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How to Talk to People about
ALL The Nations “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 26:4) {1} Leonard Griehs God promised it. God swore he would do it: “In [Abraham’s seed — the Messiah] all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves” (Genesis 22:18 NAS, margin). How can we please the Lord if we disbelieve it? were we to say all the nations will be cursed? (either by eternal torment or eternal annihilation?) When Jesus exercised his earthly ministry, some Jews recognized him as the Messiah of Israel but few saw him as the savior of the world. “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). “And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One’” (Luke 23:35). After Jesus died and rose from the grave, he discussed how his life and death fulfilled the prophecies concerning both roles, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). Jesus’ recognition as the Messiah of Israel and the savior of the world by the majority of Jews is still future. The restoration of the land promised to Abraham and the return of the descendants of Jacob to that land precedes the turning of the hearts of the Jewish people gathered there to God and Jesus. “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). Since the late 1800’s there has been a steady flow of Jewish people returning to the Eretz Israel (Isaiah 11:11-12), despite one-third of the existing Jewish population being slaughtered in the Holocaust. From one of their lowest points, the children of Israel were raised up and made a nation. Modern Israel has become a military powerhouse, with Jane’s Weekly rating the Israeli army the fourth most efficient in the world. Since 2006, and for the first time since 135 AD, there have been more Jews in Israel than in any other country in the world, and Israel remains an open homeland for all Jews. Though not yet a religious nation, there is a definite influence of God in the constitution of Israel and in its practices: public lands are adorned with scripture; Shabbat (Sabbath) is observed; scripture is openly discussed; and immigrants from atheistic lands such as the former USSR receive their first exposure to God and his promises. This return of Jews to their historic homeland as promised to Abraham has been a source of contention among all nations in our day. These nations and their people do not yet recognize the reason for Israel’s restoration: God is preparing to usher in his kingdom on earth with its center in Israel, “And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). Jehovah has given the restoration of Israel as a concrete pledge that He will indeed establish His Kingdom in all the earth. Since the 1948 declaration of statehood, Israel has experienced growing negative sentiment from other nations. Scriptural prophecies predict a future physical assault against Israel by almost all existing nations. Then God will make Himself known to the entire world by miraculously saving Israel from extinction __________ (1) New American Standard Bible (NAS) except as otherwise noted. |