God has always desired human flourishing, both individually and as cultures, societies and nations.
God’s Mission to Create Great Nations1
Beginning with Genesis 11 and all the way through to the last book of Revelation, the Bible teaches that nations are God’s design. This was not only an act of damage limitation due to human sinfulness and to serve as a barrier to global totalitarianism, individual nation-states also express the uniqueness and diversity of their Creator.
“I will make you a GREAT NATION.” (Gen. 12:2a)
“…Abraham shall surely become a GREAT AND MIGHTY NATION, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.” (Gen. 18:18)
After preventing man’s intention to create an empire at Babel (Gen. 11) and the scattering of seventy nations across the face of the Earth (catalogued in Gen. 10), God promises to make Abraham a great nation by blessing him with many descendants, a particular land and territory, authority to govern, and economic prosperity if God’s law is obeyed.
To underlie the fact that this blessing was to heal all nations, God also makes a similar promise to make Ishmael into a great nation (Gen. 17:20; 21:13, 18). Through Abraham’s great-grandson, Joseph, Egypt becomes a nation that blesses the world.
The Hebrew people are delivered from slavery and oppression, and are discipled on how to be a blessed and great nation through the law given to Moses.
“See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this GREAT NATION is a wise and understanding people.’ What other nation is so GREAT as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so GREAT as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” (Deut. 4:5-8).
The Ten Commandments were core to God’s covenant with the whole nation, which is to become a nation set apart to God and priests (or representatives) of His Kingdom (Ex. 19:6). Through the law, God taught them the areas of:
- worship and economics
- personal hygiene and corporate ecology
- governmental leadership and judicial principles
- agriculture and nutrition
- family relationships and national celebrations
- education and caring for the needy
- land usage and military strategies
- music and clothing styles
- immigration laws and medical practices
- architectural guidelines and perfume fabrication
- communication principles and fiscal guidelines.2
Light to Other Nations
They are to be an example and a light to all other nations who are walking in darkness, providing a healthy balance between love for one’s nation and international concern.
The flourishing of life under God was supposed to draw and attract the nations of the Earth. Sadly, we know that many times Israel departed from God’s ways and suffered the consequences. In so doing, their ‘light’ was diminished.
However, God’s plan to bless the nations is continued with the arrival of God’s Kingdom through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham and it is through Jesus that all nations can truly be blessed and made great.
He therefore commands His followers – those who have kingdom citizenship and who together form a new, holy and great nation (1 Pet. 2:9) – to teach, disciple and bring all other nations under His lordship (aka ‘The Great Commission’, Matt. 28:18-20).
Nation-building Unfashionable
The tragedy is that today, many Christians do not believe that their nation needs to be discipled and made a ‘great nation’. This trend over the past century has led to gospel reductionism and the Church retreating from active Kingdom engagement within the sectors of society.
Although ‘nation-building’ maybe out of fashion, it is a fact that those nations that have been shaped by the Bible became greater than the nations that were ignorant of the Bible or hostile to it.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34).
Confusion & Foolishness
Like in the case of the nation of Israel, here in the West, we are now reaping the devastating results of rejecting God’s truth and ways. Our culture and society has redefined marriage, disconnected gender from biological sex, and government has invaded the family by interfering with how parents choose to raise and discipline their own children.
With the rejection of objective and absolute truth, nothing can be known with settled certainty. People are determining their own ‘truth’ and we end up with confusion and foolishness. Every point of view, no matter how bizarre or immoral, demands equal respect, unless it’s from a place of genuine faith, in which case you’re likely to be viewed as a bigot with a dangerous disqualifying disorder.
At the same time, society carries on with its moralising and virtue signalling. But it doesn’t recognise that its obsession with equality and justice is actually born out of the Christian story. But divorced from it, wrong is now right and right is now wrong.
The reality is that we are living in days reminiscent of the time described in the Book of Judges, where “there was no king and everyone did as they saw fit.” (Judges 21:25).
[TO BE CONTINUED]
1 Some content for this post is taken from my book, Kingdom Mission Vol. 1: Rediscovering the Vision, co-authored with Peter J. Farmer.
2 David J. Hamilton (http://www.ywamdtscentre.com/docs/Resources/Staff%Training%20Manual/Biblical_Basis_of_Discipling_Nations.pdf)
(Photo: YWAM Kona)