Reading the Bible Backwards: From the Ending to its Beginning and Back Again
From The Forum Magazine, Spring 2014 - view the full issue here
Children love to have Curious George or another favorite book read to them time and again, for the old, old story is unfailingly new. Woe to any reader who omits a sentence or perhaps, the child’s favorite word.
Some children never outgrow their love for a favorite novel. You read it time and again because its familiarity never fails to hold while previously unseen twists and forceful phrasing take you to the well-known, but now slightly different ending. Every reading is fresh: you have not seen all there is for the eye to see, nor is this reading moment the same as your last. And when you get to the end of the story, it’s the same but richer.
Even though reading the entire Bible like a novel would be an arduous exercise, I’m going to suggest that when you read the Bible, Old or New Testaments, you do so from the point of view of its ending. I know that’s not the way to read any kind of literature for the first time. But, if you are going to study a book you have read several times, it is a helpful way to understand what it’s all about. Do this for one simple reason: the ending of a story corresponds in some way to its beginning—it brings some resolution to the problem described at the outset. Reading any chapter of a novel, with the end and beginning in mind, gives you the “bookends” to help you keep the storyline straight. No matter where you are in the book, you are where the action is taking you.
The End and the Beginning of the Bible
Scripture ends as follows: all nations, tribes and peoples who are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb enter into the presence of God in the New Jerusalem; all the unclean remain outside. This ending described in Revelation 21-22 corresponds to the opening chapters of Genesis where God created all creatures and especially humanity in his presence. Humanity defiled God’s presence in the Garden and God removed them from his presence; humanity now wanders restlessly east of Eden. This is the “problem” described in the beginning. In between this beginning and ending the Bible narrates what God does among his human creatures to bring them back into his presence, and what humanity does in response to God’s acts. That’s the whole story—the plot with twists and turns and, well—you already know the very satisfying ending to the human problem.
Moving from the End to the Beginning: The "Problem"
The temple imagery at the ending—of the One who is seated on the throne, the Holy City, the cleansed who enter and the unclean who remain outside, the presence of God, the emphasis on wholeness and purity—helps us see that the opening chapters of Scripture also employs temple imagery.
The beginning tells us God’s creation is like a temple, a sanctuary in which all creatures receive their proper place and vocation in God’s presence. It is the nature of a temple to be clean and undefiled, that obedience to the deity’s instructions characterize life in temple space, that priests maintain the cleanliness of the temple, and that all activities therein are performed according to prescribed instructions. After describing this good beginning in Genesis 1-2, the biblical narrative takes a terrible twist: the priests refuse the divinely given instruction (Gen. 2:15); they prefer a fresh “liturgy.” Such defilement of temple space has only one consequence: God casts the priests from his presence.
But, priestly humanity needs God’s presence like a tree needs water—outside of that presence humanity is dead (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 6:23). This is the narrative problem—the conflict which the biblical narrative develops in stunning ways from beginning to end: we learn things about ourselves, we’re the exiled priests, and we learn about God, who like the Aslan of Narnia fame is good but not safe (Ex. 19:12-13; 20:19; Heb. 12:29).
Remarkably the problem is solved rather quickly; the exiled priests arrive in God’s presence at Sinai under Moses’ guidance. More than that, they obediently make a house for God to dwell in their midst. They can see the glory cloud above the tabernacle. Life in the camp at Sinai is almost like Eden— these descendants of Adam and Eve are in God’s presence again. And like in the Garden, God’s people at Sinai receive instructions for enjoying life in God’s presence (Leviticus). In Numbers, Israel begins a journey that will end in Jerusalem where God will dwell in the temple of Solomon. This is the unchanging good news of the gospel: God is in our midst again.
Sinai and the Rest of the Story: Twists and Turns
But, if the problem of exile from God’s presence is solved by God’s tabernacling presence in Exodus, why do we have 64 more books to read? The sad answer is that we and our ancestors in the faith are responsible for the many twists in the story, including in the NT.
You might think that people who had wandered outside of God’s presence would earnestly desire his presence. They do, but on their own terms as the Babel story shows. Abraham and Sarah’s descendants are no better than the nations at Babel or Adam and Eve in the Garden. When Moses takes too long to bring the divine instructions, Aaron and Israel build a god to show them the way to the land of promise. God had solved their problem and they were now enjoying God’s presence. They had only to wait for instructions for life in that presence. You might think they would be patient especially after all these years of God’s care on the way to Sinai. You would be wrong.
Sinai presents us with another twist in the story. From this point to the end of the books of the Kings we read the tragic history of Israel fighting off the presence of God for the sake of the “tabernacling” of other gods. It seems that after every good thing God does to keep his people in his presence, they find ways to defile it, especially after they enter the Promised Land. Read through the book of Judges without stopping, weep and decide on the character of God’s people. Or through Kings, and behold the leadership’s folly, such folly that God decided to cast his people out of his presence (2 Kings 23: 27; 24:3, 20). And so Israel joins the rest of Adam and Eve’s descendants who are still wandering aimlessly East of Eden, there to lament their bitter end (Ps. 137; Lamentations 1-5). The prophets had warned them, but they did not listen (2 Kings 17:13-14, 23; Isa. 1).
Some return to the land to rebuild the temple, but God’s presence does not fill Ezra and Nehemiah’s temple. The exiles in Egypt, Babylon, and those who have returned can only wait for the problem of exile from God’s presence to be solved again by God.
The good news of Sinai and Solomon’s temple is again proclaimed by Matthew: Mary’s son is Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:18-24); he will be “with you until the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). John declared Jesus as one who tabernacles with us (1:14). Christ himself spoke of building a new temple (John 2:20). But there are more twists and turns. Christ’s own people did not understand he was referring to his body. Like God’s people of old, they defiled the tabernacling Son of God by humbling him into the grave. Paul, when addressing the Corinthians’ sexual immorality, reminds them of that good news—“Don’t you know you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6: 18-20) Both Jew and Gentile find ways to defile the good news of God’s presence. For that reason, Paul urges God’s people to “perfect their holiness out of fear and reverence for God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
Good News in the End
From the beginning, the Bible is clear—all our building of temples and churches end in ruins. But those ruins are precious to God (1 Peter 2:4-5). The end of Scripture is even clearer— when all opposition to the good news has been destroyed (Rev. 21:3-4), and twists and turns in the plot will no longer be possible, those cleansed in the blood of the Lamb will enter God’s presence, to forever praise him who is the Beginning and the End. The End of Scripture is entirely satisfying, time and again.
(Arie Leder, Professor of Old Testament, emeritus)
