Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. —Isaiah 12: 4.
It is wrong to think God’s love for the nations began only with Jesus and his Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). God sent the reluctant Jonah to save Israel’s great enemy, Nineveh, by calling them to repentance. Remember the precious story of Ruth, a foreigner, a Moabite woman, grafted into the lineage of King David and ultimately Jesus the Messiah (Ruth 1:4, 16; Matthew 1:5-6). God loves all people and wants them to come to share in his grace and find eternal life (John 3:16-17; 2 Peter 3:9). As Christians, we are his salt and light. We are here to touch all the people of the world—people of all peoples, languages, and nations—and beckon them to come back to the one Father who truly loves them.