IV. The First Mention of Nations
As we continue through Genesis, we happen across Genesis 10 and 11. Genesis 10 is considered the Table of Nations. Genesis 11 is the tower of Babel. These two chapters are not to be taken individually. They are both together. The first chapter tells us of the nations represented in the next chapter. It is like when you read a newspaper headline “22 killed by bus accident.” When you start reading the story, it gives details of the bus’ travel and the people on the bus. But I thought that the bus wrecked. How is it now traveling? This is the very thing that I have heard people accuse of what is happening in Genesis 10 and 11. The first chapter gives the headline. Chapter 11 then gives the details. We need to wrestle with those details.
“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
In this first mention of the nations, we find that they are in disobedience to God. He told them to fill the earth and be fruitful and multiply. Instead they have come together as an international one-world antichrist government. As it was at the beginning, so it shall be at the end. This tower of Babel represents the world coming together to rival the heavens. They have banded together to ensure humanity will be god-like. We are able to reasonably consider that the U.N. and other international systems are the first fruits of this last day’s antichrist government.
Maybe one of the most important details is that instead of using stone they made bricks and baked them thoroughly. It says they had brick for stone. Why is that important? Stones are what God has made. You will never find a reference to the altar of God and bricks together. The altar is made out of stone. Those stones were not even allowed to be chiseled or cut. The way that God has allowed those stones to be shaped (by erosion or other means) is the way they are to remain.
The nations made bricks. They baked them thoroughly. They didn’t even let them sit outside to dry out. Bricks symbolize human ingenuity and ability. By their own strength, power, and wisdom the nations built this tower. They relied on nothing of God. And why would they bake them instead of allowing them to dry? This speaks of imminence. The nations could not allow an extra moment to pass. Their exultation and promotion had to be immediate.
This is how the nations are described at the very beginning. From their very inception they are in opposition to God in all things. So why would God choose to confuse their language instead of destroy the nations totally? The nations are God’s inheritance. We read that as the last verse of Psalm 82 in the previous chapter. God has intention and purpose for those nations. Their disobedience to His plans and purposes does not diminish or contradict their existence.
The Nations in Relation to God
We are all familiar with the Scripture, “Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.” The 82nd Psalm ends with these words. Though we’ve all read it, we continue to allow the nations to indulge in their own pride and arrogance apart from God. Because of our unbelief in this particular verse and verses like it, we have only allowed too many times the nations to continue in their hostility against God. Every culture is hostile to God – even the ones that seem gracious.
As much as national culture might be dear to us, I am convinced that it does not come from above, but instead comes from below. Many nations throughout the world are hostile to God in that Christianity is being persecuted with more and more ferocity. However, in these Western countries that are not yet hostile to Christianity, we find the more subtle (and therefore all the more dangerous) persecution. We are allowed our Sunday culture – a few hours to spend together at church – but are forbidden to allow such a culture to come into the secular affairs of men.
Probably the two biggest examples of this would be the homosexual agenda and the creation-evolution debate. Scientists are absolutely appalled and angered that anyone would take the Bible as literal and base their science off of it. Though it has never been proven wrong, and though models have been made based off of the Biblical account that are more accurate in explaining the world around us, scientists insist that the Bible is a taboo source because anything supernatural is not scientific. Our mere insistence on taking the Bible literal seems to cause for chafing and argument.
It is just as much a sin for the nations (and cultures) to continue in their ignorance and rejection of God as it is for individuals. The Gospel is just as much to the nations as it is to individuals. But who of us believes that? The nations are the Lord’s inheritance. Israel was even commanded in Deuteronomy 4:6 to observe the commandments of God as a display to the nations. God has always had a prerogative to them. It is a Hebraic understanding that would grasp this. But we are all too Greek or Messianic. And if we as the Church – the sole instrument of God that knows the truth – do not take reality and truth and this heavenly perspective to the nations, then how will they hear it?
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28 for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Acts 17:22-31.
This is the message that Paul gave to secular men on Mars Hill. Although the Greeks emphasized and applauded man in all that he is, Paul brings an entirely different view. The Greeks built monuments and massive architecture to their gods and goddesses. Mankind has always done such. It goes back to the wisdom of the principalities and powers. They need something massive. They need something monumental. If it isn’t large, then it isn’t great. This is the thinking that categorizes mankind. Unless we achieve greatness, then we aren’t successful. And of course greatness has been defined as wealth, fame, stature, etc.
