Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > Delivered from the Elements of the World: Atonement, Justification, Mission > Status Update

"Flesh is the background condition that gives rise to the stoicheia (elements) that constitute the physis (nature) of the Gentile universe. Flesh is inimical to human life, If human beings and human society are to be saved, someone will have to strip us of our flesh. As we saw in the last chapter, circumcision signified precisely this Yahweh's intention to destroy flesh so as to save the human race. As the first stoicheion that constitutes the world of Israel, the first ingredient in the forming of an alternative human physis, circumcision was a confession of the impotence of the flesh and the beginning of a pedagogy of weakness and dependence, a pedagogy of faith. It was the beginning of the removal of flesh that would allow Israel to return to Eden; it was a separation from the Babel world of fleshly division and the beginning of a pedagogy that would end with the reunion of the human race in Abraham's seed."

"Torah was given to Israel outside Eden, after Babel, and it accepted the conditions of Edenic and Babelic curse. Torah did not restore open access to the garden. Torah did not get the cherubim to lay down their fiery swords. Torah did not reunite the nations in one flesh or make them all one flesh with God. Simply by the fact of its being given to Israel and not to everyone, Torah established a hierarchy of access and responsibility to God and his oracles. Torah was accommodated to the fleshly condition of the human race. It was a new, divine version of ta stoicheia tou kosmou, adding elements to the world that circumcision began to form. By revealing Torah, Yahweh continued the process of creating a new type of human being, modifying human nature Jewishly, Torahly. What is born of flesh is flesh, and sons of Abraham continued to be born of flesh. Eight days later, their flesh was cut away and they were reborn as Jews physei. Israel was not a child of the Spirit, but it was no longer precisely ek tes sarkos either. Israelites and Israelite society became naturally Jewish by taking their origin from Torah: their world was the social formation that emerged ek nomou (see Rom 4:16) or ek tõn ergon nomou. It was a cultural and religious world constituted by Jewish elements. This formation of a Jewish physis was the first stage in the Creator's renewal of human physis."

"The intention behind the Tabernacle is frequently misunderstood. Israel's holy places were restricted spaces, off-limits to all but authorized personnel, priests who had "filled the hand," been consecrated and wore their robes of glory and beauty that made them at home in Yahweh's glory house (Ex 28-29; Lev 8-9). But the building of the tabernacle and later the temple did not create the conditions of exclusion and distance. In fact, the sanctuary was a countermovement to the curse of Eden. Yahweh drove Adam and Eve out of the garden; he invited Aaron and his sons in. For the first time since Eden, a human being stood before the Creator to serve. Not Noah, not Abraham, not Jacob or Joseph: none of them passed by the cherubim to take up the Adamic task to stand and serve within Yahweh's garden. For the first time since Yahweh stationed cherubim at the gate of the garden, Torah allowed human beings to take over the Adamic task to "guard" the garden ( šamar, Gen 2:15). For the first time since Adam, holy men walked on holy ground, with only a veil embroidered with cherubim between them and Yahweh. The tabernacle was still holy space, but the boundaries of holy space had become porous. Yahweh expelled Adam from the garden in wrath, and put Adam under wrath. In the tabernacle system, Yahweh went out into the howling waste to find his unfaithful bride and bring her back home. He went outside Eden to give a taste of Eden to Adam's children who lived east of Eden."

"The prohibitions of Torah are imposed for thr sake of access. The No to impurity is ordered to the Yes of welcome. Yahweh did not descend from Sinai to the ark asking, "What fences can I set up that will keep my neighbors from disturbing my peace!" He came saying, "You can draw near, but only under certain conditions, only in a state that makes it safe for you to approach." The accent in the rules of impurity is not on the exclusion, which is presupposed. The texts focus on the details of purity, but the telos of these regulations is to describe mechanisms for removal of impurity, which means the closure of distance. Usually that closure of distance involves a simple washing. Sometimes it includes more elaborate rites of purification that include sacrifice. In either case, the purity rules do not exclude Israel permanently but allow Israel to draw near."

"How did Torah express Israel's separation from separation, her negation of the politics of flesh? In part it achieved that by giving Israel access to Yahweh, the Creator of Israel and the nations. Yahweh's life, blessing and gifts were available in the sanctuary, and he drew near to Israel to distribute those gifts, not only to Israel but also through them to the world. He gave his oracles to Israel so that Israel may become a light to the nations and a teacher of the wise. While Israel alone was the priestly people, the caretaker of Yahweh's house, Israel cared for the house on behalf of the nations. At the Feast of Booths, she offered seventy bulls for the seventy nations, and so offered up the world to the Creator. When Solomon dedicated the temple, he asked Yahweh to hear the prayers of strangers as well as of Israelites, making the temple a house of prayer for the nations (1 Kings 8). Based on Numbers 15, it seems likely that Gentiles could offer sacrifice at the Lord's house. It is arguable that Israel bore the sins of the nations for the nations. As we will see below, the sanctuary and priest bore Israel's sins, and it seems fitting that Israel, as the priestly nation, also bore the sins of the nations."