Did God Communicate with the Gentiles?
He leads me …
How do we pray for our unsaved family and friends? The obvious answer is that we pray for their salvation. But what about the rest of their lives? We have no problems praying for our Christian family and friends in terms of their lives generally, but what about those who are not Christians? The Bible addresses God’s dealings with the Jews and then the Christians, but there is not a lot about how He interacts with those who are neither Jew nor Christian.
So, is it appropriate to pray for the unsaved with things like upcoming exams, or a job interview, or a pending operation? Let us see what the Bible has to say.
According to Smith’s Bible Dictionary, the name Gentiles means nations. To put it another way the name Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. While in normal life this may not be significant, it becomes important when we look at the Bible.
Throughout the Old Testament we see that God had called a group of people called the Israelites to be a special people for Him. They were to be His representatives to the rest of the nations to show them that the right way to live was under God’s lordship,.
Unfortunately, the Israelites (later to become the Jews) were happy to be under God’s authority for a while, but they soon wanted to live their lives their own way. This turned out to be a disaster, at which point they turned back to God to help them, and this cycle was repeated many times.
The Bible clearly shows that the Jewish people were not any less sinful than Gentiles (Exodus 32:1-22). It was only because God in His grace and mercy had chosen them that the Jews had any hope of successfully repenting of their sins (Leviticus 16:30,34; Deuteronomy 7:6-8).
While it may appear that God only favored the Jews, the Gentile nations were not actually forgotten by Him. God showed this by including them in His covenant with Abraham – the first ancestor (patriarch) of Israel.
God promised to make Abraham into a great nation, which later became known as the Jews. He also promised to bless the other nations of the world (the Gentiles) through Abraham and his descendants. He said to Abraham,
‘I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me (Genesis 22:17 - 18 italics added).[1]
God’s covenant with Israel did not stop God from caring about the Gentiles. Jonah was sent by God to preach repentance to the Assyrian city of Nineveh (Jonah 1:1-2). When he did, they repented (Jonah 3:5-10), but their repentance did not involve becoming part of the Jewish faith. We also see that the book of Obadiah rebuked the pagan Edomites. The book of Nahum was another rebuke of Nineveh. Hiram, the king of Tyre (2 Chronicles 2:12), and king Darius of the Medes (Daniel 6:26) both praised God but remained Gentiles. Nebuchadnezzar was a king of the Babylonian empire, who was judged and punished by God. He repented, was restored to his senses and praised God, but he remained a Gentile too (Daniel 4:28-37).[2]
In the New Testament we read in Romans 1 of some aspects of God’s relationship with the Gentiles. We can see from this chapter that -
Forever since the world was created, [all] people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God (1:20 NLT).
We see that from Adam to Christ Gentiles were held accountable to what is called the Patriarchal Law. This law was that which governed all mankind from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, and for Gentiles from Adam until the time of Jesus Christ.
Romans 2:14- 15 tells us –
Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. (NLT)
So how did God’s relationship with the Gentile’s work? Was it the same as to the Jews and Christians? Let us look at the ways God reveals Himself to some of the Gentiles in the Old Testament –
· In Genesis 1–3, we learn that God created Adam and Eve. They were placed in the Garden of Eden and given everything they needed: food, work, and fellowship with God as they walked with Him in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8).
· For his offering, Abel, the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve brought God the ‘fatty portion’ of his flock, which pleased Him. However, when Cain presented God with some of his harvest, the Lord was not pleased. Yet God still gave him the chance to redeem himself, by telling him how he could remedy the situation. (Genesis 4:6-7).
· Enoch, who lived prior to Noah's flood ‘walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him’ (Genesis 5:21–24). This is interpreted in some Jewish and Christian traditions that Enoch entered Heaven alive having ‘walked with God’ in a similar way to Adam and Eve.
· An angel of the Lord speaks to Sarah’s slave Hagar who had run away from Sarah, telling her to go back. The angel also told Hagar that she was pregnant with a son who she was to name Ishmael and whose descendants would be too numerous to count (Genesis 16:7-12).
· Balaam (Numbers 22-24) had spiritual powers and knew generally about the true God of Israel. He was asked by the king of Moab to curse Israel. God spoke to Balaam directly and told him not to. The king continues to put pressure on Balaam and so God used a donkey to tell him not to curse Israel.
· Naaman (2 Kings 5) was an Aramean commander who was told that a young girl from Israel, serving his wife, had recommended that he went to the prophet Elisha for healing of his leprosy. When Elisha heard what had happened, he sent a message to Naaman saying, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan’. When Naaman eventually did do this his skin was restored.
Therse examples show us that God interacted with Gentiles in similar ways to the Jews and Christians when He felt it was necessary to do so. Therefore, if He can relate in a personal way with Gentiles the same way He does with believers, then it is reasonable that He will look after them in a similar way too. This is provided they live by the right motives (James 4:3) and they are not enjoying their sin (Psalm 66:18).
Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John
[1] Who Were Gentiles in the Bible? Meaning and Examples, Emily Hall, Christianity.com;
[2] Did the Gentiles before Jesus' time have the opportunity to be saved? That is, did God have some sort of interaction with them, somewhat like He did with Jews? Kyle Pope, Oksen Park Question Board, Olsen Park church of Christ, Texas: