CHAPTER 20<\/p>\n
Retooling the Template<\/p>\n
The exodus event, the deliverance from bondage in Egypt, was the catalyst for Israel\u2019s transition from a people to a nation. Any good commentary or guide to the Bible<\/span> will flag that. But there\u2019s a good deal more going on. Over the next three chapters we\u2019ll see that events shortly after the exodus hark back to Eden and the divine council backdrop in some amazing ways.<\/span><\/p>\n God\u2019s Edenic vision began with his announcement that humankind was his image. Yahweh had divine sons; he would also have a human family. Genesis told us that God had a divine council of imagers wh<\/span>o represented his authority in the unseen realm and participated in his rule. It also showed us that God planned a mirror-council on earth, this time composed of human imagers. These two family-administrations were together in his presence. Heaven had come to earth at Eden. Humanity was charged with extending the earthly presence and rule of God throughout the whole earth. God wanted to live a<\/span>nd rule with all his children in his new creation.<\/span><\/p>\n Genesis 3\u201311<\/a> makes it clear that humanity failed miserably. Free will in the hands of imperfect beings comes with that risk. But the incident at Babel, f<\/span>oolish and self-willed as it was, shows us that there\u2019s an Edenic yearning in the human heart, a desire for utopia and a sense of divine presence. But God would not trade his own version of Eden for humanity\u2019s. He punished the nations with disinheritance. He would create a new people as his own portion. That inheritance was begun in covena<\/span>nt with Abraham and passed on through his family.<\/p>\n God deliv<\/span>ered that family from bondage under Moses. Egypt and its gods were defeated. What was corrupted in Eden and counterfeited in the days of the flood and Babel was quickened to life on the other side of the water<\/span>s of chaos.<\/p>\n ISRAEL IS MY SON<\/p>\n Yahweh\u2019s perception of Israel is clear: \u201cIsrael is my son, my firstborn\u201d (Exod 4:22<\/a>); \u201cOut of Egypt I called my son\u201d (Hos 11:1<\/a>). As Abraham, Yahweh\u2019s portion (Deut 32:9<\/a>), had been the<\/span> new Adam, so Israel, the collective progeny of Abraham, was also the new Adam. Adam was Yahweh\u2019s son. Israel was Yahweh\u2019s son.<\/p>\n That may not seem profound, but it is. Once you realize that this patter<\/span>n continues through the remainder of the Bible, the messaging becomes clear. Eventually, God will refer to the king of Israel as his son (Psa 2:7<\/a>). The ultimate future king, the messiah, since he will<\/span> sit on the seat of David, must be Yahweh\u2019s son as well. And since we, glorified believers, will sit on that throne too, sharing that rule (Rev 3:21<\/a>), we are God\u2019s sons, his children. Every believer i<\/span>s also Abraham\u2019s offspring by faith (Gal 3:26\u201329<\/a>). We are the current and<\/em> eschatological sons of God. Our status began with Adam, was rescued in Abraham, and was fulfilled in Jesus, heir to David\u2019s th<\/span>rone.<\/p>\n These connections are actually among the more obvious. There is more that extends from Israel\u2019s sonship all the way to our glory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n BELIEVING ISRAEL: God\u2019s Earthly Council<\/p>\n Recall that in our discussion of Deuteronomy 32:8\u20139<\/a> I mentioned that the number of nations disinherited by Yahweh at the judgment of Babel was seventy.See chapter 14<\/a>. „>1<\/a> The number is telling. Israel\u2019s nearest religious competition, the worship of El, Baal, and Asherah at Ugarit and in Canaan, held that their divine council had seventy sons. When Yahweh disinherited the nations and allotted them to the sons of God, a theological gauntlet was thrown down: Yahweh alone<\/em> commands the nations and their gods. Other gods serve him<\/em>.<\/p>\n The exodus story follows that theological punch in the nose with another. Not only is Israel Yahweh\u2019s son and portion on earth, but Israel is to be governed by a special group of seventy<\/em> under Moses and, later, the Israelite king who is Yahweh\u2019s enthroned son.