REJOICE, O YE NATIONS, WITH HIS PEOPLE

Throughout the Old Testament, from Genesis 12 to Malachi 1, God made known His programme that the gentile nations are to share in the blessings to be introduced by His Messiah. And, when wishing to demonstrate God’s purpose that Jews and Gentiles are to join in harmonious praise, Paul is able to cull bibli­cal support from each major section of the Old Testament: the Law, Deut. 32. 43; the historical books, 2 Sam. 22. 50; the ‘wisdom’ books, Ps. 117. 1; and the prophets, Isa. 11. 10.

But that God was going to incorporate Jews and gentiles alike into one body, the church, was not revealed in the Old Testament. This is ‘the mystery .. . which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be joint-heirs, and a joint-body, and joint-partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel’, Eph. 3. 3-6 lit.

Once, as gentiles, we suffered a seven-fold disadvantage compared with the nation of Israel. We were: (i) uncircumcised, our flesh not carrying the mark and sign of God’s covenant with Abraham; (ii) ‘without Christ’, having no direct claim on Israel’s Messiah; (iii) alienated from the citizenship of Israel; (iv) strang­ers from the covenants of promise which God had made with the patriarchs and with David; (v) without hope, having noth­ing firm in which to trust for the future; (vi) without God, destitute of any relationship with the true and living God; and (vii) ‘far off’, being at a moral and spiritual distance from Him, Eph. 2. 11-13.

But now all that has dramatically changed. For we, once ‘gentiles in the flesh’, are no longer ‘strangers and foreigners’ but are members ‘of the household of God’, and are no longer alienated from the citizenship (‘commonwealth’ KJV) of Israel but are ‘fellow-citizens with the saints’, Eph. 2. 19. How blessed we gentiles are!

Small wonder therefore we are called on to ‘glorify God’ for His mercy, Rom. 15. 9, to ‘rejoice’ (‘be merry’, ‘be glad’, v. 10) and to ‘praise’ and to ‘laud’ Him, v. 11.