Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of EmpireSample

A Light to the Nations

Our distinct, set-apart way of living in the world isn’t an end in itself. Holiness is always missional. To be a “light to the nations,” (Exodus 19:6; Isaiah 49:6), the church needs to live differently from the nations, not just in personal holiness but in sociopolitical holiness.

God’s people have always been called to embody an upside-down kingdom—even when they were an actual earthly kingdom. From Israel’s inception, God designed his people to be set apart. Israel’s most unique feature was its belief in one God named Yahweh who ruled the world. But Israel was also called to be politically different from other nations. In terms of its design, though not always its actual practice, the nation of Israel was set up to be countercultural in terms of militarism, economics, and social class, among many other sociopolitical values.

Nowhere is Israel’s calling to be set apart more apparent than in its approach to kingship. Archaeological and literary evidence from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan shows that the nations surrounding ancient Israel viewed kings as divine (or semi-divine) representatives of gods and were expected to possess loads of power, which was displayed through large harems and excessive wealth and by gobbling up huge tracks of land.

God’s blueprint for kingship in Israel in Deuteronomy 17 is exactly the opposite of this. In addition to warning about accumulating wealth or power, God said that the king must “not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites” (Deuteronomy 17:20). Telling a king to think no more highly of himself than of anyone else was like telling him he wasn’t really a king—which might be precisely God’s point. God was the king over Israel, the nations, and all creation. The human king was to lead in humble obedience to his Creator.

This nation with an anti-kingly king, a demilitarized military, an egalitarian socioeconomic structure, and social systems that stripped power from the powerful was intended to show other nations a better way to live. New Testament writers wove Israel’s vocation into the mission of the global church, calling Christians to be “a kingdom of priests” (1 Peter 2:9) and “a light to the nations.”

Just as He called Israel to be distinct in the world, God calls us to show the world a better way to flourish.

How does the church today live differently from secular society? How does it live the same?