<\/p>\n Shortly after crossing through the sea, Moses and Israel encountered Jethro. The account is recorded in Exodus 18<\/a>. Seeing the throngs, Jethro advises Moses to select men to help him govern the people. No number is given in that passage, but later, in Exodus 24<\/a>, we read:<\/p>\n 1<\/a> And to Moses he [Yahweh] said, \u201cGo up to Yahweh\u2014you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel\u2014and you will worship at a distance. 2<\/a> And Moses alone will come near to Yahweh, and they will not come near, and the people will not go up with him.\u2026<\/p>\n 9<\/a> And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel went up. 10<\/a> And they saw the God of Israel, and what was under his feet was like sapphire tile work and like the very heavens for clearness (Exod 24:1\u20132<\/a>, 9\u201310<\/a>).<\/p>\n The wording suggests that these seventy elders were drawn from a larger group\u2014as were the elohim<\/span> of Yahweh\u2019s council, who were given different ranks and tasks. Not every member of the divine council has equal rank.See the companion website<\/a> for more discussion on the tiers of Yahweh\u2019s council and those of other cultures, such as Ugarit. „>2<\/a> The sons of God with authority over the nations were assigned that role, but they became corrupt and are the object of the sentencing of Psalm 82<\/a>.See chapter 30<\/a> on the judgment of the gods of Yahweh\u2019s council. „>3<\/a><\/p>\n The correspondences are deliberate. The seventy nations were placed under the dominion of lesser gods in the wake of Yahweh\u2019s judgment of the nations at the Tower of Babel. Yahweh\u2019s own kingdom is structured with a single leader (Moses for now), with whom he speaks directly, and a council of seventy. Historically, this leadership structure would continue into Jesus\u2019 day, as the Jewish Sanhedrin, led by the high priest, numbered seventy.<\/p>\n We\u2019re more interested in the theological messaging. In terms of biblical theology, the imagery has a distinct meaning. God is starting his intended Edenic rule with Israel. Israel will have a single earthly leader (eventually the messianic king, the ultimate offspring of Eve) and a council of seventy. The number telegraphs that, as the kingdom of God is re-established on earth, the seventy nations will be reclaimed, a process that began with the ministry of Jesus and will continue to the end of days.See the discussion in chapters 32<\/a>, 37<\/a>, 40\u201342<\/a>. The number of the nations in Genesis reflects the known world at the time the biblical writers produced the Bible. When the Church inherits the promises of Abraham and Jesus sends out the seventy (Luke 10:1<\/a>), and then all believers in the Great Commission, the language of reclaiming the nations becomes more encompassing. In our day, the messaging is the same: All nations belong to Yahweh; the dominions of darkness will be broken. „>4<\/a><\/p>\n The ultimate outcome of the reclaiming of the nations under Yahweh is suggested in passages that transparently relate to the divine council. Loyal members of Yahweh\u2019s council are themselves referred to as his elders in Isaiah 24:23<\/a>, the context of which is clearly eschatological:<\/p>\n 21<\/a> \u201cOn that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.\u2026 23<\/a> Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders\u201d(Isa 24:21<\/a>, 23<\/a>English Standard Version „>esv<\/a>).Timothy M. Willis, \u201cYahweh\u2019s Elders (Isa 24, 23): Senior Officials of the Divine Court,\u201d Zeitschrift f\u00fcr die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft<\/em> 103.3 (1991): 375\u201385. Isaiah 24<\/a> is part of the section of Isaiah that scholars refer to as the \u201clittle apocalypse\u201d or the \u201cIsaiah apocalypse\u201d (chs. 24\u201327<\/a>). See T. J. Johnson, \u201cApocalypticism, Apocalyptic Literature,\u201d in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets<\/em> (ed. Mark J. Boda and Gordon J. McConville; Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: IVP Academic; Inter-Varsity Press, 2012), 41<\/a>. „>5<\/a><\/p>\n That setting makes