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The Biography of God
Lecture for Theological Forum, October 18

INTRODUCTION
The Old Testament is not so much a collection of biographies as a biography, a single biography. The Old Testament is the biography of Jesus, the Son of God (Luke 24:26-27; 44-49). To the disciples on the road to Emmaeus, who have the whole story of the gospel but don’t understand what they know, Jesus says, ““O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

Then when Jesus appears among the 11 disciples, He reiterates the same point: “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise[h] from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

And as such, the Old Testament is the biography of God. How?

SNAPSHOTS OF JESUS
It’s true in the sense that the ancestry of any great hero is part of that hero’s story. The NT begins with a genealogy of Jesus, which summarizes the Old Testament as the family history that culminates in Jesus. To know Jesus, and to know what He’s come to do, we need to have some background, know something about His people.

Another way that the OT is the story of Jesus is that the OT is full of foreshadowings of the story of Jesus, and these foreshadowings are part of His story, part of His biography. Much traditional typological interpretation focuses on individual events or persons in the Old Testament and shows that there are analogies to Jesus. This is a perfectly legitimate, perfectly Biblical, way of reading the Old Testament. The New Testament, after all, explicitly interprets most of the major persons of the Old Testament in Christological terms.

Jesus is the Last Adam (Romans 5:12-21), the greater Abel (Hebrews 12:24), the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:28-29) and therefore the true Isaac (Hebrews 11:17-19) who is also the son chosen ahead of his older brother Ishmael (Galatians 4), the one who speaks a more threatening word than Moses (Hebrews 10:26-31), a new Samuel (Luke 2:40, 52), the son of David (Matthew 1:1), one greater than Solomon (Matthew 12:42), a prophet like Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14), and so on and on.

Some of these analogies are implicit, when New Testament writers quote descriptions of Old Testament persons and apply them to Jesus (1 Samuel 2:21, 26; Luke 2:40, 52). But it doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that when Luke says that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature,” he intends to bring out analogies with Samuel. Or when Jesus calls the disciples from their nets to follow Him, He is playing the role of Elijah in relation to His disciples, which are like Elisha being called from his plough. Or when He battles Satan as the divine warrior who shares the name of the conqueror of the Canaanites.
Not only persons, but Old Testament offices and institutions are fulfilled in Jesus. He is a priest of the order of Melchizedek, which transcends the fleshly order of Aaron (Hebrews 7), He is the true prophet, He is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, the son of David who has wisdom greater than Solomon’s. He tabernacles among us (John 1:14), and He is the true living temple (John 2:18-25). He offers Himself in sacrifice, as a “sin offering” (Romans 8:1-4), and cleanses lepers and other defilements, just like the washing rites of the law.

Jesus’ ministry fulfills the great events of Old Testament history, though often in a way that reverses the original event. His obedience overturns the effects of Adam’s disobedience (Romans 5:12-21). He passes through the water and is tempted in the wilderness, but refuses to listen to Satan’s words (Matthew 3-4). He undergoes an exodus, both in his infancy (Matthew 2:15) and later in his last days in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). He suffers outside the gate, in exile from His own city, and as the new Cyrus He commissions His disciples to disciple the nations and build His house throughout the earth. Likewise the church, His body, relives Israel’s history, passing through the waters of baptism, feeding in the wilderness, called to listen to the voice, falling in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-12).

Given these sorts of explicit statements in the New Testament, it’s not a stretch to think that we should read other Old Testament passages in the same manner. If David is a type of Christ, then we can read his entire history typologically, as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ story, as a part of Jesus’ biography. David gains the approval of Israel by his prowess as a young man; He defeats Goliath and comes into the favor of King Saul. People celebrate His authority and power. But Saul turns against him, and David’s path to the throne is a path of persecution, trial, and opposition. He is opposed by members of his own house. Absalom rebels, drives him from the city, where he walks the same path that Jesus later will walk: Out of Jerusalem to the east, across the Kidron valley, up the mount of Olives on the other side, weeping as he goes. But the Lord reverses this exile, returns him to the land, and reestablishes his kingdom.

And then it’s not too hard to say that the whole story of Joseph is typological too. Though the New Testament never says that Jesus is the greater Joseph, it’s almost impossible to avoid that conclusion when we see that Joseph was favored by his father, envied and hated by his brothers, thrown into a pit and removed, exalted but then humiliated, finally robed in glory at the right hand of Pharaoh in order to feed the world.

And then it’s comparatively easy to see that the Jehu is also a type of Christ. He is raised up to oppose a wicked royal house, one that resembles the Herodian dynasty in many particulars. He is anointed in secret and then proclaimed king among his fellows, whereupon they lay their garments (= themselves) before Him (2 Kings 9). Jehu sets his face toward the capital city, and then busies himself by destroying and defiling the temple in Jerusalem. He is the meshuggah, the madman, who destroys the idolatrous temple and leaves not one stone upon another.

