God is at work in the old testament. We can see evidence of God including people of all nations
in the Old Testament through many events. After all the nations are separated and scattered from
the tower of Babel, God chooses Abram and promises that all the people on earth will be blessed
through him (Gen. 12). God reminds him of this promise again after his name changed to
Abraham. Because Abraham obeyed God, He tells him that all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed, and his descendants will be as great as the number of stars in the sky (Gen. 22). God
clearly shows that His mission is to build up a nation through Abraham, and He kept his promise
by using Abraham's son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob. Jacob becomes the father of the twelve
tribes of Israel (Gen. 28:14). God uses Israel to show His glory by entering a covenant fellowship
with the nation to live as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex. 19:5-6). He desired for
them to be set apart from the Gentiles. In Psalm 67, we read that God showed mercy to the
Israelites and blessed them, so God's way would be displayed on earth. God wanted His salvation
to surround the nations. Israel compares to the early church in the same way that we should be
set apart from the world. Walter C. Kaiser says, "Israel was to be a “light to the nations” just as
Abraham had been told, the writer of Exodus had exhorted, and the psalmist had sung."1 God
calls modern-day Christians to be a light in the darkness. We are to be proclaiming evangelists
who reflect the body of Christ as a holy people. God desires for everyone on earth to be part of
His kingdom, and it's up to us to decide if we're going to follow what He says, spread the word to
every nation, and love unconditionally.
1Walter C. Kaiser, “Israel’s Missionary Call” in Perspectives on the World Christian
Movement: A Reader, 4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena:
William Carey Library, 2009), ch. 2, accessed August 10th, 2020,
https://app.wordsearchbible.com/reader.
Hi Laveka, great post! God's promise to Abraham is genuinely marvelous. All along, He always
had a plan to create Israel's nation through Abraham and his descendants; one of the descendants
was Jesus. Walter C. Kaiser says, "Israel was to be God’s missionary to the world—and so are
we by virtue of our identity as Abraham’s spiritual descendants! The mission has not changed."2
God set Israel apart from the other nations and called them his chosen people and prized
possession (Deut. 7:6). God has set His children apart from the world as well. Once we enter into
a relationship with God, we are adopted into His chosen family. As Christians, we are called to
spread the good news of Jesus Christ into all the nations. Jesus gives the great commission in the
New Testament, and we can compare it to Moses telling the nation of Israel to go and take
possession of land (Deut. 4:1). Israel was to make disciples of one nation, and today, we are
called to make disciples of all nations for Jesus Christ. God's message of reaching every nation is
evident in the grand narrative of the Bible.
Hi Stephen, you did a great job with this post. I enjoyed your description of what kickstarted the
call on Abraham's life. It's such a remarkable Bible story where I find usually find something
new I didn't know before each time I read it. God said to Abraham, “Go from your country, your
people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great
nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great" (Gen. 12:1-2).3 Abraham had to leave
his country and his people to fulfill God's plan to fill the entire world with the knowledge of the
Gospel. Abraham obeyed, and God fulfilled His promise to him. Israel compares to our modern
2Walter C. Kaiser, “Israel’s Missionary Call” in Perspectives on the World Christian
Movement: A Reader, 4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena:
William Carey Library, 2009), ch. 2, accessed August 10th, 2020,
https://app.wordsearchbible.com/reader.
3New International Version
view of the church in many ways. Israel and the church were both set apart for something
greater. We were meant to glorify God. Through God's grand narrative, we read God's plan
for mission work, and spreading the Gospel to every nation and tongue was always there from
the beginning.
