exile” is a person who has emigrated from their native land, and returning from exile would thereby seem to suggest that one has moved back to their homeland again. Yet, as we have noted, the New Testament says very little about how all the Old Testament predictions about the land are being fulfilled through Jesus’s end of the exile. Nevertheless, we

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