God, the gospel, and the nations' obedience

When God chose Israel as his special people and covenmant partner , it was his intention through them ultimately to bless the world. "By your descendants," God promised Abraham, "shall all the nations of the the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18) God blessed Israel so that, through Israel , all nations would be blessed. The chosen people prayed: "May God....bless us, that thy...(saving power) may be known...among all nations" (Psalm 67:1-2). Israelites who rightly understood they role as God's chosen people gladly invited other human beings everywhere to worship Israel's God, saying: "Praise the Lord, all nations!" (Psalm 117:1).

This is the hope of the Old Testament, but what does it mean and what will it look like when fullfilled? God is sovereign-"king over the earth" (Zech.14:9). Earth is "full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea" (Isa.11:9). The nations go to Jerusalem to receive instruction from God. "Many nations shall...say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his pats'" (Micah 4:2). The language is poetic; the details are symbolic, but their meanings are clear. This is a composite sketch of the kingdom of God--whetever drawn within the bounds of time and space, or in the Age to Come, we cannot be certain and it really does not matter. It is a desirable situasion and it is open to us.

God brings about these things through his messianic Servant. He is "a shoot from the stump of Jesse" ( a descendant of David) and God's Spirit rests on him (Isaiah 11:1-2). He is Israel's deliverer but much more. God tells him: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations; that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isa.49:6).