Grace and Law in Exodus

This is part of what we have been doing in our Bible study group. We're looking at the identity of the God of the Old Testament. As Deut 4:32-39 makes clear, God saved Israel and revealed himself to them in word and deed in order that they might know who he is. God's identity is constituted through his salvific action:

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into rthe land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ” (Exod 6:5-8)

This salvation provides the context for obedience to the law:

You yourselves have seenwhat I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession(Exod 19:4-5)

This is seen in the Decalogue itself. God doesn't start with "You shall have no other gods before me" but rather

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me" (Exod 20:2-3)

This is seen even more clearly in Deuteronomy, where the whole historical prologue, chapters 1-4, precedes the Decalogue in chapter 5.

Fulfilling God's will then, is not a matter of striving to comply to an abstract moral system. It is a response to the redemptive work of God in your life, who calls you into service as a result. Fulfilling God's will is a matter of thankfulness for what God has done.

This echoes the New Testament:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12)

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19; see also Rom 12:1).

Sin, then, is not a matter of "missing the mark" in any abstract sense. It is a matter of forgetfulness of what God has done and who he is:

Sons I have reared and brought up,

but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its owner,

and the ass its master's crib;

but Israel does not know,

my people does not understand. (Isa 1:2-3)

Again:

they exchanged the glory of God

for the image of an ox that eats grass,

they forgot God, their Saviour,

who had done great things in Egypt (Ps 16:20-21).

Finally,

there is no faithfulness or kindness,

and no knowledge of God in the land;

there is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and adulery ...

and the land mourns (Hos 4:1-3)

These thoughts are taken from Christ Wright's Old Testment Ethics (reviewed here) and Childs' Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context.

Israel's worldview?

Chris Wright, in his fascinating book Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (about which I have written a book review), outlines Israel's "worldview" in his opening chapter.

He defines a worldview thus:

A worldview is a comprehensive set of assumptions that a person or culture makes in answer to several fundamental questions that face humans everywhere. (17)

The questions include the following:

1. Where are we? (What is the nature of the universe and this planet on which we live? How does it come to be here and has it a future?)
2. Who are we? (What does it mean to be human and how, if at all, are we distinct from the rest of the living creatures we live among?)
3. What's gone wrong? (What is the cause of the way things are, which we instinctively feel is not the way they should be? Why are we in such a mess?)
4. What's the solution? (What, if anything, can be done to put things right? Is there a hope for the future, and if so, hope in what or whom and by when?)

Wright goes on to outline the "worldview of Israel in Old Testament times" (a phrase I find problematic):

1. This world is part of the good creation of one single living God, whom we know as the LORD. It wholly belongs to this God (no part belongs to other gods), and the LORD is sovereign over all that exists "in heaven above, on the earth below and under the earth."


2. "We" in the wider sense are human beings made in the image of the creator God, made for relationship with God and one another.


3. What has gone wrong is that we human beings have rebelled against the creator God, in moral and spiritual disobedience, and this has brought evil consequences into every aspect of human life, including the individual personality, our relationships with one another, with our physical environment and with God.


4. The solution lies with the same creator God who has addressed the problems of the nations of humanity by a historical project of redemption, beginning with the choice of Abraham, the father or our nation Israel. This will eventually extend to include the blessing of all nations and a new creation.

Does that hold water? What do people think?

This may work as a distillate of the canonical scriptures in their final form, but I doubt many historical Israelites would have answered all these questions in the same way. Having said that, I'd like to think that their partial viewpoints at particular times in their history would have adumbrated something like this. This worldview (if that's the right word ...) is the product of the prophetic shaping of Israel's traditions, and as such is primarily a canonical/theological rather than a historical/sociological phenomenon. In this, Christ Wright differs from Tom Wright's use of the term. Hence my problem with the phrase "worldview of Israel in Old Testament times" (though Wright does qualify this in footnote 3).

P.S. This will be the subject of our Bible study this coming Thursday. Ich bin gespannt zu sehen was daraus wird!

P.P.S By some extraordinary coincident, Jon of The Theological Ramblings of an Ordinand has posted on the same issue today, seen from the angle of N.T. Wright (who really is a legend). He also links to an mp3 lecture by Chris Wright.

An Interesting E-zine

Thank you all for the comments below. Some important and legitimate criticisms have been raised. Unfortunately, at the moment it's not always easy for me to respond immediately as I'm currently in England with the parents. I will do so as soon as possible!

Until then, a link to an interesting e-zine, which has a series of articles dealing with the Old Testament and mission. The heart of the material is an interview with Chris Wright concerning his new book The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative. This is followed by reviews by an Old Testament scholar (Prof. G. McConville) and a missions scholar (Dr. Kang San Tan). I haven't read them myself yet, though the scholars involved are top quality so they are undoubtedly worth a read!