God's Vision for Nations and Cities

If we want to understand the vision or blueprint that the Lord has for a nation (or a city) under Him, we need to read and understand the scripture from a narrative perspective. Secondly, we need to understand it in context of a father telling his son his desire for the family business rather than a boss telling the employee what to do in the business. When a father tells his son what he would like to see in the business, it usually comes with a certain level of liberty for the son to express the desire of the father and at the same time, the son usually has a desire not only to fulfill those wishes but to exceed the expectation. So, it is with both the narrative perspective and context of a father sharing his heart that we need to read the passages that describes a nation under the rulership of God. Two passages that give a good description are Isaiah 65 and Deuteronomy 28.

The first passage is Isaiah 65

"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

Isaiah 65:17-20

Firstly we see that the Lord is describing something for the earth and not the heavens because we see in this vision that people do die and it is hardly acceptable to die on the earth just to go to heaven and die again. So, because death exists in this vision, it has to refer to the earth we live in. In terms of ruling the earth, verse 20 is very interesting, as we will discuss further in the next section. 

Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days 

This verse alone would deserve its own book. This verse is interesting because as of this writing 21,000 children die every day for no other reason than poverty and that is equivalent to 14 children dying every minute . It is like having a 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every 11 days . Yet we see that God the father’s vision of a nation is one where there will be no infant death and by implication there is no poverty in the city. It doesn’t mean that everyone will be rich but it does mean that whatever the domestic policy of that nation is, it has to make infant death a thing of the past. 

Interestingly infant mortality as measured by deaths per 1,000 live births is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country.  It is also possible that the Lord uses the same benchmark as a measure of both poverty and health in a country. In the 1950s, Singapore infant mortality was at 60.7 deaths for every 100 births. Today, Singapore leads the world with 1.92 death per 1,000 live births.   I believe it is possible to make infant death a thing of the past.

It also has implication for medical research, suggesting that we can reach a point where sicknesses and diseases do not cause infant death. It doesn’t mean that infants would not get sick but it rather that they wouldn’t die from it. It also suggests that all causes of infant death are preventable or treatable and that we can advance science and public policy in a way that is makes this possible. 

… or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

This second part of the verse is also very interesting because as of this writing the life expectancy for the world is at 67.2 years. Japan leads the world with 82.6 years but this is still far from the Lord’s vision of a hundred being considered a mere youth and His expectation that everyone lives more than 100 years. 

 

Looking at the longevity of the Patriarchs as recorded in the bible we see how the life expectancy dramatically declined after the flood. However, we also see that even after the flood we might have been able to maintain at the 450 or 200 years level. When God created the human body, it could biologically reach the age of 900 years according to Genesis 5:3-31. The great flood may have impacted the environment of the earth in such a way to reduce our life expectancy to 450 years, therefore our low life expectancy should be able to be brought back to at least 200 and possibly 450 years. Some would argue that we are limited to the judgment of Gen 6:3 which reads, Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” However, both John Calvin and Martin Luther have countered argued this case and demonstrated that 120 years refer to time left before the flood. If the Genesis 6:3 judgment refers to life span and not the number of years to the flood we would have seen a dramatic drop 900 years to 120 years in the life span chart. 

Another possibility of our short life span could be a judgment due to the way we take care of not only the environment but also the animals in it. 

“If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.”

 Deuteronomy 22:6-7 (NIV)

We see in this verse that the Lord links our life span with the way we take care of the animals on this earth and our short life span could be due in part to the current rate of extinction being 100 to 1000 times higher than the average, or background rate, making our current period the 6th major mass extinction in our planet’s history . One of the more recent animals to go extinct is the Baiji River Dolphin and this was officially extinct in 2006. The Baiji was a freshwater dolphin and lived in the Yangtze River, which is why some people called it Yangtze Dolphin. The Baiji population drastically dropped when China’s industrialization began heavy use of the river . An interesting question to ask is if there is a judgment of shorter lifespan attached to the extinction of animals as mentioned in Deuteronomy 22, who will receive this judgment? Would it be a global judgment on all who were alive in 2006 or would be a judgment on the Chinese because they should be responsible to keep that river clean? Should the American companies and by implication the American people receive part of the judgment because it was their companies who were pushing for lower costs that caused this massive industrialization without sufficient controls and safeguards? Should the Europeans whose investment funds help fund many of the American companies share in that responsibility? In the global world we live in, we see the relevance of the mandate that the Lord gave in Genesis and we are all at least partly responsible for the extinction of the Baiji River Dolphin.

So, if we put an end to the extinction of animals on our planet through better environmental care and have responsible farming of animals, there could be a possibility that this would contribute to the increase in the life span of people. A study published by Medical Hypotheses in 2008 showed that there is direct correlation between lifespan and ultraviolet radiation from the sun . In other words, the more ultraviolet radiation from the sun, the lower our lifespan. There are also many other environmental factors that could contribute to our lifespan including air quality, and water quality. All these suggest that as Christians who are part of the Kingdom, and who are responsible sons and daughters in the family business, should be concerned about the environmental condition of this planet. Thus bringing into alignment God’s vision for a nation.

Isaiah 65, as mentioned earlier, needs to be interpreted in a narrative rather than semantic way and in the context of a father telling his son his vision for the family business. Therefore, the vision of a long life is left to the son to explore different methods of its achievement and it is possible that it could be a multifaceted solution consisting of environmental and medical advancement. Research has show that a telomere, which is a region at the end of a chromosome, is responsible for our lifespan. Although it has not been proven in human, test laboratory mice have demonstrated that telomere extension has successfully reversed aging .

