Bless All Nations
Basic to the redemption of humanity is the covenant with Abraham and his “seed,” including the promise that “all the nations the earth will be blessed in him,” and that he will have innumerable descendants. How and when will the nations be blessed in the Patriarch? And who are his descendants, and most importantly, who is the true “seed of Abraham” who inherits and implements the covenant promises?
In the New Testament, the promise of “seed”
finds its fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth and his new covenant community, the “body
of Christ.” The Abrahamic covenant was always part of the larger redemptive
plan of God, a beginning point rather than an end. The initial focus on Israel
was only the first stage in a much larger program.
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| [Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash] |
From its inception, the covenant envisioned a glorious future beyond the confines of national Israel or the land of Canaan, a promise that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the New Creation - (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:4-6, 17:1-8).
THE NATIONS
During his ministry, Jesus limited the
activities of his disciples to the “lost sheep of Israel.” But from the beginning,
his mission envisioned the inclusion of the “Gentiles,” and this is
demonstrated by the application of the messianic prophecy in the book Isaiah
to the commencement of Christ’s ministry in Galilee:
- “The land of Zebulon and of Nephtali by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations; the people that sat in darkness saw a great light” - (Matthew 4:12-17).
Israel’s Messiah was anointed to reign “upon
the throne of David.” He is the Servant of Yahweh who is “declaring
judgment to the nations…and in his name shall nations trust” - (Matthew
12:18-22, Isaiah 42:1-4).
Matthew’s gospel applies this passage to the time
when Jesus healed a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath Day. Indignant, the Pharisees
began to conspire about “how they might destroy him,” but he withdrew, and a “great
multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.” And the application of the
prophecy at this point suggests that Gentiles were included among the “mixed
multitude” that followed Jesus.
And this is confirmed in the version of the
story recorded in Mark (“A great multitude from Galilee followed him,
and from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from beyond Jordan; and a great
multitude from Tyre and Sidon”). Both Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician
cities with largely Gentile populations - (Mark 3:6-7).
GLOBAL MISSION
After his resurrection, Jesus commanded his
disciples to herald the kingdom to “all nations,” a mission that must be completed before his
return. Thus, the salvation of the “nations” is pivotal to the plan of
redemption - (Matthew 24:14, 28:18-20).
Likewise, he commissioned the disciples to be
“witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and
in Samaria and unto the
end of the earth.” The last clause alludes to the prophecy of the Servant
of Yahweh in Isaiah:
- “I will also give you for a light to the nations that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth”- (Isaiah 49:6, Acts 1:7-9).
The global scope of the mission is stressed
at the climax of Peter’s first sermon on the Day of Pentecost when he combines
verbal allusions from the books of Isaiah and Joel - “For
to you is the promise, to your children and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call to
him” – (Acts 2:33-39).
In his concluding declaration, “promise”
is singular in number and refers to the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.
“To all that are far off” is another allusion to the prophecy in Isaiah
- “Hear,
O isles, unto me; and hearken, you
peoples from far; Yahweh has called me from the womb… I will also give
you for a light to the nations that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth” - (Isaiah
49:1-6).
In the third chapter of Acts, Peter
prays for the lame man at the entrance to the Temple, declaring that “the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” healed him in the name of “His Servant”
– Jesus:
- All the “prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, told of these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed shall all the clans of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised his Servant, sent him to bless you by turning away every one of you from your iniquities” - (Acts 3:25).
Thus, Peter links the ministry of Jesus to
the promise to bless all the clans in Abraham’s seed. His words
anticipate the broadening of the covenant community to include the Gentiles by declaring
that God blessed the Jewish nation “first.”
PREACHING TO GENTILES
Peter was instrumental also in opening the
gospel to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius. He understood that it is
unlawful “for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come into one of
another nation,” yet God showed him that he must “not call any man
common or unclean.”
The Creator of all things accepts men “in
every nation that fear him and work righteousness”; therefore, in
Caesarea, Peter preaches the same gospel to Cornelius that he earlier proclaimed
to the Jews - (Acts 10:19-48).
As he was still preaching, the Holy Spirit fell
on the Gentiles, and they began to speak in tongues. This amazed the Jews with
Peter since uncircumcised Gentiles received the same gift as the Jewish
believers did on the Day of Pentecost.
And after hearing about these events, the church at Jerusalem “glorified God, because to the Gentiles also He had granted repentance unto life.”
In Jerusalem, James declared that the Gentiles
are not required to undergo circumcision “in order to be saved,” for God
has “visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.”
Moreover, James justifies the outreach to uncircumcised Gentiles by citing the prophet
Amos:
- “And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written: After these things, I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will build again its ruins, and I will set it up, that the remnant of men may seek after the Lord and all the nations upon whom my name is called” - (Acts 15:14-17, Amos 9:11-12).
The book of Acts ends with Paul in
Rome “proclaiming the kingdom of God” to all who will
hear, to Jew and Gentile alike - (Isaiah 52:10, Acts 28:26-31).
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul is explicit. Men and women of faith are the true “children of Abraham.” God’s plan was always to justify the Gentiles through faith, especially since He promised Abraham that “In you will all nations be blessed.”
Those men who stand on faith are the ones who
are “blessed with faithful Abraham.” And Jesus is the true “seed of
Abraham” in whom the nations are blessed – (Genesis 12:3, Galatians 3:7-9, 3:14,
Ephesians 2:11-19).
Finally, the book of Revelation
foresees the city of New Jerusalem inhabited by a vast company of men and women
redeemed from all the nations, the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant
promise.
Thus, the “Lamb” is declared
worthy to reign over the Cosmos precisely
because he “purchased for God by his blood men of every tribe, and
tongue, and people, and nation” - (Revelation 5:5-14).
The covenant with Abraham, including its promises
of land and descendants always included the Gentiles, and it finds its true
fulfillment in the New Creation inaugurated by the death and the resurrection
of Jesus. It is “in Jesus,” the true “seed of Abraham,” that the
nations are “blessed.”