sense, given the divine council scene of Revelation 4\u20135<\/a>, where the twenty-four elders<\/em> surround God\u2019s throne.See the discussion of Rev 4\u20135<\/a> in chapter 39<\/a>. The community of believers, the elder motif, and the heavenly assembly are also connected to the heavenly throne room vision of Rev 4\u20135<\/a>. See J\u00fcrgen Roloff, The Revelation of John: A Continental Commentary<\/em> (trans. John E. Alsup; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 69; David E. Aune, Revelation 1\u20135<\/em>, Word Biblical Commentary 52A (Dallas: Word, 1998), 277<\/a>; Joseph M. Baumgarten, \u201cThe Duodecimal Courts of Qumran, Revelation, and the Sanhedrin,\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature<\/em> 95 (1976): 59\u201378; Larry W. Hurtado, \u201cRevelation 4\u20135 in the Light of Jewish Apocalyptic Analogies,\u201d Journal for the Study of the New Testament<\/em> 25 (1985): 105\u201324. „>6<\/a> The teaching point is profound: The corrupt sons of God who currently dominate the nations will be replaced by loyal members of God\u2019s family.<\/p>\n But which family? The New Testament explains that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n HEIRS OF THE COSMOS<\/p>\n Since the Church, the corporate body of believers, inherited the promises given to Abraham (Gal 3:26\u201329<\/a>), believers are the \u201ctrue Israel\u201d the New Testament talks about. When we inh<\/span>erit rule of the nations with Jesus at the end of days (Rev 3:21<\/a>), we will displace the corrupted divine sons of God presently ruling the nations, who are under judgment (Psa 82<\/a>). We are already, but <\/span>not yet, Yahweh\u2019s new council on earth. The apostle John captures the spirit of the point:<\/p>\n But as many as received him\u2014to those who believe in his name\u2014he gave to them authority to become children of <\/span>God (John 1:12<\/a>).<\/p>\n See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called children of God, and we are! (1 John 3:1<\/a>).<\/p>\n This structuring helps us make sense of something else Paul said.<\/span> The rulership of the nations was a higher-ranking task than being a messenger (the meaning of the word angel<\/em>). The destiny of believers who will share Jesus\u2019 throne and the rule of nations is the bac<\/span>kdrop for Paul\u2019s statement that Christians should stop letting the world\u2019s courts resolve their disputes. In 1 Corinthians 6:3<\/a> he protests: \u201cDo you not know that we will judge angels?\u201d When we are mad<\/span>e divine (glorified) on the new earth, we will outrank angels<\/em>. Believers are God\u2019s once and future family, once and future council, once and future rulers with Jesus over all the nations. Israel\u2019s rel<\/span>ease propels this theology.<\/p>\n The glorified, divine aspect of Yahweh\u2019s human family-council is telegraphed in other ways.<\/p>\n The divine sons of God are called the \u201cmorning stars\u201d in Job 38:7<\/a> and \u201cthe stars<\/span> of God\u201d in Isaiah 14:13<\/a>. The imagery of Joseph\u2019s dream, where the sons of Jacob (Israel) are stars (Gen 37:9<\/a>), is no accident. Neither is it a coincidence that Abraham\u2019s offspring will be \u201cas the sta<\/span>rs.\u201d While that phrase speaks of a numerical multitude of offspring, that isn\u2019t its only<\/em> message.<\/p>\n Star language speaks of divinity or glorification elsewhere. In Revelation, Jesus himself, the morning<\/span> star, and angels are identified with star language to denote their divine, nonearthly, nature (Rev 1:20<\/a>; 22:16<\/a>; cf. 2:28<\/a>). As Daniel says, the righteous will \u201cshine like the brightness of the sky abo<\/span>ve \u2026 like the stars, forever and ever\u201d (Dan 12:2\u20133<\/a>). Our inheritance of the nations with Jesus at the end of days (Rev 3:21<\/a>) is in a glorified, resurrected\u2014divine\u2014state. The star language of Genesis 1<\/span>5<\/a> has an eschatological connotation.