22 September 2024
Do you understand that a significant portion of our western biblical scholarship misses the point?
If you take seriously the call to follow Christ, you are probably obsessed with doing everything you can to create in your mind a long movie of biblical events. You want to imagine yourself being there, seeing all the details and experiencing every subtle nuance of the events.
We invest countless millions of dollars and man-hours in digging up the ruins of biblical sites. We strive to write narratives of what you would have experienced physically and emotionally had you been there. I have gotten in on that myself, investing money and time in trying to give others that same level of insight and engagement.
Do you know that the Hebrew people would have considered this rather silly? They were the kind of people who would not hesitate to cannibalize good stones from ruins, so long as there was no reason to think those stones had been defiled in some way. It wouldn't matter to them what kind of ancient historic ruins they were spoiling. And they would think it rather odd how westerners treat the relics of the past as sacred.
For example, David did not hesitate to seize Goliath's sword to use in battle. What if he damaged it? That's what swords were for, to be used. Indeed, the priests didn't think it was a big deal to let David take it. The only reason they had it was as a trophy of Goliath's defeat at God's hands. Besides, David was the man whom the Lord used to defeat him, so it was his battle plunder in the first place.
Jericho was declared defiled, but the Hebrews built atop many mounds and never gave a thought to what they had to tear down to take advantage of a good foundation. They would certainly have no hesitation pulling down pagan shrines, "historical value" be damned.
The only thing that mattered was obeying the Lord's demands for the day. They cared far more about the moral legacy than anything physical.
When the Bible text talks about a place, what matters most is the moral symbolism. Granted, we often lack the background information to discern the meaning of a place. Still, we get a glimpse of it with things like the "Gates of Hell" connotations for the southern slopes of Mount Hermon -- see Heiser's book Reversing Hermon. It's all about what the place represented -- not was, but symbolized -- the earthly portal to Hell. There was an ancient shrine going back centuries in a cave cut by a spring. The ridgeline behind it to the east was notorious for all the bad things that were associated with it.
Right on top of all that, Jesus met with His earthly predecessors in the Transfiguration. He reclaimed it for the Father. Today that cave is just a nice resort with a natural swimming pool.
I don't mind working a bit to cater to your western sensibilities about space and time, but the honest truth is that God has no interest at all in preserving the physical legacy of those places. Archaeology is not His thing. His thing is getting your heart right even if the earth is destroyed.
And I do indeed expect that to happen in twenty years or so. We have no reason to think Atlantis didn't actually exist, but you can't find it today. So far as we can tell, it was wiped about during Noah's Flood. Future generations may wonder if America ever actually existed, after solar catastrophes wipe out the physical traces of what Americans have built.
And if NATO keeps provoking Russia and China, it might not have to wait until that catastrophe. We could end up nuked in the next few weeks. And it won't matter what gets wiped away; it won't happen unless God sponsors it. If He wants it wiped away, no human agency can stop Him.
Same with Palestine and all the archaeological "treasures" there. If Israel keeps provoking the wrong people, the "Holy Land" could become a big smoking crater. And it would be wholly just. God is not worried about the loss of all those "sacred spaces" which men idolize. He cares only about His glory, and it's for sure, nothing is better for this world and human existence than His glory.
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