Do me a favor. Give me the name of an ancient Assyrian or Babylonian prophet. How about a Persian or Egyptian prophet? OK, name a Hittite or Moabite prophet. Of course you can’t. Why not? There were none! Oh, they might have had their share of sorcerers and wizards, but I am talking about true prophets, prophets anointed by God to speak to the people His word, His truths. For thousands of years God revealed Himself solely to Judah and Israel. Isaiah, God’s own prophet, discerned this and wrote: “Verily thou art a God THAT HIDEST THYSELF, O God OF ISRAEL, the Savior” (See Isaiah 45:15). Through His prophet Amos, God quite matter-of-factly stated: “You (Israel) ONLY have I known of all the families of the earth” (See Amos 3, verse 2). God inspired the Psalmist to write: “He (God) shows His word unto Jacob (Israel’s name before God changed it), His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation (or any OTHER nation): and as for His judgments, they have not known them…” (See Psalm 147:19-20).
Notice, this inspired Psalmist says God had a “hands off” policy with all the rest of the world! “His judgments, they (all other nations) have not known them!” When they suffered drought, it wasn’t from God’s intervention. It was just a natural phenomenon. When they won a war waged against one of their neighbors, God had not granted them the victory. They simply had better intelligence, the best trained soldiers, more chariots, or a naturally gifted military leader.
The apostle Paul declared, “In times past (God) suffered (permitted) ALL nations to walk in their own ways” (See Acts 14:16). When Gautama Buddha began spreading his philosophy throughout ancient India about 500 B.C., God did NOTHING to prevent the people of India from embracing Buddhist teachings. When, even earlier, Hinduism began to grip the minds of millions throughout the Indus Valley, again God did NOTHING! He did nothing THEN. But God’s great time- table has not run out. For “it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house (Bible metaphor for the Kingdom of God) shall be established in the top of the mountains (over all other kingdoms and governments), and shall be exalted above the hills (the lesser, smaller kingdoms and nations), and ALL nations (India, China, Iraq, Kuwait, etc.) shall flow unto it (finally permitted entry into the kingdom of God). And many people (earth’s billions) shall go and say, ‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will (then, finally) teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths (now converted from the errors of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc.), for out of Zion shall go forth the Law (God’s law – the law deceived “preachers” claimed was nailed to the cross), and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall JUDGE among the nations.” (See Isaiah 2:2-4). Those nations with which God had previously had a “hands-off” policy, those nations of whom it had once been truthfully said, “His judgments, they have not known them,” shall then enjoy God’s judgment – the judgment day so little understood by most professing Christians today!
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley