Beale, Greg K. Redemptive Reversals and the Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom. Short Studies in Biblical Theology 9. Wheaton: Crossway, 2019. 189pp excluding end matter.
Summary and Critique
Redemptive Reversals focuses on irony (retributive irony and redemptive irony) and is a wonderfully fresh topic with which Scripture is saturated and which plays out in the lives of all people (believers and non-believers). Beale helpfully includes relevant contemporary application in each chapter, reinforcing the biblical points he makes and reminding the reader that God has chosen to weave irony into the fabric of his creation and in much of what he does (the end of chapter 4 is a great example; 132–34). I highly recommend Redemptive Reversals.
Summary of Each Chapter
Introduction
“Irony is the saying of something or the doing of something that implies its opposite. What is said or done really indicates the reverse of the saying or act” (21).
There are two kinds of biblical irony:
- Retributive Irony: “God punishes people by the very means of their own sin” (21).
- Redemptive Irony: “the faithful appear to be cursed, but as they persevere in faith, they are really in the midst of being blessed” (21).
All ironies are composed of three basic elements:
- “two or more layers or levels of meaning (one to the observer and one to the victim)” (22).
- “One layer has an opposite meaning to that of the other layer (respectively, what is apparent is the opposite of what is reality)” (22).
- Either the observer or the victim is unaware of this tension or surprised by it” (22).
There are three kinds of literary ironies:
- Verbal Irony: “saying one thing and meaning its opposite” (22).
- Dramatic Irony/Irony of Narrated Events: “narrated events are turned to the opposite of the way that they appeared to be heading” (22).
- Character Irony: “one’s true character stands in contrast with what he appears to be” (22).
Chapter 1: God Judges People by Their Own Sin
“God frequently deals with humanity in an ironic way. This is true in his acts of judgment and salvation, so that irony is one of the major thematic threads tying together the whole of Scripture” (27).
Regarding acts of judgment, God frequently punishes sinners by means of their own sin; Beale spends this entire chapter giving concrete examples of this, which is great. Even believes will be punished/disciplined by means of their own sin (32–33).
Chapter 2: People Resemble the Idols They Worship
The principle of this chapter is: “what you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration” (63, 71, 74).
“God made man and woman to be creatures who imitate. Originally, they were created to reflect the image of their Creator. However, when they sinned, they decided not to conform their life to God’s image but to the image of the serpent’s sinful and deceptive character. Ever since, the human tendency has been to reflect part of the creation rather than the Creator” (54).
When a person does not reflect God’s image, he/she is conformed to the world (54–55; Romans 12:2). The rest of this chapter elucidates what it means to be conformed to the world.
Beale spends most of this chapter explaining Isaiah 6:9–13, which claims that Israel has become like the gods/idols they worship: blind and deaf. As such, God will keep them blind and deaf so that he can exact judgment on them for their idolatry (see summary on page 71).
In Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, Paul spiritualizes idolatry, making an idol “any substitute for God” (63–64).
Chapter 3: The Irony of Salvation
Beale identifies a number of ironies in salvation:
- The fall “was a typological event that ironically prophesied how the disobedience, condemnation, and death set in motion by the first Adam would be reversed into obedience, justification, and life through the work of the last Adam. Adam’s curse of death on the hill of Eden (cf. Ezek. 28:13–14) was itself a predictive pointer to Christ’s blessing of life regained for man on the hill of Calvary. This was an ironic prophetic pattern since it prefigured the opposite of what was to happen at the cross” (89).
- Although Jesus appeared weak and common, he is actually a strong king (90–103).
- Jesus being “lifted up” refers to both his death and his resurrection to life (108).
- Although Jesus seemed to be cursed by dying on a tree, his death actually freed others from the curse and wrought salvation (109–11).
Chapter 4: The Christian Life—Power is Perfected in the Powerless
This chapter explores the irony whereby “the faithful who try to pursue godliness and justice seem only to be cursed in this life” (80). However, “they still possess spiritual blessings both in the present and for eternity” (80). Thus, “adversity, affliction, or failure in everyday life is no indicator of the nature of a person’s heart and relationship with God” (80). Beale calls this “restorative irony” (80).
The Christian life is based on and modelled after the life of Jesus: “Christ persevered in his faith in spite of pressures to compromise and was killed because of it. Nevertheless, his death was reversed into life and was overcome through resurrection” (120).
“God produces physical or emotional weakness in order that spiritual strength will be produced. He puts us into situations of helplessness and tests us that we may trust him. Our faith will have no opportunity to develop if we are not put into circumstances in which we realize that we need God’s aid and must trust him for support” (130).
Chapter 5: Faith in Unseen Realities Contradicts Trust in Superficial Appearances
This chapter surveys the people mentioned in Hebrews 11 (the Hall of Faith), showing how they trusted and had faith in God’s assessment of reality, even though it appeared contradictory. Beale rightly claims that “God’s word is the only true commentary on reality” (143) and “Christian are to put their trust in what God’s word says about true reality, which is often the opposite of what the world says and sees of the physical world” (149). As such, “We must insist on God’s assessment of reality and approach it from this heavenly ironic viewpoint” (144).
Beale notes two categories of ironic redemption in Scripture from Hebrews 11 (149):
- Supernatural Providence: believers are delivered in a more overtly miraculous manner.
- Natural Providence: believers are delivered in an apparently more natural way. This is the more common.
Chapter 6: The Irony of Eschatology
Most Jews of Jesus’ day and earlier times thought the OT prophecies of the latter days referred to the forceful overthrow of the wicked world rulers by the Messiah and his establishing of the Kingdom of God on earth (158). However, the end times and the Kingdom of God began through Christ’s spiritual and invisible defeat of Satan and his kingdom (160). “This latter-day kingdom began ironically on an invisible level in the first century but will climax at the end of world history manifestly before all eyes” (162). Not only is Jesus ruling now and since his ascension (169–70), but believers also currently reign with Jesus (173–78).
Conclusion: What Irony Is Being Played Out in Your Life?
Believers experience restorative irony like Jesus. Non-believers experience retributive irony like Satan (183–84).
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