A Buzzword on the Branches of the Davidic King

One of my first Sundays on American shores was at a small Presbyterian church in Coral Springs, Florida. The heat baked the asphalt of the parking lot and the palm trees swayed in the sultry wind as I climbed out of our Nissan dressed in baggy khaki pants and a graphic tee. I saw others slowly trickle out of their cars and into the air-conditioned sanctuary, dressed in suits and sundresses. The ubiquitous clopping of heels and dress shoes got louder and louder as we approached the breezeway and one of the ushers handed us a pamphlet.

We sat somewhere in the middle, and there were violinists up front and a choir getting ready to come up and sing, paging through their hymnbooks. I wore flip flops to our Anglican church in Johannesburg. I didn’t own a suit. Our Brazilian family stuck out in the Floridian congregation. At the time it all felt foreign, it felt uncomfortable, and I’m glad it did.

At the heart of Scripture’s grand story is God’s desire to bring together people who are not like one another. This God is passionate about building a multiethnic, multicultural, and multigenerational covenant community—a community by which we can see his wisdom and goodness on display (Ephesians 3:10). In a time where “diversity” is an (in)famous cultural buzzword, the biblical authors invite modern readers to rediscover it as a sacred treasure, woven into the Old and New Testaments, culminating in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Abram was living in modern day Syria when YHWH made him a handful of rich promises. The last one on the list assured blessing to “all the peoples of the earth” (Genesis 12:3, NIV). Abram, (later Abraham), would spend years waiting and longing for the fulfillment of God’s promises to him. Yet he likely died wondering what God could have possibly meant by ‘all peoples’ (Hebrews 11:8–13). Likewise, the reader of Genesis might get to the end of the book and feel the same way.

But the author of Exodus gives us a glimpse. As Abraham’s descendants eventually settle in and leave Egypt more than half a century later, the author inserts a small detail that begins coloring in the picture of the Abrahamic covenant. “A mixed multitude went up” with the caravan of Israelites out of Egypt as they journeyed back to the promised land (Exodus 12:38). These were likely a hodgepodge of non-Israelite slaves, peasants, Egyptians of different social strata, and others. These understood that Israel’s God was working powerfully on Israel’s behalf and took the opportunity to leave Egypt and essentially become Israelites (cf. Zechariah 8:23).[i] Both the promises and curses of God’s covenant with Israel in the wilderness applied to them too.

Hence, from early on, the Israelite covenant community was not ethnically uniform. Because as early as Egypt, it must have been somewhat colorful. Both Leviticus and Deuteronomy assume the presence of sojourners and immigrants in the Israelite community, and command that they are be treated with the same dignity as a native Israelite (Lev. 19:10, 34, 22:18, 26:6; Deut. 5:14, 10:18–19; 24:14).

The diversity of Israel’s camp in the wilderness continues to grow after they cross the Jordan into the promised land under Joshua. When the spies depart from the Israelite base on a recon mission, they meet Rahab. A Gentile prostitute who is simultaneously a model Israelite. She subverts the stereotype of the idolatrous outsiders by declaring that Israel’s God “is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11). Her confession mirrors Deuteronomy’s theology almost verbatim (4:39). Her faith in YHWH is the reason she is saved from Jericho’s downfall (Joshua 2:14, 6:22–23), and later integrated into the Israelite community (6:25). The text clearly understands Rahab as a model example of faith and does not condemn the spies for covenant faithlessness in rescuing her—the author honors her.

Rahab is not the only foreign woman to demonstrate this kind of faith. Ruth utters a similar confession when she says that the God of Naomi will also be her God (Ruth 1:16). Like Rahab, she leaves her pagan homeland and settles in the Israelite community with Naomi (1:22). While the pair are in Bethlehem, Boaz embodies the Torah by allowing Ruth to glean from his field (2:7–17, cf. Lev. 23:22). Ruth becomes a vivid picture of the sojourner that Leviticus and Deuteronomy assumed would be among the commonwealth of Israel (Lev. 23:22; Deut. 24:21). After she marries Boaz, the reader also discovers that this Gentile woman eventually becomes the grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:18–22). Both Rahab and Ruth are listed in the genealogy of Jesus, showing once again that God’s inclusion of the nations in his redemptive plan is no accident (Matthew 1:5).

Ezekiel paints a few more vibrant brushstrokes onto the canvas. In a book mostly filled with YHWH’s lawsuits against his people’s gross injustice, the end of chapter 17 presents a vision for God’s multiethnic community:

“Thus says the Lord God: ‘I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.’” (v.22–24).

Following a parable that describes Israel turning away from their God (v.1–21), Ezekiel provides a silver lining in the aftermath of God’s justice. YHWH makes it clear that he refuses to give up on his covenant people despite their rebellion. Rather than restore his people as they were before the exile, Ezekiel tells his audience that God will usher in a new, better kingdom than what was in place before.

