Living in a world that is mixing and shaking

Moses was African. Jesus was Asian. Cornelius (and possibly Luke) was European.

The ancient church throughout the Scriptures lived where these three continents converged and combatted one another. The Bible often refers to the mixing and mingling of nations from these three continents – and addresses the temptations and trials, the pain and prosperity that was generated by the conflict and the commerce.

Throughout the Bible the prophets and apostles preach in the context of different countries and cultures that impact ancient church life. Egypt and Ethiopia from Africa; Greece and Rome from Europe; Babylon, Persia and Assyria from Asia – not to mention more distant nations like India, Spain and Libya – all are mentioned. There are saints from these different nations, from the cultures of all three continents.

In Exodus 12 v38, people from many different nations joined with the ancient church as they tried to leave their Egyptian slavery, as they forged a new kind of culture of freedom around the Angel of the LORD who led them in a pillar of fire and cloud. The ancient church in the wilderness was already a gathering of people from many nations, a forge in which they were shown a very different kind of citizenship, as disciples of the Living God.

When donkey-Balaam was forced to prophecy to the Moabites he declared – “From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.” (Num.23v9).

When they entered the land of Canaan, there were opportunities to draw in the surrounding nations to join church life (Deut.4v6-8), but also dangers in adopting the pagan aspects of these surrounding nations/cultures.

When the ancient church failed to win the nations but instead became adulterous with the pagan gods of the nations, the LORD God brought the long-threatened curses of the Law. Pagan people came not to convert but to consume – the pagans were raised up, while God’s people were pulled down (Deut.28v43).

The people of Israel and then Judah experienced the destruction of their own nations and cultures. Many were uprooted and deported into alien cultures and pagan religious contexts, with an intense experience of social disorientation.

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion…
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?” (Ps.137v1,4).

In Daniel chapter 1, Daniel and his friends were stripped of all their own cultural furniture, taken to Babylon and given new pagan names (Dan.1v1-6). Even with the loss of familiar national and cultural reference points, they did not lose their heavenly citizenship. As the language and learning of the pagan culture was imposed upon them, they found ways to keep a grip on their identity as church people – people who belonged to the Ancient of Days, the Son of Man and the Divine Fire (Dan.7v9-10). How did they do it? They made a stand – in their diet (Dan.1v8-16), the music they gave themselves to (Dan.3), and regular prayer (Dan.6).

The book of Esther begins with a global canvas as the Persian emperor displays his glory to the whole world in a way that tries to evoke the original Paradise of God. Esther 1v1 – “These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.”

Xerxes was famous for his invasion of Greece, pushing into Europe; and the campaign against Egypt, pushing into Africa. So, the ancient church was living in pagan Persia, impacted by people from all over the world – Indians, Ethiopians, Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, and many other peoples and cultures.

Again, these ancient saints found ways to remain distinctive disciples of the Living God and, far from losing their Kingdom culture, people from all over the world were drawn into church. Because Esther and Mordecai stood up for the LORD, “many people of other nationalities became Jews” (Esth.8v17).

We live in another age of intense mixing of the nations, with even more continents, countries and cultures. Some of us want to celebrate the opportunities; some of us are feeling the cultural disruption; others are experiencing danger. All of these are expressed by the prophets in the Bible.

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, who may have wanted to take pride in their culture as a Roman colony, he warned them not to base all their identity on any earthly kingdom or culture, but rather to find their permanent, eternal identity as citizens of heaven, waiting for the Divine Emperor.

In the anguish and alienation of living as “scattered exiles” (1 Peter 1v1), Peter calls us to live out our time as foreigners in reverent fear (1 Peter 1v17). We have our familiar cultures, but “the empty way of life handed down from your ancestors” cannot save us. Only the perfect blood of Jesus can rescue us – and He was chosen before the world began, before any nations or cultures ever existed (1 Peter 1v18-20).

“Whatever can be shaken must be shaken, so that the unshakeable kingdom may be displayed” (Heb.12v27-28).

As we think through the challenges and opportunities of a world that is mixing and shaking, may we dare to be a Daniel, speak out with Esther for such a time as this, and “go and make disciples of all the nations”.