all thy creatures praise thee

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CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

ALL THY CREATURES PRAISE THEE:THE LITURGICAL THEOLOGY OF GENESIS 1-3

SUBMITTED TO THE REV. DR. DEAN O. WENTHEIN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE M.DIV. DEGREE

BYCHARLES LEHMANN

NOVEMBER 5, 2006


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INTRODUCTION

Maker of all things, all Thy creatures praise Thee;All for Thy worship were and are created;Now, as we also worship Thee devoutly, Hear Thou ourvoices. 1

Father Most Holy presents us with a view of creation much

maligned in modern biblical criticism. Not many today are

willing to see creation doxologically. To take such an approach

requires one to acknowledge that there is One worthy of . To

much of modern biblical criticism such acknowledgment is

anathema. But it is undeniable that the higher critics have had

some insights. In particular, they have identified Biblical

themes that have shadows in the literature of other ancient near

east cultures.

The critics have established that there is a strong

connection between the creation account in Genesis and the

Babylonian Enma elish as well as the Baal creation account

found at Ugarit. 2 Several generations of Old Testament scholars

1. Father Most Holy, Stanza 3, in Lutheran Service Book .(Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 504.

2. See Moshe Weinfeld. Sabbath, Temple and the Enthronementof the LordThe problem of the Sitz im Leben of Genesis1:1-2:3 in Mlanges bibliques et orientaux en l'honneur deM. Henri Cazelles , ed. A. Caquot and M. Delcor. (Kevelaer :

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have devoted their careers to exploring these connections. Most

often these scholars postulate a redactor who constructed the

Old Testament accounts by combining several independent (and

sometimes contradictory) streams of thought. This redactor is

often suggested to be a priest at the time of Josiah who

rediscovered these disparate texts and combined them during the

Babylonian exile. In Hummel's survey of Pentateuchal criticism,

he notes:

Wellhausen, of course, readily conceded, too, thatmany components of P may well have been extremelyancient. Yet in its totality he insisted it was aproduct of exilic and postexilic priestly circles, inorder to legitimize and adapt Israel to its newcircumstances as a theocratic community, withoutpolitical self-determination and existing only by thesufferance of the Persian authorities. Its habit ofself-description in literally Mosaic terms, followingthe precedent of the deuteronomists, lacked virtuallyall basis in fact. 3

The approach of Wellhausen and his disciples is consistent,

interesting, and if one does not look too closely, somewhat

compelling. It is also wrong. It illustrates what happens when

one regards the Scriptures as human documents only. In such an

approach, the Scriptures are interesting only because they show

Butzon & Bercker, 1981), 501-512.

3. Horace D. Hummel. The Word Becoming Flesh : An Introductionto the Origin, Purpose, and Meaning of the Old Testament(electronic ed.; St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,2000, c1979), 51.

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us how one particular near eastern culture attempted to explain

and understand its universe through the gradual development of a

cultus . The Scriptures are seen as an etiological myth.

This is a decidedly anti-Chalcedonian approach to the

biblical material. The Scriptures become only human documents

utterly divorced from the divine, not incarnational in any

sense. Opposite is the approach of some fundamentalist

theologians who gnosticize the Scriptures by turning them into

spiritual documents whose human authors are nothing more than

typewriters of the Holy Spirit. Francis Pieper describes this

problem aptly:

That in this relationship the writers were notlifeless machines, but living, personal instruments,endowed with intellect and will and equipped withtheir own distinct style ( modus dicendi ), is evidentfrom the very nature of the case. For God did notfirst kill or dehumanize Isaiah, David, and all theProphets in order to speak or write through ( ) them,but He carefully preserved their lives and theirgenuine human way of expressing themselves in orderthat they might in their speaking be understood bymen. 4

Also in Luther, we have a view of the Scriptures that is

grounded very firmly in the material. God makes Himself known

not in a spiritual, gnosticizing way, but according to external,

visible means.

4. Francis Pieper. Christian Dogmatics , electronic ed. (St.Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1950, c1951,c1953), 1:230.

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When God reveals Himself to us, it is necessary forHim to do so through some such veil or wrapper and tosay: Look! Under this wrapper you will be sure totake hold of Me. When we embrace this wrapper,adoring, praying, and sacrificing to God there, we are

said to be praying to God and sacrificing to Himproperly. Thus there is no doubt that our firstparents worshiped God early in the morning, when thesun was rising, by marveling at the Creator in thecreature or, to express myself more clearly, becausethey were urged on by the creature. 5

For Luther (and, I daresay, Moses), we need not try to

construct a story to describe how God comes to us. For him the

universe is not actually sterile, dead, and without any

spiritual component. We marvel at the Creator in the

creature. In Genesis 1 and 2, the divine/human drama has a

beginning of perfect beauty and joy.

God speaks into the void and creates the universe. He gives

it light. He orders it by giving day and night. He puts all

things in their place in a perfect liturgical order. The earth

gives forth green herbs to feed the cattle, the creeping things,

and man. He sends moisture to sustain the plants. He rules the

day by the sun and the night by the moon. And finally, He

chooses one creature who will be His own dwelling place. So

God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he

5. Martin Luther (1535). Luther's Works, Vol. 1 : Lectures onGenesis: Chapters 1-5 , ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C.Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works (Saint Louis:Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1958), 1:15. Hereafterabbreviated as LW.

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him; male and female created he them. 6

The universe has been created as the Lord's own tabernacle

and Eden is the Holy Place. But the Holy of Holies is not a

place. The Most Holy Place is a person whom the Lord has

fashioned in His own image according to His likeness. The image

of God is Christ. 7 And so Adam is placed into the garden to 8

it and ,it. And as Adam sleeps a sleep very close to death 9

Eve is taken from his side and becomes the Lord's very first

member of the laity. By delivering to Adam His own word, He has

already ordained Adam to preach to her and evangelize her.

THE ENM A ELISH AND GENESIS

Though one may easily approach Genesis in a thoughtful and

academically viable manner apart from dealing with the other

near eastern material, such a comparison can bring some aspects

of the theology of Genesis into clarity. Alexander Heidel gives

a good introduction to the content of the Enma elish and its

thematic connection to the biblical text in The Babylonian

Genesis . In Heidel's translation of the Babylonian myth, we are

6. Genesis 1:27, King James Version.

7. Colossians 1:15.

8. 1 Chronicles 28:13.

9. 2 Chronicles 34:9.

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first introduced to Tiamat, a primordial water monster that

represents the universe before it takes any particular shape or

form. At this time only Tiamat the mother of the gods and Aps,

their father, exist. Together, these form the preexistent,

eternal universe. They give birth to the great gods, and over

time these gods become powerful, having children of their own. 10

Very soon, Tiamat's children become dissatisfied and plot

the overthrow of their parents. It is at this point that the

story's protagonist, Marduk, comes to light. Heidel argues that

the Enma elish is above all a hymn to Marduk, explaining his

supremacy among the gods of the Babylonian pantheon. It has the

secondary purpose of explaining why Babylon is the most

important of all cities. According to Heidel, it was composed

sometime during the first Babylonian dynasty (2057-1758 B.C.). 11

This sets the composition of the epic at least three hundred

years before that of the account in Genesis. Considering that

it could even have been written before Abraham emigrated from

Babylonian territory, it is certainly not out of the question

that Moses could have, by oral tradition, heard the Enma elish .

If influence on the Genesis account from the Enma elish is

10. Alexander Heidel. The Babylonian Genesis . (Chicago: TheUniversity of Chicago Press, 1942) Enma elish , Tablet 1,Lines 1-20, pp 7-8.

11. Heidel, 3, 6.

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admitted, the question becomes what sort of influence it was and

what insights into the Scriptures we might gain from studying

this influence. Though the points of similarity between the two

accounts are many, focusing on the similarities does very little

to inform us regarding the actual relationship between the texts.

The Enma elish presents a pantheon that, as a result of

internal conflict, kills the mother of the gods and with her

body creates the universe. 12 Eventually men are made to be

slaves to the gods and their primary purpose is to build

sanctuaries, offer sacrifices, and serve the needs of the gods

who created them. 13

Though there is some structural correspondence, the theology

of Genesis could hardly be more distinct from the Enma elish. 14

Though he ultimately fails to confess Mosaic authorship for

Genesis, Nahum Sarna aptly describes the use of mythological

metaphor in the Old Testament.

Scattered allusions to be found in the prophetic,poetic, and wisdom literature of the Bible testify toa popular belief that prior to the onset of the

12. Heidel, 82.

13. Heidel, 99-100.

14. Walter Eichrodt provides an apt contrast between theworldviews of the pagan cultures around Israel and the viewof the Old Testament in Man in the Old Testament . trans. K.and R. Gregor Smith. (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company,1951.), 28-29.

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creative process the powers of watery chaos had to besubdued by God. These mythical beings are variouslydesignated Yam (Sea), Nahar (River), Leviathan (CoiledOne), Rahab (Arrogant One) and Tannin (Dragon). . .They have survived in the Bible solely as obscure,

picturesque metaphors and exclusively in the languageof poetry. . . The early Israelite creation myths,with all their color and drama, must have beenparticularly attractive to the masses. But nonebecame the regnant version. It was the austereaccount set forth in the first chapter of Genesis thatwon unrivaled authority. 15

Despite the conceits of higher critics, the Genesis account

is quite unified in presenting a monotheistic Godhead. One

strong evidence of this fact is that ,though plural ,

consistently takes a masculine singular verb form in the Old

Testament material. Much ink has been spilled on how to explain

this grammatical oddity. Though some will argue for some sort

of Hebrew pantheon on the basis of Moses' use of in Genesis

1:2616

, it is noteworthy that the speaker is identified as

but the verb introducing the discourse is again masculine ,

singular. Finally, when God does the creating that He proposes

in verse 26, Moses expresses it again using a singular verb,

15. Nahum Sarna. The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis .(Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 3.

16. Though most will acknowledge that the view of P or theredactor is montheistic, it is often assumed that thePentateuch itself is drawn from sources that are devoted toat least two other gods, and .(J and E)

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(verse 27).

Far better than to take the critical approach to the plural

form of its use of the masculine singular verb form, and ,

the use of in verse 26 is to joyfully confess what Luther

confesses.

This is a sure indication of the Trinity, that in onedivine essence there are three Persons: the Father,the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not even so far as Theiractivity is concerned, therefore, is God separated,because all three Persons here co-operate and say:Let Us make. The Father does not make one man and

the Son another, nor the Son one man and the HolySpirit another; but the Father, the Son, and the HolySpirit, one and the same God, is the Author andCreator of the same work. Nor is it possible in thismanner to divide God subjectively, for the Father isnot known except in the Son and through the HolySpirit. Therefore as there is one God objectively, soalso subjectively; nevertheless, within Himself, sofar as His substance or essence is concerned, He isFather, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct Personsin one Godhead. These evidences should be precious to

us and welcome.17

Admittedly, Luther's approach to the Scriptures is not

popular in the post-Enlightenment world. To read the Scriptures

with Luther is to begin with the cross and then look backward to

the Old Testament witness seeing the fullness of the Scriptures

only in their Christological focus. It is a particularly

Christian and evangelical 18 way to approach them.

17. Luther. Genesis Lectures (1535), LW 1:58-59.

18. In the 16 th century sense.

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Fulgentius of Ruspe makes an additional point:

For the essence, that which the Greeks call ousia , ofthe Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, inwhich essence the Father is not one thing and the Son

a second thing and the Holy Spirit still a thirdthing, although in person the Father is different, theSon is different, and the Holy Spirit is different.All of this is demonstrated in the strongest fashionat the very beginning of the Holy Scriptures, when Godsays, Let us make human beings in our image andlikeness. When, using the singular number, he saysimage, he shows that the nature is one, in whoseimage the human being was made. 19

Should we place ourselves in the sandals of Moses, the

critics fair no better. Clearly the strong monotheism of

Genesis 1 is a polemic against the muddled polytheism of the

Enma elish . Further, the Lord has no need in Genesis 1 to

create the universe from preexistent matter. 20

THE LITURGICAL CONTEXT OF GENESIS

At the beginning of the book of Joshua, the Lord commissions

Joshua to be the successor of Moses. He says to the son of Nun,

This Book of the Law ( shall not depart from your mouth (

( " but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you ,(

may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. 21

19. Fulgentius of Ruspe in Andrew Louth. Ancient ChristianCommentary on Scripture. (Downers Grove, Illinois:Intervarsity Press, 2001) 1:30.

20. Heidel, 76-82.

21. Joshua 1:8.

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Later, the Book of the Law is specifically called the Book of

the Law of Moses. 22

Indeed, the Lord's words to Joshua are very Mosaic in tone.

The Lord had said to Moses of Aaron, You shall speak to him and

put the words in his mouth ( ), and I will be with your mouth

and with his mouth and will teach ( ' .you both what to do (

He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your

mouth, and you shall be as God ( ') to him. 23

The Lord places the in Moses's mouth and promises to bewith both Moses's mouth and Aaron's. Further, the Lord makes

the seemingly outrageous claim that Moses will be God to Aaron,

but in a very real sense this statement of the Lord faithfully

confesses what the Lord has promised He is about to do.

The Law is mediated to both Aaron and Joshua through Moses.

The Lord does not give Joshua a new word to speak. He gives to

Joshua the word He has previously given to Moses. Even so, the

teaching comes from the Lord. He promises that He will teach

both Moses and Aaron. The word used of God's teaching in Exodus

4 ( ' ) becomes the noun ( which describes the book that (

will contain Moses's record of it.

22. Joshua 8:31.

23. Exodus 4:15-16.

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As to the identity of this Book of the Law, modern

commentators are divided. Keil and Delitzsch, however, take the

historic position, namely that it refers to the Pentateuch, and

further, that the Pentateuch is precisely what was read in the

Feast of Tabernacles once every seven years.

And whilst the contents and form of the Thorah bearwitness that it belongs to the Mosaic age, there areexpress statements to the effect that it was writtenby Moses himself. . . When he had delivered his lastaddress to the people, and appointed Joshua to leadthem into their promised inheritance, 'he wrote thisThorah, and delivered it unto the priests, the sons ofLevi, and unto all the elders of Israel' (Deut. 31:9),with a command that it was to be read to the peopleevery seven years at the feast of Tabernacles, whenthey came to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary. 24

Considering the fact that God gave this book to Moses and

gave consistent commands both to Aaron and to Joshua to meditate

on it and be careful to do according to all that is written in

it, 25 we can safely say that the book of Genesis is a liturgical

document. It was given to Moses for a liturgical purpose and

was heard by the people of Israel in a liturgical setting.

The Enma Elish was also used liturgically, being read

publicly on the 4 th of Nisan (which was their New Year's

festival), the 4 th of Chislev, and, very possibly, the fourth day

24. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch. Commentary on theOld Testament . (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002), 1:12.

25. Joshua 1:8.

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of every month. 26 Coming into a context where the pagan creation

myth was heard regularly by the people, a liturgical reading of

the gracious account of the Lord in Genesis takes on a clear

polemical character.

Recognition of the liturgical setting of Genesis is, of

course, key to our discussion of the first three chapters. The

Israelites did not have scrolls of Genesis that they would read

whenever they liked. The Book of the Law was kept in the

tabernacle and read aloud to the Israelites in a liturgical

setting. This liturgical context had a profound influence on

how the Israelites understood what they heard proclaimed to

them. This leads us to the contemplation of an important

question. What were the Israelites seeing, hearing, smelling,

and experiencing when they heard the word, ( ' ?

THE TABERNACLE

The construction of the tabernacle is detailed in Exodus 25

through 32. The tabernacle traveled with Israel during its

wilderness wanderings and remained in use until Solomon built

the temple approximately four hundred years later. Not only did

Moses give plans for the construction of the temple, but his '

detailed how the worship in the tabernacle would take

place.

26. Weinfeld, 510.

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We will now review in some detail what the experience of an

Israelite in tabernacle worship would have been. We will

particularly note the liturgical context of the reading of the

, .including the book of Genesis ,'

Basic Themes in Exodus

Leviticus 23:34-43 gives us the basic structure for the

Feast of Tabernacles. Here the Lord instructs that beginning on

15 Tishri (just a few days after the Day of Atonement), the

Israelites will live in booths for seven days. On these daysthe people will offer food offerings 27 to the Lord. The reason

for these offerings is that the Israelites might remember God's

gracious provision during the wilderness wanderings. You shall

dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall

dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the

people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the

land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 28

This feast becomes the context in which the Law of Moses

(=Pentateuch) will be read once every seven years. 29 On how much

of the Law was actually read, there is some controversy. Keil

27. Holocaust offerings in the LXX.

28. Leviticus 23:42-43.

29. Deuteronomy 31:9-13.

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and Delitzsch assert:

We learn from Neh. 8:18, that in Ezras time they readin the book of the law every day from the first to thelast day of the feast, from which we may see on the

one hand, that the whole of theThorah

(orPentateuch), from beginning to end, was not read; andon the other hand, by comparing the expression in v.18, the book of the law of God, with the law, inv. 14, that the reading was not restricted toDeuteronomy: for, according to v. 14, they had alreadybeen reading in Leviticus (Lev. 23) before the feastwas held, an evident proof that Ezra the scribe didnot regard the book of Deuteronomy like the critics ofour day, as the true national law-book, anacquaintance with which was all that the peoplerequired. 30

However, their assertion is weak at best. Nehemiah 8:18 does

say that they read in the book of the law on every day of the

feast. The claim that this means that they did not read

everything in the Pentateuch simply does not arise from the

actual words of Nehemiah. It could just as simply mean that

they read portions of the text during each day of the feast,

spreading the five books over the days of the feast. If one

reads Nehemiah in the context of Deuteronomy, which commands

that the Book of the Law be read so that the people may do all

the words of this law ( ' ( it becomes clear that (

reading the whole Pentateuch is implied. 31

30. Keil and Delitzsch, 1:979-980.

31. Deuteronomy 31:12.

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Thus, it is reasonable to suspect that they would have begun

their reading with the the beginning ( ( ' ) and continued until

all the had been read. As the Israelites heard the account

of God's creation of the universe in Genesis 1 and 2, they would

have heard the very space in which they heard it described. As

they moved on to Genesis 3, they would have heard the sacrifices

they were offering as a distant echo of that which was offered

by the Lord after their initial fall into sin and whose skins

covered them. Ezekiel will use this to point to aneschatological hope when the tabernacle will be incarnated and

Eden will be fully restored:

Neither shall they defile themselves any more withtheir idols, nor with their detestable things, norwith any of their transgressions: but I will save themout of all their dwelling places, wherein they havesinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be mypeople, and I will be their God. And David my servantshall be king over them; and they all shall have oneshepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, andobserve my statutes, and do them. And they shalldwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob myservant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and theyshall dwell therein, even they, and their children,and their childrens children for ever: and my servantDavid shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I willmake a covenant of peace with them; it shall be aneverlasting covenant with them: and I will place them,and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in themidst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shallbe with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shallbe my people. And the heathen shall know that I theLORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in

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the midst of them for evermore. 32

Ezekiel clearly points forward to the Incarnation, when the

tabernacle will be Christ's body and He will dwell with them

forever. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we

have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,

full of grace and truth. 33

The emphasis is continually on the material, the physical.

God speaks in Genesis and it is created. God speaks in Exodus

and it is built. Further, the liturgical context of Genesis'

reading is seen, heard, and experienced in a very physical way

by the Israelites. They are not called upon to contemplate the

in heaven. Moses does not give the Lord's people to know

Him apart from the physical.

In fact, it will be shown that the of Exodus 25:40

bears a strong relationship to the account of the world's

creation in Genesis 1 to 2. What is less clear is whether the

Lord is telling the story of creation in such a way that he can

reinforce the Israelites' experience in the tabernacle or

whether the of the tabernacle is modeled after Genesis.

Moses suggests an answer in the fact that the receives

32. Ezekiel 37:23-28. See also Zechariah 2:10.

33. John 1:14.

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only occasional mention in his account of the giving of the

plans for the tabernacle and its later construction. The

corresponds to the word of the Lord in Genesis. He speaks His

word and the tabernacle, the universe, is fashioned according to

it. In Exodus, the Lord speaks His word to Moses, and acting in

accord with Moses' words, the people construct it.

It is commonly suggested that the is a common theme in

near eastern literature of the ancient world and that it should

come as no surprise to us to find this sort of language used inExodus for the construction of the tabernacle. Sarna indicates

that the primary force of this is to show that God approved of

the structure.

A prominent characteristic of the narrative in bothits parts is the repeated reference to divinely giveninstructions and celestial patterns for theterrestrial edifice and for its contents. Such aconception of a sanctuary is not unknown elsewhere inthe ancient world. It is attested as early as about2200 B.C.E. in the narration of a building project bythe Sumerian King Gudea of Lagash. It also occurs inEgyptian texts that treat of similar enterprises.This idea of divine inspiration, initiation, andspecification of a religious institution generallycommunicates the deity's sanction and acceptance ofthe sacred structure, which is thereby endowed withlegitimacy. 34

Such a perfunctory explanation, however, fails to account

34. Nahum Sarna. The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus .(Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 156.

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for the creation imagery that is tied to the construction of the

tabernacle. Further, the Lord Himself gives direct sanction to

the work by declaring creation good 35 and by filling the

tabernacle. 36 Sarna's explanation is sociologically interesting,

but fails to account for all the data.

More satisfying is the approach of Hummel in which he

introduces the idea of vertical typology to account for Moses'

use of .

Theologically very important for all the followingmaterial is the word pattern ( tabnith or type) atthe beginning of the section (25:9). The referencehere is to vertical typology, not primarily to thehorizontal or eschatological typology, which the termusually implies (although the two can never bestrictly separated). The tabernacle and its ritual area reflection, a miniature, a copy of the heavenlytemple. There is Gods eternal throne (ultimately theentire universe), but God must become incarnate in aspecial dwelling place among mankind because of itsalienation in sin. The same language and conceptualityis applied to the tabernacles successor, the temple(and by extension to the entire holy city, Zion) aswell as to Christ, both His incarnation, and thefulfillment in Him of Gods eternal purpose for thetemple of the entire cosmos (Hebrews, Revelation,etc.). 37

The incarnation that Hummel speaks of is very real. Moses

and the Israelites know the Lord by His dwelling above the

35. Genesis 1:31.

36. Exodus 40:34.

37. Hummel (1979), 76.

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cherubim, by the cloud and the fire, by his mighty hand and

outstretched arm as he executes judgment on the Israelites. Not

seeing the end of their faith, Moses and the Israelites were

given by faith to see the heavenly in the earthly and physical.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not

receive what was promised, since God had provided something

better for us, that apart from us they should not be made

perfect. 38

The Court of Israel in Genesis

That all of creation is the Lord's tabernacle, or dwelling

place, is indicated in both thematic and in more explicit ways.

One argument can be drawn from the very structure of the account

in Genesis 1 as it compares to Exodus 25 through 40. 39

Klitsenko notes that the seven instances of in Genesis

1 40 are paralleled by seven instances of a similar phrase, '

' ( when God gives instructions to Moses on the ,

construction of the tabernacle. 41 This is further highlighted by

38. Hebrews 11:39-40.

39. Yurie Klitsenko. Creation of the World; Making of theTabernacle and the Rite of Church Consecration, Orthodox Research Institute , February 22, 2003. [cited 16 Oct 2004].Online: http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/liturgics/klitsenko_creation_world.htm

40. Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26.

41. Exodus 25:1; 30:11, 17, 22, 34; 31:1, 12.

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seven instances of ( 4 when the tabernacle is

constructed in chapter 40. 42

There is nothing in the actual narrative of the Exodus

accounts that would demand that these phrases be repeated. If

the Lord has been speaking to Moses for several chapters

already, it is reasonable to assume that in the next sentence it

is the Lord speaking. The dwelling of God in His creation,

however, is an important theme in the books of Moses. The Lord

creates man and woman, places them at the center of His

creation, and makes them his own 43 within creation. This

parallels closely the account of the construction of the

tabernacle in Exodus 40. After the tabernacle's completion, the

fills it and the Lord dwells with His people. 44 Moses

is intentional in giving clues that the attentive hearer would

recognize.

