Not Built with Hands: Cities as Tabernacles

The story of city builders in the Bible is an infamous list, a sort of Who’s Who of folks who traded in God’s promised Garden for creations of their own hands (we talked about that last time).

• Cain built the first city after he was banished from his home, trying to create a new one apart from God. It’s not surprise that his Enoch was the opposite of walking with God (Gen 4.17, cf. 5.22–24).
• The Babelites built a city with a tower that they’d planned to reach heaven, to make a home and a name for themselves as a replacement for or attack on God’s own dwellings (Gen 11.4). Lot longed to live in the city of the Sodomites, longing for its comforts that would keep him from wandering and the faith in God that such required (Gen 19, especially 19.15–22).
• Pharoah took slave labor and turned them to building the store cities of Pithom and Rameses (no, not pyramids! Exd 1.11).
• Solomon built many cities, but most notably one for Pharoah’s Daughter with slave labor (1 Kgs 9.15–19), becoming much like Pharoah himself (3.1; 9.24), and spent double the time building his own house twice as large and rich as the temple (7.1–8), as well as many altars for foreign gods (11.7–10).
• Jeroboam built Shechem, so it is no surprise that he also built high places and golden calves (1 Kgs 12.25; 14.23); Baasha did the same (15.17).
• Omri built Samaria (1 Kgs 16.24) and erected altars for Baal there (16.32), and on his orders Hiel rebuilt Jericho at the cost of two of his sons, sacrificed for the false power and protection that such a worldly city promised (16.34; cf. Jos 6.26). His son Ahab followed in his footsteps (22.39).
• The number of the kings of Judah who built up cities and refused to tear down the high places (or else built more) or altars to foreign gods is almost the entire list, for which the prophets repeatedly remind them of their worldly focus.

Among such a distinguished list of city-builders, city-lovers, and city-dwellers, we might be surprised at the “sudden” change in how cities are treated in the New Testament. Most famously,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” 

Revelation 21.1–4 (NRSV).

Did you catch that? In this image of the New Heavens and New Earth, the Better Garden is a City–a New Jerusalem. How come cities are bad until all the sudden they’re perfect? The answer, of course, is that they aren’t. Building cities is bad because the narrative uses this for trying to replace the need for God. God has always provided his people with cities to live in for this world and they are good so long as they are kept in their proper place. God would provide.

Abraham is told, repeatedly as part of the Promises, that his descendants would inherit the cities of his enemies (Gen 22.17; 24.60; 28.19). When God brought Israel into Canaan to fulfil that part of the Promises, a key point was that they wouldn’t have to build cities, because God would provide them, already:

When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. The Lord your God you shall fear, him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, because the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the Lord your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 6.10–14 (NRSV. Cf. Jos 24.13)

Do you see the point Deuteronomy emphasis, here? God will provide you cities so that you will remember him, that you will remain faithful, that you do not serve other gods. But the presence of these things is indeed a temptation to forget that they were intended still to be sojourners and wanderers. If they took these gifted cities and considered them as their due, they would be taken away, and they would be made wanderers, again (Dtr 28).

The primary example of this is Jerusalem, a city which had chosen for his namesake (Dtr 12.11), and which Israel did not build (cf. 2 Sam 5.6–10). Jerusalem was a heavenly gift that was–slowly, through the blood of innocents and ashes of idolatrous sacrifice–defiled and destroyed (e.g., Isa 1.4–9). But God’s Promises are not so easily annulled nor his Choices forgotten. And although Jerusalem was destroyed, it would be remade by a people who would remember the desires of their God to keep it as a gift, a city not truly built by human hands, but chosen and established by God. All of this, of course, looks toward that final city (that’s for next time). My favorite image of this comes from Isaiah:

I will not keep silent because of Zion,
and I will not keep still because of Jerusalem,
until her righteousness shines like a bright light
and her salvation, like a flaming torch.

Nations will see your righteousness
and all kings, your glory.
You will be given a new name
that the Lord’s mouth will announce.

You will be a glorious crown in the Lord’s hand,
and a royal diadem in the palm of your God’s hand.
You will no longer be called Deserted,
and your land will not be called Desolate;
instead, you will be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you,
and your land will be married.
For as a young man marries a young woman,
so your sons will marry you;
and as a groom rejoices over his bride,
so your God will rejoice over you.
Jerusalem,
I have appointed watchmen on your walls;
they will never be silent, day or night.
There is no rest for you,
who remind the Lord.
Do not give him rest
until he establishes and makes Jerusalem
the praise of the earth.

The Lord has sworn with his right hand
and his strong arm:
I will no longer give your grain
to your enemies for food,
and foreigners will not drink the new wine
for which you have labored.
For those who gather grain will eat it
and praise the Lord,
and those who harvest the grapes will drink the wine
in my holy courts.
Go out, go out through the city gates;
prepare a way for the people!
Build it up, build up the highway;
clear away the stones!
Raise a banner for the peoples.
Look, the Lord has proclaimed
to the ends of the earth,
“Say to Daughter Zion:
Look, your salvation is coming,
his wages are with him,
and his reward accompanies him.”
And they will be called the Holy People,
the Lord’s Redeemed;
and you will be called Cared For,
A City Not Deserted.

Isaiah 62.1–12 (CSB)