In this passage, YHWH declares that he will take a “tender” branch, a reference to the Messiah (Zech. 3:8; Isaiah 42:3, 53:2; Jeremiah 23:5), and plant it in Israel himself (Ezek. 17:22–23, cf. 20:40). This is also an image of the coming Davidic King, who is contrasted with the pagan, proud, and unjust kings of Assyria and Egypt later in the book (30:1–14). In 17:22–24, this Davidic Messiah will be marked by the birds that come to nestle under his rule. By planting this king and providing a nest to all kinds of birds, all kingdoms of the earth (“trees”) will know that YHWH is the Lord (v.24). By this act of peace, reconciliation, built upon the justice that preceded it, the Lord will make himself known.

The Hebrew word behind “every kind of bird” is kanaph, which is literally glossed as wing, skirt, or edge. In this context, the idea can likely be rephrased as “birds of every wing or extremity.” Interestingly, this idea of diverse plumages, shapes, and types under this tree is repeated in verse 23. Given that repetition usually entails emphasis, the author is showing the reader that this idea matters. The only other ideas repeated in this section of the passage is that YHWH will plant the branch himself (v.22b–23a), and that by the grand act of planting this tree and the multicolored bird nesting in its branches, others will know that he is the Lord (v.24).

This parabolic promise is not something entirely new. It is a repetition of what YHWH first promised to Abraham, that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him and his descendants (Gen. 12:1–3). Notice that YHWH does not mention any hint of cultural assimilation. In fact, the opposite is emphasized. Birds of every kanaph will find refuge under the same tree. It is not implied that their plumages will change. In Ezekiel’s account, what binds these birds together is where they ultimately find their refuge, home, and rest. What unites them, to use New Testament language, is their worship of King Jesus, not similar leaves, flight patterns, or beak sizes (Revelation 7:9; Colossians 2:6–7).

This vibrant picture in Ezekiel is one of the main focal points of the New Testament. Jesus picks up on the same image in the parable of the mustard seed: “He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches” (Matt. 13:31–32).

Like Ezekiel’s vision, the kingdom Jesus brings is expansive, unexpected, and exceeds expectation. In both cases the image of the tree represents Jesus’ kingship under the New Covenant. It highlights the kingdom’s strong and steady growth, but also one of its ultimate purposes: to offer shelter and rest to all who dwell in it. Just as the Davidic Messiah would be recognized by the multicolored birds nesting in his branches, so too is this promise confirmed and fulfilled in Jesus, where Jews and a diverse array of Gentiles find their place as citizens under his reign.

This idea explodes into action at Pentecost. After Jesus ascends, he commands his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descends on them (Acts 1:4, 8, cf. John 16:7). During the day of Pentecost, when the same people who saw Jesus ascend were gathered, Luke tells the reader that the Holy Spirit filled the entire gathering place (Acts 2:1–2). Immediately, those in the room began to speak different languages through the power they were given (v.4f). This event marks the redemption of the tower of Babel, where YHWH confused and scattered the builders by dividing their language (Gen. 11:7–8). Here, however, YHWH shows that a defining mark of his Spirit is both inherently multicultural and unifying. Rather than disperse and displace, YHWH here gathers and commissions (cf. Matt. 28:19–20).

Judaism had already begun to reverse Babel, since many present in Jerusalem at the time came from across the world to worship YHWH (Acts 2:5–11). What is unique about Pentecost is that, after the Holy Spirit was poured out, nobody would need to return to Jerusalem for worship. Instead, the gospel would go out to fill every corner and culture of the earth (cf. Gen. 1:28; Jer. 29:4–8). While YHWH divides the language of the builders of Babel and scatters them as a curse, here he uses the multiplicity of languages to unite them, and scatter them in blessing. Here Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman are fulfilled, and YHWH’s followers are free to worship him freely and properly independent of location (John 4:23–24). Many of those in the multiethnic multitude who witnessed that first Pentecost and listened to Peter’s ensuing sermon gave their lives to Jesus, sparking the YHWH’s multicultural church into existence (Acts 2:41).

This spark rapidly turns into a wildfire that sweeps through Judea and the surrounding regions. Luke very carefully and intentionally brings his audience’s attention to the work of the gospel among the Gentiles in Acts. He frequently paints them as an integral part of God’s covenant community. In one instance, Luke tells us that many of the Greek Jews, who may have been converted at Pentecost, filed a complaint against the church because the widows in their community were being neglected in the daily distribution of food (6:1). As a result, the apostles appoint seven deacons to solve this issue and any other issues of this type in the future (6:2–3). Interestingly, Luke tells us that those whom they appointed were likewise Greek (v.5–6). Here the reader sees the first recorded instance of a multiethnic leadership team that represented the congregation whom they served.

