When I look at this passage, I am brought back to those words spoken early in Genesis, to Abraham. I will make you a great nation, and through you all the peoples of the earth will be blessed.
It's strange that a promise to one individual to make his family great, a promise that leads to us using the term 'Chosen People' when we speak about the Jews, should seem at once to single out one nation for special favour, but actually be about blessing all nations.
I will bless you, God said, and you will be a blessing.
In short, what seems to be exclusive was really a vehicle for the truly inclusive.
Ask of me, it says in the psalms, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Jesus was given all the peoples of the world as his inheritance, and we are told many times that the gospel is to be preached in all the world, discipling nations, because God is calling to himself a people from every tribe and tongue.
We see that God has love for all mankind.
I used to struggle with the idea that the Jews were God's chosen people, until a Jewish believer showed me that God had called the Jews to be a light to the gentiles.
God chose the Jewish people to demonstrate to the world His Faithfulness. And through them , and Jesus particularly, he has blessed all people.
Race is not an issue. All peoples can come freely to their God, and in the holy city the doors will never be closed to them.
And because God is a covenant keeping God, as is demonstrated in his faithfulness to Israel, he keeps his promises.
If we look through scripture we see these promises again and again.
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.[a]
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.[a]
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Indeed this song of Moses and of the Lamb (From chapter 15) contain references drawn from many places (Psalm 111:2,3; Deut. 32:4; Jer. 10:7; Psalms 86:9; 98:2.)
Isaiah 60 in particular, is fulfilled here in Revelation.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
And again in verse 11;
Your gates will always stand open,
they will never be shut, day or night,
so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations—
their kings led in triumphal procession.
they will never be shut, day or night,
so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations—
their kings led in triumphal procession.
I was listening to a sermon yesterday, by the great preacher Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in which he highlights God's hand over history, which is demonstrated through the scriptures. From the time that it was prophesied that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head until the deliverer actually came took four thousand years. He points out that hundreds of years would pass and people would think that God has forgotten, but then God would do something incredible and it would be obvious again to forgetful, short-lived humanity, that he was still working out his plans and his purposes.
With that in mind he says;
With that in mind he says;
"Are you troubled by something that is happening in the world today? Well put it in the context of the old testament.
I was never worried for a second about a man like Hitler. It was enough for me to read the thirty seventh psalm, and there I read of a man like him, spreading himself like a green Bay tree, like a sort of a colossus striding the whole earth, and I read of a day when a man wanted to go and see him and speak to him..., and couldn't find him. Searched everywhere for him but couldn't find a trace.
I was never worried for a second about a man like Hitler. It was enough for me to read the thirty seventh psalm, and there I read of a man like him, spreading himself like a green Bay tree, like a sort of a colossus striding the whole earth, and I read of a day when a man wanted to go and see him and speak to him..., and couldn't find him. Searched everywhere for him but couldn't find a trace.
He'd vanished!
Why?
GOD had blown upon him.
The old testament is full of that sort of thing."
You see, God has NEVER forgotten a promise. His broad and generous love, extended to all the peoples of the earth will be worked out, in spite of the turmoil we se about us.
Look at the world today, and Israel's position in the middle east. On the 14th of May 1948 the state of Israel was declared after two thousand years of expulsion. Yes 70 years ago, Israel did not exist.
The man who was used to bring this about was the man of whom Dr Lloyd-Jones spoke of. The man Hitler, whose purpose was their extermination.
Don't think because you cannot see what God is doing that he is not at work in the world.
He is loving.
He is faithful.
This day,
And always.
Why?
GOD had blown upon him.
The old testament is full of that sort of thing."
You see, God has NEVER forgotten a promise. His broad and generous love, extended to all the peoples of the earth will be worked out, in spite of the turmoil we se about us.
Look at the world today, and Israel's position in the middle east. On the 14th of May 1948 the state of Israel was declared after two thousand years of expulsion. Yes 70 years ago, Israel did not exist.
The man who was used to bring this about was the man of whom Dr Lloyd-Jones spoke of. The man Hitler, whose purpose was their extermination.
Don't think because you cannot see what God is doing that he is not at work in the world.
He is loving.
He is faithful.
This day,
And always.
No comments:
Post a Comment