62 heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:7–8, 28–29). This, then, is that “mystery of the Gospel” — “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” first established in the covenant with Abraham (Eph. 1:9, 3:6; Col. 1:26–27). Sadly, we know by the Jewish rejection of their Messiah and persecution of the New Testament Church, that Israel exchanged the inclusivity of the Gospel for the exclusivity of Hebrew nationalism. And yet, according to Paul, from the very beginning God had ordained that ancient Israel was to be the means by which all the nations “might feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:27). For instance, in Exodus 19:6, we are told that the Father established His people to be a “kingdom of priests” — set apart from the world in order to be a holy example so that many outside Israel would be justified: “And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord …” (Deut. 28:10). Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promised to send His Servant, who would come out of Israel in order to bring salvation to the nations: “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). This included even Israel’s most dreaded enemies, who would likewise be part of the family of God: “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance” (Isa. 19:25; see also Jonah). God the Author of World History Given this redemptive arc structuring ancient history, we must be mindful of the fact that while God guided Israel, He also influenced the historical development of her inhospitable neighbors — utilizing them as instruments of His retribution or blessing on other nations. One such pagan kingdom He enlisted in His judgment of the nations was Assyria (named after its god Ashur): “Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets” (Isa. 10:6). This does not mean that Assyria intentionally served the Lord in this capacity, because we are told, “But he [Assyria] does not so intend, and his heart does not so think: but it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations not a few” (Isa. 10:7–8). It was through this unbelieving race that the Lord said, “I remove the boundaries of peoples, and … I bring down those who sit on thrones” (Isa. 10:13), orchestrating and granting success to their conquests: “Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you [Assyria] should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins” (2 Kings 19:10–12, 25).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=