Jonah, Nahum, and Obadiah prophesied against other nations. Why? Those people didn’t know God. This would be the same as if some Hindu would tell me that Shiva is angry with me. This would only make me laugh. And similarly, and maybe I understand it wrong but God uses foreign nations to punish His people. Then He punishes that nation with another nation. Assyrians — Babylonians — Medo-Persians — etc. This doesn’t seem logical to me.<\/p>\n\t
What you are describing is a similar problem that the Jews had.\u00a0 They thought that the God of Israel, Isaac, and Abraham was a God of the Jews only.\u00a0 They did not understand that to be a true child of Abraham had less to do with who were your parents and more to do with your faith. In Romans 4:16 Paul says, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.<\/em>“<\/p>\n The Jews had the idea that the focus of the Scriptures was the nation of Israel.\u00a0 God was trying to get them to understand that his focus was not just on Israel but on all of mankind.\u00a0 That is in part why they crucified Jesus.\u00a0 They saw Jesus as a threat to the nation of Israel and to their control of it.\u00a0 There are even clues that the disciples were having a hard time grasping the concept that Jesus was the plan (see Acts 1:6).<\/p>\n Now, think of it from God’s point of view.\u00a0 If His intent is to get all nations to behave (especially the Jews), then He will have dealings with all of them.\u00a0\u00a0 The Bible is not a catalog of all the things God has ever done, just all of the things that are part of the plan that He wants us to know about. Some of the nations will be so far removed from the idea of who God is that they are not likely to listen.\u00a0 However, some may listen and that is who God aims to convince.\u00a0 The book of Daniel is a wonderful account of that.\u00a0 In Daniel 4, God interacts directly with the king of the Babylonians and refuses to let him out of the experience until he acknowledged that God was the God of all.\u00a0 There is no indication that Nebuchadnezzar became a Jew.\u00a0 God just wanted him to understand who is in charge.\u00a0 The book of Jonah is similar, in that a prophet of Israel is sent to Nineveh and told the city to repent. Jonah was angry that God made him go.\u00a0 He was also angry that they repented. He wanted the God of Israel to only care about Israel, and he wanted Nineveh to be destroyed.\u00a0 Instead, we find out that God was concerned for the ignorant of that city.\u00a0 In Jonah 4:11 God says, “But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?<\/em>“<\/p>\n So, in that sense, the God of the Bible is different than the gods of other nations.\u00a0 An Indian may believe that Shiva is angry with us, but that Indian is unlikely to tell us that because the focus of the Hindu god is on Hindus.\u00a0 Non-Hindus are not really of any concern.\u00a0 The God of Abraham is not just concerned with Israel, but with getting all men to come to obedience (II Peter 3:9).\u00a0 We are also unlikely to be concerned with Shiva because Shiva has never worked the kinds of miracles that the God of Israel had.\u00a0 That has always been a problem with the gods of the world.\u00a0 They can be angry, but the most anyone ever subscribes to them is an occasional natural disaster; and even then, it is normally an after-the-fact subscription.\u00a0 False prophets are excellent at telling you why a natural disaster occurred after the fact.\u00a0 The fact still remains that the events that they ascribe to a god or gods are still within the natural order of the world.\u00a0 The God of Israel foretells — not only for Israel but other nations as well — when they will be victorious and when they will be doomed.<\/p>\n I don’t think you have misread the events at all.\u00a0 The Assyrians and the Israelites were evil.\u00a0 The Israelites knew better.\u00a0 It is hard to say exactly what the Assyrians were, but it would seem that they were evil beyond hope.\u00a0 Therefore, God used the Assyrians to punish Israel in part because Israel was not so far removed from being able to repent. Israel refused to repent, and, therefore, God executed His full judgment on them.\u00a0 Then He wanted the Assyrians and the rest of the world to know that the evil of the Assyrians was not tolerated either.\u00a0 He, therefore, executed His judgment on them.\u00a0 They both deserved what they got. It was just that God chose an order of punishment that left the best possible example for those of us who followed.<\/p>\n The same can be said for all of the events that we see now.\u00a0 God is concerned with the world that we live in just as much as He was concerned back then.\u00a0 If we think about it, there are really three types of people in the world: the righteous, those doing evil but who still are able to repent, and those who have become so calloused as to be beyond repenting.\u00a0 Our job is not to figure out who is in which group.\u00a0 Our job is to figure out which group we are in.\u00a0\u00a0 Some people try to figure it out by assuming that because God is using them; they, therefore, must be among the righteous.\u00a0 However, God used evil people to get His purposes done. The fact that God is using you to accomplish something is not a good enough reason to relax.\u00a0 He used Pharaoh – and then destroyed him.\u00a0 He used the Assyrians – and then destroyed them.\u00a0 He used Babylon – and then destroyed them.\u00a0 Our\u00a0only<\/strong>\u00a0safe method to figure out if we are on His good list is by comparing our life to the description given in the Word of God.<\/p>\n Darrell Hamilton<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Jonah, Nahum, and Obadiah prophesied against other nations. Why? Those people didn’t know God. This would be the same as if some Hindu would tell me that Shiva is angry with me. This would only make me laugh. And similarly, and maybe I understand it wrong but God uses foreign nations to punish His…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[90,1539,987],"class_list":["post-52348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-god","tag-nations","tag-wickedness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32955,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-abraham-a-gentile-or-a-jew\/","url_meta":{"origin":52348,"position":0},"title":"Was Abraham a Gentile or a Jew?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Abraham a Gentile or a Jew? I heard that he was first a Jew, but I also heard that He was a Gentile before and then a Jew. Answer: \"Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32758,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-esau-and-ishmaels-descendants-considered-gentiles\/","url_meta":{"origin":52348,"position":1},"title":"Were Esau and Ishmael’s descendants considered Gentiles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We are studying Genesis 36 and the generations of Esau.\u00a0 Several questions arose that have generated some good discussion, but we are needing some help. The questions asked \"Were Esau and Ishmael's families considered Gentiles? Or were they Jews?\u00a0 We are a little confused about when the Jewish nation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8418,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-gentiles-also-descendants-of-abraham\/","url_meta":{"origin":52348,"position":2},"title":"Are Gentiles also descendants of Abraham?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If we Gentiles are also descendants of Abraham, then from whose mother: Hagar, Sarah or Keturah? Is it from Keturah to whom she bore Abraham six legitimate sons after Abraham married her after Sarah died? Am I correct to say that Muslims are descendants of Ishmael who later intermarry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14702,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-romans-49-12-indicate-that-we-are-saved-prior-to-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":52348,"position":3},"title":"Does Romans 4:9-12 indicate that we are saved prior to baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you explain why Romans 4:9-12 does not indicate that we are saved prior to baptism? I am not sure how to put the answer into words for an acquaintance that insists that he was saved prior to baptism regardless of clear passages of Scripture. Thank you! Answer: When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16953,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-meant-by-nations-in-revelation\/","url_meta":{"origin":52348,"position":4},"title":"What is meant by “nations” in Revelation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What does Revelation 21:26 and Revelation 22:2 mean? What do the references to the nations mean? \"And they shall bring the glory and honor of the\u00a0nations\u00a0into it.\" \"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-choose-the-israelites-as-his-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":52348,"position":5},"title":"Why did God choose the Israelites as His people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did God choose the Israelites as His people? They were the only saved people before the death of Jesus Christ. What about others? Why did God has chosen only Israel as His own people? Answer: \"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}