Whose Designer and Builder Is God {Meditation

Adam was put in a garden, where he walked with God among the other creatures. Christ’s brothers and sisters will at the end enter the eternal city, where we will walk again with God. In the meantime Adam’s kind has been striving, without an articulate aim, to find that future city, which is hidden until the revelation of all things. We desire the city inherently, because God designed us as social creatures (cf. Ge. 2:18). Since they were expelled from the garden, humans have come together to build cities, great societies where the human name could be magnified and exalted, where peoples trade the fruits of their knowledge, where those inside it take from those outside to eat and drink and be satisfied. It began with Cain, who wandered east of Eden (cf. Ge. 4:16f.). He was expelled from the fellowship of his family and of God, and to fill the void he, with all his art, built up a city in his son’s name. God also wants to build up a city bearing his Son’s name.

In a city, humans become powerful. Their efforts are concentrated and their strength is magnified. This is by God’s design, too:

Behold how good and pleasant it is

when brothers live together in unity! Ps. 133:1 ESV

But in a city, humankind is yet subject to desires for illicit things, like that first one that brought corruption into the world. This desire is also magnified. In Eden, there was one tree forbidden, and there was one sin committed. In a city, the artificial grove of illicit fruit is manifold, and society is riddled with pitfalls like the one in the garden. Knowing this, against those who are violent like Cain, the prophet shouts,

Prepare slaughter for his sons

because of the guilt of their fathers,

lest they rise and possess the earth,

and fill the face of the world with cities. Isa. 14:21

The Lord did not send the father of his people out to build a city, but Abraham lived in a tent and looked forward to “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). Likewise he does not send out his chosen servants to exalt their own name and power, but to seek out the name of the Lord and take it upon us. We are designed to desire a city, but God has not set to us the task of building it ourselves. Instead he means to build it with his great art. He has always planned to build it for us, but Adam and Eve were not ready for it, and their descendants cannot enter in until their individual sin-wounds are healed. We must be sundered from the glorious human city, over which the peoples will cry,

Alas, alas, for the great city

that was clothed in fine linen,

in purple and scarlet,

adorned with gold,

with jewels, and with pearls!

For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.

…

So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,

and will be found no more;

and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters,

will be heard in you no more,

and a craftsman of any craft

will be found in you no more,

and the sound of the mill

will be heard in you no more,

and the light of a lamp

will shine in you no more,

and the voice of bridegroom and bride

will be heard in you no more,

for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,

and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,

and of all who have been slain on earth. Re. 18:16f.,21-24

God will overthrow the greatest works and make empires desolations. Nothing of Adam’s kingdom will remain. We will be left like nomads and wanderers, having nothing to claim as our own, until the New Jerusalem descends from heaven and opens its gates to the kings of the earth. Then the sons and daughters of the living God will have the great society they desired, where the name of their Lord is exalted and they rejoice in his glory, where peoples trade the fruits of God’s revelation, where those inside the city take from bounty of the Creator among them to eat and drink and be satisfied.

Until then, let us follow after the Lord like nomads, like people in the desert, like sojourners and strangers in a foreign land, waiting for our Maker to give us all we ever need.

A Life in This Age {Meditation

About “the whole family of the highest and true God,” Augustine writes,

Its members have a life in this age which is not in the least to be regretted: a life which is the school of eternity, in which they make use of earthly goods like pilgrims, without grasping after them, and are proved and corrected by evils. City of God I.29*

Everything I experience, whether the times are “good” or “evil,” is part of my divine education. I should not despise adversity nor grow fond of any prosperity. The Lord gives me adversity “to test my merits or chastise my sins” (ibid.). And I will thank him in my struggle, because I believe that I have “an eternal reward for my pious endurance of temporal ills” (ibid.)—whether the ills are brought as fatherly correction of my sins or as my Maker’s refining fire that prepares me for some good work to come. God has given me adversity to teach me the futility of hording earthly goods and desiring temporal pleasures. Every day I conclude that the earth is still under the curse, and every day I am assured that this is not my home. I am a stranger and exile, and I seek a better country. If I found myself with too much comfort here, I might desire citizenship here. But because I believe that I have a place prepared for me in another city, I will find neither satisfaction in the yield of this world nor relief in the supposed security of this present age. Every earthly good that I gain is of tremendous value, and I will bless the name of the Lord when he gives them to me. I will bless him when he takes them, too, because they were only ever here for me to use as a tool in my education. If he takes them from me, then my education will go on without them. If I die because he takes them, then I know my education has ended altogether, and I am ready for my eternal occupation.

I will not desire the tools more than their intended purpose. I will not hold dear the pilgrimage more than the holy place that is my destination. I will not value these visible things as anything compared to the invisible God who gave them. I have a life in this age not in the least to be regretted.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. . . . These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Heb. 11:8-10,13-16 ESV

* Translated by R. W. Dyson, of the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought edition.