BibleProject Podcast

In the Bible, the wilderness is an uninhabitable, hostile place for human life. And in the creation narratives of Genesis 1 and 2, the wilderness symbolically represents the chaos of a pre-creation state. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the wilderness language in the creation narrative and how it contrasts with Eden, God’s oasis of beauty, order, and abundance.

This year, we are looking at themes that play a prominent role in the Exodus story. And today, we’re starting a new series on the theme of the wilderness. The wilderness is a setting that shows up constantly in the Bible, and it mainly represents a hostile, barren place where humans can’t survive. So why does God repeatedly lead his people through it? In this episode, Jon and Tim introduce the theme and discuss how the biblical authors portray the wilderness as a place of testing, character formation, and even an Eden-like refuge.

Is deliverance from evil spirits a redemption from the evil one over to God’s possession? Was God demanding a redemption payment through Jesus’ death? And are salvation and redemption basically the same thing? In this episode, Tim and Jon respond to your questions from our Redemption series. Thank you to our audience for your thoughtful contributions to this episode!

There are so many themes in the Bible, from redemption to exile, to mountains and cities. In every series, we attempt to isolate and study one biblical theme. But it’s important to remember that biblical themes are woven together throughout the Bible like instruments in a symphony. Today in this hyperlink episode, we’ll listen to clips from previous podcast series where the theme of redemption also came up in Jon and Tim’s conversations.

We’ve made it to the end of our series on redemption, where we’ll look at two last examples of redemption in the New Testament. When Jesus redeemed us from sin and death, did he pay a redemption price, and how does his redemption relate to the Torah’s sacrificial system? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore 1 Peter 1 and Hebrews 9, which connect Jesus’ redemption to sacrifices at the center of Passover and the Day of Atonement.

So far in the series, we’ve been talking about how redemption means being reclaimed—freed from slavery and returned to where we belong. But what are we enslaved to, and how does Jesus set us free? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore Romans 8 and Hebrews 2 to trace how Jesus enters our suffering and overcomes death to bring us back to life.

Both in his public ministry and sacrificial death, Jesus redeems people from humanity’s cosmic “pharaohs,” the Satan, sin, and death. Jesus’ miracles show more clearly how this redemption works, but he says very little about how his death serves as a redemption. In fact, the most substantial thing we get is his symbolic body and blood language during the Last Supper Passover meal. And even this still feels cryptic! Later in the New Testament, one writer offers much more explanation on how Jesus’ death works to redeem people. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the letter to the Romans, where the Apostle Paul crafts a detailed explanation of how Jesus joins with us in death to transfer us from the domain of death into his Kingdom of life.

When murmurs about the birth of the Messiah began spreading, 1st-century Jewish people already had very specific expectations of what his redemption would look like. He was to be a new Moses who would overthrow Rome, enabling them to live freely in the land. But even after Jesus’ resurrection, none of that had happened. So what kind of redemption did Jesus actually accomplish? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the theme of redemption in the Gospel of Luke, uncovering ways that Jesus’ mission aligned with, subverted, and transcended Israel’s expectations.

In the book of Psalms, the Hebrew words for “redemption” are often used to simply mean save, rescue, or release. This is especially true in the psalms of King David, who was never a slave but regularly used redemption language to speak of trials with his enemies. As the collection of psalms grew and shifted over many centuries, David’s personal longings for redemption came to represent something much bigger. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the themes of personal, communal, and cosmic redemption in Psalms.

For many centuries, ancient Israel lived in the land of promise but consistently broke their covenant with Yahweh. The prophet Isaiah warned the people that their corruption and idolatry would lead them back into slavery—not to Egypt but to the empires of Assyria and Babylon. After these two exiles happen, the prophecies in the book of Isaiah shift surprisingly from correction and warning to comfort and hope. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore Isaiah 40-66. These chapters contain a higher density of the word “redemption” than any other part of the Hebrew Bible.