BibleProject - Whose Idea Was the “City of God”? – The City E11

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Cities appear to be inherently bad in the story of the Bible. So when Jesus calls his followers a city on a hill, what does he mean? And why is the vision of the new creation a city instead of a garden? In this episode, Tim and Jon review some of the major motifs in the theme of the city so far and explore the concept of a city of God.View more resources on our website →Timestamps Part one (00:00-22:02)Part three (22:02-33:57)Part three (33:57-44:17)Part four (44:17-54:52)Referenced ResourcesNew International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, Willem A. VanGemerenThe Garden City, John Mark ComerInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience our entire library of resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS“Goofy Nights in Tokyo” by Sam Stewart“Vivid” by Chromonicci“Can I Get a Cab?” by Tyler Bailey & Matthew Halbert-HowenShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder, Lead Editor Dan Gummel, and Editors Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza. Mixed by Tyler Bailey. Transcript edited by Grace Vang. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Tyler at Bible Project. I record and mix the podcast. We've been exploring a theme called the Chaos Dragon, and because it's such a big theme, we've decided to do two separate question and response episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the first Q&R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by September 13th and send it into us at infoatbibelproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, and 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 so looking forward to hearing from you. Here's the episode. In our last episode, we started discussing the theme of the city in the New Testament and in the life of Jesus. Now, before we go any farther, we want to take this episode to pause and go over the big ideas that we've come across so far. In the last episode, we looked at how the New Jerusalem, hoped for by the prophets, is fulfilled in Jesus and His followers. And if that's the case, then why did God have David make the original Jerusalem? Was it David's idea to make the city of God or was it God's idea? It's exactly the question.

It's David's desire that corresponds to God's desire. And what God's desire is to have a resting place, a heaven on earth resting place, where he can have a human royal priestly partner from whom we'll sprout. A future king whose kingdom will be forever and ever in the Eden land. He can have a human, royal priestly partner from whom will sprout. A future king whose kingdom will be forever and ever in the Eden land. Are cities the best way to create a heaven on earth spot? Aren't cities just too inherently flawed to work with? It's good to preserve life. That's like God.

It's good to create a refuge where new life can generate. That's an imitation of Eden. And so now cities, though non-ideal, become a potential way to do that. And now the question is not going to be whether we have cities or not have cities, it's what are we going to do with the cities that we have? Yet Jesus doesn't go and build a city. He doesn't make himself king of Jerusalem. And he thinks of the city as the people who live in it.

And he tells his followers, thinks of the city as the people who live in it, and he tells his followers, you are the city. What is interesting is that in those poems in Isaiah that we looked at, the city is merged with a group of people called you or the servants, and it's the servant and his followers that are exalted up high to become this beacon to the nations and together will become the new Eden light shining out to the nations. Today Tim McE and I review some of the big ideas of the theme of the city. I'm John Collins and you're listening to Bible Project Podcast. Thanks for joining us.

Here we go. Hey Tim. Hey John. Hey Tim. Hey John. Hey, so we are talking about the city. A theme in the Bible. And we're getting towards the end. We are.

I've been processing through the content and I'm feeling some holes in my mind and how I understand it. I love that. I know we're getting to Jesus. Yeah. I mean, we talked about Jesus and him calling his disciples the city. The city.

You are the city on the hill. They're the city. The light, the bright shining city on the hill. Which is this kind of massive turn, right? Because we've been talking about actual cities. We're talking about people as, you know, also they are the city when God talks to a city He's talking about the people in the city.

Yeah, that's right, yeah. But as we've introduced cities, we've talked about them as the place with the wall. Yeah. And like it's a setting. Yeah. So we're gonna continue with Jesus. But let's try to plug a few holes in my thinking

as we get back into Jesus. Yep, great. Yeah, I actually, since we had that last conversation, have had more clarity about the ideas underlying it. And actually there were a few Hebrew Bible and other second temple Jewish literature texts that came to mind that make a lot more sense. In other words, to go from the Hebrew Bible, where the city seems of Jerusalem as like the heavenly Jerusalem, the earthly Jerusalem,

they're really hard to tell apart. To Jesus saying to a group of people in Galilee, you are the city shining on the hill. There's a whole series of dots, a trail, and a few centuries of history and biblical authors and Jewish Bible nerds meditating that actually help explain why Jesus saying something like that actually makes sense. And, and I want to hear about it. So I have some new clarity about that that actually might form some helpful backdrop.

Okay. Should we start there? Well, maybe, but I want to hear about the holes that you feel like you need to plug. Cause let us remember. The reason we have these conversations is because we are also creating media videos for the Bifur Project about the city and we need to we need to start we're talking about yeah

okay well I think the first place to start is as we talk about the city are we talking merely about a setting or are we talking actually more about what it means to live in community with each other? Almost kind of regardless of the setting. Because what's interesting is I think about this, as I think about opening this video, I think about three settings, the wilderness, the garden and the city. Right? So it starts in the wilderness.