<\/p>\n In Romans, Paul was tracking on this idea. Scholars have noticed with interest his slight change of the language of Genesis 15<\/a>, God\u2019s promises to Abraham, in Roman<\/span>s 4<\/a>.This interpretive trajectory is part of New Testament and Second Temple period Jewish thinking on the glorification (also called \u201cangelification,\u201d \u201capotheosis,\u201d and \u201cdeification\u201d) of believers. Second Temple period examples of this approach include Philo of Alexandria (Who Is the Heir of Divine Things<\/em><\/a> 86\u201387<\/a>, 280\u201383<\/a>; Questions and Answers in Genesis<\/em><\/a> 4.181<\/a>; On the Posterity of Cain<\/em><\/a> 89<\/a>; The Special Laws<\/em><\/a> 1.13\u201319<\/a>); Sirach 44:21<\/a>. See David Burnett, \u201c\u2005\u2018So Shall Your Seed Be\u2019: Paul\u2019s Use of Genesis 15:5 in Romans 4:18 in Light of Early Jewish Deification Traditions\u201d (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, CA, November 22\u201325, 2014; forthcoming in Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters<\/em>); M. David Litwa, We Are Being Transformed: Deification in Paul\u2019s Soteriology<\/em>, <\/em>Beihefte zur Zeitschrift f\u00fcr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft<\/em> 187 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2012); Devorah Dimant, \u201cMen as Angels: The Self-Image of the Qumran Community,\u201d in Religion and Politics in the Ancient Near East<\/em>, Studies in Jewish History and Culture (ed. Adele Berlin; Bethesda, MD: University Press of America, 1996), 93\u2013103; James Tabor, \u201cFirstborn of Many Brothers: A Pauline Notion of Apotheosis,\u201d in Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers<\/em> 1984, 295\u2013303. The eschatological ramifications of that thinking are the coherent outcome of the Deuteronomy 32<\/a> worldview\u2019s final resolution in biblical theology. Burnett\u2019s essay is particularly powerful in that it demonstrates a clear Jewish intellectual trajectory (especially Philo) that links the glorification of Abraham\u2019s seed (all believers, via Gal 3:26\u201329<\/a>) to the divine sons of God. Glorified believers are Yahweh\u2019s household-council reconstituted to displace and replace the rebellious sons of God over the nations who now resist the advance of Yahweh\u2019s kingdom and reclamation of the nations. See the companion website<\/a> for more discussion. „>7<\/a> In Genesis 15:5<\/a> the embodied Yahweh \u201cbrought [Abraham] outside and said, \u2018Look toward the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them.\u2019 And he said to him, \u2018So shall your offsprin<\/span>g be.\u2019\u2005\u201d Paul refers to the verse twice in Romans 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n So that [Abraham] became the father of many nations, according to what was said, \u201cso will your descendants be\u201d (Rom 4:18<\/a>).<\/p>\n For the promise to Abrah<\/span>am or to his descendants, that he would be heir of the world [Greek: kosmos<\/span>], was not through the law, but through the righteousness by faith (Rom 4:13<\/a>).<\/p>\n A few observations are in order. For Paul, Abr<\/span>aham did not become the father of just Israel, but of many nations<\/em>. The point of course harks back to his theology in Galatians 3<\/a>, where all believers, Jew or Gentile, are \u201cAbraham\u2019s seed\u201d (Gal 3:26\u20132<\/span>9<\/a>).<\/p>\n The notion of Abraham\u2019s offspring becoming \u201cheir of the world\u201d speaks to rulership of the nations by those offspring. The corrupt divine sons of God of Deuteronomy 32:8<\/a> would be displaced by new d<\/span>ivine sons of God\u2014glorified believers.See chapters 35\u201336<\/a>, 42<\/a>. „>8<\/a><\/p>\n Paul\u2019s logic makes sense if believers are Yahweh\u2019s children, especially given the merging of humanity with the divine presence back in Eden. Even now we are \u201csh<\/span>arers of the divine nature\u201d (2 Pet 1:4<\/a>), but one day we will be made like Jesus (1 John 3:1\u20133<\/a>; 1 Cor 15:35\u201349<\/a>) and rule with him over the nations. Believers, the spiritual offspring of Abraham, will u<\/span>ltimately reverse the disinheritance of the nations along with the curse of death that extended from Eden\u2019s failure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n EDEN AND SINAI<\/p>\n In Genesis, Eden was Yahweh\u2019s home and the meeting place of his divine council. God had since changed addresses. Sinai was now his domain\u2014and where Israel was now headed.<\/p>\n Earlier we discovered that Eden was the dwelling place and headquarters of the divine council.See chapter 6<\/a>. „>9<\/a> We were reminded of the description of Eden in Genesis as a lush garden<\/em> with four rivers (Gen 2:10\u201314<\/a>). Eden was also a mountain<\/em> (Ezek 28:13\u201314<\/a>), the administrative \u201cseat of the gods\u201d (Ezek 28:2<\/a>), situated in \u201cthe heart of the seas\u201d (Ezek 28:2<\/a>), a description that reiterated the well-watered imagery of the council headquarters. The gods lived in the best or most remote places. That earlier discussion noted some connections between Eden and Mount Zion. It\u2019s time to take a look at connections with Sinai.On Eden-Sinai connections, see Morales, \u201cMountain of God in the Wilderness,\u201d ch. 4 in L. Michael Morales, The Tabernacle Prefigured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus<\/em> (Biblical Tools and Studies 15; Leuven: Peeters, 2012); Richard J. Clifford, \u201cThe Temple and the Holy Mountain,\u201d in Cult and Cosmos: Tilting Toward a Temple-Centered Biblical Theology<\/em>, Biblical Tools and Books 18 (ed. L. Michael Morales; Leuven: Peeters, 2014), 85\u201398; D. W. Parry, \u201cSinai as Sanctuary and Mountain of God,\u201d in By Study and Also by Faith<\/em>, vol. 1 in Essays in Honor of Hugh Nibley on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday<\/em> (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1990), 482\u2013500; and Daniel C. Timmer, Creation, Tabernacle, and Sabbath: The Sabbath Frame of Exodus 31:12\u201317; 35:1\u20133 in Exegetical and Theological Perspective<\/em> (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 227;G\u00f6ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009). „>10<\/a><\/p>\n The fact that Eden is referred to as both a garden and a mountain in Ezekiel 28:13\u201314<\/a> is significant. It provides a clear conceptual link between Eden and the holy mountain of God, Sinai.Mount Sinai is also called Mount Horeb in the Old Testament. For example, see Exod 3:1\u20133<\/a>; Deut 4:15<\/a>; 5:2<\/a>; 1 Kgs 8:9<\/a>. „>11<\/a><\/p>\n We\u2019ve actually already gotten a hint that Sinai is God\u2019s home and meeting place. In the passage about the seventy elders (Exod 24:9\u201311<\/a>), Yahweh appeared in human form, as he had to the patriarchs and Moses. But this time the seventy earthly elders are along for the meeting. The council room has been reserved for the seventy from Israel.<\/p>\n Sinai as Yahweh\u2019s throne room is telegraphed in other ways. Exodus 24<\/a> notes that Yahweh was seated and that under his feet was a pavement of shining sapphire stone, \u201clike the very heavens for clearness\u201d (Exod 24:10<\/a>). Again, light speaks of divine presence. This imagery is repeated in other passages and expanded to include fire, smoke, flashing light, lightning, and loud noises (Exod 19:16<\/a>, 18<\/a>; 20:18<\/a>; Deut 5:4\u20135<\/a>, 22\u201326<\/a>).<\/p>\n All of these elements are found in familiar visions of Yahweh on his throne (Isa 6<\/a>; Ezek 1<\/a>; Dan 7<\/a>; Psa 18<\/a>). These passages employ the same imagery whether Yahweh is enthroned in the spiritual realm or on earth. Heaven and earth are connected. Yahweh rules both.<\/p>\n Some of these passages have the divine council, the heavenly host, present. That\u2019s to be expected in view of other Eden-Sinai connections. For example, in the throne room scene of Daniel 7<\/a> we read:<\/p>\n 9<\/a> As I looked,<\/p>\n thrones were placed,<\/p>\n and the Ancient of Days took his seat;<\/p>\n his clothing was white as snow,<\/p>\n and the hair of his head like pure wool;<\/p>\n his throne was fiery flames;<\/p>\n its wheels were burning fire.<\/p>\n 10<\/a> A stream of fire issued<\/p>\n and came out from before him;<\/p>\n a thousand thousands served him,<\/p>\n and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;<\/p>\n the court sat in judgment,<\/p>\n and the books were opened (vv. 9\u201310<\/a>English Standard Version „>esv<\/a>).