God's "culture making" demonstrated through the history of Israel

The cosmic story of the universe starts in a garden (Genesis) and ends in a city (Revelation). Revelation 12:2 says, "And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." But the history of the nation of Israel fills a large majority of the "middle section" between the beginning and end of things...and it shows

The story of Israel as a nation has always been the story of their perpetual attempt to be perfectly unified under the lordship of "the one true God." By fluctuating between long periods of failure and renewals, Israel demonstrates this perpetual cycle of trusting in God and then resorting to relying on their own strength.

But God's heart--for Israel then and Christians all across the globe today--has always been to redeem his people. The cosmic story eventuates in what theologians refer to as the "New Israel", or "the New Jerusalem"...in which people who have chosen God will finally be in perfect harmony with one another and Him. Essentially, it's the tower of Babel minus the rebellion. Power, unity, and beauty without the sin that messes it all up.

But even more beautiful than the outcome is the means through which God desires to create this city of the redeemed. For instance, he picked the nation of Israel to be his chosen people, even though they were the "fewest of all nations", and always weaker in might than those surrounding them. Today he still uses the weak things of the world to confound the world. Christ was a simple Jewish man (a minority race in the vast Roman Empire) who flipped the century on its head and virtually shaped most of the West up until the 1700's with his teachings.

God's early culture making was decidedly not with the mighty and powerful. He began with "the fewest of all peoples' in the most unlikely place. He chose to redeem people through love and sacrifice instead of political muscle or military force. Foolish things that confound the wise because, in the long run, they are most lasting.

I picture the redeemed city as one that is made to last. It is built from the bottom up with the real stuff of life...with the kind of people who get their hands dirty and help in obscurity...who don't need credit, but need to see that the job gets done. Love that is committed. Faithfulness that doesn't look out for its own first. Genuineness. Honesty.

It's those "weaker" things that prove to be stronger in the end.