Deuteronomy: Israel—a Nation for the Nations

Deuteronomy should probably be one of your favorite books of the Bible. After all, Deuteronomy was the go-to text for our Founding Fathers and quoted in nine of the thirteen colonies’ original charters or constitutions.

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It makes sense that the leaders of the New World would want to model their American experiment after an Old Testament precedent, namely, Israel.

Israel, far from being insular (or cul-de-sac-like), was intended by God to be a vehicle (or conduit) of blessing to the nations. The light of their God-given laws lived out was meant by God to shine brightly for God’s own glory and kingdom purposes.

Deuteronomy 4:5-8 makes this clear:

See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

Israel’s very existence was predicated on the fact that God desired to showcase through her his majestic greatness.

While on the one hand, Israel failed miserably to live up to its God-prescribed ideal, yet nevertheless God, on the other hand, has not failed in his overarching kingdom purposes. God, for his part, has from eternity past purposed in Christ to bring in the nations. And God has chosen the church—the New Israel of God—to be that beacon of light to the watching world. When we obey the Lord and follow (as well as teach) Christ’s commands, we put on full display—like a City on a Hill—God’s glory and excellence for all to see and say, “We want that.”

May it ever be so! May our lives be worthy of such light! May the King of Kings work powerfully in his people—and he will!

Do you want to learn of ways that Christ is shining his light to the ends of the earth? My new book, Jesus in Beijing: A Missionary Memoir of Christ’s Victory in China, is available here.