BibleProject - The Exile Of All Humanity

Episode Date: February 5, 2018

This is part 2 of our new podcast series prepping for our video release on the Exile theme in the Bible. In part 1 (0 - 5:30), Jon and Tim recap their earlier conversation in the first episode. Tim explains that when the Hebrews returned from exile to Jerusalem under Persian rule, their empire and city was in shambles, but they kept clinging to this promise that God had given their ancestral father, Abraham. In part 2 (5:30 - 18:10), Tim explains that the exile metaphor became a theme that runs through the entire Bible. The Hebrew bible authors wrote Genesis believing that humanity has been exiled from the Garden of Eden and perfect unity with God. The Hebrews believed that their exile represented all humanity’s exile of heaven and earth being separated from each other. Jon comments about how often times people feel displaced in life. Many people feel melancholic, knowing they should be at home here on earth, but often times wondering why life can be so hard and why humans make it harder with how they behave. Tim summarizes Walker Percy and says the fundamental mystery of the universe is why we feel so alone in the world. Tim explains that the Bible states that the solution to both Israel’s exile problem and humanity’s exile problem is the same solution. A king who will come and deliver them and reunite heaven and earth for all. In part 3, (18:10 - end) Jon comments that this conversation is totally different than how he thought of it growing up. He recalls a book by Randy Alcorn, Heaven On Earth, and says that the point is not to magically escape the world to an ethereal heaven, but to work for and hope for a new heaven and a new earth. Tim explains the oddity of the 1 Peter introduction. Peter chooses to address the people in the letter as “immigrants and exiles.” Peter chooses to identify Christians as exiles in a world that is waiting to be redeemed. Tim explains when a person becomes a Christian they shift their allegiance to the kingdom of God, not the earthly kingdom of Babylon. Tim says that words like “immigrant, and exile” and “citizens of heaven” becomes a type of code language that the Bible writers use to continue the metaphor and theme of the exile of humanity. Tim and Jon recap the biblical idea of evil - a force that both rules the world and is somehow engrained in human nature. The biblical hope is that Jesus has come and broken that power. Tim says that Jesus modeled for humans what it’s like to live in and build the kingdom of God on earth. Thank you to all our supporters! SHOW RESOURCES: Walker Percy: Lost in the Cosmos: Humanity’s Last Self Help Book. Randy Alcorn: Heaven. SHOW MUSIC Defender Instrumental: Rosasharn Music Luvtea: Autumn Leaves JGivens: 10 2 Get In SHOW PRODUCED BY: Dan Gummel. Jon Collins. Matthew Halbert-Howen.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. Last week, we started a conversation on the podcast about a biblical theme in the Bible, which we're calling the exile. It's an event that has shaped the Bible that we know and read today. It's an event that happened in 586 BC when the Babylonian Empire came and wiped out Jerusalem and sent many of the Jewish people out of their homeland to live as refugees in a foreign land. We closed that episode talking about how the Jewish people, while in exile, were desperately clinging to this promise that God had made their ancestor Abraham,

a promise that they would have their own homeland and be a people in that land who would bless the whole world because of their special relationship with the creator God. They've come so close with David and Solomon and Moses, but it's failed over and over again. And so they've realized that in order for it to truly happen. It's going to have to involve a new David, some kind of new deliver a new Moses David prophet deliverer figure. It's going to have to involve all of the sin and horrible evil and violence that our people have perpetrated. That's going to have to be dealt with and the evil among the nations is going to have to

be dealt with as well. And that's the tension that the Old Testament closes with. So as the prophets who are living in these exile camps began to write down their well, and that's the tension that the Old Testament closes with. So as the prophets who were living in these exile camps began to write down their hopes and prophetic visions of who this new king would be and how this new king would deliver them, they began to tell a bigger story. As the authors of the Bible go back to talk about the history of humanity that Israel fits into, but Genesis 1 through 11. Now the history of humanity is told as a story from Promised Land to exile, from Eden,

Genesis 1 and 2, to exile and Babylon, Genesis 11. So today on the podcast, we talk about how the biblical authors think that everyone's story is really a story about exile. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. So when you say exile, we're typically referring to the one very traumatic event where the Jerusalem was taken over by Babylon in 580 something. And that was actually like the third invasion, but it was the big one where they just took

it down, shipped everyone out. But in the north, they had an exile a couple hundred years earlier from a different world empire before Babylon. And so that's part of the exile story as far as Israel's holds concerned. And then this identity as an exile continues, even as they come back to the land, because there are still under occupation of a yet third. And there are many Israelites now scattered all over the ancient world. And they are still exiled. And somehow they've regained this ethnic identity and they're also solidifying the story of who they are and why they're not just any ethnic group in this part of the

world. They have been called by the one true God of all creation to be a group that's going to bring blessing to the whole world. Yeah. To be the vehicle of God redeeming and rescuing the whole all nations in all creation. And that's the tension that the Old Testament closes with. Yeah. It was, oh, poor. Well, it's going to have to involve a new David, some kind of new, deliver a new Moses, David, prophet, deliverer figure. It's going to have to involve all of the sin and horrible evil and violence that are people of perpetrated. That's going to have to involve all of the sin and horrible evil and violence that are people have perpetrated. That's going to have to be dealt with and done away with. And the evil among

the nations is going to have to be dealt with as well. And when this happens, our identity is exiles will be over. Correct. And we will now be citizens of our true home. The true home. The kingdom of the Jerusalem they return back true home, the kingdom of... Because the Jerusalem they returned back to, isn't the Jerusalem of the golden era. Yeah. Under the rubble in the book of Ezra, chapters three and four, when they rebuild the temple after they've been away

in Babylon, they come back, the first wave comes back and they rebuild the temple. And it says that some people were celebrating and it said in those elders who had seen the Solomon's temple. They saw Solomon's temple and they lived through it and got back here and it says they're crying. Yeah, they're bummed.

Because it's nothing like what they thought it was going to do. Well, can you imagine me? Solomon built an awesome. Yeah, awesome. Yeah, that's right. It must have been impressive. It must have been. And then you yeah, you get the same. He didn't build an empire. He built a, just an awesome temple. Yeah, temple and but also just city. Yes. Okay. Okay, so that's Israel story.

We started with Abraham. Genesis 12 all the way through to some people coming back from exile, but much of Israel still in exile. What happens is, as the authors of the Bible go back to talk about the history of humanity, the Israel fits into. That's Genesis 1 through 11. Now the history of humanity is told as a story from Promised Land to exile. From Eden, Genesis 1 and 2, to exile and Babylon, Genesis 11. So that experience, the narrative of Israel being in the land, getting taken into exile, becomes the framework for which they tell the story of all humanity.

And so Genesis 11 now, in the order that you read it in the Bible, becomes this foreshadowing. All humanity is in Babylon, so to speak, figuratively. In Genesis 1-11, just like Israel is an exile. And so when Jesus comes on to the scene and then the apostles are sent out to the nations, they view the Jesus movement as a movement of exiles going out to a world that is in exile from its true home. So this becomes a rich, interesting metaphor to talk about. Okay, I got to make sure I really like, that's a lot. It is a lot. So, you tell me what you've just heard. Okay, you'll do a better job of summarizing.

So this identity of being an exile and shaping their story as a people who began as sojourners built a family sojourned out of Babylon, Abraham. Right. Yep. Comes into this land. Comes into this land.

We build this great place and then we're taken out traumatic, and now we're trying to rebuild. And that's our story. And now that's their story of one people group. And we're waiting for the full return from exile. And the time when this place will be so transformed, it will Jerusalem becomes our goal. Everything got it promised. And everything you could hope for as a human. So whether you return from Babylon or didn't, we're still waiting. We're still waiting for that golden era. And for them, it wouldn't be some getting zapped out to some other reality. The whole point is it's not about going away somewhere.

It's not going away somewhere. It's about this place. When they say the kingdom of God, they want that reality of God ruling through them. That's right, you're getting it. This place that ought to feel like home to us doesn't feel like home. And it doesn't operate like home, ought to operate as it did in the days of David and Solomon. Yeah. So now as this people group wants to tell the story of

the whole humanity. Yes. Everyone's story. The way they do it is using the same idea, the same motif for the same. Yeah, narrative art, same narrative art, which is. From a proper land to exile. Which is, hey, all humanity had a home. It was great. It was as great as Solomon's time, essentially.

If you can just make it, I'm sure Solomon's time had its problems. But like, just that golden era of humanity. Of heaven and earth, you're united. Yes. God and humans, abundance, peace and safety. And it's this ancient garden, temple, beautiful moment in human history.

Yes. And something happened, it wasn't Babylon coming in. Yeah. It was some mysterious evil that came in. The human embrace. Embraced and decided to ally with which then exiled them, banished them out of the palace. Results in humanity's exile. Yeah, yeah. Results in their exile. And then the narrative arc that lands that exile lands them from their true home

Eventually leading to Babylon right in Genesis. So Babylon becomes this linchpin. Yeah, like image Yeah, so that's humanity story. That's all humanity story. I'm just trying to let that sink in really quick Yeah, all humanity story the story of the human Condition is that we are displaced in our home. Right? We're earthlings. Yeah, we're earthlings. This is a home, but there's remnants of a garden kind of paradise, but it's broken. Yeah, it's like imagine John Newton coming back to London all those years later. And, you know, after all those life experiences,

you would never experience your home as the same. Yeah. And imagine it was probably as dirty as it was when he grew up there or something. But the point is, is that his view of his homeland has utterly changed. And then John Newton writes a poem that now humans all over the world can sing. And his experience becomes a way of talking about all humanity's

experience, his blindness and his dangerous toils and snares become mine and every other humans dangerous toils and snares. So it's interesting is in Israel's story, they're hoping for a new David, a new Moses, this new kingdom and blessing, and that's their kind of salvation. But then what about all humanity? Like who is banished from the garden? Where are they waiting for?

Well, they're waiting in the story of this kind of cryptic snake crusher. Yeah, right. Savior character. Who's the offspring of the woman? And that's kind of all you get, like for the hope of humanity. Humanity in Genesis 1 to 11, right? And then the promise to Abraham. But that's Genesis 12.

Correct. So that's Genesis 12. Correct. So that's beginning of Israel's story. But in the logic of the biblical narrative, this is how it works. All humanity, so historically, it's Israelite authors who went through the exile, who go back and then frame humanity's stories this way.

But then as you, as a reader of the Bible, I'm not reading it in that order. I started page one, not at Genesis 12, Israel's story. So I began with this story about all humanity. Here in the world, but exiled from the true home, which is this world the way it ought to be. And my only hope is for a descendant, a human who will come to do away with evil. And then, because we're sitting here languishing in Babylon, Genesis 1, 3 to 11. And then out of Babylon, however,

God brought a human family of Abraham through whom he's going to bring that deliverer to offspring, to bring that blessing to the world. And then that becomes the thread uniting the Israel story. So we've used the Russian nesting dolls, dolls within dolls. It's like the outer doll is all humanity and exile. You open it and then there's this whole story about Israel's being brought out of Babylon into the land and given another chance, so to speak. And they blow it too. And so now we've got two problems to solve.

We need to solve the Israel's exile problem, which will be the way of solving humanity's exile in Babylon. Problem. And this all hooks back to that passage that you alluded to when we started this conversation, which is Bible versus in the New Testament that talk about Christians being exiles, sojourners and exiles.

Yeah, so that's what I wanted to get back to because you did that whole, like three-step thing. Israel's identities exiles, then saying, well, that's all humanity's actual identity, not just ours. And the solution for all humanity's is actually the solution that's gonna come through us. The seed comes through our family.

The offspring of the woman, the snake pressure. The rescue humanity. The rescue mexile. That's actually coming through our genealogy. of the woman, the snake crusher. That will rescue humanity. This will make us exile. That's actually coming through our genealogy. Coming through the Israel family. And then we'll bless the whole world. And then now we're in the time of Jesus and the apostles. Yeah.

