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.

Loaded Gun {Prophecy, Meditation

Imagine yourself, O Christian, as a bullet. You’re immobile. You’ve been formed and polished for the purpose of flying forward.
Imagine, now, your place of comfort as a gun. You’re put into the barrel of the gun. You fit snugly. You’ve been made to fit it. But you’ve not been made to stay there, and yet there’s nothing you can do to move yourself from that position. You cannot actuate your own purpose. You cannot push yourself, and even if you could, you cannot aim the gun at the proper target. You’re stuck there, purposeful and powerless, waiting for something to move you.
Imagine the Spirit, then, as a fire. He explodes behind you. He moves you. He’s been moving since the beginning, and he can move faster than light. He expands and fills the gap behind you, and you burst forth from the barrel of the gun. And now you’re really doing, by his power, what you were made to do.
Imagine how fast you can fly when you let the Lord compel you. Wait for him.

He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow;

in his quiver he hid me away. Is. 49:2 ESV

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.

Habakkuk {Prayer, Meditation

O Lord, I read of how a prophet stands before you in Israel as one who had a complaint. He knows of your righteousness, and he believes that you, the Holy One, judge the wicked, yet he is confounded that it seems “you look idly at wrong” while forcing him to “see iniquity” (Hab. 1:3 ESV). To our imperfect human judgment, even your law seems feeble when we do not presently see the wicked punished by your enforcement (cf. v.4). And from this confused and honest prophet, the greatest complaint comes with acknowledging your holiness, your power and authority to judge, and the purity of your eyes that, it seems, “idly look at traitors” (v.12f.). I do not think him a fool to make such a complaint—or, I am a naïve man like him. You do not hold it against such a righteous man to make a complaint, and you are not hesitant to rebuke him with fatherly love, since you know that he searches for your answer and does not trust his own speculations. He is faithful and desires not to live in confusion. He wants to have all doubt exiled and his heart delivered from vexation. So he teaches how to properly seek greater knowledge of your ways:

I will take my stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint. (2:1)

O Lord, what stance can I take? What posture should I have? “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat. 26:41). By your Spirit, then, let me be as this prophet. Only show me my watchpost, so that I may fix myself obediently in the city. I will take my stand where I may find revelation from you for myself and for my people. Your revelation is good, and your promises are peace to my soul, and the gift of knowing your law is sweetness to me. You answer him, and also answer me, because I share the prophet’s complaint, and his confusion, and his honesty. And I believe that you answer those who call out to you in honesty and conviction.

The LORD is righteous in all his ways

and kind in all his works.

The LORD is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;

he also hears their cry and saves them. (Ps. 145:17-19)

So then the God-fearing, truth-saying prophet:

And the LORD answered me:

“Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it. (Hab. 2:2)

You answer him promptly, Lord, and so you answer me. But I must not treat you as common, nor consider your audience lightly, nor receive your words with indifference. Keep me from self-righteousness. Keep me from expecting your service. Keep me from approaching your throne or your Scriptures with pride. Keep me, a mere watchman, from claiming more authority in the city than what has been given. Your righteous servants consider themselves privileged only by your grace, not entitled, when they approach you. The prophet’s complaint is not against your promises but in desperate thirst for them. The prophet cries out to you, not because he is faithless, not in contempt, but because he knows you to be faithful and can trust none but you. You give him strength to bear your answer, and your instruction is for even the simplest mind. Let me follow the prophet’s example in listening.

You tell him, as you tell others, in response to his complaint, that humankind will reap the proper yield of what is sown (vv.6-10; cf. Job 4:8, Ho. 8:7, 10:12-14, Ga. 6:8). And no one can hide from his own works, nor cover his evil with fine ornaments, “for the stone will cry out from the wall” (v.11), and you will hear this cry as you heard the blood of Abel (Ge. 4:10). So even though you, O Rock, seem to be idle and silent in the presence of such wickedness, the vision avers “righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Ps. 89:14, 97:2f.). Your answer is a reiteration of the law he already knows. What the earlier prophets wrote confirms this prophet’s words, for

your righteousness is righteous forever,

and your law is true. (Ps. 119:142)

When you plainly give the judgment that concurs with the written Law, which condemns the wicked, then the prophet and I are encouraged. You give us great hope to someday see the earth being filled with the knowledge of your glory (Hab. 2:14). This post I have, as a watchman, is a charge to wait—for your answer to come with the singing birds, for your sun to dawn, for the execution of your word, for the revelation of your glory. Though I yet see with my eyes that the wicked are triumphant, now I see in your light that you will bring “utter shame” upon their glory (v.16). At present, the fullness of the judgment has not come,

for still the vision awaits its appointed time;

it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it;

it will surely come; it will not delay. (v.3)

So the prophet rejoices in what you say, and he fears you (3:1). The vision you give him is terrible, and your wrath is proclaimed. His anxiety is assuaged, and he receives your gentle rebuke as most precious knowledge, for “a rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool” (Pr. 17:10). He finds an audience with you, the Almighty, who “looked and shook the nations” (Hab. 3:6), and trembles at his new meditation on your holiness (v.16). When he raises his complaint he knows you to be just and pure, but after your answer he has greater fear, greater reverence, and confirmation of your law. His faith is increased because he obeys your commandment to wait for the vision, saying, “I will quietly wait” (ibid.). The vision tarries, but he will no longer let his heart be vexed by the Lord’s absent judgment, because you have set his feet upon a rock and confirmed your law to him. So he will rejoice in you, God of salvation (v.18).

The prophet fears you, seeks you, and hopes in you. The prophet knows your purity, is outraged at humankind’s injustice, and thirsts for greater knowledge of your law, which bears witness to the righteousness that comes from faith (cf. Ro. 3:21f.). When he complains, you answer. When you answer, he listens, trembling, and obeys, and so increases in the knowledge of your glory. O Father, thank you for the example of this prophet, and let his revelation be mine also. I will stand at my watchpost in the city. I will take my place under the shadow of your wings, in the presence of your Spirit, covered by the authority and command of your Son.

Amen.