“The Nations,” (or “the Gentiles”; it’s usually the same word in Hebrew) is an important theological concept in the Old Testament. It was not simply s designation for the different ethnic groupings found in the world of that time, nor a way of distinguishing descendants of one ancient figure from those of another; it was also a way of describing what the New Testament calls “the world,” especially as that term applies to the world in darkness and under the dominion of Satan. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (Jn. 15:19). Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 Jn. 2:15). The Old Testament calls this “world” “the nations,” and Israel’s relation to the nations established the pattern for the church’s relation to the world.
Before the flood there were two lines of descendants from Adam and Eve, the one of Cain and the other of Seth, called in Genesis 3:15 the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, but we do not read of nations. The history of the nations seems to have begun after the flood. At that time God destroyed all the people who lived on the earth except for Noah and his family, and the nations began to develop from the sons of Noah. Genesis 10 records for us the beginning of this process: These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generation, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood (v. 32).
The Lord’s judgment on Babel was probably the primary factor in this development. Men determined to build a tower that would prevent them from being scattered over the face of the whole earth (Genesis 11:4), but God intervened and confused their language so that they could not understand each other’s speech (Genesis 11:7). It is likely that Genesis 10 does not preceed Babel, but includes it and describes the scattering in terms of the formation of separate nations.
In this scattering of the nations, God preserved a covenant line Noah’s son, Shem and his descendants (see Gen. 11:10-26), and eventually called Abram out of that family (Genesis 12:1) to make a covenant with him and to send him to the land of Canaan. In Abraham and his seed God began to form for himself a particular nation to be his own. He chose Isaac rather than Ishmael. Ishmael became great, but in Isaac Abraham’s seed was called. He chose Jacob rather than Esau. Esau also became a nation, but it was from Jacob and his sons that God formed his people.
God caused this people to go down to Egypt and to grow and multiply there. He brought them out and shaped them into a nation at Mt. Sinai. From that time all the way to the beginning of the New Testament, God maintained this difference between the nation of Israel and the other nations of the world. Israel was the nation and people chosen by God, among whom he dwelt, with whom he had established his covenant. They had the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God and the promises (Romans 9:4). All the other nations and peoples were set aside throughout the Old Testament.
The nation of Israel, therefore, was the seed of the woman. The other nations were the seed of the serpent. God separated one people and nation from the nations of the world and sanctified them to himself, so that they could enter his house and dwell with him. He even gave to this people the land of Canaan which had belonged to the descendants of Canaan, nations of the world which he had not chosen.
Just as God had said to Adam and Eve, there was enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The nations hated Israel and continually tried to destroy her (Ps. 83 and many other passages), and Israel had not only to defend herself from physical warfare but from being swallowed up by the nations through failing to maintain her distinctive character. She had to dwell alone (Deut. 33:28), set apart from the world by her singular service to the God who had chosen her.
God had commanded her not to be like the other nations, not to worship their gods, not to intermarry with them, not to be unequally yoked with them, not to imitate their ways of life. Her way of life was to be governed by the law of God, not the customs of the nations.
The nations were under the judgment of God. The prophets proclaimed it over and over. When Israel became like the nations she too came under the judgment of God. In fact, God often used the wicked nations for the judgment of his people and Israel for the judgment of the nations.
Nevertheless, while singling Israel out as his own people, God also made clear to Israel through his promises and prophets that one day he would extend his salvation to the nations. He said this to Abraham and he made it even more clear in the prophets, e.g. in Isaiah 11:10, 42:1,6, 49:6 and 60:16. Israel was to be a part of this work. Isaiah 61:5-6 even suggests that Israel was to be the priest of God on behalf of the nations.
So, there were two sides to Israel’s relation to the nations. On the one hand she had to be separate, shun their works and gods and even be at times the instrument of God’s justice. On the other hand, she had to summon the nations to the praise and worship of the one true God, the God of Israel.
Israel was never very faithful to this two-fold calling. Prior to the Babylonian captivity, she was always going whoring after other gods. After the captivity there was a gradual shift to the other extreme. Israel began to neglect her calling to serve as the witness of God to the nations, and the Jews learned to hate them and shun them, so that at the time of the Lord’s ministry they would have as little contact with them as possible. That was overcompensating for former sins. Israel would no longer worship the gods of the nations, but neither would she seek the fulfillment of God’s promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations.
The psalms reflect this whole pattern of things, the pattern of the nation and the nations, the people and the peoples, and the pattern of enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The psalms proclaim the universal rule of God through his anointed (Ps. 47:5-8 is just one example among many), but the nations were in rebellion against him (Pss. 2 and 46). God’s people were not to be like them (Ps. 106:35). The nations conspired against the people of God (Ps. 83). God judged the nations (Ps. 9:5,15,17,19,20), and Israel often prayed for that judgment. God even used Israel to judge the nations (Psalm 149), and the nations to judge Israel (Ps. 44:11,14). The conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is one of the key themes of the Psalms.
On the other hand, Israel was not just to ignore, hate or destroy the nations. God’s purpose of saving them is also found in the Psalms (see Psalm 67 for a beautiful example. Psalm 22:27-28 is another, and Psalm 87 another). The anointed will reign over the nations and bless them (Ps. 72:11,17). Israel was to proclaim the glory of her God and to summon the nations to worship him. (Ps. 96:7-9).
We find a striking example of this in Psalms 117 and 118. In 118:10–12 the people of God sang, All nations surrounded me, But in the Name of the LORD I will destroy them. They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. They surrounded me like bees; They were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. There you see Israel’s passionate hatred of the wickedness of the nations and her strong desire that she be the instrument of God’s justice on them.
But Psalm 117 is exactly the opposite. Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles [nations]! Laud Him, all you peoples! These nations are the Gentile nations, the nations not chosen by the Lord. The Lord did not give them his salvation. They were wicked and idolaters and subject to the judgment of God. They were enemies of God’s nation and did much damage over the years of Israel’s history in the land. Israel was to remain separate from them. Nevertheless, Israel proclaimed the sovereignty of her own God over these nations, prophesied of the calling of these nations to Zion, and herself summoned the nations to join her in worship.
All the elements of the church’s relation to the world in the New Testament are present in Israel’s relation to the nations, and the Psalms are as appropriate today in this regard as they were in the Old Testament. On the one hand the Psalms place before us our calling to be separate from the world, to fight against it and to pray for God’s judgment on it, and on the other hand the command of God to pray for the gathering of the nations, to call them to the worship of our God, and to preach the gospel of God’s love for the world.
And this reflects the two-fold work of God in the world. The Father has sent the Son as savior of the world (1 Jn 4:14), but he has also appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained (Acts 17:31). God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son (Jn. 3:16), but also I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. (Jn 17:9).
Therefore, we pray, “Father, save the world” and “Father, judge the world.” He will answer both prayers in the preaching of the gospel and the coming of his kingdom.