One may also see other thematic and structural relationships

between Genesis 1-2 and Exodus 39-40. In Exodus 39:4, Moses

saw that they had performed all the tasks as the Lord had

commanded. In Genesis 1:31, the Lord sees all that He had

42. Exodus 40:19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 32.

43. Genesis 1:26, LXX.

44. Exodus 40:34.

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made. In Exodus 39:32, all the work is completed; in Genesis

2:1, all the work of creation is completed. In Exodus 40:33,

Moses finishes his work; in Genesis 2:2, God finishes his work.

Moses blesses in Exodus 39:43; God blesses in Genesis 2:3. The

tabernacle and all the furnishings are sanctified in Exodus

40:9; God sanctifies creation in Genesis 2:3. 45

But it is not merely by structural allusion that the

Scriptures confess all of creation as the Lord's dwelling place.

That creation is the tabernacle of the Lord is also indicated

more explicitly in the Old Testament. Stephen refers to this

Old Testament teaching in the sermon he gave on the day of his

martyrdom. Quoting Isaiah 66, he proclaims, Heaven is my

throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will

you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my

rest? Did not my hand make all these things? 46

Stephen refuses to locate the Lord in one place, to

circumscribe him in heaven or on earth. For Stephen, the

filling that is spoken of in Exodus 40 is of all creation, not

just the visible dwelling of the in the tabernacle and

later, the temple.

45. See also Sarna (1991), 156.

46. Acts 7:49-50.

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Perhaps the most explicit confession of the universe as the

Lord's dwelling place may be found in Psalm 104. The Psalm

begins:

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are verygreat! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,covering yourself with light as with a garment,stretching out the heavens like a tent ( He lays .( the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes theclouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind;he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flamingfire. He set the earth on its foundations, so that itshould never be moved. 47

Though the imagery of the psalm is clear without it, some of the

specific language used in the text makes the connection between

creation and tabernacle especially strong. The Lord stretches

out the heavens like a This very word is used 38 times .

in the Pentateuch in reference to the curtains that form the

outer and inner walls of the tabernacle. 48

The imagery enhances what we learn from the lexical clue of

The light of creation, which fills the universe, is the .

Lord's garment. His influence throughout the earth is indicated

by the fact that the waters (sky) become His roof 49 , the winds

47. Psalm 104:1-5.

48. Francis Brown et al. Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Strong's, TWOT, and GK referencesCopyright 2000 by Logos Research Systems, Inc.; electroniced.; Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2000), xiii.

49. A reference to the dividing of the firmaments in Genesis1:6-7.

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his messengers, and flames his servants. All His creatures

praise Him.

In fact, this is the image of the rest of the psalm. Going

day by day through the six days of creation, the psalmist

describes how all of God's works praise Him. The first half of

verse two hearkens to the light of the first day of creation.

The second half of verse two through verse four bring to mind

the separation of the waters above and the waters below on the

second day. Beginning with verse five we see the appearance of

dry land and a little later, vegetation.

Here the distinction of days is not as distinct, because the

psalmist extols the Lord for what He creates the grass and trees

for. The grass (third day) feeds the cattle (sixth day) and the

trees (third day) provide shelter for the birds (fifth day). It

almost appears that as the psalmist continues his doxology, the

careful structure that he appears to have in the beginning of

the hymn gives way to a gushing river of one cause for praise

upon another as the song rages on.

Modern liturgical use of Psalm 104 often excludes verse 35.

To some, it breaks the flow of the doxology. The curse simply

seems out of place. Consider, however, the idyllic tone of the

Psalm. Leviathan frolics in the sea. The birds sing. Wine

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gladdens the heart of man. Though some post-fall ideas are

introduced--lions roaring for their prey--even these are

presented in a positive praiseworthy way.

The psalmist desires nothing more than a restoration of the

perfect praise that flowed spontaneously from all of creation

before the fall. Thus verse 35 is properly read

eschatologically. Finally, the wicked will be consumed from the

earth, and Eden will be restored. Until then, our communion

with the Lord is imperfect, even when we are in His tabernacle.

It breaks the posture of man that is most prevalent in the Old

Testament, that of joy. 50

Psalm 104 is not the only place that the psalms confess the

continual doxology of creation.

Psalms 148 and 149 suggest a kind of liturgy for suchthanksgiving, where the sun, the moon, the stars, thefish, and the dragons are commanded to praise theLord. Yet every one of us could have composed a betterand more perfect psalm than any of these if we hadbeen begotten by Adam in innocence. 51

The enthronement psalms, particularly 97 through 99, call upon

all of creation to praise the Lord. The earth shakes. The sea

roars. The rivers clap their hands. Even so, Psalm 99:1 notes

that the Lord is enthroned between the cherubim, a fact that

50. Eichrodt (1951), 33-34.

51. Luther. Genesis Lectures (1535), LW 1:105.

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will be noted again later.

Another important text that reveals what was in the mind of

the Israelites regarding creation as tabernacle is the Song of

the Three Children. Just before the beginning of the liturgical

canticle 52 , the song gives us these gems, confessing both the

temple and all of creation as the Lord's dwelling place:

Blessed art thou that beholdest the depths, andsittest upon the cherubims: and to be praised andexalted above all for ever. Blessed art thou on theglorious throne of thy kingdom: and to be praised and

glorified above all for ever.

Blessed art thou in thefirmament of heaven: and above all to be praised andglorified for ever. 53

Though the preface to the canticle certainly sets a scene

reminiscent of Isaiah 66, Psalm 104, and above all Genesis 1, it

is in the section that the church uses liturgically that the

Song of the Three Children shines as a confession of the true

of creation. The canticle names all of creation, bit by

bit, and after naming it gives the command,

. 54

Within the Song of the Three Children we have no hint of the

fall. It is as if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not even

52. Benedicte Omnia Opera.

53. The Apocrypha : King James Version. (Bellingham WA: LogosResearch Systems, Inc., 1995), Song Thr 13:32-34.

54. Praise and exalt Him into the age.

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know that the fall has taken place. They have been delivered

from death by the Lord and know full well that the world now is

not as it should be. They sing because of what the world was

and will be.

A few centuries later, in first century Palestinian Judaism,

Flavius Josephus explicitly confesses a strong connection

between the tabernacle and creation, albeit one highly grounded

in the Hellenistic context in which he lived.

When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into threeparts, and allowed two of them to the priests, as aplace accessible and common, he denoted the land andthe sea, these being of general access to all; but heset apart the third division for God, because heavenis inaccessible to men. And when he ordered twelveloaves to be set on the table, he denoted the year, asdistinguished into so many months. By branching outthe candlestick into seventy parts, he secretlyintimated the Decani, or seventy divisions of theplanets; and as to the seven lamps upon thecandlesticks, they referred to the course of theplanets, of which that is the number. The vails, too,which were composed of four things, they declared thefour elements; for the fine linen was proper tosignify the earth, because the flax grows out of theearth; the purple signified the sea, because thatcolor is dyed by the blood of a sea shell fish; theblue is fit to signify the air; and the scarlet willnaturally be an indication of fire. 55

Before the fall there is perfect communion of God and man.

Thus, one might say that before the fall, there is no court of

55. Flavius Josephus and William Whiston. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged , Includes Index.(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1987), Ant 3.181.

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the Gentiles. God has not chosen for Himself a special people

out of all nations because there are none who are outside His

faithful. All are of Israel. There is, as of yet, no need for

the nations to be drawn to Zion.

Genesis 3 gives a shadow of this perfect communion even when

the Lord discovers the sin of Adam and Eve. He is walking in

the garden in the cool of the day. 56 Why should He not? The

garden and all of creation is the Lord's tabernacle. Here,

however, the Lord's tabernacling with His people becomes a cause

of fear and shame for Adam and Eve.

They have separated themselves from Him and placed

themselves under a curse. This separation is confessed by the

distinct sections of the Lord's tabernacle. These separate

precincts would definitely have been in the mind of the

Israelites as they heard Genesis 3.

In their flesh Adam and Eve know the consequences of their

sin before the Lord even tells them. Their shame needs a

covering, and the Lord has made the penalty for their sin

perfectly clear. In the day that you eat of it, you will

surely die. 57 But the Lord does not kill Adam and Eve in the

day that they eat of the tree. Adam, at least, lives to the age

56. Genesis 3:8.

57. Genesis 2:17.

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of 930. 58 Rather than executing the punishment that the Lord has

mandated, He acts in mercy and kills animals in their place. 59

Even in Eden, without the shedding of blood there is no

forgiveness. 60

The sacrificial system is given by the Lord in order to

provide for an orderly means by which He may again dwell with

His people in such a way that they will be able to endure His

presence. This requires continual, substitutionary blood

sacrifice. And because the Lord does not want to be separated

from His people, He Himself provides that which is necessary for

the wall to be broken down.

