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Isaiah’s “Good News” for All the Nations
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proud Pharaoh had to acknowledge His power: “Go, serve the Lord,”
he urged Moses, “and bless me also.”
Exodus 12:31, 32
.
The advancing armies of Israel found that news of God’s mighty
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workings had gone before them. In wicked Jericho a heathen woman
said, “The Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth
beneath.”
Joshua 2:11
. By faith “Rahab did not perish with those
who did not believe.”
Hebrews 11:31
. And her conversion was not
an isolated case. The Gibeonites renounced their heathenism and
united with Israel, sharing the blessings of the covenant.
God recognizes no distinction of nationality, race, or caste. All
people are one by creation; all are one through redemption. Christ
came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every com-
partment of the temple courts, so that every person may have free
access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates
everywhere. It lifts out of Satan’s influence those who have been
deluded by his deceptions and places them within reach of the throne
of God. “All the ends of the world,” the psalmist was inspired to
sing, “shall remember and turn to the Lord, and the families of the
nations shall worship before You.” “Ethiopia will quickly stretch
out her hands to God.” “The nations shall fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth Your glory.” “From heaven the Lord
viewed the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release
those appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord in Zion,
and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples are gathered together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.”
Psalm 22:27
;
68:31
;
102:15,
19-22
.
If Israel had been true to her trust, all the nations of earth would
have shared in her blessings. But as Israel lost sight of God’s plan,
they came to look on the heathen as beyond the reach of His mercy.
So the nations were left under a veil of ignorance. The love of God
was little known, and error and superstition flourished.
This was the situation that Isaiah faced. Yet he was not discour-
aged, for ringing in his ears was the chorus of the angels, “The whole
earth is full of His glory!”
Isaiah 6:3
. And his faith was strengthened
by visions of God’s church in glorious conquests when “the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea.”
Isaiah 11:9
.