And you said, and this is where I want to make sure it was landing for me, that now it's no longer, the hope has come through Israel, that snake crushing king has arrived. And so now let's bring it to all humanity, that solution, because not only is Israel exiles, everyone's exiles, all humanity, that's the story. Yes, this world is our home.

We're earthlings. But yeah, at the same time, we experience this, like, disconnect from the world is our home. We're both at home within it, but also feel like strangers. That's such a weird existential experience of feeling like a foreigner in this reality. But this is the only reality we have.

Yes. But it's like, it feels like home, it feels like, this is the hybrid oxygen, I enjoy sunsets, like I eat food, like what else would I want? But at the same time, there's just so many questions like, but why am I here and why am I experiencing these desires that I have and why are these conflicts arising that I can't solve? And there's too many questions, I don't actually feel at home in my body, Yeah. Even though all I am is a body. Or welcome in the universe.

Yeah, or welcome in the universe. Yeah. This is the author Walker Percy. There's a read this many years ago. He wrote Lost in the Cosmos, the last self-help book. He's kind of making a mockery of the 90s. Self-help movement. Self-help movement. And the whole opening part of

the book is how, you know, he paints a picture of human technological process. You know, we've got, I need, they didn't even have, well, you know, this was in the 90s. He's painting this version of TV and telephones and air travel and it's incredible and science and chemistry. And then it all goes with this movement but there's still one last frontier. It's the thing between our ears. And then it goes into this crisis mode of just saying the fundamental mystery of the universe is why we feel so alone and alienated from our own bodies, from our communities, from our families, and from the universe. This is supposed to be our home. Yeah. So why is it so unstable? Yeah. And why is life so dangerous here and so hostile?

And we have this little reprieve on the space rock. You know? But ultimately... Why is it so difficult to be happy? Yes. And why? Yes. And why do I keep screwing up things that I shouldn't be screwing up? You know? Like, what's going on?

Yeah. Yeah. So is this place our home or not? And it's kind of like, well, I think the human experience is, yes and no. Like it's, the world seems a very unwelcome place to humans sometimes. And humans create very unwelcome environments for each other. But yet we still have a sense of this opt to be our home.

Yeah. You know, it's so funny the way we're talking about this is the exact opposite of the way I talked about it growing up, which is this is not our home. Yeah. We need a completely different reality and it's this fuzzy, not caporial, is that the word? Yeah, it's disembodied. And I remember when Randy Alcorn came out with his book on heaven in the early 2000s. And that was pretty big for an evangelical to say, like, hey guys, we're not thinking about heaven correctly, or biblically, like heaven is a new earth.

Yeah, new creation. New creation, I remember when he actually came to Multnomah. I remember that too. And he talked on it in a blue my mind. And all of a sudden I was like, oh, like it was so exciting to think about, oh yeah. In the new creation, like I might be able to snowboard.

Yeah, sure, all you're like growing up images of having to leave behind everything. Yeah, just some fuzzy, cloudy, like, yeah, sure. Yeah, so thinking about it from the terms of being an alien of like our sojourner and they need to be in some other reality. The way we're talking about it is, you're already in the Alcorn camp, you already get it.

And you're like, yeah, this is my home. Of course, like, I'm- This ought to be my home. This ought to be my home. Well, this is my home. Like, what else do I have? Yeah, right? Like, I'm a body, I'm a human.

There's no other habitat in the universe where I can exist, and it's finally tuned for my existence. And so you start there, like this is home. But then the question is, why doesn't it feel like home? And that's just noticing that that's the exact opposite tact of how you usually think about it. But it seems like that's the more, like natural, yeah, and kind of biblical. Well, yeah, because the narrative doesn't end with the Israelites staying in Babylon.

They come back to Jerusalem and they are in the land that should be their home. Right. But they don't experience it as home. Yeah. That's as Rene Amaya. And then, all the way through to the time of Jesus. And that's why when Jesus launches His movement, where John the Baptist launches His movement, all the gospel authors say, John the Baptist was this great fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah

and they quote from Isaiah 40, and what is it? It's a promise about returning from exile, prepare a way, prepare a highway for the Lord, back to the promised land. But they're using this language of returning from Babylon to describe their current existence in the... Which is not in Babylon. They're not in Babylon, they're back in their land.

So even the language of returning from exile becomes just as existential metaphor. Yeah. For restoration, new creation. So this place that ought to be my home will be so transformed that it becomes my home. And so this is why here we go. I think I wonder if this is the hook for the video then in the letter first Peter Yeah, you have a Jewish a menceanic Jewish apostle of Jesus. Okay, right? So Peter he's an apostle. Okay, but he's Jewish You grew up in Galilee the rock right the rock not the Not the rock Dwayne Johnson. Yeah, it's been not Baywatch rock Not the rock, Dwayne Johnson. Yes, but not Baywatch. Baywatch.

So, yeah, different rock. Peter, Petras. See, a Peter, he is sent in commission by the risen Messiah Jesus, King of the world. And he writes to all these communities of Jesus, they're full of mostly non-Israelites, non-Jewish people. And he opens the letter of 1 Peter with Peter, in a possible of Jesus the Messiah, to those who live as immigrants exiled throughout

Pontus, Galatia, Capitose, Asia, all these towns, modern day Turkey, cities and modern day Turkey, who were chosen by God's foreknowledge, sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled by the blood of Jesus grace and peace to you So he's talking to these people who live in their home. Hmm. They're not they're not Really immigrants know this where they live. This their home. Yeah, so I get a letter I mean just think your I get a letter from my grandma your think. You're, um, uh. I get a letter from my grandma. Your Bethenia and your Argates, your Greek,

you grew up in Pontus. Yeah. It's your home and you get a letter from, but you've given your legions to Jesus, the Messiah, Jewish Messiah. And you think he's the king of the world and he's coming back to bring new creation. Yeah.

And Peter writes a letter to your church community and he says greetings, exiles, people who are exiled in Pontus. Yeah, you're like, no, this is where I'm from. Well, I live here, like I was born down the street. Yeah, and not an exile. And he must not be talking about me. Right, and then another time in the letter,

he's gonna repeat it, he's gonna say, hey, beloved friends, I urge you as immigrants and exiles to not live like the non-Jewish people. Don't live like the Gentiles, he says in chapter two. And you're like, well, that's my crew. I image entile. Yeah. And I'm not exiled here. You can see the point here is that becoming a Christian means losing your identity means as a gaining, yeah, I don't know, gaining, calling into question my identity, that the world as I now experience it doesn't define my identity or my destiny. It's my home, but it's not my home in the sense of what I know this world is truly made

for, what I'm made for, what I'm made for, and what I'm waiting for. Yeah, it's identifying something you already feel, which is something's wrong, I'm waiting for something better. But what it's doing is it's saying there's actually an allegiance shift that needs to happen, because you're not just waiting for the world to figure it out, whatever, whoever's in charge right now. You're waiting for a king who's not of this world. Well, I mean, I don't know how you'd wanna describe it, but you're waiting for a kind of a new allegiance.

Right, in Jesus. Yeah. Who is the human who broke through the veil? And he became what we are all made for and destined to become. And he's the one who will recreate our homeland to believe what it is truly designed to be. And so in the meantime, I live in my home with the mindset of a temporary resident. Yeah. Which again, this language, it's a lot of things. Absolutely.

It doesn't mean the whole point isn't, my home therefore is in heaven. The point of saying I'm an exile is to say, this world as I experience it doesn't define my whole identity. I think what was helpful is when you said that the Judeans who are living in Jerusalem, they're in their home now, but they still consider themselves exiled. They're back in Jerusalem, but they continue using the language of exiled.

So what do they mean? They mean that even though I'm here, where home is, there's something wrong and something incomplete, something that needs to come still and something needs to be transformed. And until that happens, I still have the identity as an ex- of an ex-I.

