Christ Revealed to the Nations

God chose the nation Israel. This is indeed a mystery. The Book of Deuteronomy shows that this choice was not due to any distinctive qualities in them, but due alone to the sovereign choice of God.

Jesus Christ, an Israelite, is himself the fulfilment of Israel, and so is the gathering with him of believers from all nations. So the Church is described as “the Israel of God”. Israel of old was the platform for God to walk the stage of this earth and universe, and it was his will to make himself known to people of all nations, on an equal basis.

Isaiah and some other Old Testament prophets had foretold this. The original Old Covenant with Abra(ha)m was to be the avenue through which people of all the families of earth should be blessed (Genesis 12: 1-14).

Jesus was born in the “10/40 window” (North latitude). This “window” has been the special focus of many intercessors in recent years, praying for the revelation of Christ to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews, as well as to others. The first Gentiles to receive revelation were Iranians. They came from a general part of the world which is now freshly open to the gaze of the world. God met them within the context of their astrology to point to the Light of the World. That did not justify paganism, but God used it to point them to a star not in the zodiac! God met them where he could find them, but Herod the Great chose to apply revealed truth destructively!

The small child Jesus spent some years in Egypt physically, from which he was later spiritually to accomplish “a Second Exodus” in the “Moses Anointing” of Deuteronomy 18.

Fear of Herod Archelaus led Joseph and Mary to take Jesus to Galilee, where he grew up in Nazareth, near the Hellenistic (Greek culture) town of Sephoris. This was also in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy as Matthew 2: 23 attests.

Modern day events have blown open the areas where the earliest “Gentiles” (non-Jewish ethnic people) came from. Our link missionaries in Tanzania, Dr. Michel Burke and family, are seeking to understand their Islamic friends and neighbours. Our link ministers in India, the Rev. Dr. Paul Pillai and family are equipping Christians to evangelise and minister among al, the religious traditions of Asia.

Modern Australia gives us increasing opportunities to understand people of vastly different backgrounds, and to share Jesus with them. Let us pray for the compassion, imagination and vision to do so with increasing effectiveness. Many of the opportunities will arise out of the context of human need.

Lindsay Johnstone

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