God’s Word to the Nations

I will bless you,

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,

and all the peoples on earth

will be blessed through you. (Gen 12:2-3)

So there are two remarkable lessons here.

God was always promising his covenant people that he would fulfill the promises of his covenant. He promised to do exactly what he said he would do, and he would do it in the way he said he would. His promises to his people were clear. They were a nation set apart. This national identity has stayed with Israel to this day.

Yet woven into the words of the prophet Jeremiah are these big hints that the reach of God’s mercy is bigger. These notes are covert yet conspicuous; they are hidden in plain sight. Since the clues were not acknowledged, the people that came later—the Pharisees and the scribal culture that emerged during the return to Jerusalem—just couldn’t get it. The Gentiles were so far out of the reach of God’s mercy, to their way of thinking, that it was wrong to associate with them at all.

This is a crucial point as we read the Gospels. One might think Jesus is against organized religion or against people who were supported by the ministry. But Jesus is not against the Jewish faith; he is against the leaders who perverted it. This is why he says, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope” (John 5:45). Jesus said that the father of their faith would not be proud of them but would accuse them! This is for many reasons, but one reason is that they had made the covenantal faith tribal. They could not see the signs. God was blessing them so that they could in turn be a blessing to the nations.

If Jesus were to return today, I do not think he would condemn all people who practiced his faith, but he would clear his throat and have something to say to those who were so fixated on the maintenance of their own tribe that they had no love for outsiders. Since I am not God, I do not know who will be in heaven and who will not be. For this reason I should share my faith with all those around me, assuming that they are going to be a part of the covenant. We call everyone to repent; we treat all people as pre-Christian until we know otherwise.

All believers in Christ should see the blessings in their lives as a gift given to bless others.

May God be gracious to us and bless us;

may he make his face shine upon us Selah

so that your way may be known on earth,

your salvation among all nations. (Ps 67:1-2)

The wonderful thing about this exile is that God is actually removing his people from disaster. Perhaps in reading the first few chapters this is lost on us, but now in reading what God is doing to Babylon, it becomes clearer. God did not cause the exile because he hated his people. He did not tell them to avoid Egypt because he did not love them. Rather, one of the reasons for the exile was to protect them from the destruction that he was going to bring on Babylon and Egypt. You have this sense, now reading to the end of the book, that God was pushing his people aside as he is now dealing harshly with the enemies of his people. Again, the most concise statement of this is found in the lament song of Lamentations 3:25-33.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

to the person who seeks him.

It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.

It is good for a man to bear the yoke

while he is still young. (Lam 3:25-27)

Here it says that the discipline of the Lord is good. Of course it is good! If they had stayed under the discipline of the Lord, Zedekiah would not have been tortured and killed, the city would not have been destroyed, and lives would not have been taken. The discipline of the Lord is hard, but it is good.

Those of us in the new covenant use more explicit language to describe the goodness of God. Romans 8:28-29 tells us that everything works out for the good purposes of God, making us like the person of Christ. This does not mean all things immediately seem good. It does mean that all bad things, in this case the discipline of the Lord, can be thought of as good—not in the vain hope that right thoughts will create better realities but in the reality that the Lord’s discipline is always teaching us to bear down so that we can later bear up.

No soldier in boot camp wants boot camp. No soldier in battle can be there without boot camp. The training is indispensable. So our hope as believers is not the removal of suffering; God is too loving for that. The hope of believers is that God never intends to waste a sorrow. No tear unused. No hardship left behind. He rescues each one.

The encouragement continues in Lamentations:

Let him sit alone and be silent,

for God has disciplined him.

Let him put his mouth in the dust—

perhaps there is still hope.

Let him offer his cheek

to the one who would strike him;

let him be filled with disgrace.

For the Lord will not reject us forever.

Even if he causes suffering,

he will show compassion

according to the abundance of his faithful love.

For he does not enjoy bringing affliction

or suffering on mankind. (Lam 3:28-33)

God was sending them into exile temporarily. He told them this over and over again. The Lord will not reject forever. His discipline of his children is severe, but it is not eternal. Yes they were under his discipline, but the discipline of the Lord is so good that he causes us to be able to bear up under it. He is so good!