God’s Plan is for Everyone
Looking through history toward Christ.
God has always been a God of inclusion. He works through both individuals and through nations. For us to understand our need, God presents to us a standard (as we demonstrated in a previous post), and these can be for individuals or for nations as well. God seems to never reveal everything about himself all at once but does so over time.
It seems a clear distinction between people on the Earth did not occur until their language was divided into many (Gn 11) as the term “nation (גּוֹי; goy)” was given to the descendants of the sons of Noah when listed (Gn 10). Yet, even early on, distinctions were made. God had a crimson line running through history (Gn 3:15) and made touchpoints to this line to achieve the salvation of many. Once God’s standard moved to one’s conscience to determine right and wrong, it seems many went astray which became even more exaggerated once certain angels intermarried with human women and produced giants called Nephilim (Gn 6:4) who most humans practically worshipped even though the Nephilim were destructive to them. Lucifer was recreating mankind into his image by altering human DNA. Even during this time, there were some, like Enoch, who taught godly principles and warned against their evil actions and proclaimed consequences that would follow if they did not repent (Ju 1:14-15). God revealed to Noah the coming destruction of a worldwide flood (Gn 6:11-13) and only himself and his family were saved.
After the flood, God instituted another standard: mandates. These were rules which he mandated for humans to follow (Gn 9:1-17) which became instituted within human government. God even provided an example of how this was to be achieved though Melchizedek (Gn 14:18-20) who was a king of righteousness and of peace (Hb 7:2) and a foreshadow of the One to Come who would also be such a king (Hb 7:22). Yet, unfortunately, many did not heed the example. Instead, one named Nimrod came forward to defy God’s instructions to spread throughout the land. Instead, he consolidated power by keeping people together so he could hold influence over them (Gn 10:8-12) and built a tower, or ziggurat, reaching high into the sky (Gn 11:3-4). God confused their language causing them to scatter as he had first ordained them to do. This place became known as the Tower of Babel and the birth of the city of Babylon. Thereby, the Goiim (גּוֹיִם), or nations, were born.
God then added another standard: examples. God worked through various individuals, whom we call patriarchs, to have influence on those around them. He also provided a promise which was passed through each of them. It began with Abraham and was transmitted to his son Isaac and then to his son Jacob, who became known as Israel. This culminated with the rise of Moses who God used to deliver the Israelites from their Egyptian bondage to create a nation devoted to him. God’s promise to Abraham continued unabated even as God created conditional promises to Israel as a nation (Dt 28). Blessings would follow their obedience to him and cursing would follow in the wake of their disobedience. Yet, the promises to Abraham continued because they were unconditional promises and included the following:
1. Land – God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham (Gn 13:15) and later further defined its boundaries (Gn 15:18–21).
2. Descendants – Abraham became the father of many nations, with descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky (Gn 15:5).
3. Blessing – Through Abraham, all nations would be blessed, a promise fulfilled in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
When Moses and the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai, God instituted another standard: his Law. This is where God also created Israel as a nation. This created two main people groups throughout the rest of history: the nation of Israel and all the other nations (the Goiim). Yet, God had plans for each. We’ll explore this further next time. Please join me.
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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens