Eden and Exile

A Brief Retelling of The Story of Scripture

The Story of Scripture

Could you tell it to someone? If someone asked you, "what is the Bible all about?" what would you tell them? How would you begin? If someone asked you about the story of the Bible, would you know how to tell it? Is it even right to talk in those terms? I've often used language like the "story of scripture" or "grand narrative of scripture" -- but is that even an accurate way of describing things? Is there one unified story, or is it a bunch of separate pieces that don't really fit together?

How would we begin to know whether scripture is intended to show one unified, overarching narrative?

Consider the beginning. Genesis 1-2 describes the creation of the heavens and earth. The story tells of a garden where God dwelt with man, complete with rivers, a tree of Life, where "all... was very good."¹ Then, consider the end. Revelation 21-22 envisions a new creation: a new heavens and new earth, including a garden city where God will dwell with man, complete with rivers, a tree of Life, and the absence of any curse. God is “making all things new.”²

The framing of scripture suggests a coherence to the story. We might even be able to guess, simply by observing the beginning and the end, that the whole story could be described as a search for Eden restored. Eden was the place of life, of fellowship; Eden was a glimpse/taste of what creation is supposed to be, and at the end of the story, God brings in that wondrous reality.

I think that guess is correct, though of course massively oversimplified. With the beginning and end in mind, we have a tapestry of threads to connect in between.

Telling the Story

God's people have always told the story.³ And we, as his children, in possession of the entirety of his revelation, know more of the story than any of the rest of his people have known. But here's my concern: we don't tell the story often enough. I'm not sure that we even think of it as a story often enough. We treat our Bibles less like an account of God's redemptive plan and more like a poorly-constructed book of church order. Many people, when they do tell the story, tell only part of it, as though the bulk of it is irrelevant.

For some, it's almost like the important bits begin in the book of Acts. However, that's something like jumping into a well-written television series at the beginning of the final season, which hasn't finished yet. And because you haven’t seen the first part of the story, you don’t know the characters, you don't really understand what’s happening at the moment (though you think you do), nor will you be able to anticipate how things are going to end, despite the fact that the writers have been giving you clues all along.

The story of scripture is long, complex, and at times simply strange. It can be hard to follow. It can be hard to see the whole thing, or trace all of its storylines and threads, especially if we aren’t used to telling the story this way. But it's very important to understand that there *is* a story. There is a beginning and an end; a conflict, a climax, and a resolution. God created stories, after all, and he's by far the best at writing them.

Could you tell someone the story? How would you tell it? What parts would you include? What would the highlights be? What could be left out, if you were summarizing, and what would be the most important things to mention?

Example Summaries

Let me begin by giving a couple attempts to summarize the grand story of scripture in a single sentence. The following two are mine:

1. The Bible is the story of God’s eternal plan to redeem and restore his creation from the corruption of sin, accomplished through the incarnate life, death, and resurrection of the divine Son.

2. The Bible is the story of God’s redemptive work, including the incarnate life, death, and resurrection of the divine Son, in order to rescue his creation from the corruption of sin, create a holy people to declare his praise, and dwell with them eternally in the new heavens and new earth.

Here's another one-sentence summary that I like:

The movement in history from creation to new creation through the redemptive work of Father, Son, and Spirit who saves and changes corrupted people and places for his glory and their good.⁴

And my personal favorite:

Scripture tells us the story of how a Garden is transformed into a Garden City, but only after a dragon had turned that Garden into a howling wilderness, a haunt of owls and jackals, which lasted until an appointed warrior came to slay the dragon, giving up his life in the process, but with his blood effecting the transformation of the wilderness into the Garden City.⁵

Thankfully, the single-sentence question is more of a thought exercise than anything else. You're unlikely to talk to someone who only has time for a summary that short. But if you had an hour, how would you tell it? I'm going to attempt to summarize the story here. In brief, of course. This is an abridged version. But my goal is to tell it in a way that helps you to see its beauty, its intricacy, its cohesiveness, and to help you find our place in it.

How do we get to the end of the story, and why does it seem to circle back to the beginning? How do they connect? What does Eden have to do with our eternal hope?

The Story of God's Presence with God's People in God's Place

Part 1: The Garden

The story of scripture begins with God. Only God: Father, Son, and Spirit existed from all eternity. This God created, out of nothing, all that exists -- God created everything that is not God. God created the universe, and as part of that creation he formed mankind to be his image-bearers/his representatives/his kings and priests to rule over and serve within his created kingdom (Genesis 1-2).

God made a garden, and he placed mankind there, in a place called Eden: a place where he lived and met and walked with Adam and Eve. He gave them a mission:

God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."⁶

You see, the garden didn't cover the whole earth. Adam's task was not merely to cultivate and keep the garden, but to go outside of the garden and subdue the wilderness, rule over it, cultivate the ground to produce plants and trees, expanding the borders of the garden until it covered the whole earth.

So, mankind had a mission (cultivate and keep, fill the earth and subdue it) and a prohibition: one thing was off-limits. One tree. The whole earth was his, and only one tree forbidden! But, of course, mankind sinned. They chose the voice of the serpent over the voice of God; they chose to grasp at equality with God instead of embracing the glory of their role and calling (Genesis 3).

As a result of their sin, all creation fell. The entire creation was struck by the effects of sin's corruption.⁷ And because God's holiness cannot dwell with impurity, Adam and Eve were exiled from his presence.

Part 2: The Exile (1)

They were driven out of the garden, driven east, into an unfriendly creation; a creation that has been subjected to futility.⁸ A creation where all is vanity and striving after wind,⁹ and where nothing is new.¹⁰ A creation where everyone sins, and everyone dies. Angel guards, cherubim, were stationed at the eastern gate of Eden to protect it, as Adam and Eve were supposed to do -- now, though, the guards protected the presence of God even from mankind.

What do Adam and Eve do now? They have children, they cultivate the ground, they build cities. But because of sin, their cities fill with blood, the ground resists their toil, and their children murder each other (Genesis 4-6).

Then, God destroys the world (Genesis 7-8). He sends a cataclysmic flood of water to kill every living thing on the face of the earth and in the sky, except for a single human family, 7 pairs of every clean animal, and 1 pair of every unclean animal. Those, he preserved through the water by means of a boat (an ark). According to Peter, the heavens and earth that then existed were destroyed by water.¹¹ But the creation was, in a sense, remade. It was refreshed, renewed, cleansed. It was baptized and created anew. However, a problem remained: mankind, even faithful Noah, was still sinful. Even after the flood, God said:

The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth.¹²

Man had not changed, but God still made a promise: never again. Never again would he destroy every living thing.¹³ Never again would he bring such widespread, unrelenting destruction upon his creation. God made a covenant with Noah. He gave him a mission: be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. He also gave him food, though with a prohibition. More things are off-limits.

But this isn't a permanent solution, because sin continues to live and corrupt. Though the earth had been cleansed, mankind had not. That would require a different kind of solution. Even God's chosen family sins, as do all the families that come from them. They plant vineyards, but instead of enjoying its fruit in moderation, they become drunk.¹⁴ They have children, but their children continue to bring shame.¹⁵ They begin building a city, but their city is simply another attempt to seize equality with God. They aren't concerned with building the city of God, but with building the city of men, Babel.¹⁶

So, God exiles them again. He spreads them further across the face of the earth, and confuses their languages, further disrupting human relationships.¹⁷

He chooses a single family through whom he will bring about his cosmic salvation, calling Abraham: go west; away from Babel, back toward Eden.¹⁸ But this family isn't perfect either. They continue to deceive and fight amongst themselves, brothers against brothers.¹⁹ Eventually, they end up in Egypt, enslaved by a cunning, serpentine Pharaoh.²⁰

Part 3: The Tent and the Temple

Here in Egypt, God brings about the greatest redemptive act in all the OT, the Exodus. God demonstrates his power over Pharaoh and all of his gods. He brings forth his new nation through water, an act of new creation reminiscent of the way that he brought dry land out of water in Genesis 1.²¹

After the Red Sea, he brings his people to Mount Sinai. God comes down on the mountain in an earthshaking display of smoke and fire.²² He makes a covenant with the people, and he gives them a law, which occupies four chapters.²³ As the sin of mankind has expanded, so has God's Law. Many things are off-limits.