One episode that illustrates this well is the sacrifice that

Moses performs after receiving the Book of the Law and before

ascending Sinai to receive the plans for the tabernacle. 61 In

this scene, Moses builds an altar of twelve pillars, one for

each of the tribes of Israel. After building these, sacrifices

of oxen (peace offerings and holocaust offerings) are performed.

Moses throws half the blood against the altar and sprinkles half

of it on the people while saying, Behold the blood of the

58. Genesis 5:5.

59. Genesis 3:21.

60. Hebrews 9:22.

61. Exodus 24:4-11.

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covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all

these words. 62

The consequence of the blood being on the elders is made

absolutely explicit in verse 11. And he [the Lord] did not lay

his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld

God, and ate and drank. It is only the elders of Israel, who

have blood on them, that are given to ascend the mountain and

behold God. It is a rather rare theophany. It is said that the

elders saw the God of Israel. ( ' ' ' ( 6 ( 63 What precisely

is meant by is not completely clear. The word can have the

sense of seeing with a sense other than sight. 64 The

Septuagint's use of (root: ) is similarly ambiguous.

Nevertheless, verse 11 strongly favors a physical seeing, which

is why Moses notes that God did not lay his hand on the elders.

Even here, though, we must understand that God is showing

Himself through a mask. Very likely this mask is the Son

62. Exodus 24:8.

63. Exodus 24:10.

64. Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. Gesenius'Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures(Translation of the author's Lexicon manuale Hebraicum etChaldaicum in Veteris Testamenti libros, a Latin version ofthe work first published in 1810-1812 under title:

Includes index.; Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems,Inc, 2003), 748.

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Himself. Consider John 1:18. No one ( ) has ever seen

( ) God at any time ( ). The only begotten God

( ) who is in the bosom of the Father--that one has

exegeted [Him].

When Luther cites this text in his Genesis lectures, he

explicitly ties the problem of seeing God with the consequences

of the fall. As he does this, Luther recognizes a need in man

to have a visible image of God. For Luther, this image is

Christ.Thus God reveals His will to us through Christ and theGospel. But we loathe it and, in accordance withAdams example, take delight in the forbidden treeabove all the others. This fault has been implanted inus by nature. When Paradise and heaven have beenclosed and the angel has been placed on guard there(cf. Gen. 3:24), we try in vain to enter. For Christhas truthfully said: No one has ever seen God (John1:18). Nevertheless, God, in His boundless goodness,has revealed Himself to us in order to satisfy ourdesire. He has shown us a visible image. Behold, youhave My Son; he who hears Him and is baptized iswritten in the book of life. This I reveal through MySon, whom you can touch with your hands and look atwith your eyes. 65

John 1 argues that the Son who is makes the

Father known. There is no reason to argue that this is not the

case in the Old Testament. Much of the work recently done on

the phrase, suggests the very possibility. Luther in ,


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The Three Symbols or Creeds of the Christian Faith (1538)

applied his wrapper language (later used in the Genesis

lectures) explicitly to John 1:18.

For God dwells in a light to which no one can come;but he must come to us, though hidden in a lantern. Asit is written in John 1, No one has ever seen God;the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, hehas made him known. And before that Moses says, Forman shall not see me and live. 66

The implication of this for our discussion of the

sacrificial system is clear. God desires to come to us and He

does. He does so in a hidden way, wearing a mask. In this way

we can grasp Him. In the Old Testament he masks Himself in

fire, in cloud, in a still small voice, in a bush that does not

burn up, and in the Luther suggests that in all of .

these things we have Christ, the one who in John 1:18 is the

exegete of the Father.

In the fall the image of God is lost, the glory of the Lord

departing from the persons who bore his very image. In order

for Him to return, there must be blood. The blood of the

sacrifice allows God to be present with His people once more,

and Christ, the true image of God 67 , dwells between the cherubim

66. Luther. The Three Symbols or Creeds of the ChristianFaith (1538), LW 34:216.

67. Colossians 1:15.

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on the ark of the covenant. 68

The Holy Place in Genesis

We have shown a strong relationship between Moses'

description of God's creation of the universe in Genesis 1 and

the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus 25 through 40.

Though we cannot speculate on whether all of the structural and

thematic similarities between the accounts would have been

noticed by the Israelites, this does not change the fact that

they are woven into the text.

Whereas Genesis 1 paints the picture in broad strokes, we

come to something a bit different in Genesis 2. Here Moses

gives the lay of the land. Not only do we learn where the

rivers were and what they were named, but we learn what sort of

precious minerals could be found and what sort of vegetation

grew.

The Lord's cosmic tabernacle takes on a specific form with a

specific man with specific work to do. The text moves from the

broad to the specific, but in both the broad and the specific,

the content of the discourse is concrete. The text that they

heard was the text that they saw all around them.

The instructions for the construction of the tabernacle

structure begin with the command to embroider the curtains with

68. Exodus 25:22.

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depictions of cherubim . Within the books of Moses, the cherubim

have extreme significance both in the cult of the Israelites and

in creation itself. The only mention of them in Genesis is

after the exile from the garden, when the Lord places two

cherubim with swords of flame to keep Adam and Eve from entering

and eating from the tree of life. 69

Cherubim do not appear again in the books of Moses until he

gives the instructions for the making of the ark of the

covenant. Here they are mentioned seven times. 70 It is at the

beginning of the very next chapter 71 , that the cherubim make an

appearance that mirrors their place in Genesis 3.

That the cherubim are woven into the very fabric of the

Tabernacle identifies the tabernacle as Eden recreated, the way

to life, guarded by angels. To be in the tabernacle is to have

access to the tree of life which has, since the beginning, been

inaccessible to the Israelites.

Luther sees the connection between Eden and the tabernacle

in his Genesis Lectures.

Moses implies that Paradise had a road or gate towardthe east through which there was an access to thisgarden. Likewise, in connection with the temple

69. Genesis 3:24.

70. Exodus 25:18-22.

71. Exodus 26:1.

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structure in Ezekiel mention is made of the gate ofthe sanctuary which faced toward the east, obviouslyto have us realize that the temple was a figure ofParadise; for if nature had remained perfect, Paradisewould have been the temple of the entire world. 72

The cultic use of the cherubim is consistent also throughout

the rest of the Scriptures. They are mentioned primarily in

relation to a creedal confession of who the Lord is as the one

who sits enthroned above the cherubim . Never are the cherubim

mentioned apart from a context that is concretely grounded in

either the tabernacle or the temple.

In Genesis, the cherubim are associated with a hard word of

law. Adam and Eve, expelled from the garden, know the

permanence of their exile by the fact that two members of the

Lord's army have been permanently stationed at the entrance of

Eden. They cannot pass. They cannot eat the food of

immortality. They will die.

The tabernacle is the reversal of this word of Law. The

cherubim welcome the people to receive the mercy that comes from

the Lord who once more dwells among His people. He again walks

in the garden in the cool of the day. The glory that dwells

between the cherubim is an undeniable confession of this fact.

The command given the people to listen to the reading of the

Law every seven years would have brought some into the


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tabernacle, and all near it. Here they would have seen the

cherubim guarding the way to life and would have heard, and

perhaps seen, the high priest.

When Moses commands the Levites to read the Law before the

people on every seventh Feast of Tabernacles, he commands them

in the masculine singular ( 8 .( 73 It is likely, therefore, that

the was read by the High Priest himself. When the people

listened to the High Priest's voice, they would have had an

interesting experience when he intoned the words of Genesis2:11-12:

The name of the first [river] is the Pishon. It is theone that flowed around the whole land of Havilah,where there is gold. And the gold ( of that land ( is good; bdellium and onyx stone ( .are there (

They heard what they saw. The priest was vested in the

beauty of the region that surrounded Eden.74

The cloth of thehigh priest's ephod was made from gold, scarlet, and purple

yarns ( < 75). Rings that bound pieces of the ephod together were

made of pure gold. On the front of the ephod were two onyx

stones ) ' 76 ). These stones had engraved on them the names of

73. Deuteronomy 31:11.

74. Exodus 28:2-9.

75. Exodus 28:6.

76. Exodus 28:9.

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the twelve tribes of Israel.

