17 Jul God Loves Gentiles
Did you know, that the Hebrew word for ‘Gentiles’ is the same word used for ‘nations?’
It is the word goy.
At first when that word appeared in the Bible, in Genesis 10, it was purely about nations. In fact Genesis 10 is a huge list of the nations that descended and came from Noah. For example Noah’s son Ham had a son called Mizraim, which is the ancient name for the country of Egypt. So the nation of Egypt has its origin described right here in Genesis 10, along with about another seventy nations.
Over time in the Hebrew mind, the word for nation evolved to come to mean ‘foreigner’ and the idea that Gentiles were outside of God’s plan came to be widely accepted. But that could not be further from the truth, because the Lord loves the nations. Or to say it another way, God loves Gentiles.
Here are a few verses by way of illustration.
Genesis 17:3-7 – Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you
God promises that nations, that is Gentiles will come from Abraham and they will be included in this everlasting covenant that God is making with him.
Genesis 18:18 – Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
Imagine that, all the Gentiles on earth will be blessed through Abraham.
Isaiah 56:7 – For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
And one more, from Jesus.
Matthew 28:18-19 – Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
It is a great exercise to do a search for the word nations in the Bible, and see how much God loves them.
Photo: By Tom Page – Flickr: IMG_1965, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25912446
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