Out of the wilderness, God creates a cultivated garden that he cultivates. And that's juxtaposed to on the other side of the wilderness, cane going out, building a city. Yeah, that's right. And so then you get this juxtaposition, we've talked a lot about between the garden, God cultivates, and the city cane builds. Yes. So three settings, wilderness, out of wilderness, a cultivated garden, out of wilderness, a cultivated garden, out of wilderness, a walled city. Here, can we met session on the comparison and contrast of those

two? Yeah. Real quick. So remember that the garden is about a place where God's heavenly life meets earth, a place of abundance, and the generation of new life. And so similarly, cities are designed now in Kane's mind for the protection and preservation of life. Now, why do you need to protect it? Well, because it's dangerous outside of Eden. So it's not the wilderness, because you're going to cultivate something, but at the same time, it's a human-made little refuge for the preservation of life. So they're both meant to preserve life.

They're both refuges of sorts. Yeah. And for the generation of new life, it's just that one is God made, not made by human hands, and the other one is made by human hands. Not inherently bad, though the fact that you need a wall tells a story just by itself and that's really key, I think, to the meaning of the city.

And the city's not all bad. It's good to protect life. It's good to preserve life. It's good to have these refuges that out of which new life can generate. And that's how cities are viewed. But they're also viewed as this kind of compromised, kind of like Eden, but also

not like Eden. Right. We talked about how they can turn on a dime. Yeah. Just like humans. Yeah. Just like humans. Because the cities are scaled up versions of humans.

Right. Yeah. But that's not something about the garden. The garden won't also turn on a dime. That's right. That's right. Yeah, that's right. The garden has some sort of stability about it.

I suppose that someone couldn't come and just leverage the garden now. That's right. The garden has some sort of stability about it. I suppose that someone couldn't come and just leverage the garden now. That's right. To do something really evil. Yeah, and that's because it's God's garden. He's got bouncer's at the entrance. Some of the key differences is that God's throne was in the garden. And that in a city, what we were introduced to is the idea that man will start creating towers to replace gods' throne. Yeah. Yeah. So in the city you have a tower representing man's will to rule on their own terms, the tower that we just got. To ascend back into the skies. To ascend to the skies. But with a human-made version of the, yeah. And it's got a wall saying, we got to protect ourselves.

So in the garden, there's a throne, but it's God's throne. There's protection, but it's God's protection, which is what? His wisdom, his abundance, those are his protection. He's got a fiery sword. He does have a fiery sword. And two, like really intimidating bodyguards. Yeah. Over whom he dwells.

Remember, because Yahweh dwells above the Cherubim. And those represent the divine, other spiritual beings and divine power. Yeah, but the Cherubim in specific, because they're zooomorphic. They're hybrid animal mashups, but with wings, so they represent a combination of the creatures of heaven and earth, all together, singing praise and standing at the boundary of heaven and earth,

and bodyguards. But yeah, God is His own protector as it were. And as we saw in the story of David, maybe I don't want to jump ahead too much, but you know, that boundary is real, and there are a number of people who lose their lives in the story of the Bible by trying to cross it inappropriately. Okay. So then my question becomes how suspicious do we need to remain about cities as the story of the Bible continues? Because what it seems like is the way Cain's, the first city in the Bible Cain city, the way that story comes to you is you're like, man, city suck.

Right? Yeah, sure. We have a murderer who goes out into the wilderness, doesn't trust God's protection, builds a city. A few generations down the line is this backwards king bloating about violence against men who wounded him. And then that's all connected. This backward king motif continues in Genesis 10, now our post-Flood, but Genesis 10, and you've got the genealogy of Noah's kids that become all the nations. And

right in the center of that is this story of this. Yeah, and the mighty warrior king. Mighty warrior king and he makes the like, he makes the cities that are the big bad guys in the Bible, a Syria, Nineveh, Babylon. That's right. And then we get the story of Babylon and how it just gets out of control and God has to stop it.

So like, I'm not far into the Bible and I'm like, cities, they're a problem. They're a problem. That's a big problem. And then on top of that, when God calls Abraham, right, Abraham doesn't go into Canaan and then build a city. No, no, in fact, he always lives at the edges and outskirts of cities or just straight up in the hills.

And then there's a story between Abraham and Law, and it's almost as if it's just a position of law goes to live in the city. That's a problem. Yeah, that's right. Abraham does it. Yep, that's right. And Abel, who was favored by God,

was a shepherd. Yeah, was a shepherd. Yeah. The shepherds live out in the hills. That's right. Kane was the farmer, the farmer's associate with cities. That's right. So you just kind of have this thread of a kind of like

this sense of guys, let's not create the city life, the city life's the problem, let's stay in the hills. So we're in the story of Abraham and it kind of just feels that way. Abraham goes to Egypt problem. Yeah. A lot goes to Sodom problem. Now, we get a really beautiful picture of the city

when Joseph, four generations down from Abraham. That's right. Joseph gets stuck in Egypt and he becomes a second hand ruler to Pharaoh and you get a picture of a city transformed by wisdom by God's wisdom. Yeah, by an image of God ruling in with God's wisdom. And now a city is protecting and sustaining life. Yeah, the storage cities become a source of life for the land.