And so to the same degree, me living in Portland, a city I was born in, in the Northwest where I grew up, living in a home where my family, you know, my kids have grown up. Like if, this is home, but it's not exactly what it needs to be. But I'm also still experiencing as something of a stranger.

I'm estranged from this world as much as I am at home within it. But it doesn't mean that I'm waiting to go to another city. No, I'm waiting for this city. I'm waiting for this city for this house. To become permeated with the kingdom of God. Yeah.

Have an earth reunited. And so in that way, someone could say, hey, John, you're an exile and I'd be like, yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, that's right. It's like, it's truly, this is, that's becomes like code language. Because you have to know the story.

Right. So know what it means to, that Christians call each other exiles. Yeah. And what we're waiting for isn't to be shipped out. What we're waiting for is this world that is our home, but that doesn't work like it ought to. If it were truly home,

we're waiting for the restoration of this to become the home it's supposed to be. And again, this is why all the language about heaven, this is why when Paul says, my citizenship is in heaven. And from there, we await a savior. This is in Philippians, right? Chapter three, our citizenship is in heaven, and we await from there a savior who will come here to bring about transformation and new creation. And so the point is that we are exiles here and here we'll become our true home when... And what's he referring to there when he says heaven?

Oh, he's talking about the exalted place of Jesus as the king of the world. So we're back to the heaven language as a way of talking about God's high, in thrown vantage point over the world. So God's in heaven as king overall, and Jesus was exalted to heaven. So I wondered if a hook for the video is Peter, a Jewish missionary writing to non-Jewish people saying, Hey, exiles! Yeah. What?

Yeah, that's strange. Hey, I urge you, as exiles, don't live like the Gentiles. What? I am a Gentile. And I'm not an exile. And then the last paragraph is, oh yeah, the one who's in Babylon chosen together with you, the church in Babylon, sends its greetings. Yeah.

And you're like, what? Babylon hasn't existed for half a millennium. Yeah. I see what you're doing here. I see. So the whole world is in exile in Babylon. We're all in Babylon. Peter's view as a Christian. The whole world is in exile still in Babylon. We're all in Babylon. Peter's view as a Christian,

the whole world is in exile still in Babylon. It's kind of Babylon becomes a word, just describe the reality, which is, this is my home, but it's not my home. It's the corporate human condition of systematic sin and justice, broken systems, broken corporate life. Yeah. And you can be born in Pontus or Portland.

And to be a Christian is to actically foster this view that I love it here, but I shouldn't mistake it for home. Because imagine Portland, which is my home, permeated with the life and love of the kingdom of God completely, and every neighbor, loving their neighbor as themselves, that would be very different Portland than when I live in. But I shouldn't mistake even a great Portland for the kingdom of God Portland.

Yeah. And so I live here, fostering this ambiguous relationship. Yeah. And it's not just a city, it's a street I live on. That's right, that's right. And it's also like a couple thousand square feet that's my house. Yeah.

Like that has to also be transformed. Or the one square foot that is my brain. You have a square foot brain? Well, I guess eight by eight inches. I don't know whatever the dimensions of human brain are. You get what I'm saying. But just my own heart and mind, my own thoughts and impulses and inclinations.

I'm an exile in my own body. I'm an exile in my own body. Well, but yes, like I think this is Paul's vision of the human problem in Romans 7. Mm hmm. He retails the human experience as the story of Adam and as the story of Israel as, I want to do the right thing.

But somehow my body driven by these sinful impulses and I do the thing I don't want to do. I'm exiled. This body is good. But it also is a problem in the same time. I'm an exilent my own body. Yeah. Oh, just that phrase right there. I'm a stranger in my own skin. Yes. Stranger in my own skin. Captures the existential experience of millions of human beings. Yes.