In order to continue in that view, humanity as well as the nations must say that God has not made them. The maker is the owner. Unless that maker then sells or gives away his authority over that which he made, the clay has no authority over the potter. It is this way with Jesus and His Church. It is this way with God and Israel. He has made them and formed them, and He decides their ultimate purpose. Paul interjects, though, that God made the nations and has established their boundaries. Therefore, God is the owner and authority of those nations. They might serve their own purposes – which are actually the purposes of Satan – but that does not relinquish them from God’s cosmic purpose for them. Any nation that does not seek God to understand its purpose must reject the notion of God and therefore be driven atheistically – even if being run by Christians.
The issue of boundaries shouldn’t be quickly disregarded, though. If God has set up the boundaries of the nations, then why do the nations war against each other for more territory? We do not want to be bound, because a boundary means a limitation. Any God that would enforce boundaries and limitation is opposed by all men.
I would say that between this verse and the many verses in the Old Testament where God shows jealousy for His name among the nations, I have come to believe that God does not only desire that the individual seek Him, but also the nations. There is an individual call to each person. But there is a much larger call to even the nations. God has established them, and even all the way through to Revelation 22 when we’re seeing heaven, the nations still exist. God is jealous for the nations in the same way that He is jealous for individuals.
In the void of seeking God and His purposes, a nation is driven to its ultimate end – wickedness and destruction. God tells Abraham in Genesis 15 that Abraham’s descendants will be lead into a country where they will suffer slavery and persecution. Why can’t God just give Abraham the land then and there? Why must there have been 400 years between that moment and the leaving of Egypt? The answer is given in verse 16: “…the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
God was going to destroy the Amorites for their wickedness. But it had not yet reached the brim. Therefore, God allowed slavery and persecution of His own people so that there would come a later time when Israel would bring justice to the Land. We can look at modern history to find this as well. Hitler established Nazism, and where is the glory that was Germany? But the wall being broken down in 1989 is not a victory. This was a sign that just as much communism was on the other side of that wall to allow peace. The Berlin Wall coming down was a prophetic warning to the world of another Neo-Nazi movement. Germany’s cup has not reached full wickedness. And if you trace their history back, you will find that the name Germany comes from the settlers of that region of Rome. Where did they come from? They were Assyrians.
So this is not Germany against Israel – or Judaism. This is Assyria against Israel. This is the same ancient enmity. Assyria’s wickedness will come to full measure at the end of the age when the Day of the Lord utterly destroys wickedness from the face of the planet. It has been almost 75 years since the death of Hitler, and yet Germany is starting to be known again for their Neo-Nazism. This spirit is rising again to the same degree of national pride and ambition apart from God.
I mentioned in passing that the nations are displayed in Revelation 22. The Bride rules and reigns with Christ. But in heaven, what is there to rule and reign over? Haven’t all things been brought under the authority of Jesus Christ? Haven’t all people been made clean so that sin and death are no more? I’ll get into this point more at the end of the book. For now, I want to make the statement that Paul also seems to mention: that the nations are to be judged at the end of the age (verse 31). The nations were not established incidentally. It was not accident either.
God has plans and purpose for those nations. If they, as nations, decide to rebel against God’s purposes, then they will be judged accordingly in righteousness. But if those nations have sought God to seek out His plans and purposes, then they shall receive reward as nations. And we as believers know what these rewards are. When we surrendered or lives and purposes and ambitions over to God’s plans, we were the beneficiaries of peace and joy. For the nations to surrender to the plan of God is for that nation to receive life itself. “Righteousness exults a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,” Proverbs 14:34.
For many years I thought that the “they” mentioned in Acts 17:27 was about the people. “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us…” The problem is that this comes as a continuation of the sentence speaking of nations and their boundaries. If Paul is continuing the statement about nations, then the “they” mentioned here must be national. In the rejection of the nations to seek God to understand their purposes we have the ultimate display of sin. Maybe what Paul is trying to get at is that the judgment of the world is not to be over individuals only, but even judgments of the nations.
“I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land,” Joel 3:2. This verse in Joel is speaking of a judgment of the nations. In the context around it, this is after Jesus has returned. How do I know that? I know that because Israel has been restored to her Land (verse 1), and that happens at the return of Christ (Zechariah 12:10 and context).