Poverty, Poor and Prosperity

Sometimes understanding the bible is like solving a Rubik’s cube. The Rubik’s cube is a three dimension mechanical puzzle invented by in 1974 by an architecture professor named Erno Rubik . On this cube there are nine colored stickers that cover six faces and to solve it, you had to twist this cube and move the sides around until each of the six sides were solid colors. It was easy to get one of the faces to show a solid color but getting all six to show solid colors was a real challenge. In the same way, some passages sound to be contradictory but in essence they are color pieces for a different side of the rubik cube.

Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days…

Isaiah 65: 20

The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity--in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground--in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.

Deuteronomy 28:11

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.

Deuteronomy 15:11

I believe the term “poor” is a relative term. It is relative to the wealth and prosperity of the nation and that is why each nation will always have the poor with them. Take for example, Switzerland, one of the wealthiest nation in the world, the nation’s definition of the poor are those who earn less than half the median income of their country. In 2007, the median income of Switzerland was approximately USD140,000 and therefore those who make less than USD 70,000 are considered poor .  Therefore the poor will always be with us no matter how wealthy the nation is, there will always be people who will be on the lower end of the income bracket as long as there is a gap between the rich and poor. Theoretically the only time when this would not exist is in a communistic economy where everyone has the same income (more on that later). 

I consider poverty as having not enough to survive. In other words, if you were in poverty you would probably starve. I believe with this definition of poverty, we are able to eradicate poverty in many nations. It should be possible to raise the income level of people within any nation to a level where they have enough for food and shelter. Isaiah 65's vision of the nation is clear that we can attain a level of prosperity in any nation such that there are no infant deaths. 

On my first trip in 2002 to the Philippines, as the plane was landing, the Lord began speaking to me about the poor. I decided to pull some numbers to understand the situation in the Philippines. The Philippines define poverty as making less than USD 400 a year .  The situation is bad because one third of the country lives in poverty and that is a lot of people considering that Philippines is nearing 100 million people. The epitome of this desperation was Mariannet Amper, a 12-year-old Filipino girl. On the afternoon of November 2nd Mariannet hanged herself with a nylon cord in her family’s hut after sharing her misery in her diary tucked under a pillow. Her father, a jobless construction worker said that Mariannet asked him for 100 pesos (USD 2) that she needed for school projects and he responded by saying that “I did not have the money.” The next day he tried getting some money through a small cash advance but by the time he got home, Mariannet was dead. An entry in her diary records how she was missing school because she did not have money to pay the fare to go to school, “It feels as if we’ve been absent for a month. They’re not counting my absences any more. I just realized that Christmas is just around the corner.” In the same diary, she also talked about how she could not go to church because they did not have money for the fare to get there. There was a letter next to the diary, and in it was her wish list. She wrote, “"I wish for new shoes, a bag and jobs for my mother and father. My dad does not have a job and my mom just gets laundry jobs. I would like to finish my schooling and I would like very much to buy a new bike." 

If the Lord’s desire is for nations to prosper, did He leave any clues as to how we should grow the economy of a nation? Is Philippines a Christian nation? Is Philippines a nation under the rulership of God? What would a Kingdom blueprint for the economy of the Philippines look like? Isaiah 65 has more to say on this matter.

They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them.

Isaiah 65:21-23

The first part of the passage suggests that the economy has to be fair. It doesn’t mean that everyone has to have the same income like what the communist would suggest. However, it does suggest that even if you are poor, your situation cannot be such that your children don’t have an opportunity to succeed in life. It doesn’t suggest that all children will have the same opportunity but it does suggest that all children will have opportunity to be successful. A fair economy also means that you get paid a fair amount for your work. The understanding of what is fair can differ over time and civilizations but for now, a fair price in a capitalistic economy means a market price or the equilibrium price of demand and supply.

It also suggests that the economy has to be one where people “enjoy the works of their hands.” In other words, there is a high job satisfaction and people do the work that they enjoy doing. This is in contradiction to economies that try to decide on the education and career choices of its people based on the needs of the country.  However, it doesn’t mean that a nation should have a mixed economy of every possible industry to accommodate the desire of every citizen.

The last part of the passage talks about a blessing that is trans generational. It also suggest that it is God’s intention that the wealth we create would be trans generational and it would grow over generations and not just for the consumption during our lifetime. It is like the way David stored up wealth for Solomon so that Solomon could build the temple and accomplish other things for the Kingdom including the largest military on the earth. It is also evidently clear that Solomon not only inherited great wealth, he multiplied it and expanded the Kingdom and the revenue of the Kingdom through tax. It was a trans generational blessing where one generation builds wealth and the subsequent generations multiply it.

You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

Deuteronomy 28:6

This verse suggests that people should be blessed coming into the nation and leaving the nation. So, there is large mobility of people and it is possible that even in nations whose economy is built on a single industry, everyone could enjoy the works of their hands because of mobility and friendly immigration and emigration policies. 

…You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail.

Deuteronomy 28:12-13

The first part of the passage suggests that a nation should not borrow money but loan to others instead. The second part states that as a nation you would be the “head” and not the “tail”. This provides an interesting problem when you consider the hypothetical situation of what if every nation was a nation under God, how is it conceptually possible for every nation to be head and not the tail. If head and tails are rankings, then by definition, for someone to be at the top, another needs to be at the bottom. However, if you look at this from an economic strategy perspective, it is possible that the Lord was suggesting that each nation could develop a competitive advantage. In other words, each nation could be the head in one industry or sector or product/service.  

In the academic circles, this idea of a national gift for a nation is known as national competitive advantage and Michael Porter from Harvard wrote about it in his ground breaking book entitled, “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” and in it he changed the whole economic world view of how prosperity is created and sustained within a nation . This theory is very close to the biblical concept of national gift and how a nation can be the head and not the tail.