And then, God does something that seems anticlimactic. After some of the most exciting narrative material in all of scripture, the book of Exodus gives us seven chapters of painstakingly-detailed instructions for the construction of... a tent.²⁴

But what a tent! A tent that would be a place for God to come down and dwell with his people, in their midst! Further, the design of the tabernacle echoes the descriptions of Eden: the three-part construction (most holy place, where God's presence dwelt, holy place, and courtyard),²⁵ the east-facing gate,²⁶ the cherubim guarding the tabernacle, embroidered into the tapestries,²⁷ the lampstand designed to resemble a tree with branches, flowers, and buds.²⁸ Gold and onyx, materials mentioned in the descriptions of Genesis 2, were used extensively in the decoration of the tabernacle. The duties of the priests in the tabernacle and temple, to cultivate and keep, are the same pair of verbs that were used in Adam's instructions for tending the garden.²⁹ Leviticus promised that God would walk among his people once again, using language that echoed Genesis 3.³⁰

The tabernacle was a restoration of Eden.

Centuries later, when Solomon would construct a permanent temple for God in Jerusalem, he seems to have understood this connection. He filled his temple with garden imagery. All the carvings were of trees, flowers, and fruit.³¹

Both tent and temple represent God’s presence coming down to dwell on earth among his people. Even more than that, though, the explicit symbolic connections point to the fact that in the tent and in the temple, God is recreating, even if only in one place, the kind of dwelling place that he had among his people in Eden before their sin. He has established a foothold within the corrupted world; he has not given it up.

Even the land of Canaan itself, the promised land, is described by language that reminds us of the garden paradise.

Like the garden of the Lord...³²

I will... make you fruitful and multiply you... I will make my dwelling among you... I will also walk among you.³³

In some sense, and to some degree, the curse of Genesis 3 is being remedied. God now dwells among his people in a land of abundance and fertility, and has established a sanctuary within that land where his presence can join them in a special way. This sounds promising. But don't be deceived; this is not the end of the story.

Part 4: The Exile (2)

God’s people sin again, and again, and again. And, as God had promised, he brings judgment. The language of the prophets describing the exile and destruction of Jerusalem evokes the contrast between Eden and the wilderness.

A fire consumes before them, and behind them a flame devours. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but a desolate wilderness behind them, and nothing at all escapes them.³⁴

His people are cast out of the good land where he dwelt with them in fellowship. Where does he send them? East, of course—away from Eden, toward Babel. Exiled from the city of God, captive in the city of men. But still, even in exile, their mission continues, as Jeremiah tells the exiles: build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children, grow and do not decrease. Seek the good of the city.³⁵

A surprising instruction? Seek the good of Babylon? Can even Babel somehow be redeemed? Yes, it seems, it can. Through the influence of Daniel, Babylon's most powerful king, Nebuchadnezzar, pays homage to the God of heaven and bids his empire do the same.³⁶ Apparently, nothing is beyond hope of redemption. Even the empires of men will bow to the power of God.

Eventually, God overthrows Babylon's power and raises up a redeemer, an anointed one, Cyrus of Persia.³⁷

This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: 'The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him; go up then!'³⁸

So, God raises up a redeemer to free his people from captivity in a new exodus and set them building his temple, his dwelling place, the restoration of Eden on earth. That is how the return from exile is described in the prophets:

Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion; he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.³⁹

But as for you, mountains of Israel, you will grow your branches and bear fruit for my people Israel; for they are about to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown. And I will multiply people on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited and the ruins will be rebuilt... I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field... the desolated land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by. And they will say, "This desolated land has become like the Garden of Eden; and the waste, desolated and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations around you that are left will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolated; I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it."⁴⁰

Through Cyrus, God calls his people again, as he called Abraham: Go west. Come out of Babylon, back toward Canaan. Rebuild the temple. Rebuild the ancient ruins, turn the wilderness back into Eden.

And they do, to a degree, but things are never quite the same. It's not a full restoration. Even the people continue to feel that there's a sense they're still in exile. The second temple isn't as grand as the first one was. This garden is nothing to compare to the first one. So, the people are left waiting. Waiting for a greater restoration.