The nations are in requirement to seek the Lord to see what His purpose is for them. How much more does God expect the Church to seek Him and find its purpose? While we are remaining in the nations, we have a very specific role to play to those nations. How often have you heard that spoken? Have you ever heard someone pray for that (or prayed it yourself)? Because the Church has not been seeking God continually, we have no message for our own nations. How true is it that most of our activity has been of our own initiating, even if it is for God’s sake? We cannot blame the nations for not seeking God when most of us haven’t sought Him ourselves
What might be even worse than not seeking God to know our purpose is that the Church doesn’t even recognize the contention between God and the nations. We are the ones that are required to speak on God’s behalf to these nations. How else will they know that they are at war and opposed to God? How else will they hear the word of God? How else will they know to seek Him?
To seek God for His purposes is to seek God directly. Any other seeking of God is a false seeking. Any other seeking of God might result in us finding something other than God – even something that gives relief, supposed benefit, and freedom. God is only found when we find His purposes. His purposes are only found when you find Him. The two are interwoven. To find God is to understand His purposes. By this we know whether we have truly found Him. We understand His heart, because He has both given us a new heart and exposed to us His heart.
This can be equated to asking the why question. There are the “five double-u.” Who, what, when, where, and why? Many of us when searching out the end times, and when studying the Scripture in any area, we will ask the first four questions. We want to know who is writing, and to whom he is writing. We want to know what the context of his writing is (because that is equally as important as the subject matter itself). We want to know when it was written, because culture can give us a hint as to why the author says what he says. For the same reason, we press the where question. But we don’t often ask why. If we do, it typically is to ask why he is writing, and not to ask why he says what he says. These are two very distinct questions.
If God is the true author of all Scripture, then why is it that God would say this? Why would God have this plan? Why would God have this opinion? Do you see how this is searching out the heart of God? We need to understand God’s heart in order to understand His purposes. The study of any Biblical topic must start and end here. Without God’s purpose, we are left with shallow understanding. We might have the whole Bible memorized, and yet we couldn’t tell you one iota about what the Bible is really saying.
This gets at the heart of the matter. One of the many flaws in the people of God is that we simply don’t know God as we ought. This has caused many doctrines to come that are absolutely ignorant. I have a friend with a shirt that says, “I’ve survived every wave of doctrine.” Everything matters. Our understanding and our perception of the things of God really do matter. This is one reason why I find myself speaking extremely harshly to those that would say, “I just like things to be simple. I don’t talk doctrine.”
I’m all for simplicity, especially since God can speak to anyone in their own terms. This is what was recorded in Acts 2: everyone heard them praising God in their own tongue. It isn’t just a language; it is recognition of personality and character traits. I don’t care how deeply you think. One thing that matters is doctrine. If we don’t esteem it, then we will ultimately give a skewed vision of the Gospel and God Himself.
Kingdom versus Patriotism
To see the nations as at war with God gives us a better view for dealing with them. We aren’t speaking of some sort of government set up by people to have order. The nations represent and typify a system behind the system. The powers of the air have great sway over nations. They lead and corrupt the hearts of entire national culture. While we as mere men think that we’re having some sort of control over government and national/international affairs, the powers of darkness are having a field day on such an open and willing playground.
Until we can recognize that, we will have no effectual power to come against such a system. Christianity is cross-national. That doesn’t mean international, as though God plays according to national culture and opinion. It is cross-national. Nation and kindred do not tie down the kingdom of God. There are no borders set up to divide God’s kingdom from the kingdoms of the world. This is in stark contrast to every other religion. Every other religion allows many gods. Not the least of these gods is national pride – the state. Is the highest calling for man to defend their nation?
This brings an interesting question. If Christianity is cross-national, then what does that mean with regards to the nations that we live in? Can we be both patriotic and still live in a cross-national reality (Theocratic Kingdom)? I think the dividing line is when our nation decides that their purposes are supreme. We cannot support our nations when they would teach, as Japan and Germany taught in World War 2, that they are supreme and all other nationalities are less than. We cannot support our nations when they push for a culture or agenda that is contrary to the eternal purposes of God.