Even if it were not established that there are structural

and thematic similarities between Moses' accounts of creation

and the construction of the tabernacle, we would still have to

acknowledge that as the people heard about < , they saw


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with which God is pleased. 77

In Josephus' remarks, the impression is given that when the

high priest enters the tabernacle, the whole world is present.

It is interesting that Josephus in certain places actually has

the high priestly vestments confessing something other than what

the Lord gave them for. 78 Nevertheless, the link between

creation and the vestments in Josephus does actually reflect the

allusions that we see Moses making in his accounts of the

creation of the world and the construction of the vestments.

Josephus may be hellenizing an older tradition that existed

in apocryphal literature that he was familiar with. The link

between the vestments and creation is also attested earlier (190

B.C.) by Sirach:

He was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud,and as the moon at the full / As the sun shining uponthe temple of the most High, and as the rainbow givinglight in the bright clouds / And as the flower ofroses in the spring of the year, as lilies by therivers of waters, and as the branches of thefrankincense tree in the time of summer / As fire andincense in the censer, and as a vessel of beaten goldset with all manner of precious stones / And as a fairolive tree budding forth fruit, and as a cypress treewhich groweth up to the clouds. / When he put on therobe of honour, and was clothed with the perfection ofglory, when he went up to the holy altar, he made the

77. Josephus and Whiston, Ant 3.184-187.

78. In Exodus 28:21, Moses notes that the twelve stonesrepresent the tribes of Israel.

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garment of holiness honourable. 79

The correlations between creation and what the people would

have experienced in the tabernacle do not end with the priest's

ephod. Indeed, they would not have seen the ephod at all were

it not for the light of the lampstand, or menorah .

The function of the lampstand was to illumine the Holy

Place. However, if that were the only purpose for the menorah ,

then any sort of torch would have served well. One would not

have needed the elaborate sort of lampstand that is described by

Moses. 80 Exodus describes a lampstand that is very botanical in

its look and arrangement.

The shape of the lampstand--the trunk with itsbranches extending on either side--unmistakably evokesthe image of a tree. Quite possibly, it representsthe tree of life. The inflorescence of the almondtree most certainly bears symbolic value, for thattree is the earliest spring-flowering plant in theLand of Israel, often even before the end of February.The stem sh-k-d means to be watchful, wakeful,vigilant; thus, the almond flower is a symbol of liferenewed and sustained. The number seven, the totalityof the lamps, is the outstanding symbolic number inthe Bible, an expression of completeness andperfection. Finally, the lights constitute the mostpowerful symbol of all, for light intimates both lifeitself and the presence of the Giver of all life. 81

For Luther, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge

79. Sirach 50:6-11, KJV.

80. Exodus 25:31-40.

81. Sarna (1991), 165.

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of good and evil together formed the sanctuary at which the

church first conducted its worship. Bringing in themes from the

psalms, Luther moves on from a discussion of the very first

sermon 82 to discuss the nature of the Divine Service in the

garden.

So, then, this tree of the knowledge of good and evil,or the place where trees of this kind were planted inlarge number, would have been the church at whichAdam, together with his descendants, would havegathered on the Sabbath day. And after refreshingthemselves from the tree of life he would have praisedGod and lauded Him for the dominion over all thecreatures on the earth which had been given tomankind. . . Adam would have extolled the greatestgift, namely, that he, together with his descendants,was created according to the likeness of God. He wouldhave admonished his descendants to live a holy andsinless life, to work faithfully in the garden, towatch it carefully, and to beware with the greatestcare of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.This outward place, ceremonial, word, and worship manwould have had. 83

The final connection between the tabernacle's holy place and

creation can be seen in the liturgy that would take place there.

Atonement is the center of the Old Testament sacrificial system.

Absolutely key in recognizing this purpose is the prohibition

against eating blood.

If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers

who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set myface against that person who eats blood and will cut

82. Genesis 2:16-17.


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him off from among his people. For the life of theflesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you onthe altar to make atonement for your souls, for it isthe blood that makes atonement by the life. 84

God does not prohibit the eating of blood by way of somearbitrary regulation that has no basis in the theology of the

Old Testament. Rather, the prohibition is designed to bring

into focus and highlight the reality of the atonement.

The Lord wishes to spare His people of the punishment they

have merited. For this reason, He gives it on the altar to make

atonement for their souls.

Those translations of the Old Testament that constantly

render as offering and the hiphil of as offer 85 may go

further than the Lord intends in His usage of the words. The

person who brings the offering is doing just that, bringing it.

The simple Qal meaning of is to draw near.To cause to draw near is most simply expressed to bring

near. The person who brings the sacrifice is an instrument.

They provide the necessary animal. The sacrifice is given,

however, by God. 86 The way of atonement is in this way the same

in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

84. Leviticus 17:10-11.

85. See Brown, Driver, Briggs.

86. Leviticus 17:11.

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In the Old Testament, the sinner brings forth an animal

which God gives to Himself on the altar and expiates His own

wrath.

Key to understanding this expiation is to also keep in focus

the true role of propitiation in the Old Testament.

Propitiation must be included in the concept andtranslation of k-ph-r as well as expiation . . .Outside of the Bible, of course, propitiation oftenapplies to mans attempt to appease an angry god byhis sacrifices. The solution is not to eliminate theBiblical themes of the wrath of God and of divineretribution from our theology, which is evidentlyoften the liberal hidden agenda in this connection.Rather we must give full weight to the Biblicalemphasis that the true God Himself graciously providesthe means by which His righteous wrath may be allayed.In a way, this was the point of the entire covenant,old as well as new. Thus seen, expiation and propitiation become virtual synonyms, but both arelikely to be misunderstood without the correctiveemphasis supplied by the other. 87

The very concept of the divine wrath is often distasteful in

modern approaches to theology. They use the idea of propitiation

to lay at the feet of God a retributive nature. This nature

looks on the surface like a father who joys in abusing his

children and needs to be offered the blood of a dead animal so

that his bloodlust can be satisfied.

The Scriptures, however, present us with a loving God who,

though roused to anger by sin, in His grace and mercy provides

87. Hummel (1979), 85.

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all that is necessary for both propitiation and expiation. In

the New Testament, Judas hands Christ over to Pilate. Jesus

puts it this way: It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of

Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 88 And further,

though sinners brought Jesus to the hands of Pilate, it was not

they who offered Him.

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purifiedwith blood, and without the shedding of blood there isno forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for thecopies of the heavenly things to be purified withthese rites, but the heavenly things themselves withbetter sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered,not into holy places made with hands, which are copiesof the true things, but into heaven itself, now toappear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor wasit to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priestenters the holy places every year with blood not hisown, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedlysince the foundation of the world. But as it is, hehas appeared once for all at the end of the ages toput away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 89

The importance of understanding that the sacrifice of the

Old Testament is offered to God by God is emphasized well by

Hummel when he describes the connection between the sacrificial

system and the cross. The typological connection would be

impossible if Old Testament worship were informed by any

fundamentally different type of theology, that is, works rather

88. Mark 14:41.

89. Hebrews 9:22-26.

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than grace. 90

Contrast this with Eichrodt's view of the selfsame matter:

Forgiveness cannot be thought of as God's personal

dealing with men for the restoration of fellowshipunless Man is personally committed to this action onthe part of his God. What might be possible in thecase of magical purification or legalisticallyconceived remission of punishment is unthinkable whenit is a matter of the return of the God who has beeninjured by Man. Here Man must be involved in his mostinward self, if there is to be a real renewal offellowship. 91

To stop with Hummel's observation regarding the theology of

the Old Testament, however, is to stop a bit too soon. Jesus

fulfills the entire Old Testament sacrificial system on the

cross, but He delivers the benefits of his suffering, death, and

resurrection in the Lord's Supper.

Moses' description of blood sacrifice in Leviticus certainly

brings to mind in the Christian the very words that our Lord

used as He instituted the supper by which He delivers to us the

gifts He won on the cross.

A brief exploration of the relationship between these two

texts will illumine just what the Old Testament sacrificial

system was given to accomplish.