So also you're like, oh, a city can be transformed. This could work. Yeah, it's kind of all in your first moment of like, okay, maybe something can happen with the city. That feels like a turn. It is. And what's important is that the structure or the physical structure of the city, those stored cities, remains the same. But it's about the inhabitants, right? The one ruling

them and the inhabitants can shape that city into a source of life instead of a source of violence. Meaning, the quality and role that a city plays in the story really is about its leadership and its inhabitants. Right. Because there's this theme that a city is really just leveraging the creativity and the ingenuity and the collaboration of humans to be able to do, create culture, create technology, just do a lot of stuff. And so one person could kill their brother.

So an evil person could kill their brother. An evil king, to wipe out a city. Yeah, right, or a nation, and so on. Yeah. So cities are like, in that sense, scaled versions of humans, right, literally, and metaphorically. Right. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Okay. So, when we get into, now God has, well, so here's the other thing about Egypt is we get this beautiful picture of a city led by the wisdom of God, but then after a few generations, we'll talk about that knife edge thing again. A new king who all a son wants, he's afraid and wants to rule with oppression and violence and death. And then God says, nope, justice, judgment. Well, and so then in the ironic twist, what Pharaoh has his new slaves do, the Israelites is build more storage cities.

The very types of cities that were the source of life led by an Israelite, leader in Egypt, get all inverted. Now the Israelites are slaves building more storage cities as a sign of their Now. God rescues them from the city. I mean, that's part of the, yeah, the rescue for me, Chip. The like, the history and psyche of the people of Israel is we became a nation within the belly of a city. Yeah.

They came in as like a small family. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, well, 70 plus. Yeah. You know, that's like a Midwest. Yeah, to like family. It's true. It's true. It's true. Yeah, there's a friend here at works here, the Bible project, and yeah, such a huge extended family. He was showing me a picture of their Christmas gathering. Yeah. It was like it was so many people. Wow. Yeah. Wow, dozens of people.

Anyway, cousins and second cousins. Yeah. Yeah. The whole thing. Yeah, I love Wow. Yeah. Wow, dozens of people. Anyway, cousins and second cousins. Yeah, whole thing. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. So they come out as like this extended family. And then they become more like a group, like a what you would call a nation. A nation. Yeah, a budding nation. Yeah. And interestingly, God takes them on an extended journey through the wilderness. Back into the wilderness. Back into the wilderness. Save from the city.

Save from the city. Back into the wilderness. Now, in the wilderness, God is now preparing them to come into a land that's gonna be like Eden and to create communities and create a way of life that's led by God's wisdom that should create righteousness and justice. And so here's my question,

how are they then to make cities? Because they gotta go into this land. Yeah. They're gonna have to live somewhere. This is a land where there's still violence. Yeah, in fact, what they're told is that the inhabitants of the cities of the land are going to be hostile to them and resist them. And that's exactly the plotline of the book of Joshua.

It's interesting, so the most famous city when they go into the land is Jericho. Yeah, you know, and they have the famous wall. They have the famous wall, right? And they march the famous wall. They have the famous wall, right? And they march around the wall. And interestingly, in that story, the way they are to attack the city is to do nothing, militarily, but just march around it in all these patterns of seven and blow horns. And then God will dismantle the wall.

So the city is defeated, not by human hands, not by sword or shield or spear. So that God is the dismantler of these hostile cities. But then almost every battle that comes after that is Canaanites pouring out of their cities to attack the Israelites. And then Joshua takes them on these campaigns. There is law in the Torah about how to take over a city. Oh, that's right. Or at least within the land of Canaan, they would have one approach with

the seven Canaanite tribes, but then outside the land, they were to take a different approach. But yeah, that's right. And there's one particular law that talks about when you're performing a siege of the city. Yeah. Don't cut down the fruit trees to build your sea ramps. Oh, it's such a rad little garden of Eden, I for Lankia, totally. But what you're noticing is you would think there would be some huge part of the laws of the Torah given over to guidance about how to form and build a city. Or I would almost expect some laws of the Torah about not building cities. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm up to this point really suspicious of cities. There's a one moment with Egypt, but otherwise, like, let's live like Abraham lived. Right? Yeah, sure. Father Abraham didn't build a city. In fact, lot, his nephew, he went to a city and that didn't end well. So I most feel like we're set up for the tour to go,

hey, so when you go in, don't build walled cities. You don't need them. But I guess, okay, yes. If humanity was in a condition where they didn't need Wald cities anymore, but we're not even though Canaan is depicted like an Eden-type land humans are definitely not in a pre- Eden rebellion state. So I guess you would say that the allowance for the building of cities is

So I guess you would say that the allowance for the building of cities is God's accommodation to an outside of you. That's how you read it. That's an accommodation. Well, because it is kind of absent, like God doesn't say go and build cities. There's one spot we talked about it, the cities of refuge. Yeah, where God tells them to give cities to the Levites living in their midst. So there's assuming that the tribes have cities. Have cities, and they can donate some of them to the Levites.

