[Great Verses] Determining verses for your life and humankindPrimjer

Focus is on all nations

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Genesis 12:1–3 is one of the defining passages in the Bible, for God takes one man and begins a new nation. From this point until Acts 2, with the birth of the church, God’s plan revolves around the nation of Israel. First, God commands Abraham to leave his homeland, then God gives him seven epic promises. The final three promises come in verse 3.

“I will bless those who bless you”: God so identifies with his friend Abraham that to bless Abraham and his descendants is to bless Abraham’s God.

“Him who dishonors you I will curse”: To oppose God’s people is to oppose God. Throughout history, Satan has fostered an anti-Semitic attack on God’s people. This is an attack waged by Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, numerous European peoples in the Middle Ages, the Nazis of twentieth-century Germany, and more. All of these governments have been toppled, not because Israel or the Jews are always right, but because the Jews have a special place in God’s plan and in God’s heart. God will curse those who curse Israel.

“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”: God’s ultimate plan was never to focus on Israel alone, but rather to use Israel to bring blessings to all the peoples on earth. Israel was created to be a light to the nations and an instrument of God’s grace for the entire world. God’s heart has always been for all the nations and peoples. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen.12:3).

When Jesus was about to return to heaven after the Resurrection, He gathered his disciples together and charged them, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). It is no longer the time to focus on one nation. Now the focus is on all nations, so that people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev. 7:9) can be reached with the Gospel and declare God’s glory over all the earth, for the living God is a missionary God.

God’s heart for all the nations of the earth means that we cannot just focus on our own country or our own people. Genesis 12:1–3 condemns narrow nationalism, racial pride, and ethnocentricity. God’s heart must become our heart, and we must become globally focused, mission-minded Christians.