Later, in Antioch, Gentile evangelists from Cyprus and Cyrene plant a thriving church, which turns out to be the pinnacle of the multicultural nature of the New Covenant on display. Thousands poured into this multiethnic congregation, and this is there where “the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). The largest multicultural congregation of the time provided the fertile, gospel-laden soil from which the Christian movement began to be noticed. This is not a coincidence. The gospel’s power to cross ethnic lines is central to its witness. Luke emphasizes this point when he lists the leaders of the church, who were from a variety of nations, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds (Acts 13:1–3).

Dr. Irwyn Ince, in his book, The Beautiful Community, challenges modern readers to read the multiethnic church of the New Testament not merely as a new normal for the church, but as key to the theology of the writers:

“In our connected world we clearly hear, see, and experience the diversity of our multinational world,” he writes. “We may live in an age of radical multinational connection due to development of new social media and technology, but there remains a drought of multinational communion. How often do we look at, study, and preach on a biblical passage like Acts 2 and miss the multinational communion? How often do we read Peter’s sermon and the people’s response and fail to find our hearts pierced by the dearth of multinational communion in the contemporary American church?”

Paul makes this theology explicit. In Galatia, he faced critics who insisted that the Gentiles must become Jewish and observe the ceremonial law to be saved. (Galatians 1:7–9; 5:2–3; 6:12–13). Paul passionately pens this letter to both eliminate works-based righteousness and to place a balm over the divide between Jew and Gentile through the doctrine of justification by faith. Paul carefully highlights the nature of sonship to Abraham (and thereby being an heir to the covenant) as a matter of faith, not a physical, immutable characteristic (3:6–7). He then goes a step further and equates the very term ‘gospel’ with God’s covenant promise to Abraham promising blessing to the nations:

“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham,” Paul writes. “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith…Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:7–9; 13–14, emphases mine). Here Paul makes it abundantly clear that the New Covenant is inherently multiethnic, and this is made clear by the doctrine of justification by grace. There are faint echoes here of the tree imagery, in that one of the many teleologies of Christ’s work was to chase after the Gentiles so that they may belong to his kingdom.

Paul elaborates further in Ephesians. He describes the inclusion of the Gentiles into the covenant community as the great “mystery of Christ.” He writes: “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:6). For Paul, engrafting the multiethnic Gentiles into God’s covenant community was one of Jesus’ main tasks in his life, death, and resurrection:

“And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord” (2:17–20; 3:10–11, emphases mine).

This is the fulfillment of the picture painted by Ezekiel during the Israelite exile. In his prophecy, the “tree of the fields”—symbolizing the rulers and empires of the worlds—would know that YHWH is Lord when birds of every kanaph find shade, rest, and comfort under the Davidic Messiah. Paul echoes this image, emphasizing that the unity of Jews and Gentiles will make God’s manifold (the Greek arguably translating to “multi-colored”) wisdom known. Faith is still the bedrock of acceptance into the covenant community, just as it was with Ruth and Rahab, but here it is the only precondition (cf. Gal. 5:6).

Paul uses one more image to further his argument. In his magnum opus to the church in Rome, he compares the Gentiles to wild olive branches that were engrafted YHWH’s covenant tree. This tree contrasts Ezekiel’s vision and represents God’s covenant people, who are rooted in God’s promises to the patriarchs, revealed in the Old Testament (11:11–19, 28). In this way, Paul is arguing that the Church is not exactly a replacement of Israel, but a vibrant, recontextualized, multiethnic continuation of it in light of Jesus. Ince puts it plainly: the church is never called to erase ethnicity, but Christians should understand their beautiful, cultural identity as subservient to their identity in Christ.

Why does this matter so deeply? Because the very nature of the Trinitarian God is reflected in the diversity of God’s people. To be made in the Imago Dei entails a certain level of diversity. Because God exists as a divine and archetypal unity in diversity, creation and those made in his image should be expected to reflect his nature in this way. Dr. Gray Sutanto puts it this way:

“Creation reflects the triune Creator, and God’s archetypal being is the basis for the patterns exhibited in creation…this order and this harmony is present in him absolutely. In the case of creatures we see only a faint analogy of it…Though the triune God is not like everything else, everything else nonetheless is like the triune God. Unity and diversity is the particular expression of the triune shape of creation as an organism, both in its parts and as a whole simply because creation comes from an archetypal One-in-three.”

