Rescued Rescuing Stewards

"But underneath that again, when we stand back, is the meaning of God's kingdom, to which the hope of Israel was designed to contribute- or, to put it another way, the meaning because of which God called Israel in the first place. Faced with this beautiful and powerful creation in rebellion, God longed to set it right, to rescue it from continuing corruption and impending chaos and to bring it back into order and fruitfulness. God longed, in other words, to re-establish his wise sovereignty over the whole creation, which would mean a great act of healing and rescue. He did not want to rescue humans from creation any more than he wanted to rescue Israel from the Gentiles. He wanted to rescue Israel in order that Israel might be a light to the Gentiles, and he wanted thereby to rescue humans in order that humans might be his rescuing stewards over creation. That is the inner dynamic of the kingdom of God" (Surprised by Hope, p. 202)