May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

Although God’s chosen people may have thought otherwise on occasion, although they may have thought that a relationship to God was their exclusive privilege, God has always wanted the knowledge of Him and His ways to be spread over the whole earth and among all nations. Whenever He narrowed His redemptive focus because of sin—as when He narrowed His focus to Israel and later to Judah—His purpose was to retrench for a renewed effort toward His goal, not to permanently exclude the rest of humanity.

We know that God wanted to use His people as a springboard to all nations from passages like Jeremiah 33:8-9: “I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.” The redemptive cleansing of Judah and Jerusalem, in other words, was a means to achieve God’s universal concern.

As can be seen from the passage in Jeremiah and from our verse for today: the way that God figured to achieve His purpose was by being gracious to His people, by blessing them abundantly, and by making His face to shine upon them. When the nations would see everything God had done for them they would turn to Him also and give Him praise and honor. They would be drawn into a relationship with Him by the shining example His people would provide.

God’s method to reach the nations hasn’t changed. He still uses His people to lure the nations. He is still gracious to us, He still blesses us abundantly, and He still makes His face to shine upon us. He makes us so attractive that the nations can’t help but notice. Many will desire the peace, joy, and sense of purpose that we have from belonging to God.

Arise and shine, then, with the reflected glory of God’s face. For the “nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn,” (Isaiah 60:1-3).

By John Huisman, Bible League International