It is time that the nations honour Jesus
by Craig Heidenreich
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And they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles (Isaiah 66:19b).
I suspect that most of us reading this today are not Jews. That means you are numbered (with me) among the Gentiles referred to in this passage.
The Lord uses Isaiah to open up some new thinking for the Israelites and begin shifting their focus to his greater purpose – to ‘win the Gentiles’. God had spoken to Abraham many centuries before, saying, ‘all the nations will be blessed through you’, but the Israelites had become habitually focused on themselves.
Thank God for the prophetic insight given to Isaiah and for men like Paul who understood that the Jews were God’s chosen people – to be priests to the nations, not just to themselves.
Most of us are old enough to have seen a dramatic shift in the ethnic mix of Australia and New Zealand over the last few decades. Are we seeing an outworking of these verses in Isaiah? Are we in a time when God is choosing to declare his glory among the Gentiles?
Last time I checked, God uses his people to declare his glory!
In Exodus 33, Moses asked the Lord, ‘show me your glory’, and he responded by saying, ‘I myself will make all my “goodness” pass before you’.
Perhaps we are to show the goodness of God to newcomers in our midst so that they get to see his glory. Surely the gospel is good news and unique among the messages of the world religions. People should have the opportunity to taste it.
Lord, help me lift my eyes above my own situation and show your goodness to others who have come from afar. May we come to your holy mountain together. Amen.
Craig enjoys making friends with people from other countries and trying to learn a few words of greeting in their languages. He says it’s fun to see the joy on a person’s face to hear their mother tongue. When he has some spare time, he is happy renovating the home he recently purchased in Kapunda, South Australia.
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