The City of God and the Goal of Creation (Short Studies in Biblical Theology)

by T. Desmond Alexander

Publisher:

Crossway

, 2018

Overview

At the very heart of God’s plan for the world stands an extraordinary city. Beginning with the garden of Eden in Genesis and ending with the New Jerusalem in Revelation, the biblical story reveals how God has been working throughout history to establish a city filled with his glorious presence. Tracing the development of the theme of city in both testaments, T. Desmond Alexander draws on his experience as a biblical scholar to show us God’s purpose throughout Scripture to dwell with his redeemed people in a future extraordinary city on a transformed earth.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Holiness is not about being especially pious; it is about caring for the childless, the poor, and the refugee.” (Page 60)

“Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Page 33)

“The tabernacle was, therefore, a sort of movable Sinai.’¹³ The ‘mountain of God’ goes with the people as they journey to the Promised Land.” (Page 52)

“Recent research on the opening chapters of Genesis has drawn attention to various ways in which the garden of Eden resembles later Israelite sanctuaries.¹ The entrances to Eden and later sanctuaries are located to the east and guarded by cherubim (Gen. 3:24; Ex. 25:18–22; 26:31; 36:35; 1 Kings 6:23–29; 2 Chron. 3:14). When God commands the man ‘to work it [the garden] and keep it’ (Gen. 2:15), he uses the verbs ͑ābad, ‘to serve, till,’ and šāmar, ‘to keep, observe, guard.’ Elsewhere in the Pentateuch these verbs are used in combination to describe the duties of the Levites in the sanctuary (cf. Num. 3:7–8; 8:26; 18:5–6).² Adam’s role in the garden has Levitical connotations; he is to be a guardian of sacred space and not merely a gardener.” (Page 18)

“First, there is among biblical scholars a growing recognition that the Eden narrative contains features that link it with later Israelite sanctuaries, especially the tabernacle and the Jerusalem temple. This is in keeping with the idea that God intends to dwell on the earth. Second, in Genesis 1 God instructs humans to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This points toward the eventual creation of a worldwide community.” (Page 17)

Product Details

• Title: The City of God and the Goal of Creation
• Author: T. Desmond Alexander
• Series: Short Studies in Biblical Theology
• Publisher: Crossway
• Print Publication Date: 2018
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Cities and towns › Biblical teaching; Cities and towns in the Bible; Cities and towns › Religious aspects--Christianity; Eschatology
• ISBNs: 9781433555749, 9781433555770, 9781433555756, 9781433555763, 1433555743, 1433555778, 1433555751, 143355576, 143355576X
• Resource ID: LLS:CTYGDGLCRTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-06-27T16:46:57Z

About T. Desmond Alexander

T. Desmond Alexander is director of Christian training at Union Theological College in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From 1980 to 1999, he was lecturer in Semitic studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast. His main field of research is the Pentateuch, about which he has written extensively in academic journals and books. Alexander also has a special interest in the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. He is the author of From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Main Themes of the Pentateuch and Abraham in the Negev, and he is a coeditor (with Brian S. Rosner) of the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (IVP, 2000), available from Logos.