And then six of them will become cities of refuge for anyone who's like Cain. And it's all, it's in Numbers 35, full of hyperlinks back to Genesis 4, where if somebody kills his siblings, brother, before their trial, they shouldn't be murdered without the trial, and so they can flee to one of these cities so that the one who finds them does not kill them.

So there clearly we're in a post-eaten reality here. So maybe there's an analogy to the laws of the Torah that talk about when you go into the land and want to be like the other nations, and you place a king over yourself. So the law is a law in Deuteronomy, 17, that's anticipating something God knows that Israelites will want and that they're going to do. But when it actually happens later in the story in Samuel, God's really offended by it and says they're refusing to accept me as their king. That's why they want a human king. But there is law in the Torah about how to have a king.

Exactly. Yeah. So the laws in the Torah, remember are not God's ideal will for all times and all places. They are for Israel for a certain time for their covenant relationship as an application of God's wisdom. And they're very much in accommodation to the non-ideal realities of human existence. The laws about the king and the Torah are in accommodation because God obviously didn't really want them to have a king. He was frustrated by that. That's right. And remember Jesus talked about you. He was bringing that that. That's right. And remember Jesus talked about, yeah, you're springing that up. You were gonna bring it up.

We were both gonna bring it up at the same time, which means we've been influencing each other. So that's great. Well, when they religious leaders ask Jesus about a law of Moses around divorce, Jesus says, look, that law was an accommodation. Is that what he says? Yes.

Yeah, he says this law was given to you because of the hardness of the human heart. Yeah, okay. Yeah. So it's really not an ideal. Yeah. It's a bandaid. It's a triage man.

So you're saying there's no law in the Torah about building cities. But there is a law in the Torah about, donate some of your cities to the Levites. And those cities have walls. And there's also laws about, hey, when you go and take over a city. So they're going to have cities that had walls. Yeah.

And outside of Eden, you need that. So all of a sudden, what with Cain is a sad, the building of a walled city to protect his life, instead of trusting God, like God said, to protect him. That's like a kind of a sad, tragic reality. The city represents a tragedy. But as you go on, cities are, it's good to preserve life. Yeah. That's like God. It's good to create a refuge where new life can generate. That's an imitation of Eden. And so now cities, though non-ideal, become a potential way to do that. And now the question is not going to be whether we have cities or not have cities,

it's what are we going to do with the cities that we have? So this aberings us to Jerusalem. So let's talk about Jerusalem. Because what came first? Did this ideal idea of a city of God, like the Psalmist and Psalm 45? 6, yeah, Psalm 46 could say there's streams that make glad the city of God. So the Psalmist is now all of a sudden imagining

that God's throne and rule can come out of a city. So that's a big shift, because up till now, no, God's throne was in the garden. Cities are in accommodation. In fact, the tabernacles can be carried around the wilderness. You don't need a city. God's throne room doesn't need to be associated with the city. Suddenly, Psalm 46, there's a city of God.

Where does this idea come from? Is it an idea that then sets up the reason for Jerusalem, or is an idea reflecting on the reality of Jerusalem and taking it to a new level? Yeah, it's great. This is exactly what I was referring to, that I had some further thoughts. So a few episodes ago, we talked about David

bringing the ark to Jerusalem, bringing the tavernacle, right to the center of Jerusalem, the highest hill, he plants it there. He's bringing the throne of God to Jerusalem. So there's multiple questions there. One is, why did David choose that place? What was going on? There. What did he think he was doing? Because remind me, he took the city over. Which is something that the loaves of the Torah said he could do. Yeah. Yep. Whereas David goes to Jerusalem, and he takes it over from the Canaanites who were there, a clan called the Jebysites. And they were like, yeah, good luck. Yeah, good lover. Even anybody who's blind or disabled in our city,

because this is a well-fortified city. Totally. And then David and his soldiers sneak in through the watershed. Okay, so now David has a well-fortified city in the hills. Yeah, it's called city of David and also Zion, which means rock, most likely, means rock, the high rock. And then, that's in Seconds Hamil 5. Next chapter, David brings the Ark and the Tyronarchal up to Jerusalem,

which means that the heaven-honored presence, the Eden presence of God, is now coming to inhabit the city. So there's two things. One, there's some questions here, is, who's idea was it? Yeah. And the narrative doesn't say. Like, okay, who's idea was it to bring the throne of God to Jerusalem? Yeah, the story in 2 Samuel 6 just begins and David arose with all the people

to bring up the Ark of God to dwell in Jerusalem. And it doesn't go good, first round. We talked about that. That's where Oza and his dad... Yeah, he does it wrong. It actually varies does it wrong. Well, actually he carries the arc wrong. Yeah. Oza and his brother and their dad set up the arc on this cart, which they were not supposed

to do. Explosively not supposed to do. And it's what the Philistines were doing with the cart when they shipped it out of their land earlier in the story of the Samuel scroll. So we don't know if David was supposed to do this, but we do know that they're going about it in the wrong way. Yeah. So what's interesting is that this is a great meditation literature example.

