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| Some of the 195 national flags displayed at the UN headquarters. |
Why the big noise, nations?
Why the mean plots, peoples?
Earth-leaders push for position,
Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers:
“Let’s get free of God!
Cast loose from Messiah!”
Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing.
At first he’s amused at their presumption;
Then he gets good and angry.
Furiously, he shuts them up:
“Don’t you know there’s a King in Zion? A coronation banquet
Is spread for him on the holy summit.”
Psalm 2:1-6 (the Message)
To the Lord, all nations
are merely a drop in a bucket
or dust on balance scales;
all of the islands
are but a handful of sand...
God thinks of the nations
as far less than nothing.
Isaiah 40:15, 16 (CEV)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may declare the goodness of the One who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
I Peter 2:9 (MEV)
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.
from Handel's Messiah, Part Three, Scene 7, "God's Ultimate Victory"
The Bible contains a surprising number of references to nations. The Hebrew Bible is primarily about, and is addressed to, the nations of Israel and Judah, and has much to say to other kingdoms as well. And in Jesus's first recorded words in Matthew's gospel, he urges his hearers to become transformed citizens of the international and eternal reign of God. This supreme kingdom, one without borders, is to be a living demonstration of God's rule "on earth as it is in heaven."
In his final words in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commissions his followers to go to all nations and to baptize people of all kinds, including rich, poor, upper class, lower class, those in power and ordinary citizens alike, and to teach those recruited all of the "all things" Jesus taught. This would surely include his commands to love enemies, welcome strangers and foreigners, heal the sick, feed the hungry, and invest treasure in the "Company of Heaven" by generously sharing our wealth with the poor.
Our scriptures also make it clear there is only one Judge of every human on earth, of whatever rank, title or status. And that the fate of each person will be determined by one and the same standard, the reign of God as demonstrated, taught, and lived by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Then in the end, when God calls all the nations together (note the use of that word in Matthew 25), all will be judged by how they have responded to the needs of the "least of these," Jesus's family of brothers and sisters all around the globe. There is no support whatsoever in the Bible for there being one judgment for rulers of the worlds' nations and another for ordinary citizens like ourselves.
True, God has instituted governments as a means by which those who are not citizens of God's kingdom will govern themselves and maintain some level of stability and social order. But no one outside the reign of God on earth can expect a "Well done, good and faithful servant" for having done so.
Thus we will be judged as either having loved God and served our neighbors as Jesus did, or condemned for primarily furthering our own interests. And on whether we pledged our allegiance to the Beast of empire or to the King of kings and Lord of lords who reigns forever.
So our urgent invitation to all nations and all people is that of Jesus in Matthew 4:17, "Repent, (change your direction, mend your ways, make a radical about face) for the Kingdom of God (the reign of Heaven) is at hand."
And He shall reign forever and ever. And ever.
Hallelujah!
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