Typology is often seen as a secondary mode of interpretation. We have the literal meaning, and then the typology is a little artistic flourish on the main point. That’s exactly wrong. Such analogies are foundational for the theological conclusions that can be drawn from an Old Testament book, and thus fundamental to any Christian reading of the Old Testament. Many would agree with Kaiser’s statement above that typology should not be used to formulate doctrine, but this claim is not only wrong but preposterous.
The whole of New Testament Christology is built on analogies (i.e., typologies) between Jesus and Aaron, Jesus and Moses, Jesus and Melchizedek, Jesus and David, Jesus and Jeremiah, and so on and on. Even apparently more “literal” Christological titles and descriptions are fundamentally typological: To say Jesus is Son of Man is to say He is Last Adam; to say He is Son of God is to say (among other things) that He is the heir to the Davidic throne (2 Sam 7:14); to say that he is Prince of Peace is to say that He is a new Solomon. No one with a knowledge of the Old Testament can read the gospels without realizing that virtually every line assumes the Old Testament background.
-Further, Paul, that most “systematic” of New Testament writers draws not only theological but ethical conclusions from an avowedly “allegorical” reading of the story of Ishmael and Isaac (Gal 4:21-31) and from a typological summary of Israel’s wilderness experience (1 Cor 10:1-10). Arguably, the Adam-Christ typology is the backbone of Paul’s entire soteriology and ecclesiology, which is to say, of his entire theology. Far from being illegitimate grounds for theology, typology is the only ground for grasping the role of the Old Testament in Christian theology.

UNFINISHED STORY
As I say, this is all to the good. Like any great writer, the Lord foreshadows late happenings in early happenings. Like many greater writers, the Lord ends where he begins, returning to a glorified Edenic city-sanctuary at the end of his cosmic story. The Lord writes with history, real people and events, not merely with words. But His writing of history is like the writing with words. But if we only read the Old Testament for snapshots of Jesus, we have not captured fully how the Old Testament reveals Him. Typology is often done statically, atemporally. But that’s to mistake what typology is. Typology simply is a theology of time - a Trinitarian theology of time, about nonidentical repetition in God’s history that manifests the nonidentical repetition of God as Father, Son, and Spirit.

When we look at the Old Testament from this angle, it is not a series of snapshots but a story - a film. And it’s a story that not only foreshadows but – in, with, under the foreshadowing – dynamically moves toward the incarnation of the Eternal Son. It is part of the biography of Jesus because it prepares the way for the gospel story of Jesus, which completes the biography of Jesus. The Old Testament is a part of Jesus’ biography precisely in being unfinished – because it leaves us waiting for something more to happen. We get to the end of Malachi, and we can’t not turn the page to see the final chapter.

It moves toward the incarnation partly by showing the failure of all earlier Messiahs, saviors, sacrifices. Moses led Israel from Egypt, delivered the law He received on Sinai, interceded for Israel, led Israel through the land, but even Moses couldn’t write the law on the hearts of the Israelites. In spite of Moses’ ministry, Israel remained a stiff-necked people. Israel’s sacrificial system enabled Israel to draw near to God. They could be cleansed with regard to flesh, and come near in Yahweh’s courts. But the sacrifices had to keep going. One day of atonement wasn’t enough. You needed to do another one next year. It was clearly incomplete. David was a great king, a man of faith, a hero of Israel. He saved Israel from the Philistines, and established the kingdom of Israel as a minor power in the Middle East. He brought the ark into Jerusalem, and gathered the plunder of the nations to prepare to build the temple. He reorganized the priesthood into a choir and orchestra, so that Yahweh would be worshiped in glory in His house. Because of David’s own sins, and because of the sins of the people, David’s kingdom did not endure. After Solomon’s death, the kingdom divided. And the great glory of David’s kingdom was lost.

It just got worse as the history of the monarchy continued. Instead of promoting the worship of Yahweh, they officially promoted the worship of golden calves and Baals. Instead of establishing righteousness, they established injustice. Eventually, the kingdom collapsed, and Israel was given over into the hand of Gentile powers. And even when Israel returned to the land after the exile, they never again achieved the glory of the kingdoms of David and Solomon.

And so we come to the end of the Old Testament with a sense of frustration. This is the biography of God, of God’s marriage to Israel. Yet, at the end of the day, things have not worked out as they should have. God called Abraham to be the agent for the reversal of the sin of Babel, and ultimately as the agent for reversing the effects of the sin of Adam. Yet, Abraham’s children are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The Old Testament doesn’t end tragically. A tragic end would be dramatic, titanic. The Old Testament’s ending is not titanic. It’s disappointing. It doesn’t end with a comic bang, nor a tragic bang. The Old Testament ends with a whimper.

