 |  |
It may be of service to enquire further into the history of the past to see the reason of
this; clearness in this particular will mean clearer vision in the case of the reconciliation.
Nations are unknown to the Bible from Adam to Noah. It is not until the generations of
the sons of Noah are given that we read of nations and Gentiles. In Gen. 10: the
subdivision of the earth and the bounds of the nations are indicated:--
"These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations:
and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood" (Gen. 10: 32).
In Deut. 32: 8 we read:--
"When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons
of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel."
The seventy nations of Gen. 10: were given their place in the earth preparatory to the
call of the elect nation. Gen. 12: commences the history of that nation in the call of
Abraham, and the promise that the Lord would make of him a great nation, and that in
him all families of the earth should be blessed. From this time onward the nations drop
out of the divine administration. Providential mercies were still given. The covenant of
seed time and harvest was faithfully kept, but spiritually they were left. No laws were
written by the inspiration for them; no promises were made to them; of Israel the Lord
could say:--
"You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3: 2).
"The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all
people that are upon the face of the earth" (Deut. 7: 6).
"He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statues and His judgments unto Israel. He hath
not dealt so with any nation" (Psa. 147: 19, 20).
"For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God
created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other whether
there hath been any such things as this great thing, or hath been heard like it"
(Deut. 4: 32, read on to verse 38).
In the Acts of the Apostles it is from Paul, not Peter, that we learn of the change of
attitude that had set in regarding Israel and the nations. In the initial ministry of Acts 13:
the apostle turns to the Gentiles (verse 46). In Acts 14: a light is thrown on heathendom
by the words of verse 15-17. There we learn that "in times past" God the Creator
"suffered all nations to walk in their own ways," giving them no oracles or laws, but the
witness of nature and providence. At Athens the apostle spoke on these lines again, with
additional explanations:--
"God that made the world and all things therein (note Creator aspect), seeing that He
is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. . . . hath made
of one all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the
times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. . . . the times of this
ignorance God looked over; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent"
(Acts 17: 16-32).
The "but now' marks a change. That change is nothing else than the reconciliation.
Peter says that the Lord Jesus was exalted by the right hand of God to give repentance
unto ISRAEL; Paul here says that by reason of that same resurrection God NOW