I’m an in-the-weeds person. In the details is where I spend my days – spreadsheets, software code, recipes. I’m looking out for fuzzy caterpillars on the hiking trail while others admire the vistas. Sometimes (okay, often times) I can miss the big picture.
It’s no different reading the Bible. I’m drawn to the details of the story: who, where, and how many goats did Jacob send ahead to Esau exactly?
This year I added a new study Bible to my library. This one is aimed at understanding the literary, geographic, and cultural nuances within the Scriptures. So I read a passage, then read the historical footnotes, passage, footnotes, and repeat. In this way, it can take me quite a while to get through a single chapter.
I also learned this year how to look up an original Hebrew or Greek word using Strong’s Concordance. And since it’s all online, I can click links and wander down rabbit holes cross-referencing words and texts for hours.
But then comes the moment when I pop my head up and try to orient myself in the story, only to realize I don’t really know where I am.
The Bible is dense with details. The Old Testament alone references 58 nations and over 100 unique cities.
In terms of a timeline, it spans around 2000 years starting with Abraham in chapter 12. The preceding time frame is very long and an unknowable period of time.
And then there are all the people. Ninety-one names beginning with the letter is A, according to my unscholarly count. And 25 names start with B. And we’ve still got 24 letters left to go!
A single chapter in the scroll of Genesis, Joshua, or Kings has enough people, places, and events to completely cloud over where you are in the story of God’s rescue plan. What I needed was an overarching framework.
So I was delighted this year to discover Sandra Richter’s book The Epic of Eden. She consolidates all the details into groups so that at any point you can know where you are. All the people, for example, can be pooled around five main figures:
- Adam
- Noah
- Abraham
- Moses
- David
Israel, the author reminds us, was a patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal society. So indeed all key figures are men.
Those people then fall into five general eras:
- Adam – Eden / Creation
- Noah – Re-creation
- Abraham – Patriarchy
- Moses – Exodus
- David – Monarchy / Kingdom
Similarly, she synthesizes the geography into five primary areas:
- Mesopotamia
- Canaan
- Egypt
- Israel
- Judah
The final piece to Richter’s framework is understanding covenant-making in the ancient Near East. As she writes:
“So significant is this concept of covenant to the Bible that the biblical writers utilize it as a major structuring principle for both the history and the theology of redemption.” (page 91)
There are key similarities (and differences) to the man-structured covenants between nations and God-structured covenants between Himself and humanity. This is no coincidence. Her chapter explaining “The Concept of Covenants” is worth the purchase alone.
In the latter two-thirds of the book, Richter one-by-one unveils the richness of God’s covenants:
- Adam – God’s original intent for humanity was for the people of God to dwell in the place of God with full access to the presence of God
- Noah – After numerous generations and an epic flooding event, God reestablishes contact between humanity and Himself with a cosmic, re-creational covenant
- Abraham – God makes a covenant promising the people of God (Abraham’s offspring) a place of God (Canaan)
- Moses – God fulfills the Abrahamic covenant and, for the first time since Eden, the presence of God is restored (albeit limited) by means of a tabernacle
- David – For his loyal and faithful service, God awards David an eternal dynasty/kingdom; this covenantal kingdom, however, can only be fulfilled by a descendent of David who is himself eternal
- Jesus – Jesus fulfills all the covenants. “He is the Last Adam who defeats Eden’s curse; the second Noah commissioned to save God’s people…the seed of Abraham; the new [Moses] who stands upon the mountain and amazes his audience [with his] authority…and he is the heir of David.” (page 217) Through Jesus, God makes a way for all the people of God to dwell in the place of God with fully restored access to the presence of God that is both already here and not quite completely here yet.
Now we can see the beauty of God’s redemptive plan coming into focus with overwhelming majesty.
Across the whole of Scripture, Richter gives us a rainbow so we can always look up, orient ourselves, and be reminded that God is writing the entire epic story and it is very good.
Lord, come quickly.
P.S. As an aside, while reading The Epic of Eden I made a mnemonic to help me remember how the kingdom was divided and exiled. Israel (with a ‘r’) was the name of the kingdom in the north (also with a ‘r’) and Judah (with a ‘u’) was in the south (also with a ‘u’).
The Northern kingdom (north is at the top of maps) falls first to Assyria (‘A’ being the first letter in the alphabet) who occupies the northern part of Mesopotamia.
The Southern kingdom (at the bottom maps) falls second to Babylon (‘B’ being the second letter in the alphabet) who occupies the southern part of Mesopotamia.