This disappointment permeates the Old Testament, as the other lecturers will show. None of the OT heroes, heroic as they are, brings in a new creation. But this disappointment is also part of the biography of Jesus. We come to the end of the Old Testament and think that there’s got to be more to the story. We want to see what is going to happen next, because we are convinced that SOMETHING is going to happen next. We are convinced that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is not going to let the defeat of His plans stand. And we are fully justified in thinking this because of what the Old Testament tells us about God. We are justified in thinking that SOMETHING is going to happen, THE BEST THING is going to happen, because of what the Old Testament has revealed about the biographical subject, Yahweh. Like all biographies, the Old Testament is designed above all to reveal the character and personality of the principal figure – Yahweh. In fact, I think we can actually gain a sense of what Yahweh will do next by extrapolating from what He has done, what He’s revealed about Himself. What have we learned about Yahweh’s character?

GOD-FOR-ISRAEL
First, we’ve learned that Yahweh has bound His own name with Israel. He has bound Himself with His bride, and in a sense takes on His bride’s name as surely as she takes on His. He identifies Himself by His works, and specifically by His works for Israel. When Moses asks about His name, He doesn’t identify Himself as “Being” or “The Nameless One” or “The Greatest Good” or “That which nothing greater can be conceived.” He doesn’t give Himself a philosophical name. He gives Himself a name that ties Him to the patriarchs. The name “I am” has often been interpreted in philosophical terms, but Yahweh immediately goes on to expound His name with reference to the patriarchs. In Exodus, Yahweh speaks to Moses with these words:

14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

And a few chapters later, Yahweh reinforces this point. I am Yahweh, and I am the one who makes promises and keeps promises (Exodus 6):

2God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD; 3and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them. 4"I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. 5"Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. 6"Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7'Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Who is God? He’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Nehemiah. He is the God of Israel. He has bound Himself to His people. If Israel fails, then God has failed. If the promises to the patriarchs are not fulfilled, then God’s reputation, His name, is not true or faithful. Then His righteousness is thrown into question. He is either powerless to perform His promises, or has backed off from those promises. Either way, the failure of Israel will bring shame on the Name of Yahweh. Is He going to let that happen? Surely not. He’s the God of Israel, He’s God-for-Israel, and He won’t leave Israel in the grave. He has committed Himself and His infinite resources – He’s staked His NAME on what He does with Israel. We come to the end of the Old Testament knowing that He will do SOMETHING.

GOD-WITH-ISRAEL
Yahweh is God-for-Israel, but the Old Testament has also revealed Him as God-with-Israel. He doesn’t deal with Israel from a distance. He doesn’t pull a few levers and push a few buttons. He enters the life of Israel in order to fulfill His promises. He promises to be with them and dwell among them. This is often described as the “Emmanuel” promise of the covenant. And throughout the Old Testament, Yahweh is beginning to fulfill that promise. He is with Israel and for Israel when he delivers His word through Moses. He is with Israel and among Israel when His glory descends from Sinai and settles over the cherubim in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle. He is with Israel and among Israel as the Angelic warrior who leads Joshua against the Canaanites. Yahweh hides behind curtains, but He’s promised to be with Israel. So, we know that Yahweh is going to do SOMETHING, and we can anticipate that He’s going to do it by COMING to Israel. We anticipate that He will reverse our disappointments by being WITH Israel, and we may begin to suspect that He will do it in a way that He’s never been before.

SUFFERING SAVIOR
Finally, the Old Testament reveals that Yahweh not only comes to be with His people, but also suffers over His people and with His people. When Israel opposes Him in the wilderness, He is grieved (Psalm 78:40-41). When Israel turns from Him to other gods, He reacts with the wrath of a wounded lover. In several passages in Jeremiah, the laments of the prophet shade off into laments of Yahweh Himself.

The God who is God-for-Israel, and God-with-Israel does not stand by indifferently as His people continuously fall into sin and continuously rebel against Him. He is not a Stoic God who is unmoved by His people’s rebellion and failure. Instead, the Old Testament reveals a God who is passionately involved in the life of His people, a God who laments and is grieved and is wrathful over the sins of His people, a God who rejoices with shouts of joy over the return of His bride. Psalm 78:40 says “How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert,” and v 41 speaks of their tempting God and “paining” the Holy One “again and again.” Their many acts of resistance to the Lord, and their forgetfulness of His power and acts in Egypt, grieve their Lord. He suffers when they rebel.

When we look at Numbers, where these events are recorded, we hear the voice of the “grieved” Holy One. Numbers 14:11 includes a lament, “How long?” and so does verse 27: “How long?” 14:12 indicates that this plaintive “how long?” is partly wrath: Yahweh is losing patience, and there is a threat in the “how long.” But the phrase is typically used in the Psalms in lament forms. The Psalmist in the midst of his grieving cries out, “How long?” (Ps 6:3; 13:1-2), and Yahweh speaks in the voice of complaint and lament, He speaks in anguish about Israel’s rebellion.

