Specifically, instead of God’s shalom being
something into which we escape from this world, shalom is something that is poured from
above into the earth. This forms the distinction between a
world-avertive approach to our
lives, and a
world-embracing-healing approach. A world-avertive approach tends to see a
future of escape (e.g., Jesus as the captain of a lifeboat). A world-embracing-healing
approach believes that God is at work pouring out shalom on a broken world and seeks to
participate in that restoration. See the following quote that is commenting on why heaven is
depicted as a city and not a garden.
“…cities are noisy with self-assertion, forgetful and defiant of God, battering and abusive
to persons. The first city, Enoch, was built by the first murderer, Cain….Heaven surely,
should get us as far away from that as possible….Many people want to go to heaven the
way they want to go to Florida—they think the weather will be an improvement and the
people decent. But the biblical heaven is not a nice environment far removed from the
stress of hard city life. It is the invasion of the city by the City. We enter heaven not by
escaping what we don’t like, but by the sanctification of the place in which God has
placed us.”
Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder
Note, the direction spoken of here in Revelation is consistent with the direction
alluded to in the prayer “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven.”
