Chapter 4 of Jason’s book is “The Power of Weakness.” In it, he points out, accurately enough, that Americans like underdogs just so long as they don’t have to be one. He also comments on a certain kind of evangelical body-builder posing down in the public square as evidence that we are more interested in “being powerful. . . than righteous” (p. 42).
He then gives a couple of typological examples from Scripture, biblical figures who can show us the real meaning of already/not yet. They are very good examples because they go right to the heart of the issue.
The first is the example of Noah. “It is in times such as those described in Genesis, when God’s people are virtually exterminated from the earth, that the nature of our true hope is made manifest” (pp. 43-44).
The next example is that of Elijah — “it was the God of Israel who answered with fire and consumed the sacrifice, thus vindicating Elijah and condemning the prophets of Baal” (p. 44).
And then there was Moses and the Red Sea. “Another example of a judicial ordeal — one involving water — is seen in Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea as the people escaped from the land of Egypt” (p. 44).
When I first read through Jason’s citations here, I was genuinely mystified, not getting his point. In the time of Noah, God’s people were virtually exterminated, down to eight. But it was the ungodly who actually were exterminated. Elijah stood up to the prophets of Baal, and there was one of him, and hundreds of them. But he won. And Moses didn’t have an army, just a million refugees, and it was Pharaoh and his whole army that was destroyed. What I was having trouble seeing was how these could be cited as examples of God’s people not seeing victory in this life. They were cliffhanger victories, all right, but they were victories. Someone once said, very wisely, that the kingdom of God moves from triumph to triumph, with all of the triumphs cleverly disguised as disasters. These were all eucatastropes — glorious and unexpected deliverance at the last moment. And I am right with Jason on this — that is how God usually works. On the mount of the Lord it will be provided.
Now what I think Jason must be doing is this. In the early stages of their lives, he sees Noah, and Elijah, and Moses, as types of the pilgrim church, and he sees their respective deliverances as types of the Second Coming. That means that when we in the pilgrim church look back on their examples, we should take heart from their faith, but should not expect to see in our earthly lives the kind of deliverance that they saw in their earthly lives. Our troubles match their troubles, but our deliverance will not be like theirs. Ours will be greater (when it comes), but it will not be realized by us in the same way, not in this life.
But if their trials and deliverances could be typological of the course of human history, even though they had deliverances in this life, what is it about our condition that requires trials and no deliverance? Could we not triumph in this life, but without triumphalism in the pejorative sense? I agree that the triumph of the gospel is not a right-handed triumph, to use Martin Luther’s metaphor for power. The authority of the gospel in history is a left-handed kind of thing, and shows the kind of logic that martyrs understand.
Take Ridley and Latimer for example. Tied to stakes, about to be burned, Latimer says, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” Now, was that triumphalism? He is not talking about Heaven — although he knew that he would be there in a very short while. He was expecting victory in England. Now that victory was granted for the Reformed in England, and it was the same kind of thing as was given to Noah, Elijah, and Moses. It was a historical victory, a temporal victory, and therefore a temporary victory. But it was no less real for all that.
The problem with contemporary triumphalism is that it wants resurrection now without crucifixion now. The problem with what Jason is urging is that he wants us to take up the cross, which is good, but he is very suspicious of contemporary deliverances and vindications. Now he should be suspicious of resurrections conducted by people who are unwilling to die. I share his suspicions. But what I am urging is a recurrent pattern of death and resurrection throughout all of fallen history, and then, when the end comes, we will see that all those smaller patterns were types of the great antitype — the death and resurrection of all things.