Be Strong and Courageous
One of the perennial tasks for Christians is to read our story in light of God’s word. Often this means viewing ourselves in terms of particular periods of Israel’s history. For example, one popular metaphor for the church’s relationship to American culture is Israel’s exile in Babylon (and later Persia). The metaphor finds support in the New Testament: we are “elect exiles” (1 Peter 1:1) who should conduct ourselves with fear throughout the time of our exile (1 Peter 1:17). As sojourners and exiles, we should abstain from the passions of the flesh (1 Peter 2:11).
Set aside whether the terms paroikos (sojourner) and parepidemos (exile) in 1 Peter are referring more particularly to the Jewish Christians scattered as a result of persecution (“elect exiles of the Diaspora”; see Acts 8). Or, if the terms do refer to a more universal feature of Christian existence, is the metaphor exilic (as in Babylon), or is it patriarchal (Hebrews 11:13 identifies all of the members of the Hall of Faith as “strangers and exiles on earth”)? In either case, the thrust of the metaphor is to identify Christians as aliens and strangers in an idolatrous land that is not our home. Instead, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Typically, the metaphor is used to enforce a particular orientation to earthly life and culture, drawn from Jeremiah’s exhortation to the Jewish exiles in Babylon: we are to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).
Now, in and of itself, applying this metaphor to the church in the present age is fine and good. However, there are two errors that often accompany its use. First, the metaphor is often presented as an alternative to various forms of “Christian Nationalism” and used to resist any notion that Christians should attempt to impose Christian laws in society. We are pilgrims, strangers, sojourners, exiles; “this world is not our home.” We are “just passing through.” The attempt to establish Christian laws and forms of government in society, we are told, misunderstands our relation to earthly societies and communicates that we, in fact, do believe that this world is our home. Christian pilgrims don’t seek to establish Christian princes.
But if we consider the biblical stories themselves, we see that God frequently exalted his people in exile and put them in positions of power and authority. Daniel and his friends were exiles in Babylon, but as a result of their faithfulness, they faced both opposition from the wicked (the fiery furnace and the lion’s den) and exaltation by God to positions of significant influence in the empire (Daniel 3:30; 6:3; 6:28). Just as Joseph and Moses were princes in Egypt, so Daniel and his friends were princes in Babylon and Persia.
What’s more, on multiple occasions, pagan kings were humbled before the living God, and issued public proclamations honoring him. Consider Nebuchadnezzar’s proclamation after the Lord humbled him.
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,
for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven;
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35)
Or the proclamation of Darius after God delivered Daniel from the lions.
Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel,
for he is the living God,
enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed,
and his dominion shall be to the end.
He delivers and rescues;
he works signs and wonders
in heaven and on earth,
he who has saved Daniel
from the power of the lions.” (Daniel 6:25-27)
And as for the exercise of political power, who can forget the way that Esther’s faithfulness put her and Mordecai in a position to write laws enabling God’s people to defend themselves and plunder their enemies (Esther 8-9)? In other words, whatever uses the exilic metaphor may have, enabling political quietism isn’t one of them.
The second error is an absolutizing of the exilic metaphor at the expense of other biblical pictures. Paul tells us that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). In other words, there are other biblical stories which can shape the way that Christians relate to earthly society.
For example, the New Testament regularly uses the wilderness generation as a cautionary tale for the Christian church (Hebrews 3-4). The wilderness generation was baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and ate spiritual food (manna) and drink (water from the Rock, who is Christ). “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:5). Paul continues:
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10:6-11)
Hebrews 3 makes a similar point about the failure of the wilderness generation to persevere in faith and obedience (3:16-19). The author takes up Psalm 95 (which was itself an application of the lessons of the wilderness generation to Israel’s subsequent history under David) and encourages his audience to exhort one another daily lest they be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13).
Similarly, the conquest of Canaan offers a potent metaphor for the advance of the kingdom of God on earth. We follow a new and greater Joshua, as he leads a gospel conquest of the land that God has promised and subdues the nations under his feet. Of course, Joshua’s war of annihilation against the Canaanites was, in an important respect, unique in redemptive history (the armies of Israel essentially played the same role that the floodwaters did in Noah’s generation, and the angels of death did against Sodom, Gomorrah, and Egypt).
