God Loves the City
Babel. Sodom. Jericho. Jerusalem. Nineveh. Tyre. Sidon. Bethsaida. Capernaum. Athens. Rome. Ephesus. Philippi. Colossae.
God loves the city. The human race is propogating at a rate that, by the year 2600, there will be one human for every 1 square yard of space. I hope you are not claustrophobic!
There are a lot of advantages to the city life – cultural opportunities, stronger educational opportunities, better utilities, greater access to health care.
There are a lot of disadvantages to the city life as well – loneliness, crime, drugs, disease, the disintegration of the family.
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). After Jonah spent some time in a the fish’s belly, God again tells him, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So, Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:2-4). Following the repentance of the Ninevites, God tells Jonah, “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (4:11).
The world is becoming more and more urbanized. Mega-cities are becoming more and more “mega.” But God still loves the city. The city illustrates man’s ambitions but nearly every skyline also has the shadow of a steeple, a cross guiding the way above.
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In the beloved song “America the Beautiful,” there is a verse with which we are not so very familiar. “Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears… America! America! God mend thine every flaw; Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.” God loves the city.
Roger Greenway wrote: “Our fathers stayed their minds on Thee; in village, farm, and plain. Help us, their crowded, harried kin, no less Thy peace to claim. Give us to know that Thou doest love, each soul that Thou hast made, that size does not diminish grace, nor concrete hide Thy gaze.” God loves the city.
In Luke 19:41, Luke writes that as Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem, He “saw the city, he wept over it.” A city is full of statistics but when the Lord sees it, He sees a face, a name; He feels a life.
Abraham “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Many love to move out of the city and return to the country-side of life – clean air, quiet, simplicity. Abraham was looking forward to moving to the city – the city of God.
God uses agricultural metaphors to describe His people – flock, vineyard. But He does not describe heaven as a farm. He does, however, describe it as a city: “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates” (Revelation 22:12-14).
God loves the city. May we do so as well.
Paul Holland