11The LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? 12"I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they." 27"How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me.

Yahweh often speaks in lament form: as an offended lover, an ignored father, a repudiated husband and king (Is 65:1-2; Jer 2:29-32; 3:19-20; 18:13-15).

Isaiah 65:1: "I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me I said, 'Here am I, here am I,' To a nation which did not call on My name. 2"I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts.

Jeremiah 3:19: "Then I said, 'How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!' And I said, 'You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.' 20"Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover, So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel," declares the LORD.

Yahweh is moved to pity His people when they suffer under the hand of oppressors, even when HE sent the oppressors to them (Judges 2:18). In 1-2 Kings, the Lord shows mercy even to kings who were unfaithful (2 Kings 13:1-5; 14:24-27). -Yahweh’s pity and grief over Israel are not inconsistent with His wrath. Numbers 14 shows that both are at work when Israel rebels. In a lament form (“how long?”) the Lord threatens to punish Israel, and in other passages too, the lament and the wrath are set side by side.

Jer 9:7-11: 7Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will refine them and assay them; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people? 8"Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him. 9"Shall I not punish them for these things?" declares the LORD. "On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself? 10"For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the lowing of the cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone. 11"I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
The Lord punishes, but in v 10 He begins to weep and wail. Some commentators divide the “I” between verses 10 and 11. But v 11 is clearly speaking of Yahweh.

There is also the striking lament over Moab in Jer 48:28ff:

28"Leave the cities and dwell among the crags, O inhabitants of Moab, And be like a dove that nests Beyond the mouth of the chasm. 29"We have heard of the pride of Moab--he is very proud-- Of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance and his self-exaltation. 30"I know his fury," declares the LORD, "But it is futile; His idle boasts have accomplished nothing. 31"Therefore I will wail for Moab, Even for all Moab will I cry out; I will moan for the men of Kir-heres. 32"More than the weeping for Jazer I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah! Your tendrils stretched across the sea, They reached to the sea of Jazer; Upon your summer fruits and your grape harvest The destroyer has fallen. 33"So gladness and joy are taken away From the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab And I have made the wine to cease from the wine presses; No one will tread them with shouting, The shouting will not be shouts of joy. . . . 35"I will make an end of Moab," declares the LORD, "the one who offers sacrifice on the high place and the one who burns incense to his gods. 36"Therefore My heart wails for Moab like flutes; My heart also wails like flutes for the men of Kir-heres Therefore they have lost the abundance it produced.

It is hard to tell who’s speaking, but that is itself probably significant. In v 31, Yahweh wails for Moab; but in v 35: Lord brings an end to Moab: heart sounds like a flute: He set it up, toppled it, and laments that He had to do it

Jeremiah 31:20 speaks of Ephraim, the Northern kingdom, which is already punished for their idolatries and sins. Yet the Lord speaks of His yearning for Ephraim, and His promise to have compassion and to bring Ephraim back:

18"I have surely heard Ephraim grieving,
'You have chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained calf;
Bring me back that I may be restored,
For You are the LORD my God.
19'For after I turned back, I repented;
And after I was instructed, I smote on my thigh;
I was ashamed and also humiliated
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.'
20"Is Ephraim My dear son?
Is he a delightful child?
Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him,
I certainly still remember him;
Therefore My heart yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him," declares the LORD.

In the OT, Yahweh suffers over the sins of His people. He doesn’t treat their sins with indifference. If He has suffered with Israel, over Israel, then we can surely expect that He will be willing to suffer FOR Israel. This is a God whom we can expect to share in Israel’s sufferings. This is a God likely to die for His people.

CONCLUSION
Now, given that at the end of the Old Covenant, God’s promises are unfulfilled, what would you expected Yahweh to do? Here is a God who identifies with His people, who identifies with His people so intensely that He suffers exile and opposition with them, who is determined to fulfill all that He’s promised His people, and who will stop at nothing to do that. What would you expect this God to do next?

It is often said that the incarnation is wholly unanticipated in the Old Testament, but that’s not true. The Old Testament leads us to think that incarnation would be the most natural thing for Israel’s God to do next. To put it another way, the Old Testament is a biography, but it’s an unfinished biography. It tells the story of Jesus, but it tells the story of Jesus without telling us the main event. But it leads up to the main event.

It seems the most natural thing in the world for Him to draw near to His people by becoming one of them; it is perfectly in keeping with His character to so identify with Israel that He becomes Israel and suffers all they have suffered; it is entirely consistent for Him to go to the extremity of incarnation, the cross, the tomb for the sake of His bride. By revealing this God, the Old Testament reveals Jesus, who is the express image of His Father.

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[대학교회 신학포럼] Peter J. Leithart - 하나님의 전기

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