Rob Bell on New Exodus and the Western Church

(photo above taken from the RELEVANT site)

RELEVANT has an interview with Rob Bell on their website that is worth checking out. In the piece, Rob explains his new book (co-authored with Don Golden), Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and its use of New Exodus perspective.

What is “New Exodus perspective”? As I understand it, the perspective purports that Jesus led a second exodus that redeems exile from Eden. The perspective parallels of Jesus to Moses (not in quality, but in symbolic role as exodus prophet), Egypt to the Roman Empire, Sinai to Calvary or Pentecost, and Jerusalem to New Jerusalem. Not only are these connections present in the biblical text (I think everyone can see that), but they are a major motif for the language of the New Testament – from Luke-Acts to Paul.

One of the chief voices for this understanding is Tom Holland of the Evangelical Theological College of Wales. Holland’s book, Contours of Pauline Theology, outlines this motif and is a main source for Bell and Golden’s book.

The implication of Bell and Golden’s book is that we are again in exile.

In his interview with RELEVANT, Bell explains that one of the reasons we don’t hear much about exodus in our churches is because, for the bulk of American history, our churches have best connected to the character of Pharaoh, which makes the exodus an awkward story for us.

From the Mars Hill website:

EGYPT

The Egyptians oppressed the Isrealites as slaves and ruled over them ruthlessly in order to protect the empire. The Egyptians placed slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor. This is a key example in the Biblical story of sin manifesting itself in the form of empire. God heard the cry of the Israelites and liberated them from their oppressor. He took them out of Egypt and into the desert. This liberation from oppression under Egypt is a central, defining moment in history where God inaugurated his plan for restoring the world.

SINAI

God brought the Israelites to Mt. Sinai out in the wilderness, where he spoke to them and came to dwell among them as a husband dwells with his new bride. God chose this group of people to become his flesh and blood, calling them to become a kingdom of priest and a holy nation where they would use their blessings to bless others. He did this so the whole world might come to know the one true living God.

JERUSALEM

The Jewish people reached Jerusalem, the land which God had promised them, and built a temple to honor God. For a while, God dwelt in the temple, they lived out their mission to bless others with their wealth and influence, and they upheld justice and righteousness. The Jewish people eventually misconstrued their blessing with favoritism. They misused their wealth to preserve their kingdom, allowed foreign gods into the land, overlooked the poor, and mistreated foreigners. God sent prophets to call the Jewish people to look at how they were treating the oppressed and marginalized as in indicator of how they were living out God’s will while calling them to repentance for their sin of misusing their blessing. The Jewish people didn’t listen.

BABYLON

Because of their sin, the Jewish people were attacked by foreign empires and were taken as exiles to Babylon. In Babylon, they were again oppressed by a foreign empire. While they were exiled in Babylon, the Jewish people started to imagine, “What would it be like if we could be given all our wealth and influence back? What if we actually used our priviledge to bless others as God intended? What if we could get it right?” They repented of their sin, and soon afterward they were given the chance to return to Israel. They returned to Israel and immediately went to work rebuilding the temple; however, they were still under the rule of foreign empires. During this time, their hopes began to center around a messiah who would lead a New Exodus, re-establishing their kindgom.

JESUS

So the Old Testament comes to a sputtering stop with a group of people crying out for a messiah to come. But God didn’t respond right away. He was silent. But that silence was filled with expectancy that God would send a messiah who would lead a New Exodus. That was what the Jewish people were expecting and hoping for during the time of Jesus. The New Testament then picks up with stories about the birth of Jesus. Then Jesus began his public ministry as a Jewish rabbi. And at the ouset of his ministry, Jesus’ main message was that “the kingdom of God is here.” This statement was obviously loaded for the Jewish people, and they heard him saying that he would liberate them from foreign rule, that he would lead a New Exodus. He promised that a New Jerusalem would someday come when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and restore all of creation. There will be no more crying out from oppression.

WHAT THIS MEANS TODAY

Today, Egypt can be seen as a picture of what we’re all born into. We’re all born into oppression by sin. We’re born with a sinful nature that pulls us, distorts things and takes us in directions that are destructive to us. Every single human being is born into bondage to sin. God wants to liberate us from sin, and he has a plan to do this. In the same way that the Jewish people were called by God to use their wealth and influence to bless those who need it most, so God has called the Church to do the same, to be his flesh and blood – his body – in the world, so the Church is called the Body of Christ. When we begin to use our resources, energy and power to preserve our own comfort and empire, we are sinning. Eventually, our sin will cause us to lose our power, wealth and influence. And God’s plan for blessing the world will be lost for a time.

The reason we study the Exodus is because we want to understand who Jesus is and what he’s doing. He wants to liberate the world from physical, spiritual and cultural bondage. Most of us have been given great wealth, talent and energy. And God wants us to share it with others who don’t have enough. What if the Church began to understand that God wants to fix this entire planet?

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Jesus Wants To Save Christians Book Review
• Preview of Rob Bell’s New Book
• Mennonites and Rob Bell « Youth Ministries Alert