At the same time, the book still provides ample lessons for the Christian church in our mission to “drive out” the idolatrous nations through the proclamation of the gospel and their conversion. For example, God’s blessing on our efforts depends in some measure on our consecration and purification (Joshua 3:5; 5:2-8). The presence of “Achans” in the camp will remove God’s might and power from us, so that the smallest resistance will put us to flight (Joshua 7). The repeated exhortation “Be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:6, 9; 10:18) is grounded in God’s presence with us (“The Lord your God is with you wherever you go”), a fact that finds an echo in the Great Commission (“Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age;” Matthew 28:20).
Likewise, the second phase of the conquest of Canaan during the time of the judges offers ample lessons for the Christian church in the present day. We live in tribal times, one in which everyone does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6). Therefore, we (and our leaders) must remember that the Lord our God is the true king, and avoid the temptation to whore after other gods and “go native” with the idolaters in the land.
The kingdom of Israel (under Saul, David, Solomon, and the rest) offers plenty of lessons for Christians, who must pursue full and total obedience to God’s commands, trust him to fight their battles (even as we carry our sling and stones), and seek to establish right worship and justice in the land, avoiding syncretism and idolatry.
In considering the various types and metaphors, we can see how different eras of the church gravitated to different types, recognizing greater similarities between the biblical situation and their contemporary circumstances. For instance, the wilderness generation seems to have had a particular resonance for the first generation of the church–in his death and resurrection, Christ brought about a new exodus (from sin and death), and then the new people formed by Christ spends forty years in the wilderness receiving their new constitution (the New Testament as a new Torah), before God wrecks a great city (Jerusalem in AD 70 as a new Jericho) and launches the invasion of the new Canaan (the globe).
Or again, Joshua’s conquest and the tribal times which followed under the Judges offers greater patterns of connection to missionary contexts in which the gospel is being introduced for the first time, or in which there is an absence of social stability and steady political authority.
Unsurprisingly, Israel under the kings was particularly suited to Christendom conditions, and thus classic Protestant political philosophy frequently drew wisdom from the failure of wayward kings (such as Solomon and Rehoboam) as well as the blessing of God on the efforts of reforming kings (such as Josiah).
But perhaps the post-exilic period provides an especially apt metaphor for our present cultural moment. Like Ezra and Nehemiah in Jerusalem, we live amidst the ruins of Christendom. Our once great civilization has been betrayed by its leaders and battered by its enemies. Having turned away from the Lord, he has judged us and exalted the godless over us. At the same time, he has mingled mercy with his judgment and provided ample opportunity for us to rebuild the foundation and walls of Christendom. Yes, we do so surrounded by enemies and adversaries who wish to demoralize and distract us (Ezra 4; Nehemiah 4, 6). But God has commissioned us to re-establish right worship and total obedience to his word among his people, and then seek to rebuild the walls of the city, with a shovel in one hand and a sword in the other (Nehemiah 4:17).
But as we employ a great variety of biblical metaphors to make sense of our present situation, perhaps the most important thing we can do is to notice the constant threads in every period. From the patriarchs to Egypt, from the wilderness to the conquest, from the kingdom to exile and back, God’s people have always been called to prioritize worshiping the living God in spirit and in truth. Everything else flows from genuine worship. Thus, the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, the offering of prayers, and the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are always front and center, whether we are sojourning in the promised land, wandering in the wilderness, inhabiting Jerusalem, or waiting in exile.
From there, our call is to keep the covenant and obey God in every area of life. From families to churches, from communities to nations, Christ calls everyone to the obedience of faith. This means trusting and obeying God ourselves, and then extending and expecting that obedience in every direction. And because pagans will resist such an expectation and cowards will seek to avoid such an exertion of rhetoric and will (often through pietistic rationalizations), the rest of us must take up the mantle and assume the center.
Only a living faith will keep us from being deterred by the hostility of our adversaries and the quietism of our erstwhile friends. The Lord reigns, and he is with us wherever we go. And so be strong and courageous. After all, this is his world and his story.
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