The marriage language of Jeremiah 3 contains the common
Covenant language with regard to blessings and curses. This is why some have
posited the existence of a Covenant of Works (or typological Edenic reiteration)
overlay to the already extant covenant arrangements. On an individual level salvation
was by grace through faith but corporately speaking, as a people the Israelites
were in a works-based arrangement. Obedience meant staying in the land and
disobedience meant to be cast out from it, to be under curse.
There's something to this understanding though at times I
find the paradigm a bit too rigid and often the rigidity is to be found in a
very narrow understanding of Sola Fide which is then read (with some
difficulty) back into the Old Testament.
That said, however the details are sussed out, it's clear there
was a covenant tie to the land itself, the actual physical land. It was
Jehovah's land and this is in keeping with a covenant-based land concept that
was commonly understood in the ancient world and (though foreign to modern
sensibilities) is reflected in the Scriptures. The other lands had their
assigned gods, the thrones and dominions mentioned in the New Testament and in
many forms throughout the Old. Obviously we don't understand these to be gods
in a polytheistic sense. There is but One True Triune God. However these are
elohim entities. Jehovah is an Elohim but not all elohim are Jehovah would be
one way to understand it. We can call these spirit-entities angels but there is
some confusion over that term and in other cases a reductionist understanding
of just what these entities are.
They are called into judgment in Psalm 82. The language in
the psalm cannot be limited to human governors. These are elohim under curse,
condemned to die like men for their wicked governance of the lands placed under
their authority. We also see this in Daniel 10 where there is some kind of
angelic battle taking place and one of the angelic-elohim figures is the
'prince' (S'ar in Hebrew) of Persia. Michael is the S'ar of Israel and there is
mention of the prince or S'ar of Greece. One might be tempted to think of this
as Alexander but the context points to an elohim figure behind Alexander,
either influencing him or directing him. We're not told how this dynamic works
but it's certainly the case.
The pagan peoples imported by the Assyrians into Ephraim
operated under this sacral-land assumption when they were plagued by lions (2
Kings 17.25). They believed they were not doing proper homage to the 'God of
the land'. Obviously the corrupted Levite brought back from exile, no doubt a
priest of the Dan-Bethel shrines did not teach them the true religion and
indeed this episode is likely the origin of the Samaritan heresy.
While the Old Testament doesn't openly endorse the theology
of angelically assigned lands or explicitly teach it, the assumptions are
there. The divorce language in Jeremiah 3 regarding the land-marriage actually
supports this.
The Israelite presence in the land was tied to the post-Edenic
covenant narrative in which they were brought out of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage (a typological Sheol-Hades) into the covenant land of milk and honey,
the place where Jehovah put his name and His Glory dwelled, a type of the
Heavenly Zion. This is contrasted with the world and the nations which belong
to Satan and the elohim powers that ultimately serve him.*
To be brought out of Egypt is to be rescued from the realms
of Satan and brought into a heavenly country as it were. Exile to Babylon is to
be returned once more to the non-covenantal realm of Satan, the tempest realm
of chaos from where the beasts arise.
In the New Testament there is a duality that has developed.
Our citizenship is in heaven and there is no holy land so to speak. There is no geographical or political locale
in which the Spirit specifically dwells or is tied to the covenant. As such we
live as pilgrims, strangers and exiles in all lands.
However, Christ has ascended and is even now seated at the
Right Hand of the Father. The thrones and dominions, the lords of the realms of
death, the kingdoms of the Beast are defeated and yet that defeat has been put
on hold as it were. Christ's resurrection and enthronement marked their defeat
as Colossians 2.15 declares but He has not yet returned to judge them, to oust
them and militarily defeat them as it were. He has defeated death and Hades
(and has the latter's keys signifying mastery) and thus the forces of darkness
and resistance have no means to combat Him. The battle is effectively over and
Satan has been cast out of the Divine Council... an eternal battle which I
think defies any chronological position or placement as we would be able to
understand it.
In the meantime, we live in the Longsuffering Delay, this
provisional time between the times, wherein the Kingdom is indeed Already but
Not Yet. Through the Spirit the Kingdom is 'Already', at work in the Church and
thus in us as individuals. Because of Christ's victory the nations are no
longer bound to their gods as it were. Satan himself is effectively bound in
the sense that he can no longer deceive the nations. His authority is in
disarray and has been limited in terms of the gospel.
