“The City of the Living God”

I’m posting some selections from T.D. Alexander’s “From Paradise to Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch”, one of the best works I’ve found on making the Old Testament understandable, especially in the light of the New Testament.

It’s important to note, as G.K. Beale does (“Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation”, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, ©2012), that the New Testament writers had the Old Testament firmly in mind as they wrote. Christ was the fulfillment of all Old Testament promises, and the language that they used “echoed” the Old Testament:

In tune with the overall movement in the book of Genesis, the author of Hebrews links the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—with the divine construction of a unique city. Accordingly, in Hebrews 11 Abraham’s faith is reflected in the fact that he looked forward to “a better land,” a ”heavenly one,” a city with foundations, designed and built by God.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God…. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Heb. 11:8-10, 13-16).

Particularly striking is the emphasis given here to Abraham’s anticipation of a city. The author of Hebrews stresses that Abraham’s journey to a foreign land was motivated by his “looking forward” to this city. Although some scholars find little evidence for this in Genesis, when the call of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 is read against the background of Genesis 1-11, and especially the building of Babel-Babylon, the interpretation adopted in Hebrews 11 makes good sense.

The author of Hebrews is convinced that the future experience of all believers involves a city. In Hebrews 12:22 he refers once more to this city, describing it as “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” and later he states, “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

(T.D. Alexander, “From Paradise to Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch” (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, (2012 Third Edition), pg 131-132).