The question of whether we can both be kingdom minded and at the same time be patriotic is difficult. You cannot come to conclusions alone. A community of believers that understand the implications of both aspects must wrestle this with. The reason for this is simple. Every nation is different. The amount that is required to be patriotic is quite different. If we’re told to bow down and worship the emperor, then patriotism is unacceptable. If we’re told that in order to support our country we must support our team, support our wars, or we must support anything else that is specifically on the nation’s agenda and opposed to God, then patriotism is unacceptable.
I enjoy what America stands for. I agree that freedom and equity are important and vital things. But since when have freedom and equity become something to worship? When has freedom and equity been possible through a nation, instead of through God? These are important things to note and answer. You cannot come to a complete answer on your own. It takes a corporate searching of our hearts and motives to make sure that we are not merely antipatriotic. To be antipatriotic is still below the glory of God.
Our goal is to be kingdom minded. Is there a conflict between devoting ourselves wholly to God’s kingdom and also showing devotion and loyalty to our nation? There is if our nation is something we worship. There is if we find ourselves in a place that we will never speak ill of our nation. There is a conflict if we will not bring a necessary message of judgment to our nation if or when God calls.
The current Messianic movement among Christians searches to get back to our Hebrew roots. The problem is that they then put Israel on a pedestal. I have never heard a word spoken by Messianic believers against Israel. All of the immorality and pride and godlessness that Israel is about are frightening. And there isn’t a peep from the Church to call them out in their sin. Why? Israel might be God’s people, but that does not make them more godly and blameless and “untouchable.” They are still mere men that have sin and struggles like everyone else.
One of our first and primary calls as the Church is to express the attitude of God to our nations. America has taken the Native Americans out of their land, uprooted them and moved them to “undesirable” land, and then claimed their land as our own. One of the figures that I’ve heard was that six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. But in our own country, when we moved the Indians, we exterminated any that were unwilling to be moved. This resulted in 150 million Native Americans’ deaths.
Where was the Church to speak up against such an act? Where is the Church now to speak up and call to the attention of our nation the immorality that we’ve swept under the rug? When a nation will not deal with their history and repent honestly, it will deepen the sin worse in the following generations. We push one more click further into apostasy and grotesque immorality. This is all done for the sake of national pride. Nations do not want to be exposed, and thus they will silence any voice that sheds light in the darkness.
When Sherman, during the Civil War, went from the north all the way through the southern States into Georgia, he did not relent to only killing the opposing army. He burned fields, he ruined cities, and he destroyed century old vineyards and orchards. What was it that he did? On what grounds does he have the authority to rob people of their livelihood and food? What reason is there that is great enough to say that what Sherman did was heroic? To say that slavery or defeat in the war are those sufficient grounds undermines the question. What God has established is challenged in these kinds of war tactics. In our national zeal and pride we go to far.
If we are somehow tied up with our nation in a way that causes us to overlook these details and not call them to attention, then we have forfeited the ground of truth. Our witness is hindered. We are no longer steady eyed and unwavering. God allows the nations to perform such throes as these in order to bring them to the ends of self. It is after we have exhausted our resources and our ability to uphold peace is still challenged that we will then degrade to other wicked and detestable means. When a nation reaches those grounds, it has come to the place of overturning.
For us as the Church to recognize this and act appropriately will make us an object of opposition. What is the appropriate reaction? The appropriate reaction is to understand the issues behind the issues and to speak to them in love and sobriety. We don’t debate the surface issues. Homosexuality is a surface issue. There is a deeper issue still at play. Homosexuality is a preliminary judgment of God to the nation to call it to repentance before the ultimate judgment of hellfire comes upon them.
Biblical Christianity opposes all other religions. It stands on truth and truth alone. There is no other objective means to knowing God. In a world where the nations are increasingly striving for pluralism and religious freedom, this is the thorn in their sides. And how many of our denominations have fallen into the trap of interfaith relations? Do we honestly believe that our religion alone is the true and valid religion? The current events would suggest that we not only see other religions as valid, but we even applaud Moslem fervor and Judaism’s devout customs and religions. By even having a term as “the three great religions” or monotheisms, we have sacrificed our voices.
There are consequences for allowing these false religions to continue unchallenged. This kind of tolerance is of the devil. By allowing nations to be established on the basis of false religion only paves the way for militarism and aggression and death. So it is not for us to give these other religions a respect, but for us to contend against them. This isn’t done in hostility. It is done in supreme love because we know the consequences and we know the demonic deception behind their religions.
But this view of Christianity bein