Cosmic Language
or Ethnic Cleansing as Mercy
“In representative terms, the people of God are no longer the Land but the heavenly Sea. The Church herself is the oncoming storm.”
In The Days of Vengeance [PDF], David Chilton did a great job of introducing many of us to the fact of Jesus’ use of “cosmic language” in Matthew 24 to describe the end of the Old Covenant. Not only is the idea of an actual, physical star falling to earth impossible (can you imagine the sun “falling to earth”?) but Jesus is quoting from a prophecy against Babylon. His audience would have realized this as a scathing attack against the Herods and their “government controlled” Temple worship. So, the language is clearly poetic, but why would the prophets—and Jesus and His apostles—deliberately cause so much confusion by using cosmic language to describe non-cosmic events? The answer is found in the mercy of God.
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February 8th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Another thought:
Notice that although there was water at the Red Sea and the Jordan, the means of judgment was “Creational” for Egypt, but “Social” for Jericho (although God did bring the walls down to let them in!). What made the difference? The building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness as a representative–and mobile!–Creation.
February 9th, 2012 at 2:04 am
Perhaps the Judges/Kings would then be ‘personal’, then a ‘social’ destruction of the temple by Babylon, then a new ‘creation’ in the Restoration era. Just a thought!
February 9th, 2012 at 8:25 am
Good thinking! That explains Isaiah’s use of Creation language for the Restoration.