Theme And Purpose

The Pentateuch models God's timeless purposes for creation and redemption. The theme of these books is reconciliation and restoration. Creation, having been affected by human disobedience, stood in need of restoration. Humanity, alienated from God, needed forgiveness. God's saving plan began with a pledge to bless the world through Abraham and his offspring. It was later found in the covenant granting his descendants land and designating Abraham as God's instrument of redemption.

Later, that covenant with Abraham incorporated the Sinai covenant offering Israel the role of redemptive mediation if Israel submitted to God's rule. Israel accepted that role and produced the law, religious ritual, and the priesthood. These helped the nation live out its task as a holy people. This was to attract lost humanity to the only true and living God.

Christians are also part of a "kingdom of priests" with privileges and responsibilities corresponding to those of Old Testament Israel. We have been made "children of God" (John 1:12), delivered from bondage to sin by an exodus of personal redemption, established on the pilgrim way to the land of promise, and provided with every means through the new covenant of serving as the instruments of God's reconciling grace.