The Psalms have a whole lot of reflection on David's motives and what he thought he was doing. Super interesting. So you get a Psalm like Psalm 132, which reads like this. Remember, O Yahweh, on David's behalf, all of his suffering, how he swore in oath to Yahweh, he made a vow to the mighty William Jacob saying, I will not enter my house or lie on my bed or give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I Find a place for Yahweh a Dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob

We're reflecting here on David had a thing. He wanted it. He wanted Yahweh to have a home So this still doesn't explain whose idea it was. Just wait. So behold, we've heard of it in Ephra'atah, the town south of Jerusalem. We've found it in the field of YAH-ar, I'd have to look that up, YAH-ar means forest, but let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool. Arise, Yahweh, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, let your godly one sing for joy. So we actually, it's like we're meditating on the procession of the ark.

Oh, we found it. We found the ark crew of people and now let's take it up taking it up to the resting place Okay, okay for the sake of your servant David don't turn away the face of your Messiah The Lord swore an oath to David. Oh, okay, David swore an oath to Yahweh bring the little Garden of Eden thrown into Jerusalem And now Yahweh always swearing in oath to David. This is exactly the sequence of Second Samuel 6. David brings the ark to Jerusalem. Second Samuel 7, God makes a promise to David about a future seed from his line, a kingdom that will last forever. Which is exactly what we're saying. You always wore an oath to David the truth from which he won't turn back out of the fruit

of your body. I will set upon your throne, if your sons keep my covenant, the testimony I teach them, they will sit on the throne forever. Because Yahweh has chosen Zion. He desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever here I will dwell for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her with provision, I'll satisfy her needy with bread, her priests I will clothe with deliverance, the godly ones will sing for joy, because there I will cause a horn of David to sprout. And I've prepared a lamp, a light, for my Messiah.

Her enemies will be clothed with shame, but upon him a crown will shine. So David chose the city, and he swore a nose to God, that's connected with the ark coming to dwell there. And then the flip side of that is Yahweh, sworing a nose to David, that in this city, Yahweh will release his Eden blessing and abundance and protection, provision, notice the protection from enemies. And David's desire also corresponds to God's desire to dwell. I think what this represents is like the redemption in the bigger arc of the story. Remember Jerusalem, there was that little blip of the cities of Egypt that can become a source of life, but then they quickly turn in the next generation. And I think here this would be then the second moment, but even more

intense than what happened in Egypt, which is that you have a wise image of God, human ruler, who wants this city to be the city of God. This is like the redemption of the human city. Okay. Potentially. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. But let me tease this out a little bit. So are you saying the way this is written and makes you think it's still in accommodation? David chose it. And so then God said, great, I will also choose it. Oh, sure. Yeah, totally. Really? Yeah. Or to state it plainly, was there some sort of sense that God otherwise, maybe we don't have a rundown, but the David have the sense of like, God wants me to do this.

This is God's desire is to create a throne room city, right? For him. To take the tabernacle, we've had it in the wilderness. It's been gone, and now it's just kind of hanging out somewhere. Like, it needs to be in our capital city. Yeah. Was that David's idea that God's accommodating, or was that God's idea, right, that David is being loyal to? Yeah. Like, who came up with the idea first? Totally. Yeah, I love it, John. I love it. It's exactly the question, and that's exactly the little detail that neither the narrative nor these poems make clear. What this poem wants to do is say that David's desire corresponds

to God's desire. Yeah. And what God's desire is is to have a resting place, a heavenly, heaven on earth resting place, where he can have a human royal priestly partner from whom we'll sprout a future king whose kingdom will be forever and ever in the Eden land. Like that's God's desire in the second half of the poem. And that's just set in analogy to David's desire. So what's interesting, I have a whole thing that we didn't even get to

in the notes long time ago. But what's interesting is let us not forget that this is the city. There has existed already a royal priest king for the most high god in this city long ago. most high God in this city long ago. Macchizedek. Macchizedek, yes. And it's to that city that Abraham came and met the Royal Priest, King, and paid homage to him and honored him and received an Eden blessing from that King. So I think it's a narrative analogy between this city has been this kind of unique spot for the worship of the one true God. And it's like David is activating that royal priestly, Eden on earth,

city on the hill, type of role. But other than that, we don't get explanation. So you could historically, like speculate and say, well, David could have known about those traditions and he wanted to restore this city to be what it was in the days of Abraham. I definitely think that's what the narrator wants us to see is that David is creating a version of the city of what was true and milk is the day. But the story doesn't say. There is one other psalm. Actually, there's a couple other psalms. Psalm 78 has a moment where it describes how Yahweh chose the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion, which he loves, and then he built his sanctuary there and chose David his servant.

