7 Images: The New Jerusalem

Thetis Blacker: "The Holy City" (1982)

Scripture recounts that Jesus will return in person to judge the nations and establish a just and benevolent rule over all the earth.

Prophesy is generally only understood in hindsight (or as it unfolds) when it comes to the exact meaning of many particulars, but we can make out the general idea. The nations will ultimately reject the just and benevolent rule of Jesus, after which everyone who rejected God will be judged. There will follow a new Heaven and a New Earth—a kind of return to the Garden.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19:11-16)

Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and this name one. (Zechariah 14:5b-9)

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)

Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. (Zechariah 14:16-18)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15)

7 Images: The Son of Man

 

Anastasiia Kulik: "Ascension of Christ" (2020)

Scripture recounts that God promised to send a prophet like Moses, "whom the LORD knew face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10), to speak the words of God to Israel. 

Jesus claimed to be the prophet spoken of by Moses and the prophets, and the people marveled at much of what he said and did, but they stumbled at his claims to be born of the earth also but descended from heaven.

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-18)

“No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:13-18)

They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life." (John 6:42-48)

Perhaps equally perplexing were his statements about redeeming those who come to him by atoning for their sins with his death. Though prophesied in scripture, this was not understood by even his own disciples until after his death and resurrection.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:4-11; ref. 1 Peter 2:22-25) 

7 Images: The Circumcised Heart

 

Sadao Watanabe: "Hope" (1961)

Scripture recounts that God promised to send a messenger like Elijah to preach a circumcision of the heart before the Day of the Lord. 

After centuries of prophetic silence, an angel appeared to the father of John the Baptist to declare that his son would announce that the prophesied day of the Lord was at hand.

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:3-5)

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” (Malachi 3:1-2)

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (Malachi 4:5)

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him kin the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:13-17)

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:19-23)

John preached a spiritual circumcision of the heart as prophesied (see Deuteronomy 30:1-6), whose ritual confirmation was immersion in water—signifying rebirth—the same ritual confirmation prescribed in the Talmud for physical circumcision of a convert (Yebamoth iv.ix). This same sign carried over as the public confirmation of faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus and a declaration of him as Lord, which is how Jesus comes to own our sins and we—even non-Jews—conversely take on his righteousness before God.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:3-8)

And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength—he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:5-6)

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:11-14)

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10) 

7 Images: The Book of the Covenant

 

Marc Chagall: "Moses [iii]" (1956) 

Scripture recounts that God chose the descendants of Jacob to serve him as a nation of priests to the world. 

Whereas the covenant made with Abraham entailed exclusive devotion to El (God), the covenant made with the descendants of Jacob further established that no other god exists apart from El (ref. Deuteronomy 32:39a) who now revealed himself as YWHW, a name that not even Abraham had known. Moreover, the descendants of Jacob were chosen to serve YWHW as priests to the nations to bring them to a knowledge of the one true God. 

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am [YWHW]. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God [El Shaddai], but by my name [YWHW] I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. (Exodus 6:2-4) 

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Exodus 19:5-6a) 

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) 

When the [El] gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.* But the [YaWeH]’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9) 

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1; ref. Isaiah 41:8) 

Good standing as a priesthood was, however, conditional not just upon the nation's fidelity to God but also to a vast priestly code promulgated at Mount Sinai. (ref. Romans 2:25-29) 

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Exodus 19:5-6a) 

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. (Deuteronomy 29:18-19) 

Not surprisingly, Israel's failure to keep the covenant was anticipated from the beginning, and the eventual exile of Israel was anticipated. What is astonishing is that God promised that those exiles who turned to the Lord (Judah but not Israel) would be returned to the land of Canaan. 

And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. (Deuteronomy 30:1-3) 

God promised that God himself would consecrate the hearts of those who returned so that their outward expressions of faith sprung from within. This chastised Israel would become the true nation of priests originally intended. 

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6) 

As with many prophesies of scripture, however, a telescoped view collapses into a single frame what might be multiple iterations of instances separated by many centuries, and the ultimate fulfillment may look quite different from what anyone might have expected. 

[*A poetic allusion is made to the seventy sons of El, who in Canaanite religion were the gods of seventy nations (ref. Genesis 10).]

7 Images: The Knowledge of God

 

Salvador Dali "Abraham, Pater Multarem Gentium" (1964) 

Scripture recounts that God chose a man, Abram, from whom to create a people through whom "all the families of the earth" would be blessed. 

Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3) 

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6) 

Canaan in the days of Abram was in transition from a religion devoted to El (God) to a religion devoted to Baal (Lord of the Storm) who represented Justice and Fertility. Baal (whose actual name was Haddad) was equivalent to Enil of Sumer and Zeus of the Greeks. He had displaced El already in Abram's day and even appropriated the long white hair and beard of El, who as Creator and the God of Time was known as the Ancient of Days. Only in the hinterlands such as Jerusalem, of which Melchizedek was king, was El still revered. Abram devoted himself exclusively to El, which in practical terms amounted to monotheism, and God blessed him. 

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am [El Shaddai]; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:1-8) 

And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. (Genesis 17:9-14) 

But though the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and Esau were circumcised as part of this covenant, the only the descendants of Jacob would become a people set apart for a sacred purpose as part of an additional covenant. God would create from Jacob a new people, sacred to himself, to serve as his representative to the nations. 

7 Images: The Serpent's Proposition

 

Alexander Sulimov: "Forbidden Fruit" (2019)

Scripture recounts that sin entered the world through a lack of faith in the goodness of God, which marred our faithfulness as his image and now compromises every act of goodness that we attempt. 

Adam and Eve, though tasked putting each creature in its appropriate place, allow the serpent* to reverse roles and raise a fundamental question regarding their own place in the larger scheme of things. He sows doubt about the goodness of God by asking why God has surrounded Adam and Eve with food while inexplicably denying them to partake of any. He thereby maneuvers Eve into bringing up the subject of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil of which they have indeed been forbidden to eat. The serpent then sows additional doubt about God's goodness and their own self-fulfillment by claiming that God has deceived them because he does not wish for them to truly become like him. The nature of the temptation is a conjured sense that they lack something that they deserve, which God has selfishly denied and which they have at hand to take. Such is the essence of all temptation. 

Now the serpent* was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) 

The fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil does not of itself necessarily impart any knowledge, and other creatures of the garden may well have eaten some without incident. What imparts knowledge of good and evil is the act of defying God. The consequence is that Adam and Eve feel vulnerable and seek to conceal themselves by fashioning coverings for themselves and by hiding from God. They thus forfeit their original intimacy with God and with each other for a counterfeit intimacy with each other based on shared complicity. 

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:6-11) 

Expelled from the garden but still possessed of an innate impulse to order the wilderness around them, Adam and Eve and their descendants begin a slow slide into self-determination that soon results in Cain murdering his brother Abel. The history of humankind from this point forward is a series of fitful attempts to reestablish a sense of order in the wilderness and some sort of reconciliation with God. The entire period from Eden until now, during which God himself executes a plan of redemption, is a vast detour leading back to a new and even more magnificent garden. 

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Genesis 22:1-5) 

[*The serpent is presumably the cobra, which goes upright like a person.]

7 Images: The Garden of Eden

 

Gustav Klimt: "L'Arbre de Vie" (1909)

Scripture recounts that humanity was created in God’s image to oversee the world in his name.  

Genesis 1:1-2:3 establishes the expectation that everything has its rightful place: celestial bodies with assigned places and prescribed orbits to rule night and day; flying birds with feathers and wings to roam the sky; free swimming fish with scales and fins roam the seas; and plant-eating animals to roam the fields and forests. This would seem to be the underlying logic of the laws enumerated in Leviticus 1:1-47 that define ritually clean animals (e.g. cattle, partridges, and carp) and ritually unclean animals (e.g. lizards, bats, and eels), a scheme that defines vast numbers of creatures as ritually unclean from the beginning and which Adam and Eve are tasked with incorporating into an orderly scheme.  

Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)  

This notion of man as an image of God is made explicit in Psalm 8, which underscores the surpassing greatness of a transcendent God who has created a (miniature) god-like creature tasked with ruling over the Earth.  

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. (Psalm 8:3-8)  

The tasks of subduing and having dominion over the Earth are best understood in terms of the Garden of Eden, an exemplary area of limited extent, which Adam and Eve were to cultivate and protect.  

And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, hand the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9) The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)  

The fact that Adam and Eve were tasked with cultivating and preserving the garden while also subduing the Earth suggests that they were to extend the borders of the garden until it encompassed the entire Earth. The garden was thus a template for the rest of the world, which is to say that humanity was to incorporate lands and creatures found beyond the garden as the garden’s boundaries expanded. This brings up the matter of Adam naming the animals, which connotes having dominion over them.  

Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. (Genesis 2:19-20a)  

The time allowed for this event is only a fraction of the sixth day, which includes: the creation of all the animals, the creation of Adam, the planting of the garden in Eden, the naming of the animals, the formation of Eve from a “side” of Adam, and God’s instructions to Adam and Eve. The implication is that only those animals initially present within the garden are named.  

The plan therefore was for humanity to serve as the Image of God to order and to multiply the goodness of creation—but things did not turn out that way.