Part 5: The Greater Temple

In an event of cosmos-shaking significance, the climax of God's redemptive plan arrived in the form of a baby. God intervened in human history in a completely new way: God became flesh. He irreversibly joined himself to his creation; he became one flesh with his people.⁴¹ He joined himself to a human nature, a body that would grow, age, suffer, die, and be gloriously resurrected--but never discarded. The eternal Son became a baby bound by time, the child who had been prophesied beforehand as Immanuel, "God with Us."⁴²

Claiming to be God in the flesh, the presence of God walking to and fro among the people, among both Jews and Gentiles, both pure and impure, Jesus was tent and temple in human form.⁴³

Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, satisfying the demands of the law, but then took the guilt and penalty for sin upon himself, atoning for our sin. He bore the curse and broke its power. He died and was resurrected, the true temple rebuilt,⁴⁴ the firstborn of the new creation,⁴⁵ and John highlights for us the significant location where that new creation begins—in a garden.⁴⁶

Jesus then ascended to his heavenly throne, but not before giving a commission to his disciples, the new Israel:

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.⁴⁷

This commission sounds remarkably similar to Cyrus's pronouncement in 2 Chron 36:23.⁴⁸ A Redeemer raised up to set the people of God free from captivity and set them building his temple, his dwelling place, the restoration of Eden on earth? Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

Jesus too is sending his people to build a temple: not an architectural temple, but a temple made up of people. This is the ultimate temple: a temple of living stones, people within whom the Spirit of God dwells just as truly as the presence of God descended upon the tabernacle in smoke and fire.

God's cosmic building project is under construction. Just as Solomon gathered materials from every corner of the known world to create his temple, and just as the exiles returned from the ends of the earth to rebuild that temple, now Jesus calls his people from every people, nation, language, even from the ends of the earth, as living stones are added to his dwelling place.⁴⁹

Now, outposts of the garden of God spread to every corner of the globe. And as those outposts grow and work, as we "rebuild the ancient ruins," people look at them and see glimpses of Eden.⁵⁰ Miniature temples, piles of living stones, portions of his building material are present in every city across this nation and in many of the nations in the world -- and more are constantly being formed.

The temple is not simply a metaphor for the church. It is an actual temple, the real presence of God upon earth, within believers.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?⁵¹

You also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.⁵²

We are the temple of the living God.⁵³

Now we are exiles, but exiles by choice: we are sent east, sent into the unfriendly world, but we don't leave the temple behind. We are the temple now. We take the temple into the heart of Babel, transforming the city of men from within. We are the presence of God. We spread the garden. Everything we touch turns green. We go out to cultivate and keep, to rebuild the ancient ruins, to plant, to have children and to make disciples and to proclaim the good news of Jesus's redemptive work to all creation! We are sent out, as Paul says, as ambassadors of King Jesus.⁵⁴ This exile is also a conquest. We go out to tear down strongholds, every modern-day Babel, and construct the city of God in its place.

Build cities, cultivate the ground, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

And now, in certain ways, things are more like the garden than ever before. All food is ours to enjoy.

Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if received with gratitude.⁵⁵

Death remains an enemy, but humanity fights against it and delays it. The pains of childbirth are still present, but that pain has been dulled and made easier to bear. Cultivating the ground is still hard, but now we have air-conditioned machines to aid us. Forms of slavery exist in places and parts of the world, but many of the horrors of the past have been eradicated and prisoners freed -- and Christians have been at the forefront of all of those things, of advancements in science, medicine, and technology.

Human progress is not a myth; human progress apart from God is a myth. When mankind seeks to build its own cities, when mankind attempts to build Babel, it always comes crashing down. But when the people of God seek to cultivate and keep to the glory of God, the world really does begin to look a little more like Eden.

But don't be deceived; this still is not the end of the story--though perhaps, now, we begin to understand the ending. All is not yet restored, but it will be.

Part 6: The Garden City

Early in the book of Revelation, Jesus promises that the one who overcomes will eat from the tree of life, which is in the "paradise of God."⁵⁶ That same phrase is used in the Septuagint to describe Eden.⁵⁷ The word "paradeisos" itself suggests a walled garden, and it's used for Eden multiple times in the Old Testament.⁵⁸ From a garden we came, to a garden we shall return.

