“The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it,” (Habakkuk 1:5 NLT).
That God is interested in what happens in the nations is beyond questions. After all, He is sovereign! The nations are the scoreboard for understanding the end-time prophecies and the display of God’s mighty acts. As we said, be it the “people groups,” which is the New Testament scriptural definition of nations or the political and geographical delineation of nations, God is interested in them all. To some degree, the happenings in the nations are some of the ways of measuring and understanding what God is doing in the world. This is why intercessors should intentionally pray for the nations and try to discern and understand what is happening in the nations too.
Long before the New Testament, the Psalmist in various passages had always drawn our attention to God’s plans and work in the nations.
In Psalm 2:8 we read: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” This text shows that the nations belong to God, and He gives it to those who petition Him in prayer. It is a picture of the relationship between prayer and asking, and how the ends of the earth belong to Christ. We also see how the Son of God will rule over all nations and the end of the earth. The verse points forward to Jesus, who is positioned as the King of the nations. The passage further predicts that the Messiah will someday break rebellious nations with an iron rod, and urges the kings and rulers of the earth to submit to the Son’s rule.
Psalm 46:10 also talks about the nations. It reads: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The Psalmist wants us to be silent and to know that God will be exalted in the nations. God is active in the nations and we have to be rest assured that His purposes will ultimately triumph in the nations. God never stops working in the nations of the earth.
In Psalm 67:1-2, we read: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” This Psalm has been described as a missionary Psalm.
The psalmist wanted the blessings so that God’s ways may be known to everyone on the earth. He wanted to be a witness of who God is.
The only way people on this earth will know who God is and what He is like, is by the witness of those who know Him. Seeing a believer and hearing the testimony of what God is doing in his life will do more than anything. But the believer must be willing to point people to God, not just look at the things he is blessed with.
It is not a mere coincidence that the Bible starts with God’s promise to make Abram a great nation and to have nations originate from him and ends with the Lord providing means for the healing of the nations. (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:6; Revelation 22:2). This, perhaps, is the strongest proof that God is interested in the nations and has plans for the nations.
•Contact:pastoracukachi@gmail.com