So in Psalm 78, it's very much Yahweh's initiative in choosing the city that's highlighted here in the poem. Psalm 78 is a retelling of Israel's story in the land and when it gets to the David part, it highlights that Yahweh is the one who chose Judah and that he chose Mount Zion. Because those are the lands of parallel. Yeah, that's right. Psalm 68 also contrasts Mount Zion or Jerusalem with the biggest mountain actually in that whole region, which is Mount Bishan way up in the north. Today we call it Mount Herman, and contrast that with this is Psalm 68 or 16. the mountain where God chooses to reign, where He dwells forever. So in terms of why this mountain, the story doesn't say, but it maps it on to David's desire and God's desire come together resulting in this redemption of the Canaanite city to become the city of God.

Okay. Or at least in image of the city of God. This is only step one. But I'll take you one more step. But does this plug a hole that's been a gap in your mind? Well, I think there's still a little bit of ambiguity in that. Well, okay, if we say, look, God chose Jerusalem. And David was loyal to that idea. Then when we get to Jesus, it feels like a real massive shift in God's intention. Yeah, oh, interesting. If we come to the story of David and we go, yeah, God chose it, but as an accommodation. Yeah, David's the one who chose it. And God worked with David's desire. Yeah, he worked with David's desire.

But God's desire was always a level deeper than what's the city, like where's the city, which mountain, which whatever. Like that was an accommodation. What God was after was a place where his wisdom was manifest and his throne was there. So I think there's still some ambiguity there for me. I just wanna know, am I walking into the Jesus story, feeling like,

yeah, God chose Jerusalem and God's gonna do something with the city of Jerusalem. And so when Jesus starts to like talk about his disciples being the city, I'm like, whoa, what's happening? How did he get there? Right, okay. So that's where we need to take a few more steps.

Okay. So even though the narrative about David choosing Jerusalem and then a poem, the only poem that really reflects explicitly on that moment is Psalm 132. And once again, it just compares David's decision in desire and oath with God's desire. And God responds favorably to David's desire by saying, you chose this place, I choose it. And I choose you and your line in the city to become like a new Eden and sprout a messiah king for the future. So what's interesting is we went to Isaiah already to talk about,

we didn't have enough time to go through the theme of the city all throughout Isaiah. But what is interesting is that in those poems in Isaiah that we looked at, the city is merged with a group of people called you or the servants. And it's the servant and his followers that are exalted up high to become this beacon to the nations, just like the descriptions of the new Jerusalem shining on hill. So already in the book of Isaiah, there's this pairing between if Jerusalem's ever going to be that city on hill, it's going to be because of a righteous remnant, the servant, and his servants being faithful to God and they'll together will become

like the new Eden light shining up to the nations. In other words, the move Jesus is making is not unanticipated. It's already there in the book of Isaiah. Because in Isaiah, Jerusalem has already failed. Exactly. And there's all this reflection in the prophets about the corruption and injustice that Jerusalem has caused. And that God lets Jerusalem be unwound by these other nations because of their injustice. Yeah, that's right. And so when the prophets think about, well, how will Jerusalem be reclaimed as God's throne, as this throne city? Yeah, it will need to be a moment like what David did. A moment when David picks a place of people in a time to bring the presence of God there and say, this is the city of God. In other words, think of the transformation

of Jerusalem, which was the Hebrew name. It was called Yebus. It was the Canaanite name. So what was it? The transform Yebus to Jerusalem, right? Jebus to Jerusalem. It was a righteous seed, David, who brings God's holy presence into the city, plants it, builds a house for God, throws a huge party, blesses the people, there's food for everyone, and God takes up residence there. And all of a sudden, Yebus becomes the city of God, as it were. There's some transformation there. But then slowly over time, the city of God as it were. There's some transformation there, but then slowly over time, the city of peace Jerusalem gets corrupted and becomes like a new Babylon. And that's certainly how Jesus viewed Jerusalem with his day. And here is Jesus presented as the son of David coming to do another version, like of what David did, the redemption of the city.

Oh, wow. So you put Jesus in parallel with all those things. Jesus is a seed of David. Or, well, he's a seed in line of David. Yep, that's right. And well, David brings the throne of God up into Jerusalem. Jesus said to be the throne of God. Well, himself come out of heaven. Well, it's interesting. Yeah, in the birth story that Matthew has it, he presents Jesus in very similar imagery, actually, very closely, making the baby Jesus in the place of the exalted Jerusalem of Isaiah, with the kings coming. Right.

The light shining. Yeah, the light, the with the Kings coming. Right, the light shining. The Kings off the... Yeah, the light, the star comes to Jerusalem. You're like, yes, of course, because Jerusalem is going to be restored and then it keeps going. Yeah. Over to Nazareth. That's right. And all this is happening in contrast to Jerusalem and its king, which is Herod. I see.

