Nations

The nations are never peripheral to God’s purposes. From the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed,” the salvation of the nations is the goal toward which redemptive history is moving. The particular election of Israel is not the end of the story; it is the means through which the blessing reaches all mankind.

The Old Testament maintains a tension between Israel’s separation from the nations and the nations’ inclusion in Yahweh’s purposes. Israel is called to be distinct, to not adopt the worship of the surrounding peoples. At the same time, the Psalms repeatedly call the nations to praise Yahweh, and the prophets look forward to a day when people from every nation will stream to Zion. Ruth the Moabitess, Rahab the Canaanite, and the men of Nineveh are among the Gentiles who enter the community of the redeemed within the Old Testament narrative itself.

In the New Testament, Pentecost reverses Babel: where the nations were scattered in confusion, the Spirit now gathers them in understanding. The Great Commission sends the church to make disciples of all nations. Revelation 7 shows the final vision of redemption fulfilled: “a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” The articles below trace the theme of the nations across several key passages.