<\/p>\n This is one of the more explicit divine council texts in the Old Testament. There are multiple thrones<\/em> in this heavenly scene, along with the single throne occupied by the Ancient of Days, the God of Israel.Some Jewish interpreters say the plural \u201cthrones\u201d refers to only two thrones\u2014that of the God of Israel and the other for King David, whom they identify with the Son of Man in this passage. There are several problems with that view, namely the passage\u2019s clear literary parallels to divine council scenes from the Ugaritic Baal Cycle and the fact that the Son of Man neither takes a seat nor has one offered to him when he approaches the Ancient of Days. See the discussion in chapter 29<\/a>. It also cannot be argued that the plural seats are for human Jewish elders, since the court\/council in Dan 7<\/a> is clearly in heaven and is making a decision for<\/em> the human holy people at the time when the kingdom of the Son of Man is established; cf. Dan 7:22<\/a>. See the sixth chapter (\u201cThe Divine Council in the book of Daniel\u201d) in Michael S. Heiser, \u201cThe Divine Council in Late Canonical and Non-Canonical Second Temple Jewish Literature,\u201d (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, 2004). The dissertation is available on the companion website<\/a>. „>12<\/a> There is a clear reference to the council\u2014the word translated \u201ccourt\u201d here refers to a judicial body.The court is seated at this point in the narrative (v. 10<\/a>). God, the presiding judge, is already seated (v. 9<\/a>). „>13<\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s another fascinating Sinai passage that links the divine council to the mountain and also the thing that the mountain is perhaps best known for\u2014the giving of the law. That might sound odd. In my experience, most people have Charlton Heston in their mind\u2019s eye when you bring up Sinai and the law, and there aren\u2019t any angels in that scene. But if the divine council isn\u2019t associated with the law, how do we handle verses like these?<\/p>\n 52<\/a> Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53<\/a> you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it (Acts 7:52\u201353<\/a>English Standard Version „>esv<\/a>).<\/p>\n 1<\/a> Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2<\/a> For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3<\/a> how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Heb 2:1\u20133a<\/a>English Standard Version „>esv<\/a>).<\/p>\n The Law delivered by angels? Hollywood wasn\u2019t exactly following the biblical script very closely. We\u2019ll set the record straight in the next chapter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n CHAPTER 21<\/p>\n God\u2019s Law, God\u2019s Council<\/p>\n I\u2019ll admit, it\u2019s a little hard to get excited about the law of God. How many of us would echo Paul\u2019s sentiment, that he delighted in the law of God in his heart (Ro<\/span>m 7:22<\/a>)? We certainly don\u2019t think of the law like David did:<\/p>\n 7<\/a> The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving life.<\/p>\n The testimony of Yahweh is firm, making wise the simple.<\/p>\n 8<\/a> The precepts of Yahweh are right,<\/span> making the heart rejoice.<\/p>\n The command of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes (Psa 19:7\u20138<\/a>).<\/p>\n We tend to think of the law as though every one of its 663 commands were an oppressive lynchpin in a relat<\/span>ionship to Yahweh. We tend to view the law negatively, as though it were given to produce feelings of guilt or to frustrate Israelites with the impossibility of pleasing God. This is misguided. The laws of the Torah broadly deal with a person\u2019s relationship to Yahweh (e.g., worship, access to sacred space<\/span>),See chapter 22<\/a> for these concepts. „>1<\/a> relationships with fellow Israelites or outsiders (e.g., sex, business, property), and the<\/span> nation\u2019s covenantal bond with her God. The law was not a means of meriting<\/em> salvation. An Israelite would have known that believing was at the heart of right relationship