The gods can be defied though they certainly will not submit
quietly. In fact they rage and would make war on the saints but their land-covenant
or patronage power (as it were) has been broken. The Church proceeds into all
lands and establishes embassies or bases in the spiritual war. This is not to bring
about dominion or some form of political conquest. The New Testament makes this
abundantly clear. These nations cannot be covenantalised. They're marked for fiery
destruction and it's our task to bear witness to this. Our congregations are kerygma-colonies, established as forms
of proclamation and a foretaste of Christ's universal presence or parousia. For in the holy rites and in
the Word preached, He is present. And through the supernatural Word and through
the spiritual rites we practice, Baptism and the Supper, we establish a bridge,
a connection, a union and communion with Zion-heaven, the martyr-saints and the
heavenly host who are also engaged in the Divine worship. And our presence, the
presence of the Word and the presence of Christ in these locales is also an
apocalyptic pronouncement, a veritable sign of warning and doom. This is part
of the imagery found in the Supper when we're told that it proclaims Christ's
death till he come. The peoples of
the nations are called upon to repent, for indeed Christ is coming and it will
be a Day of Wrath and of Judgment. And thus our kerygma-colonies are also
parousia-outposts. Our presence condemns the world and calls it to repentance
and judgment. They can persecute us but the warning has been given and the
gospel cannot be stopped. But there is hope if they turn to Christ.
This covenant land-marriage background is important and helps
us to understand Paul's language in a passage like 1 Corinthians 5 when he
speaks of those who are 'outside' and argues that we really have nothing to do
with them. God will judge them and we certainly aren't involved in their
affairs, nor do we look toward them for justice.
In fact these non-covenanted realms which belong to the elohim-angels
will be cast down and burned and we, the sons and daughters of the Second Adam
will judge them and will ultimately replace them in the New Heavens and New
Earth.
The realities of salvation and of Christ's accomplished work
are already in place and we experience them through the Spirit and yet they are
not yet in terms of chronology, in
terms of time as we know it.
So while all authority has been given to Christ, all things
have not as of yet been put under his feet (1 Corinthians 15.25). The thrones
and dominions have been defeated in the eternal sense but in terms of time
Satan is still god of this world and the ruler of the nations which are in turn
still under the condemned elohim. And when Christ appears in his victorious coming,
it is not to redeem these lands but to purge and re-create them and hand the
New Heavens and Earth over to the Father as it were. The Son does not supersede
the Father.
Individual congregations can lose their candlestick as
Revelation 2 indicates with regard to the warning given to the Ephesian
Christians. Congregations can fail and cease to be viable churches, individuals
can apostatise but the Church cannot fail and there is no other order. We are
in the last days and there is no newer covenant that awaits us. Through the
Spirit we partake of the substance. Our order is not provisional but contains a
few very basic provisional elements so we can function in pre-Parousia space
and time. The Church order is meant to be of the simplest kind, something the
False Church ever militates against. Our task is to bear witness, bear the
cross, wage the spiritual war (with non-carnal weapons) and reject the world
and its temptations of power and fleshly glory. We cannot be exiled from a
covenant land. Exile-divorce at this point in time is final. It is to be cast
into the outer darkness and the realms of death. Thus we have the many warnings
against apostasy. The danger is not just an exile to Mesopotamia but a final
substantive exile.
In this age we are Kingdom-exiles but we have a comfort in
that we take the Kingdom with us as it were. The Church, the expression of the
Kingdom in this present evil age (hence the Two Kingdoms) is with us wherever we go.
There are grave implications to be considered when the
definition of the Kingdom is blurred to include the cultural and political
orders of the world. It certainly changes the covenant-divorce-exile paradigm.
When the political and cultural orders are sanctified (which is actually an
impossibility as they are under judgment), the Church loses its distinct
identity and calling and the admonitions of Peter and Paul with regard to
'those outside' or to not meddle in the affairs of men have little meaning.
Such compromises in fact represent a form of adultery, an
attempt to unite with another elohim-bride and to covenantalise a land other
than Zion.
----
*I would argue these are not the same as 'demons' but rather
are the angelic-god powers that represent the world, have been disobedient to
Jehovah and are under His judgment as seen in Psalm 82. Demons, breeders of
chaos seeking incarnation are of a different order. This is not to suggest
there isn't collaboration but they're not the same thing and seem to have
different goals.