Who is acting like Pharaoh, killing all the babies. And, well, and the other thing is that I was trying to make the parallel to the Ark is like, if David brought God's throne up to Jerusalem, in the story of Jesus, God's reign is thrown. Yes. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven comes down. It comes down. Or it comes near.

Yeah. David brings it up. Yeah. God sends it down. And when he God sends it down, it's in a person. Yeah. It's not in no longer an ark, a seat. God sends it down. And when he God sends it down, it's in a person, not in no longer an ark, a seat. It's actually incarnate now.

And so now Jesus, if he's also the king and the throne of God, which is this new kind of, you know. Yeah, the temple throne room of God is a person, namely Jesus. That's a huge new like reorientation and then when Jesus says You guys following me you're the city. Mm-hmm. You're saying that Isaiah was always envisioning a group of faithful servants who would be the ones to transform, to be the like

the new foundation for a new city. Yeah, and that's, we just read from Isaiah 60, but I did say then just was, but the Isaiah 60, 61, and 62 are a little three-part literary bundle. 1661 and 1662 are a little three-part literary bundle. The two on the outside, 1662 are about the exaltation of the city. In 1662, the city is described as a woman giving birth to lots of people. And then in the middle is the famous, Yahweh has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

And in that poem, that's what Jesus quotes. Yeah, this anointed herald who brings good news to the poor, start turning the poor into servants like himself that become the restorers of an ancient ruin city. That's what the poem says. And they become like the planting of a new garden. So it's the people. There's a coming an anointed one, a servant, and a people who will become the vehicle of a new garden. So it's the people. There's a coming and anointed one, a servant, and a people who will become the vehicle of a new Eden. And they are the inhabitants of, and the members of this new city, heaven on earth. That's Isaiah 60-62. So Jesus is picking up the cues from Isaiah's role that the city is a people. The city is a person, the city is a people, and so on. But what I love about this is I love how you're trying

to think about the David story and the Jesus story. And I think that's exactly faithful to how the parts work. It's David chose a city almost like for the redemption of the city, for the first time, Jerusalem becomes this really positive city. And it's God's dwelling place being brought up. And when he rules it in righteousness and justice, which it's said that that's what he does,

at least for a while, in Seconds Am 6th, then it becomes this image of the city of God. So here's what's fascinating, is in Chronicles, because remember the Chronicles scroll in Hebrew Bible. Yeah. It's a retelling of Genesis through kings. The first word of Chronicles is a genealogy that begins with Adam. And then the last parts of the Chronicles scroll go to the Babylonian exile and then the

to the Babylonian exile and then the Edict of Cyrus. So it's a retelling of Genesis through kings by a set of authors who are sitting somewhere in the mid four, or at least 300's BC. So it's a few hundred years before Jesus. And they've got most of the pieces of the tonk sitting in front of them. So the way they retell the story is the super hyperlink

design pattern Bible nerd out session. When Chronicles retells the story of David selecting Jerusalem and rebuilding Jerusalem, there's this whole section in 1 Chronicles 28 where David is giving the plans, the city plans, and specifically the plans of the temple in the middle of the city. And what he says is that all these plans for the temple in the middle of the city, the Lord made me understand in writing when his hand was upon me to give me all the details of this pattern. And this is echoing Moses on top of Mount Sinai, who's shown the heavenly temple, and then he said to write down and build the tabernacle according to the pattern that you're being shown. And this stuff right here in Chronicles is not in Samuel or Kings. This is new material.

So Chronicles is depicting David like a new Moses, who saw a vision not just of the heavenly temple, but of the heavenly city with the temple at its center. And then he gives all of these detailed plans. Oh really? I thought I was just talking about the temple plans. It is, but this is right after he took the city and established it as the city. And now it's about, so it is focused on the temple, but the temple and the city are really joined together

because the temple is up at the crown of the city. So it's depicting David as building Jerusalem as an image of the heavenly city and the heavenly throne room of God. So that's a nice little detail to show that David was trying to create a heaven on her spot, just like what the Tabernacle was. It's like the redemption of the city, but in the form of what the tabernacle was, like a garden in the wilderness, now Jerusalem is like the city of God, down in a city of humans. Is that parallel?

Seems coherent? Yeah. God's desire to build the temple and make that an image of his heavenly throne by David getting the blueprint from God's like own initiative. Yep. Is on parallel with Moses up on Mount Sinai, seeing the Holy Divine throne room, and then getting the pattern.

The pattern. Yep. So Moses creates the tabernacle. David builds the temple. The tabernacle can be carried along with you. You don't need a city. It can just be with you. Go anywhere.

Yeah, that's right. Temple becomes a place where it's like, this is where this is going to stay forever. Mm-hmm. But the parallel is that God was behind both and both were signifying, yes, like, he was going to dwell here. That's right. And all of them are shot through with the imagery of the Garden of Eden.

Because that's the temple and the tabernacle were symbolic, earthly counterparts of the heavenly reality that is the Eden, the Garden of God. So the Garden tent or the garden city. So when we get to Jesus and now we've get an image of God's not just a pattern, but the image of God. Yeah, the image of God coming down and making residents not in the form of a tent, not in the form of a city with walls, but in the form of a human. Right. But the human being called, yeah, being depicted in the birth story. He's being depicted as the New Jerusalem. And in the Gospel of John specifically. Yes, he's called the tabernacle. He's called the tabernacle. Yeah, the God made his tent among us. Yeah, and so we've now got like almost three versions

of God making residents. Yeah, totally. Yeah, the Tabernacle. Tabernacle. The temple in the city on the hill, and then Jesus Messiah. So the Tabernacle and the temple were both patterns, looking towards Jesus.

Looking at a heavenly reality. A heavenly reality that when it came to earth were both patterns, looking towards Jesus. Looking at a heavenly reality. A heaven reality that when it came to earth and it's like fullest sense. Yes, that's right. It came as Jesus. Actually, that's an important little clarification. So it's not just that there's symbolic realities

of Jesus, it's that the tabernacle and temple are symbolic realities of Yahweh dwelling in his heavenly throne room. And then the claim of the gospel authors is that Yahweh came among us in the form of a human. That's how the Tabernacle and Temple point forward is because they're all connecting up to the same heavenly reality. So where we were going to go next was now, how is Jesus? The heavenly reality. So where we were going to go next was now how is Jesus the Tabernacle become human, the throne room of God become human, God Himself with us as a human. How is that person going to relate to the earthly Jerusalem? The earthly

Jerusalem. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And just because Matthew presents to Jesus in the story of the famous wise man, as be all the hyperlinks of that story, place baby Jesus in the spot in all the language of Isaiah chapter 60. Oh, and then when he starts touring Galilee, this is what we did in the last episode. Jesus starts touring around Galilee announcing the arrival of the kingdom of heaven. And Matthew quotes another part of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 9 talking about a light shining in the darkness, which is what that city was doing in

Isaiah 60, the light shining in the darkness for the nations. And then Jesus goes up on hill and says, y'all are the city, y'all are the light, let your light shine to the nations. So it's a very clear shift of application that all of the hopes of the heavenly city of God are now focused in on Jesus and His followers, which raises the question that you just raise. Yeah, it does because, yeah, this is all set up for you now. Okay, so we've been waiting for the servant. We've been waiting for the anointed one. That's Jesus. Yeah. And we've been waiting for the throne room of God to take residence again. We thought that was the temple. It's Jesus.

Yeah. We were waiting for the servants of the anointed one to like come. And we thought maybe those are the religious leaders that work in the temple. We're a seed from the line of David. Or maybe yeah. A future king. And here they are. They're the Ragtag group of people that you sing out with. That's right. Yeah. And so it still makes you wonder. Okay. Well then the throne room of God become human. He could then go and build himself a place to live. Yeah, yeah, you could build himself the city. Totally, yeah. And he can rain over the city.

And what better city to do that from? Then the city of Jerusalem, where all of this was the setting of the place that God chose and the place the prophets continued to talk about being at center stage when the city of God is dawned. So the city of God is dawned with Jesus. So Jesus should just take residence in Jerusalem. Yeah, you would think all the pieces come together. He's going to do a David thing again, I've wrapped around himself and you would think you would go up to Jerusalem and set up a throne.

And in a way, that is exactly what the gospel authors are trying to tell us what happened. But the way that it happened and the lead up to it was somewhat different. And that is what I had planned for the next step in our conversation. Well, let's go there. Yeah, so what is Jesus' relationship to the city of Jerusalem and then what is going to go down when he gets there? And that's the exciting, surprising story that the gospel also just wants to tell us. exciting, surprising story that the gospel authors want to tell us. Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week, we're exploring the question,

what is Jesus' relationship to the actual city of Jerusalem? Jesus clearly understands that Jerusalem, as it stands in his days, opposed to the purposes of God and the ship's not going to turn around. He wanted to be a part of helping this generation turn and avoid the fire and the flood, but not only are they not going to do that, Jesus knows that he is going to lose his life by standing against the Jerusalem of his day. Today's episode was brought to you by our podcast team, producer Cooper Peltz, associate producer Lindsay Ponder, lead editor Dan Gummel, editor's Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza.

Tyler Bailey mixed this episode and Hannah Wu provides the annotations for our annotated podcast in our app. Bumble project is a crowdfunded nonprofit and we exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus and everything that we make remains free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you.

So thank you so much for being a part of this with us. Howdy, this is Hannah Lang and I'm from College Station, Texas. Well, hey, this is Ryan Hughes. I'm from Jones, Bro, Tennessee. I first heard about Bible Project back in the early days of the YouTube series. I used Bible Project to lead small group discussions in my own personal contemplation. Plus the artwork is just really great to look at. I first heard about Bible Project about four years ago and it has been a gift to me since then. I use Bible Project for deepening my study of scripture and it's also a wonderful resource on my journey through seminary.

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