The Blessing of Strong Walls for a Holy Church

Consider this lesson on the relationship between faith and politics from Nehemiah 8.

(These reflections are based on a sermon by Rev Benjamin Miller, "Holiday Cheer: What Happens When God Comes," at Trinity Church (OPC) in Huntington NY on November 27, 2011.)

Nehemiah has returned from Babylon to Jerusalem to lead Israel in rebuilding the city's walls. Only a week after the work was complete, the people called Ezra to preach to them in the open air, and Israel experienced remarkable revival.

Notice the timeline. First, with sword in one hand and trowel in the other, they build the city walls.  They provide for their national security. God has not given them a metaphorical city, but a real one. And even though it is God's city, it nonetheless requires the ordinary defenses that any city requires: sword and stone. Only after that, living finally in peace, they turn their attention more fully to worship and study, and enjoy the spiritual fruits of those godly occupations. Political security, backed by ordinary defenses, permits the flourishing of church life.

We saw the same truths played out in the early church. The small vulnerable band of believers preached the gospel and lived in faith, and the church spread throughout the empire, even under ferocious persecution, and often because of it. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," said Tertullian. But it was only after Emperor Constantine lifted the hand of opposition and established security for the church to live out the life to which Christ has called it, openly and fully, that the church began to develop theologically and no doubt also in other ways.

But the rest of the story in Nehemiah 8 tempers any hasty and carnal judgment regarding a dependence of Christ's church on civic peace and security. In Ezra's reading of the Law that day, they discovered God's command that Israel celebrate each year a festival of booths during which they were to camp out as Israel had done in their wilderness wanderings. In this way, God reminded his people that while governmental protection is a blessing to the church, they must never forget that the Lord God--who preserved them in the wilderness where there were no walls--is their ultimate defense.

"[T]he joy of the Lord is your strength" (v.10).

Ascending the Christian Mountain

When you read the Bible biblico-theologically, i.e., with attention to the unfolding themes and images in their didactic and Christological significance, it begins to make sense like never before and the excitement of reading it intensifies.

For example, there are parallels between certain events in Israel's Sinai moment and the layout of the temple. I found it eye opening.

In Exodus 19, just before we read the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, we read of a remarkable communion with God before Israel receives the Law. "I...brought you to Myself" (v.4). "[Y]ou shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine" (v.5). "[Y]ou shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (v.6). God wants Israel to hear what he says and to trust him (v.9), i.e., to live by faith in him.

In Exodus 24, we see a threefold progression of communion that parallels the pattern of the temple and even of the altar within the temple. God called Israel to gather at the foot of the mountain. He then called Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the 70 elders up the mountain (though not to the top) where they "saw God" and they ate and drank (v.11). Then Moses proceeded to the top, with Joshua, into the cloud and thunder where he communed with God and received the Law (vv.12-13).

This parallels what we see in the temple: first the outer court, then the holy place where we find the shewbread, then the holiest place with the Shekinah glory-cloud. In the central place, the altar itself has three ascending regions: blood is sprinkled on the the base and in the middle, and on top is the sacrifice with the smoke and fire.

The Bible often represents the fullness of God's presence with smoke and fire.

It occurred to me that the Christian life parallels, in a way, that three-stage progression. First we encounter the call of baptism. Yes, God gives his covenant people infant baptism. When one grows to the point that he or she can understand the gospel and affirm personal trust in it, there is communion, as the elders and Aaron the priest communed on the mountain with God. For the covenant child, this may come very early in life, perhaps 5 years of age, or perhaps 15 or 25. But this stage is further up the mountain from the time of infancy and the call of baptism. This is an argument against paedo-communion.

But professing one's faith and coming to the Lord's Table is not the peak of the Christian life and the fullness of Christian maturity. There is still more mountain to ascend. After justification comes the life-long process of sanctification, of growing communion with and obedience to the Lord. That process culminates in glory. Notice that it is wrong to look for remarkable sanctification as a precondition of communion, i.e., as an evidence of saving faith. This is an argument against putting off our young ones until they have shown the victory of faith over the temptations of teenaged life, i.e., against legalism.