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ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH

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THE CULMINATION OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

THE EVERLASTING COVENANT OF GOD

When God made His everlasting covenant with Abraham, it was always going to culminate with all the families of the earth.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.[1]

God’s election has always been and will always be for the sake of Israel, for the sake of His holy name, and for the sake of all the families of the earth—every tribe, language, people, and nation.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.[2]

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.[3]

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.[4]

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall 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 his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.[5]

Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.[6]

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.[7]

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.[8]

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.[9]

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”[10]

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”[11]

God promises to bless every tribe and language and people and nation. Jesus will inherit a remnant from every tribe and language and people and nation. God has purchased, with the blood of His Son, people from every tribe and language and people and nation. We have been commissioned to preach the gospel of the coming Kingdom to every tribe and language and people and nation. Jesus will be worshipped by every tribe and language and people and nation forever in the age to come.

These promises are ironclad. We’ve been shown the end of all things and we know with certainty that the God of Israel will keep every promise He’s ever made.

THE ETERNAL PURPOSES OF GOD

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ… This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel… To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord…[12]

The eternal purpose of God is to display His wisdom to the rulers and principalities of the air through the Church!

The Church that is comprised of all nations and built on Jewish foundations.[13] It is a glorious mystery that Gentiles from every tribe, language, people, and nation are fellow heirs with the Jewish people of God. Those who were once far off can now be brought near through the blood of Jesus![14]

The Lord is building a dwelling among His people. A mosaic of living stones[15] comprised of every ethnically distinguishable people group on earth, made in His image. What phenomenally good news! And yet, there are literal billions of people on earth who have yet to be told.

In 2017 an FAI Relief team drove into Mosul, Iraq with trucks full of food and water for people languishing under ISIS control. As families would receive water, they would leave someone to watch over it as they waited in line for food. I saw a young boy sitting in the dirt next to 4 cases of bottled water. Later, I saw another boy sitting in a field next to nothing, looking dehydrated and exhausted.

If you had a bottle of water with you that day, who would you have given yours to?

America has enjoyed access to the gospel for nearly four centuries. Meanwhile, India, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia etc. are languishing from lack of access to the good news that they too can be reconciled to the God of Israel through the blood of His Son.

These unreached, unengaged, frontier people groups[16] do not have a reproducing witness of the gospel among them. They do not have access to Churches, Bibles, or Christians. This is a travesty. But one that is not without remedy.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life… whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.[17]

God has offered His Son for the sins of mankind. But billions of people remain unaware of this. If nothing changes, these tribes and languages, peoples and nations will remain deserving the wrath of God. But there is hope:

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?[18]

Not everyone is called to go. But everyone is called to participate. Our field personnel know they’re called to go. But they can’t go unless they’re sent.

Will you send us?

You are invited to partner with us as we co-labor with the Lord of the harvest to bring Jesus His inheritance from among the nations.

When we stand around the throne of God in the age to come, worshipping the Lamb forever and ever, may we have the unfathomable honor of knowing that some of the people standing with us were there because we banded together to give a faithful witness of Jesus and His coming Kingdom.

MARANATHA

 

Jordan Scott lives in the Muslim world with his wife and children. He is the host of THE WAY podcast and author of A Call to Compel: The Simplicity, Urgency, and Joy of Making Disciples, available now from FAI Publishing. Jordan can be reached by email at jordan@faimission.org.

 
 

Jordan Scott