Those guys are basically anyone who wasn’t a Hebrew, anyone who wasn’t an Israelite, anyone who wasn’t a Jew. And I thought it might be interesting to review the Story of Salvation, God’s work in the world, in relation to the others, those who were not the Chosen people, those who are us. For the sake of simplicity, I will mostly call them The Nations. There’s the Israelites, and then there’s everyone else. The Nations.
In order to consider God’s work in the world, the story of salvation, of God redeeming his people, all in twelve minutes or less, we need to start at the beginning. The very beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, and he pronounced it all to be Good. And the very pinnacle, the epitome of his creation was humankind, made in the very image of God. God made the whole universe for these people, and they were created for relationship: relationship to God as his highest creation and the focus of his purpose, and relationships with each other. Made in God’s image, which is trinity, which is relationship, humankind was created for relationship. And it was very good. In Eden, Adam and Eve enjoyed a perfect relationship with God and with each other. But God created them with free will. He wanted people to love him freely, to respond to him freely, but that also meant that they were free to rebel, free to choose something else. Wanting to be like gods, Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. “The fall was a giant leap upward that went horribly wrong because it could not succeed. Dissatisfied with their humanness, the couple reached for godhood . . . [The result was] a condition that was less than human because it no longer consists primarily in a relationship with God that is characterized by love and trust.” [1] Sin and death entered the world, and increased over the next few generations until Noah, when God wiped out all but a small remnant. And still sin increased.
A few generations later, God put his plan into action. He chose one man: Abraham. Why Abraham? I think it’s mostly because he said yes. He was far from perfect, but for the most part, at important times, he trusted in God and was obedient to God’s direction. The real answer must be simply God’s grace.
To Abraham he promised many descendents, who would possess the Promised Land, and God would be their God. And through Abraham and his descendents, the entire world—the nations—would be blessed. God’s chosen people, his family, were to be a light and an example, a channel of blessing, to The Nations. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were chosen by God’s grace and it is through them and their descendents that God’s faithfulness will be revealed. Israel is God’s chosen nation, a people for himself.
Generations and centuries go by, and the Hebrew people are slaves in Egypt. God intervenes on their behalf through Moses, and they are delivered from their oppressors and they meet God at Mt. Sinai. “God has a job for them to do. They are to be a nation and kingdom that function like priests. Their task is to mediate God’s blessing to the nations and to act as a model people attracting all peoples to God (Ex. 19:3-6). This is the calling that will shape Israel from this point on: they are to be a showcase people and [a] model before the nations that embod[ies] the beauty of God’s original design for human life.”[2] And the people commit to being God’s faithful people. God goes with them, lives with them. They are his people and he is their God. And through this priestly people, all the Nations of the earth will be blessed. Through its own priests, Israel was to “learn how it as a nation could approach God through a priestly ministry. Then it would learn that the blessings of the covenant would one day overflow through them into the whole world.”[3]
But Israel failed, early on. Even while Moses was with God on the mountain, the people rebelled and were unfaithful and grumbling. They are sentenced to wander in the desert, and continue in their rebellion. Moses frequently intercedes with God on their behalf. But Israel seems incapable of keeping their side of the covenant. Israel’s unfaithfulness is matched only by God’s faithfulness. Finally, under new leadership, they enter the Promised Land, and it is good. God’s promise is fulfilled. And certain gentiles come to share with Israel in God’s promises. Through various ways and means, converts come into Israel. “There is no other revealed way of salvation than to become an Israelite;”[4] so Gentiles come in and share in God’s blessings.
God’s plan was for his people to live under his rule, but Israel cried out for a king, so they can be like The Nations. And God allows that. Israel’s kings were to live according to God’s covenant, to fear God and keep his commandments, and to be humble. Unfortunately that didn’t work out so well, either. While the Israelites desire safety and security, “they forget that God has committed himself in covenant to give them those things in a way that no pagan ruler could.”[5] The end up with Saul, David, Solomon, and the rest. Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem; and when the ark of the covenant is brought in, the glory of the Lord fills the house. God lives there, in the Temple. “Through this house and its ministry the covenant relationship is maintained. Even the promise to the Gentiles is focused here, for it is at the temple that foreigners can find acceptance with God. The temple is a witness to all the nations that God dwells in Israel . . . [and] a foreigner can be joined to the people of God only by coming to the temple, for it is here that God chooses to deal with those who seek him.”[6]
But things go downhill under a succession of ungodly, unfaithful rulers. Prophets warn the people about the way things were going, but it all continued to decline. God, who rules the entire universe, used the nations to chastise his rebellious people. The Kingdom of Israel divided and fell, its people scattered. All was not well. Finally a faithful remnant is able to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the city and temple, only a dim shadow of its former glory. Through the prophets we come to understand that God’s grace alone will bring salvation to his people, people who fail, people who really deserve nothing. And though the prophets God “unfolds to them a way of salvation that not only applies to them, but that will one day in its fullness have significance for all the nations.”[7] Through a descendent of David, though a suffering servant of the Lord, salvation will come. He will bring salvation to Israel and light to the nations. And . . . eventually . . . Jesus comes into the world. Jesus, the seed of Abraham, the Son of David, through whom all nations will finally be blessed. The kingdom of God is at hand. It’s not what the Jews expected, and even Jesus himself saw his mission as being to the Jews. He ministered to Gentiles, including the Canaanite woman in today’s gospel, only at their initiative. But he also told his disciples to go into all the world, all the nations being witnesses to Jesus, bringing light to the nations. The nations will be gathered to Christ as the Gospel is preached in all the world, to all the nations. Go and make disciples of all nations.
The Apostle Paul did just that. His life mission was to take the gospel to all the nations, and he insisted “that the Gentiles were to be accepted into the community of believers apart from Jewish legal observance . . . solely on the basis of ‘faith in Christ’”[8]The barriers between Israelite and foreigner, between Jew and Gentile, were broken. Paul wrestled with the fact that the Jews in great part rejected Jesus, and concluded that the purpose of the calling of the Gentiles was to make the Jews jealous, and that salvation was still to come for the Jews.
At the end of the New Testament era, we find that the people of God include both Jews and gentiles, and the Church is the new Israel. The church is to be a light to the world. “Those guys” are us. That’s our calling, that’s our place in salvation history. To be a light to the world, to reveal God to the world, mediate God’s blessing to the world. The gospel is being preached among every people, tribe, language, and nation. And when Jesus comes again, he will rule all the nations. “All distinctions of gender, ethnicity or social class will be swallowed up in believers’ adoring relationship with God in Jesus Christ and their joint praise of the glory of their Lord and Saviour.”[9] Amen. Come Lord Jesus.
[1] Goldsworthy, Graeme. According to Plan The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible. IVP, 1991, p. 105.
[2] Bartholomew, Craig, & Michael Goheen. “The Story-Line of the Bible.” Retrieved 13 August, 2008.
[3] Goldsworthy, 141.
[4] Ibid, 153.
[5] Ibid, 165.
[6] Ibid, 169.
[7] Ibid, 181.
[8] Kostenberger, A.J. “The Nations.” New Dictionary of Biblical Theology,
[9] Ibid, 678.
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