A stranger in my own body. And this is when this was Paul's getting in. And that's seven. Yeah. My truest identity is as the image of God human living in the love and power of God to love him and love my neighbor. And imagine my true home is a world that operates that way. That's another place to start as a hook. Is this stranger in your own body? Oh, oh, that's true. Yeah, that's interesting. For a modern Western audience. That's right. Yeah, that's a really good place to start. Yes, which is a audience of our videos. Which is us. Which is us. You and me. Yeah. That's

interesting. Yeah. That could be more interesting. Yeah. And then you can go to Peter and then you can. Yeah. So that's the big umbrella is, this is why now you can see it permeates the whole story. Yeah. From the Garden of Eden to exile out, ending up in Babylon to Israel's story out of Babylon, exile, back to Babylon, back into the Promised Land, but still waiting. And what's interesting is when they are waiting in Jerusalem, considering themselves, exiles, they are awaiting a king.

Then, in the New Testament, in the Gospels, we learn that Jesus is this king. It's not the way that we had anticipated it, but it's the way we need it. But then, Jesus leaves. And now we're awaiting the king again. So something has changed, something as inaugurated is the word that theologians like to use. But we're in a very similar position. That's right.

Yes, that's exactly right. Israelites rebuilding Jerusalem, awaiting the king. That's right. That'sites rebuilding Jerusalem, awaiting the King. That's right. That's what Peter says, right? Or is it Paul where we're awaiting the King to come? Yes, in Philippians 3. Yes, that's right. So Paul, that's why Peter will write to these church communities saying, yeah, we're

in exile. We're waiting the return of the King. The posture and the setting of the exiles returned and scratching out of life in Jerusalem, forming the Bible. To retell the story of how we got here, how all humanity got here, and what hope is there. One of those main things was the problem of our broken relationship to God, because we ended up in exile because of human evil and sin. Stage one of the Jesus story dealt with that part. That was the power of evil.

And that's right, and dealing with human sin and evil, and both covering for it and doing way to heal the covenant relationship. Covenant relationship has been healed through Jesus stage one. Jesus stage two is the full transformation of our home back into the arturu homeland. Again, this exile and stranger language is a way of actually thinking about the whole story of the Bible. Yeah.

And it's a different narrative arc than we've kind of traced so far because Jesus is a really important piece of Bible. Yeah. And it's a different narrative arc than we've kind of traced so far. Because Jesus is a really important piece of it. Yeah. But it's broader. And it's really taking seriously this Old Testament narrative arc of exile as the location of all humanity awaiting the healing and transformation of the worlds we know.

I want to dig into that more about the evil. So we talked about how in Genesis 1 through 11, that's the story of all humanity becoming exciles. And what happens there is we've got a snake, this mysterious creature who's crafty and temps Adam and Eve to not trust God and to kind of go at it on their own. And you get this passage in Genesis 4 talking about sin, crushing, crouching, ready to devour you and have its way with you. And that's your enemy and don't let it overtake you.

So you start getting this idea of this like evil that we're dealing with. Yes. It's very other than us, but then somehow becomes like intimately tied with us. The enemy within. And the enemy within, that's having its way with us. Yeah. And that is the root.

But then what happens is human civilizations grow, and the thing that we feel like we're dealing with is that bad dude over there. Yeah, that's right. With the sword and the power. Like that's the evil I need to be saved from. Yes, yeah. Pharaoh, yeah.

Leimek, yeah. And then Babylon and Persia and Rome and That becomes the real obvious bad guy but when Jesus comes he says no The real bad guy. Yeah, the real thing driving Babylon the real enemy the real enemy that has exiled humanity Yes, and the real king of this exiled world is being or force. This is evil. It's evil. Yeah. Which is described by a variety of titles and images in the Bible. Yeah. The Satan. Yes. The serpent. Yes. The dragon. dragon, the sin or the flesh, right? Like in Paul's writings.

Yeah. So Jesus comes and says, that's the problem I'm going to deal with. That's the enemy. That's the enemy. And so while you're preoccupied with that Roman, you know, occupier, you know, occupier. Yes, yes. I'm not. I'm more interested in this deeper, more real problem. Yes. And because of that, then it's easier for me to forgive people and to forgive the soldier that's killing me.

