God’s People in the Wilderness

The Church in Hebrews

O. Palmer Robertson

Copyright © O Palmer Robertson 2009

ISBN 978-1-84550-477-9

Published in 2009 in the

Mentor Imprint

By

Christian Focus Publications, Geanies House,

Fearn, Tain, Ross-shire, IV20 1TW, Scotland

www.christianfocus.com

Cover Design by Paul Lewis

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the U.K. such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London, EC1 8TS www.cla.co.uk.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Wilderness Theme Throughout Scripture

Chapter 2

A New People of The Wilderness—A People of the Covenant

Chapter 3

A New People of The Wilderness—A Unified People

Chapter 4

A New People of The Wilderness—The Tension of Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 5

The New Wilderness Community in Worship

Chapter 6

The Final Goal of the Wilderness People

Chapter 7

Practical Implications for God’s People in the Wilderness Today

Conclusion

Introduction

Perhaps the single truth of the Christian faith needing reevaluation more than any other in the 21st century is the doctrine of the church. The widespread divisions, the lack of singularity of purpose in the midst of a splintered universe of humanity, testifies strongly to the need for the church of Jesus Christ to understand itself correctly so that it may minister to a broken world from the perspective of unity of mission.

The church and its theologians have regularly investigated and reinvestigated the nature of the church as defined by the Apostle Paul. He above all others of the apostolic band brought into being the church of the Christ as it exists until today. More than any other individual Paul defined its unique nature and mission among the various organized bodies of humanity.

But an altogether different defining of the church’s essence may be found in other ancient documents of the Christian community. Outstanding among these is the anonymous writing known as the Epistle to the Hebrews. Nowhere in this composition does the author refer to the church as the ‘body of Christ’, as does the Apostle Paul. Neither does he develop very fully the concept of the ‘kingdom of God’ as that teaching is found in the ministry of Jesus and the gospellers. His perspective on the people of God is altogether different, even though wholly compatible with other images of the church in the new covenant scriptures. For the writer to the Hebrews, the church of today finds its most proper definition in terms of the historical experience of the old covenant people of God ‘in the wilderness’ during the days of Moses.

For him, the church is God’s people in the wilderness. His unifying perspective on this vital question of the church’s self-definition provides fresh insight ...