And in the climactic vision of John's book, he glimpses the culmination of God's redemptive work. The new heavens and new earth,⁵⁹ all things restored,⁶⁰ all things made new,⁶¹ and the City of God, the new Jerusalem, a garden city, coming *down* out of Heaven.⁶²

The language of Eden returns, for God's eternal dwelling place is prepared.

Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.⁶³

This is what we wait for. This is what we build for. We cultivate and keep, trusting in God to give growth.⁶⁴ We wait for restoration of the creation which was given to us, but which we corrupted. We wait for the creation itself to be set free.⁶⁵ We wait for the paradise of God, the garden city. According to his promises we are waiting for the new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness dwells.⁶⁶ God is "making all things new," and "the one who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son."⁶⁷ Finally, the promise of Christ will be fulfilled, and "the meek shall inherit the earth."⁶⁸

This is the story, from Genesis to Revelation, from creation to new creation.

"O Lord, come!"⁶⁹

For Further Reflection:

1. What impact does the broader narrative of scripture have on our understanding of eternal life?

2. What impact does the broader narrative of scripture have on our understanding of the mission of God's people?

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplas

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1. Gen 1:31

2. Rev 21:5

3. See Christopher J. H. Wright, The Old Testament in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019), 1–2.

4. Paul House, found at http://dogmadoxa.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-message-of-bible-in-one-sentence.html.

5. Doug Wilson, found at http://dogmadoxa.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-message-of-bible-in-one-sentence.html.

6. Gen 1:28

7. See Gen 3:17-19; Rom 8:19-22

8. Rom 8:20

9. Eccl 1:14

10. Eccl 1:9; contrast with the future vision of Rev 21:5

11. 2 Pet 3:6

12. Gen 8:21

13. Gen 8:21-22

14. Gen 9:20-21

15. Gen 9:22-27

16. Gen 11:4

17. Gen 11:6-9

18. Gen 11:31-12:4

19. Gen 25:23; 27:41; 37:4, 20

20. Gen 46:1-7; see Exod 1:10, where the Pharoah deals "shrewdly," a synonym of "cunning" in Gen 3:1 (see parallel usage in Job 5:13)

21. Exod 14:21; see Gen 1:9-10

22. Exod 19:18-20

23. Exod 20-23

24. Exod 25-31

25. Exod 26:33; 27:9

26. Exod 27:13-16

27. Exod 26:1

28. Exod 25:31-37

29. Num 3:7-8; see Gen 2:15

30. Lev 26:12; see Gen 3:8

31. 1 Kgs 6:29-35

32. Gen 13:10

33. Lev 26:9-12; compare Gen 1:28; 3:8

34. Joel 2:3

35. Jer 29

36. Dan 4:1-3, 34-37

37. Isa 44:28-45:1

38. 2 Chron 36:23

39. Isa 51:3

40. Ezek 36:9-35

41. see Gen 2:23-24; Eph 5:32

42. Isa 7:14

43. John 1:14

44. John 2:19-21

45. Col 1:15

46. John 19:41-42; 20:15

47. Matt 28:18-20

48. Interestingly, the Hebrew Bible ended with Chronicles. Cyrus's proclamation formed the final words of the last book of the Old Testament, in the traditional order, and Jesus's proclamation in Matthew 28 forms the final words of the first book of the New Testament.

49. Isa 43:5-6

50. Ezek 36:33-38

51. 1 Cor 3:16

52. Eph 2:22

53. 2 Cor 6:16; Paul cites Lev 26:11-12; Ezek 37:26-27

54. 2 Cor 5:20

55. 1 Tim 4:4

56. Rev 2:7

57. Ezek 28:13

58. e.g. Isa 51:3

59. Rev 21:1

60. Acts 3:21

61. Rev 21:5

62. Rev 21:2

63. Rev 21:3b-4

64. 1 Cor 3:6-9

65. Rom 8:21

66. 2 Pet 3:13

67. Rev 21:5-7

68. Matt 5:5; see the expansion of Psa 37:11's promise

69. 1 Cor 16:22