Day 11: Themes of ‘In-Between’

Lord Jesus, what do You want to say to me about the way You love Yourself and the way You want me to love myself?

Darling, today I would like to talk about In Between. Earlier, we talked about Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, and how things were then. Yesterday, we talked about The End and how people see themselves in heaven and in hell. Today, get your Bible, I want to talk about life In Between The Beginning and The End.

You can choose any ‘random slice of Old Testament history’; the same themes will be there. Those are the themes that exist in In Between. There are pictures of Jesus. There is a tension between the ways I’m trying to bring people near and the ways I’m trying to protect them from being destroyed by My holiness because of their uncleanness. And there’s a set up for Jesus as I try to show them the problem.

These are the themes of the story from Adam (and Abraham) to Christ.

1. People still matter to God
2. There are major problems of distance and uncleanness
3. When God tries to draw near, the problems of sin and uncleanness are shown to be really bad
4. God raises up people, sometimes a lot of people, and gives them specific roles (prophets, priests, kings, Levites, judges, deliverers…)
5. Even if they fulfill their roles perfectly, there are still major problems of distance and uncleanness. It’s still nothing like the garden.
6. If they mess up/disobey and/or step out of their roles, things get really bad and the holiness of God may destroy them
7. All of these people (and animals and sacrifices) paint pictures of Jesus as well as show the need for Jesus
8. No matter how many times I try to set people apart as holy–setting Israel apart as holy among the nations, setting Levi apart as holy among the Israelites, etc.–it’s never enough. They always fail on every level. Until I finally narrow humanity down to Jesus and start over through Him. From His success, the New Humanity widens out again to include everyone who believes in Him. That’s why things look and feel so much different and better now.

Yes Lord. As I read a portion from that “In-Between” part of the Bible, I found my heart thinking, “If I had lived in the Old Testament under that law I would have felt paranoid and disgusting all the time!”

Oh My darling, I know. I know you would have, and  you don’t have to pretend otherwise. I never pretended My law was enough to be your Savior. I never intended it to restore Eden; I never pretended it could. The law was a schoolmaster to bring you to Christ–Christ meaning “the anointed One.” The schoolmaster taught you that you needed the Anointed One.

It’s like going to a whole school and every topic, every subject, is “Why we need Jesus, the One the Father has anointed with the Holy Spirit.” If feeling paranoid and disgusting was what would drive you to Him, that’s what you would need to feel. You can’t be perfect. The law wasn’t given to make you feel good about yourself; it was given to drive you to the only One who ever could.

Jesus can restore Eden; Moses could not. If you could keep the law perfectly, something was terribly wrong. I didn’t give it to create animal-sacrifice utopia, I gave it to teach the children of Adam who I am and who they are and set the stage for the coming of the Hero and the Savior. (Who, incidentally, since you mention it, gave all the girls and women important and indispensable roles that counted too!)

Levi, the picture, only atoned for the firstborn males as if they were the only ones that mattered (Numbers 3:40-45), but Jesus, the fullness, atoned for male and female, Jew and gentile, adult and child, firstborn and latter born, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), meaning that all were destined for glory. And “ALL are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (vv. 24-25a).

You’ve heard “justified” explained as “just as if I’d never sinned.” I LOVE that. I love that that works in English. If it worked in Hebrew, I would have put it in the Bible. That is exactly what it means. That is exactly how the prodigal son’s father treated him: just as if he’d never sinned. That is what Jesus does. That is what will take you back to Eden: Jesus. Just as if humanity had never sinned, righteous and remade in Him, forever. That is the gospel.

Because the Bible starts with Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, you know that even if everyone had perfectly kept the law of Moses, it would never have been as good as what would have been if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned. It would have been a just society with My shekinah glory dwelling in the Holy of Holies, but nothing like the intimacy of Eden, naked and unashamed, God and man, both Adam and Eve, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The law never enabled My Presence to come out of the tabernacle or temple and go for sunset strolls with every man and woman! Only Jesus can restore that to you. Only Jesus has. I love going for sunset strolls with you. I know that’s the intimacy you cherish. I really am the same God.

I kept the story going, and I continue to keep the story going, and getting better and better, until it gets to the point where you would say, “If Adam and Eve had never sinned and we were still in the garden of Eden, that would not be any better than this.” Until I get you to that point, we’re not finished. I never promised you that at the beginning–I only promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, nothing more–but it was always My intention.