The Coming of God in Four Movements. (Act 1) 09-02-15

Eschatology talks about the coming of God. Another word for “coming” that we sometimes use in theology is the world “advent.” Advent literally means “coming” or “arrival.” While eschatology, both the word and the field of study, speaks about issues of the end, in Christian theology this end is always occasioned by the arrival of God, the coming of God into human affairs, in the realm of time and space.

Understood in this way there is an advent character to the whole Bible. All talk about God in Scripture relates to God’s self-revelation and desire to be with His beloved creation.

Notice that in the grand sweep of the Bible narrative the coming of God to our world happens in four movements, or three acts of a play and then the final curtain. Although, this would be one of those stories that does not say “the end” on the last frame of the movie, but “the beginning,” or “the New Earth,” to quote Revelation 21. (Though many have described eschatology in similar ways, we are indebted to Dr. John Webster, dean of the School of Theology at La Sierra University, though he is in no way responsible for our formulation and adaptation of his thoughts here.)

Act 1. Creation and Covenant: In the beginning God created a perfect world and placed in it two human beings, created in God’s own image; a man and a woman who would enjoy God’s continual presence. They would reflect God’s character and glory in the world and be God’s active agents in the creation.

After Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, Genesis 3:8 wistfully records what the reader can only assume was a regular occurrence in the garden of Eden. “When 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, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Here was God walking and talking with Adam and Eve. They enjoyed the unfettered and unmediated presence of God. They and all creation were in perfect harmony with God, the Creator, whose personal presence was with them. This creation was good and perfect, in the sense that all parts of God’s creation operated in harmony.

After the man and woman sinned against God by not trusting, God’s immediate presence was withdrawn and an angel was posted to guard the Tree of Life. This clearly signaled a serious and significant loss. Without God’s intervention, the creation was in peril. But God did intervene, instituting the covenant, God’s promise to restore the original creation order of peace and harmony. One day, God promised, there would be no death or sorrow and any kind of evil in the world any more. The covenant was expressed and repeated through the ages by God’s faithful representatives; prophets, priests, poets and philosophers. Their writings comprise the Hebrew Scriptures.

God was also present with God’s people in worship. Both the movements and rituals of worship and also the physical geography and articles of worship carried a tangible sense of God’s presence. Nowhere was this more powerfully seen that in the shekinah presence that dwelt in the Most Holy Place of the wilderness tabernacle above the ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were also symbols of God’s presence: the Ten Commandments, written with God’s own finger, a bowl of manna which was God’s direct act of feeding the people in the wilderness, and Aaron’s rod that budded, a sign of God’s direct leadership of God’s people. Indeed, the very word shekinah means “presence of God” or “dwelling of God.” Embodied in the liturgy of Israel was God’s real presence. So real was this presence that people met their end when they trifled with it. One can recall Uzzah, who reached out and touched the ark to steady it as it was being carried and died instantly. (1 Chronicles 13:9-10) When the ark was in its usual place, inside the wilderness tabernacle, no one was allowed to go into the Most Holy Place, where it was kept, except for the High Priest, and even then, only once per year on the Day of Atonement. During the rest of the year the blood of the animal sacrifices was sprinkled in the tabernacle outside the curtain between the Holy and Most Holy. All of this signifies how real was God’s presence with God’s people in their wilderness journey. There was a corresponding absence of God when the shekinah was no longer present among the Israelites. (for example, 1 Samuel 4)