Because I'm actually at bat for the thing that's actually causing him to be in this position in the first place. And so then Jesus deals with that with his death and resurrection. He tramples over it. Yeah, here's the day of the Lord video. He says, hey, have at it now with my spirit. He leaves in one sense so that he can come back in another sense through the spirit so that he can not be bound to one spatial location. And evil still exists.

And that's right. It's not like now evil's gone, but evil has the key to evil has been. That's correct, which is why there's still use to using the Babylon exile language, I think. To be exiled in Babylon is to live in the world to be the kingdom of God, but is still under occupying. And this is probably why Paul says,

like our paddle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual. That's right, yeah, that's totally, Paul, this is what he's tuning into, that's exactly right. And just what John, the revelation, the author of the revelation is tuning into by calling Rome or the world powers of distant future,

whatever you view on Revelation is, that kingdom that represents the broken, distorted human kingdoms is called Babylon among other names in the book of Revelation, which is itself generated and motivated by just both human evil and spiritual evil. As a 21st century modern Westerner who follows Jesus. Seems like it's just saying, I identify with this problem of being an exile in my own body, but also my city and my home. And even, I mean, we live kind of in a global world now. Global village. So this whole world, the entire world system, like I could travel basically anywhere in the world. And even though this is my planet, the pale

blue dot, there's something horribly amiss and dangerously so, Then embracing that and saying, the problem is some dark evil force that I have become complicit with. And so has everyone. And so is the whole system. And it's taken us captive. Yeah. Yeah. And I believe there was a man from the first century who lived, who was a Jewish man who lived in the first century under Roman occupation, who identified that problem and said, that's the real problem, and somehow fought and won a battle against it through his death and resurrection from the dead. And that he was not just a human, he had broke through the veil, I like how you said that.

Like he was the true human, he was God incarnate. Yeah, he was the creator become the human on our behalf. And that's only reason why he could do it. Yeah, that we are all made to be, but if I... And that's why he could fight against that on our behalf. Yeah. And now, my belief as a 21st century, like global citizen, is like, my identity needs to be first and foremost saying, yep, that's

my allegiance to that guy. And the way he defeated evil is going to be the way that it's defeated within me. And his vision for for the world is now needs to become my vision for the world. And I'm gonna fight for that while I'm here, I'm gonna try to build the kingdom of God, seek the kingdom of God. Yeah, and within the exile narrative, it's that he came and he showed us what it would look like

if we all lived as here as if it were our true home. If we were to live and treat each other lived as here as if it were our true home. If we were to live and treat each other as not exiles but full citizens in the kingdom of God, what would that look like? Well, it would look like the sermon on the Mount, for some time, you know, or Luke's sermon on the plane, Luke chapter six, it's funny that the material in the sermon on the mountain, Matthew is in a blender and rearranged

and given on a plane. And a different elevation. It's funny that a Matthew is on a high mountain hill and on Lucas on a plane. It looks like that. Right? The teachings of Jesus. Yeah. So he comes.

And the way in the actions of Jesus, like the way he... That's right. And his teachings were an expression of how he like the way he... That's right, and it's teaching for an expression of how he was living. Yeah. That's right. So, up to this point, we've stayed really global. There's merit to going through moments in the actual

biblical story to kind of walk the sequence through, because it's really interesting. We've done it from a high view. I think we could do de la vida. Ok. Creo que podemos hacer esto muy rápidamente. Ok. No sé cómo hacer esto rápidamente, ¿no? ¿Vamos a transición?

Ya, de son? Sí. Hola, mi nombre es Adriana, soy de Perú. Y también mi ciudad es Barcelona, porque viví muchos años ahí. Lo que me encanta de este proyecto es realmente cómo puede impactar en una sociedad que necesita una vía hacia Jesús y hacia conocer mucho más acerca de toda la historia. We believe the Bible is an unified story that it leads us to Jesus.

We are a growth-hounded project by people like me, find free videos, study notes, and more at thebibledproject.com. you