90. Hummel (1979), 80.

91. Walter Eichrodt. The Theology of the Old Testament , trans.J.A. Baker, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1967).1:465.

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The life of the flesh isin the blood, and I havegiven it for you on thealtar to make atonementfor your souls. 92

This is my blood of thecovenant, which is pouredout for many for theforgiveness of sins. 93

In both Leviticus and Matthew, the passage begins with a

confession regarding the blood of the sacrifice. Moses

highlights the importance of the blood. It is where the life is

located. The Lord tells us that the blood of the new covenant,

as opposed to the old one, is His own. What is implicit in the

Matthew text, just as it is explicit in the Leviticus one, isthe language of sacrifice.

It is not difficult to see how the language of sacrifice

became so prominent in the medieval Roman church. For this

reason, it is important that we note the language of Hebrews

when we look at these texts. Jesus offered Himself as a

sacrifice once for all. 94 There is no need for a repeated

unbloody sacrifice of the mass. The Lord delivers through the

Lord's Supper the same thing that was accomplished by the Lord

giving the blood on the altar to Himself, atonement for our

souls, the forgiveness of our sins.

92. Leviticus 17:11.

93. Matthew 26:28.

94. Hebrews 9:26.

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The Holy of Holies in Genesis

If the world is the tabernacle, and Eden is the Holy Place,

then Adam and Eve themselves are the Holy of Holies. Though

Genesis does not make this theme as explicit as some of the ones

that we have previously explored, it is certainly there.

The Lord's word in the creation of Adam and Eve 95 gives to

them dominion over all of creation. As we have noted, the Lord

has placed in them His . From Paul's letter to the

Colossians we know this to be Christ.

This dominion is described by Moses in two ways. First, man

is to be fruitful and multiply, fill ( the earth and subdue (

it. 96 This command is inextricably bound up in the imago Dei .

It is the Lord who fills creation, and more explicitly, the

tabernacle ( ' ( 97 ).

It is only by the Lord's gracious giving of His image to

Adam and Eve in their creation that they can image Him in any

way including procreation.

The second way in which Moses describes the rule of Adam and

Eve is that they are to have dominion over every living thing in

95. Genesis 1:26-28.

96. Genesis 1:28.

97. Exodus 40:34.

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creation. This dominion is expressed by Adam in a particular

way as he names the creatures in the Garden. 98

At first glance, the naming of the animals in Genesis 2 does

not seem that significant. The theology of name, however, is an

important theme in the Scriptures. This theme has been

recognized for quite some time.

In Luther's Genesis lectures, he notes that Adam's perfect

righteousness and innocence allow him to see the true nature of

the animals and to have dominion over them not as some external

despot but as one who graciously commands them to do exactly

what they have been created to do.

Without any new enlightenment, solely because of theexcellence of his nature, [Adam] views all the animalsand thus arrives at such a knowledge of their naturethat he can give each one a suitable name thatharmonizes with its nature. . . Therefore by onesingle word he was able to compel lions, bears, boars,tigers, and whatever else there is among the moreoutstanding animals to carry out whatever suited theirnature. 99

Modern biblical scholarship has arrived at similar

conclusions as can be seen in Eichrodt, who identifies the view

of name discussed by Luther as the prevailing view of the

ancient world.

The naming of the animals by Adam is not only an

98. Genesis 2:19-20.


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assertion of sovereignty over them, it expresses theirnatures. In the context of human names this belieffinds expression in the giving of new names to vassalsby their overlords or to disciples by their masters;the new name stamps a new pattern of life, so to

speak, on the recipient.100

Eichrodt's last observation can be seen in the Scriptures

themselves as the Lord renames Jacob, 101 and after He became

incarnate of the Virgin Mary, Peter. 102 Further, it is seen in

the placing of the name on Israel in the Aaronic benediction. 103

Such name theology inexorably binds creation to the cultic

experience of Israel in the tabernacle, and later the temple.

Gieschen notes this very clearly.

There is significant evidence that during a period ofIsrael's history an extensive Name theology developedin which God's presence with his people was describedthrough expressions involving the dwelling of his ,especially in the sanctuary. 104

In Luther, Adam's naming of the animals is speaking on them

the blessing for which God created them in the first place. A

dog praises God by being a dog, a bird by being a bird. In his

100. Eichrodt (1967), 2:40.

101. Genesis 32:28.

102. Matthew 16:18.

103. Numbers 6:22-27. Particularly verse 27. So shall they putmy Name on the people of Israel, and I will bless them.

104. Charles A. Gieschen. Angelomorphic Christology: Antecedentsand Early Evidence . (Boston: Brill, 1998), 71-72.

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naming of the dog as dog and the bird as bird, Adam calls the

creatures under his dominion and care into an unending rejoicing

in their dogness and their birdness.

Adam is able to do this not because it is in his nature to

do so but because it is in God's nature to do so, and He has

created Adam in His image, to be his very icon within Eden.

Perhaps most indicative of Adam and Eve as the Holy of

Holies within Eden is their relationship as husband and wife.

Luther delights to confess this, though, he only ties it to

Paul's use of Genesis 2 105 when he discusses the expulsion of Adam

and Eve from the garden.

Adam and Eve, or marriage itself, is a type of Christand the church (Eph. 5:32). This allegory is ingeniousand full of comfort, for what more delightfulstatement can be made than that the Church is thebride and Christ the Bridegroom? It expresses thatmost happy association and bestowal of all the giftswhich the Bridegroom possesses, as well as theobliteration of the sins and all the misfortunes withwhich the poor bride is burdened. Therefore it is amost delightful saying when St. Paul states (2 Cor.11:2): I have espoused you to one husband that I maypresent you to Christ as a chaste virgin. 106

Luther's reason for a late confession of this truth may be

that he sees in Paul a confession of the atonement, an atonement

that is not in any way necessary in Genesis 2. Though

105. Ephesians 5:31-32.


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understandable, it would seem that Paul does not find it

unnatural to speak of Genesis 2 in light of the later reality of

fallen humanity.

In the usage of the church, Genesis 2 has often been tied

not only to Ephesians 5, but also to the Gospel of John. As Eve

is created from the side of Adam, so is the Church created by

the water and nourished by the blood that flows from the side of

Christ as He dies on the cross. 107 For Leo the Great, the

incarnation itself is announced by the institution of marriage

in Genesis 2.

From the very commencement of the human race, Christis announced to all men as coming in the flesh. Inwhich, as was said, there shall be two in one flesh,there are undoubtedly two, God and man, Christ and theChurch, which issued from the Bridegrooms flesh, whenit received the mystery of redemption andregeneration, water and blood flowing from the side ofthe Crucified. 108

In the Holy of Holies, the high priest entered, representing

Israel, and brought the blood of the sacrifice which the Lord

gave on His ark for the atonement of His people. The blood came

from an animal that the Lord Himself had given to His people.

The priest receives from the Lord the forgiveness that He freely

107. John 19:24-25, 1 John 5:6-9.

108. Leo the Great. Letter LIX in Philip Schaff, The Niceneand Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series Vol. XII , Leo theGreat, Gregory the Great. (Oak Harbor: Logos ResearchSystems, 1997), 60.

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gives.

When Adam, as husband, serves Eve, his wife, he is bestowing

on her the gifts that he himself has already received from the

Lord. Though the gifts he gives in Eden are not the forgiveness

of sins, they are, in their pre-fall context, every bit as

precious.

Adam is the first preacher of God's word of Law and Gospel

that He has heard from the Lord Himself. 109 Striking in the word

that the Lord speaks to Adam is that even before the fall, the

Lord speaks in such a way that Law and Gospel are distinct.

This is true even though the chief use of the Law 110 does not

yet exist and the Gospel does not yet proclaim the atonement.

Both the accusing office of the Law and the redeeming office of

the Gospel are consequent to the fall into sin. In the pre-fall

context, Law is simply command, and Gospel is simply promise, or

gift.

GOTTESDIENST IN GENESIS

In our discussion of the relationship between creation and

the tabernacle, we have discussed all of the puzzle pieces

necessary for us to map out the nature of Gottesdienst in

Genesis.

109. Genesis 2:16-18.

110. Luther. Great Galatians (1535), LW 26:335.

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Gottesdienst is Luther's preferred word for what is normally

called in English, worship. Its meaning, however, is far

richer than the English equivalent. Gottesdienst is divine

service, a back-and-forth dynamic in which the Lord gives out

His gifts and the given-to ones respond with praise and

thanksgiving. The emphasis in Luther is clearly on the Giver

known by the gift.

The Apology to the Augsburg Confession indicates the proper

focus of Gottesdienst as receiving the gifts God offers.

Aus diesem ist leicht zu merken Unterscheid zwischendem Glauben und zwischen der Frommkeit, die durchGesetz kommt. Denn der Glaub ist ein solcherGottesdienst und latria, da ich mir schenken und gebenlasse. Die Gerechtigkeit aber des Gesetzs ist einsolcher Gottesdienst, der da Gott anbeutet unserWerke. So will Gott nun durch den Glauben alsogeehret sein, das wir von ihm empsahen, was erverheisset und anbeutet. 111

The receiving of the Lord's gifts does not take place in an

otherworldly, spiritual manner, but rather concretely within the

Lord's own creation. In this way, it is no different in Eden

than it is today.

The Gottesdienst of Genesis begins with the Lord's gracious

creating of the universe and giving it all into the care and

dominion of the human beings He has placed there. At the very

111. Philipp Melanchthon, Apology IV:49 trans. Justas Jonas inDie Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischenKirche . (Gttingen: Vandenhoed & Ruprecht, 1967), 170.

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center of this creation is a grove in which grows two types of

tree: the tree of Life, and the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil.

Luther highlights the fact that both trees are good

creations of God. In Luther's understanding, man was given to

care for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as a good

gift of God, just not one from which man was given to eat. 112

Most importantly, the trees mark the locatedness of the

Lord's speaking. It is here that He gave his promise and

command. It is here that He located His Word. For Luther, all

things are sanctified by the Word and prayer. In Genesis 2,

therefore, there is no more sacred place than the grove of trees

that have God's command attached to them.

We know also that Eve was aware of the importance of these

trees, and thus we have her already in the grove when the

serpent comes to her. 113 For Luther there is no doubt that the

word concerning the eating of the fruit came to Eve by way of

Adam's preaching. 114 What is not completely clear is whether Adam

preached the Lord's word incorrectly or whether Eve

misunderstood it under the influence of the serpent. What is


113. Genesis 3:1ff.


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absolutely clear in Luther is that when Eve misquotes the words

of the Lord she has already moved from faith to unbelief. 115

With the sin of Adam, 116 the Gottesdienst of Genesis sees a

significant change. The angel who speaks the word of the Lord's

curse and promise addresses Adam first because Adam is the one

who had been entrusted with the word in the first place. 117

Thus, when the dew of creation is still wet upon the ground,

sin enters the world, and even at this moment the Lord preaches

a strong word of Gospel. I will put enmity between you and the

woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall

bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. 118

The Lord seals His promise with a sacrifice. Blood is shed

and Adam and Eve are spared. 119 It is by no accident that Moses

notes that the Lord makes garments of skin with which to clothe

them. In order for these garments to be given, blood must be115. Ibid, 155.

116. It is worth remembering that in the New Testament(particularly Paul), it is Adam who is held accountable forthe coming of sin into the world. He was with his wifewhen she ate and did nothing to save her. Further, Christis the new Adam, not the new Eve. By being obedient untothe cross, He washes away the sin of Adam and of the wholeworld.

117. Ibid, 173.

118. Genesis 3:15.

119. Genesis 3:21.

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shed. Death enters the world in an immediate way when Adam and

Eve fall from grace. But due to the Lord's rich love and care

for them, it is not their blood that He immediately demands, but

He takes the blood of another, pointing forward to the blood

that He would finally shed in their place.

The messianic hope is real and concrete for Eve from the

beginning. When Cain is born, Eve rejoices in her belief that

the promise of Genesis 3:15 has been fulfilled. She says, I

have gotten a man, YHWH. ( ( ( 120 Through her hearing

of the promise, Eve has gone from the unbelief of Genesis 3 to

faith in Genesis 4. Although this was a false hope, it

nevertheless is clear that Eve was a saintly woman and that she

believed the promise concerning the future salvation through the

blessed Seed. 121

What has been noted by Hummel about the theology of the Old

Testament is proven in the text itself. The Old Testament

presents a theology of grace. The Lord graciously provides for

the needs of His people both before sin and after.

Initially this gracious calling comes through a Word that

ratifies the gifts that He has already bestowed in creation.

120. Genesis 4:1, author's translation.

121. Luther. Genesis Lectures (1536), 242.

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After the fall, this word turns into a promise that the sin they

have brought into the world will be destroyed when the Lord

Himself prepares a sacrifice that will be sufficient for the

sins of all the children of Adam and Eve.

THE FULLFILLMENT OF ALL THINGS IN CHRIST

The or tabernacle word group has a rich history of

usage in the New Testament. 122 Normative for its usage, however,

is the Johannine application of it to Christ. The Lord takes on

flesh and tabernacles among us. 123

The Gospel of John continues this theme as Jesus identifies

his body as the temple. 124 We know from the New Testament

approach to the tabernacle in the Gospel of John, Hebrews, and

elsewhere that it is only in Christ that the Old Testament

tabernacle has any meaning.

When the incarnation itself occurred in Jesus' birththe tabernacle found its fulfillment there. One of thekey passages in making the connection is John 1:14,"The Word (Christ) was made flesh and dwelt among us..." We might also translate "tabernacled among us" tomake the connection even more obvious. St. John usesthe usual Greek translation for the Hebrew for

122. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , Vols. 5-9Edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 Compiled by RonaldPitkin., ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey William Bromiley andGerhard Friedrich, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids, MI:Eerdmans, 1964-c1976), 7:375-381.

123. John 1:14.

124. John 2:19, see also Matthew 26:61.

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"indwell" and by a happy coincidence the words in thetwo languages even happen to sound somewhat alike. 125

It may not be out of line to suggest that Christ is the

very after which the tabernacle is modeled. Surely we maysay that it is only in Him that the tabernacle receives its

fullness. In the Old Testament, the Lord dwelt between the

cherubim. In Christ, all the fullness of the deity dwells

bodily. 126

It is Christ who will finally bring His bride into heaven,

where the fullness of our experience will be Himself, and we

will tabernacle with Him forever.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, highmountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem comingdown out of heaven from God, having the glory of God,its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper,clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, withtwelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and onthe gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sonsof Israel were inscribed--on the east three gates, onthe north three gates, on the south three gates, andon the west three gates. And the wall of the city hadtwelve foundations, and on them were the twelve namesof the twelve apostles of the Lamb. . . And I saw notemple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God theAlmighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need ofsun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God givesit light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light willthe nations walk, and the kings of the earth will

125. Horace D. Hummel. Christ in the Old Testament, For theLife of the World , 1998, 3:2.

126. Colossians 2:9.

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bring their glory into it, and its gates will never beshut by day--and there will be no night there. Theywill bring into it the glory and the honor of thenations. 127

All things in creation will receive their fullness in theLamb who was slain from before the foundation of the world. It

is He that created the universe for us, and it is in Him that

the world receives all that it has. Let us tabernacle in Him

forever. Amen.

127. Revelation 21:10-14, 22-26. Emphasis added.

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WORKS CITED

Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Matthew Black et al. The Greek New Testament , 4th ed. (Federal Republic of Germany: UnitedBible Societies, 1993, c1979).

The Apocrypha : King James Version. (Bellingham WA: LogosResearch Systems, Inc., 1995).

Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche .(Gttingen: Vandenhoed & Ruprecht, 1967).

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia : With Westminster Hebrew Morphology. , electronic ed. (Stuttgart; Glenside PA: GermanBible Society; Westminster Seminary, 1996, c1925;morphology c1991).

Francis Brown et al., Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Strong's, TWOT, and GK referencesCopyright 2000 by Logos Research Systems, Inc.; electroniced.; Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2000)

Walter Eichrodt. Man in the Old Testament . trans. K. and R.Gregor Smith. (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1951).

________. The Theology of the Old Testament , trans. J.A. Baker,(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1967).

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , Vols. 5-9 Edited byGerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 Compiled by Ronald Pitkin., ed.Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey William Bromiley and GerhardFriedrich, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids,

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