Moreover, while the Imago Dei is carved into every individual, there is a sense in which the entirety of the human race images God as a corporate whole. Bavinck writes in his Reformed Dogmatics:

“The creation of humankind in God’s image was only completed on the sixth day, when God created both man and woman in union with each other… in his image. Still, even this creation in God’s image of man and woman in conjunction is not the end but the beginning of God’s journey with mankind. It is not good that the man should be alone (Gen. 2:18); nor is it good that the man and woman should be alone. Upon the two of them God immediately pronounced the blessing of multiplication (Gen. 1:28). Not the man alone, nor the man and woman together, but only the whole of humanity is the fully developed image of God, his children, his offspring.”

If creation inherently contains unities in diversities, and if a dimension of the Image of God itself is corporate, then Paul’s analogy of the body begins to make more sense. If the God of the Bible is unified and diverse by nature, and we are made in his image, then it follows that the church should be the prime illustration of what that image will look like when fully consummated in the new heavens and new earth. Thus, the multicultural covenant community reflects the very image of God.

Importantly, unity precedes diversity, and is its ultimate teleology. Paul treats both ideas as essential in his first letter to Corinth, but carefully emphasizes unity first. He begins by noting that the body is one, and then points out that it has many different members (1 Corinthians 11:12). Though believers are multicultural and varied, they are all baptized into a single body (v.13). Simultaneously, Paul avoids overemphasizing this point, as he quickly pens, “but as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (v.18). Notice how this details God’s intentionality. If the analogy of the body is to hold, then the many different members are not only an important feature of the covenant community, but they are also essential. The differences are hand-picked by God and deemed not only good and necessary for the true flourishing of the body. Paul concludes this point by asking, “If all were a single member, where would the body be?” (v.19). To put it another way, without our differences, the covenant community would be fundamentally disordered, and unity would in fact be impossible.

As with Ezekiel’s parable of the tree, and the Holy Spirit’s work at Pentecost, the beauty of the multiethnic, multicultural, and intergenerational church is how it knits together people who are not like one another because of Christ’s work on their behalf. The Holy Spirit did not perform a work of cultural assimilation at Pentecost, but he rather bridged together languages and cultures to create a colorful tapestry that images the beauty of the Godhead. This is meant to be a key marker that captivates and invites those who do not believe into the knowledge that the God of this community is YHWH (Ezek. 17:24; Eph. 3:10).

“The church’s most powerful witness to the world that Jesus is real,” Ince writes, “isn’t signs and wonders like miraculous healings. No, it’s the supernatural life of God’s people united in beautiful diverse community! Our theology of reconciliation is trinitarian. To refuse to pursue unity in diversity as a redeemed people is to fundamentally neglect what it means for us to be the image of God.”

Paul writes in Romans that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance (2:4). Here Paul is writing about a gospel kindness that crosses boundaries, making any kind of reconciliation possible. This primeval kindness reached out to man when his sin, brokenness, and isolation seemed irrevocable. Imaging this kindness is how the church may overflow in beauty as it seeks to compel those who are far off to come near, into a place where our differences are not only accepted, but a matter of eternal delight and celebration. The church is the place where YHWH shepherds his colorful flock and sings over them for his name’s sake.

Cultural assimilation is also far from the new heavens and the new earth. The New Jerusalem will have even more multicultural diversity than New York City, London, and Hong Kong put together. The cultural distinction will still clearly be present, but the citizens of the city will all be resting in and worshipping the Davidic king in lasting unity (Rev. 7:9). Worship and life together are far richer because of this divinely instituted multiculturalism. It would not be gospel unity if all Christians had to become Jews, or Brazilians, or Australians. This runs counter to God’s covenant with his people. If God is sovereign and knits us together in the womb (Jer. 1:5), it cannot be possible that our different ethnicities are an accident (see again Rev. 7:9). My family’s involvement in that Presbyterian church in South Florida, worshipping with those who were not like us, helped shape us and them into people who more fervently seek after Jesus.

It is not YHWH’s plan for us to change our plumages (cultures) in ways that are not inherently sinful or a stumbling block to others, because that would defeat the purpose of his promise in Ezekiel 17:22–24, Jesus’ inauguration of this promise, and the eschatological realization of it which is to come. Rather, the Ethiopian, Moroccan, Chilean, Chinese, Dutchman, and American (white, black, or otherwise) are to use their God-given cultures as worship, and as platforms to point back to YHWH, who delights in the diversity of his people under the justice, kingship, shade, and rest of King Jesus.

[i] Later Jewish commentary sometimes blames this multitude for enticing Israel to sin in the wilderness in Numbers 11:4. Whether the “rabble” mentioned in Numbers refers to the same “mixed multitude” is debatable. Regardless, even if the multitude of strangers is the same group as the rabble, they were still absorbed into the covenant community, and YHWH dealt with them as he did the native Israelite, both positively and negatively.