with Yahweh, not mere mechani<\/span>cal observance of a list of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts. For sure some Israelites would have lapsed into this mistaken thinking, particularly after the shock of the exile, but that wasn\u2019t what the law was about.The Torah was clear that possession of the promised land was linked to obedience, particularly in regard to rejecting the worship of other gods and idolatry (e.g., Lev 26<\/a>; Deut 4:25\u201327<\/a>, 39\u201340<\/a>; 11:18\u201324<\/a>). The preaching of the prophets, the destruction of the temple, and expulsion from the land itself jolted the exiled Israelites to the realization that their exile was due to disobedience. Consequently, the Torah became the central focus of the surviving community. In exile, the teaching of the law in the new institution of the synagogue replaced temple ritual in the religious life of the community. Synagogues and the focus on the law were retained even after the return to the land and the building of a new temple. With Israel determined to never be driven from the land again, the law became the orientation point for Judaism. The focus on obedience to the law became a way for the Jewish community to express commitment to God\u2019s election of Israel and remain in the land. With respect to this mentality, one scholar notes: \u201cTo the exiles, the Pentateuch\u2019s curses for disobedience to the covenant must have appeared to be a breathtakingly accurate prediction of the Babylonian invasion and subsequent exile (Lev 26:14\u201346<\/a>; Deut 28:43\u201352<\/a>, 64\u201367<\/a>; 29:22\u201328<\/a>; 31:14\u201329<\/a>). Thus when the Persians overran the Babylonians and subsequently allowed expatriate Israelites to return to their native land the leaders of the return understandably resolved to adhere strictly to the law and so to avoid future punishment for disobedience. Their Achilles heel prior to the exile, they believed, was their seduction into idolatry by foreign influences. The road to a restored covenant relationship with God, they reasoned, was a renewed determination to fence themselves off from harmful foreign influences by strictly obeying the Law\u201d (F. Theilman, \u201cLaw,\u201d in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters<\/em> [ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993], 533<\/a>). „>2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n In other words, legalism was not intrinsic to a biblical theology of the law. The heart of salvation in biblical theology\u2014across both testaments\u2014is believing loyalty<\/em> to Yahweh. That orientation exten<\/span>ds from Eden and has deep roots in what happened at Sinai. It is no coincidence that when Israel, Yahweh\u2019s portion, met with him at Sinai, the result was a second covenant involving laws binding Israel and Yahweh in faithfulness, witn<\/span>essed by the members of Yahweh\u2019s divine council.<\/p>\n THE COSMIC MOUNTAIN: Birthplace of the Law<\/p>\n In the last chapter we were introduced to the connections between Eden and Sinai. Both were sacred places where Yahweh\u2019s children saw him in human form (Gen 3:8<\/a>; Exod 24:9\u201311<\/a>). We ended our discussion with the provocative notion that the divine council was present at God\u2019s mountain, specifically during the giving of the law.<\/p>\n The link between the law and the heavenly council is noted several times in the New Testament, which uses for the divine council the umbrella term \u201cangels.\u201d I closed the last chapter with two passages that described the law as \u201cdelivered by angels\u201d (Acts 7:53<\/a>) and \u201cdeclared by angels\u201d (Heb 2:2<\/a>).Recall that the New Testament language for divine beings is less hierarchically precise than the Old Testament. As we\u2019ll see in chapter 37<\/a>, while Paul uses terms for divine beings that reflect geographical authority (e.g., principalities and powers), most New Testament vocabulary is simplified. Good divine beings are predominantly referred to with angelos<\/em> (\u201cangel\u201d), whereas the terms of choice for evil ones are
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