After the creation of the world, God created the first two humans, Adam and Eve. God blessed them with a calling. They were placed in a beautiful and productive garden and commanded to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and rule over it, Genesis 1:28, raising a family and extending the ordered beauty of the garden to the whole earth. But, giving in to a clever lie crafted by Satan, Adam and Eve disobeyed their Creator. Adam’s calling fell into ruin as sin marred everything. Even though Adam fell God refused to abandon his plan for creation. God revealed to our first parents a plan to defeat Satan, redeem mankind, recreate, and restore a new earth. Genesis 3:15
Sadly, Adam’s sin wouldn’t be the last. As the population grew so did sin.
As God looked upon the earth He saw that the population of the earth was corrupt, absolutely depraved—spiritually and morally putrid in His sight, and the land was filled with violence, desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power. Genesis 6:11 Amplified Bible
After watching mankind, those men and women made in his image desecrate that image for over a thousand years, God intervened with a worldwide flood to end the rampant depravity, and in effect, reset his creation with eight faithful people, Noah and his family. Genesis 7
After the flood subsided God gave to Noah and his family the same command that he had given Adam. God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” Genesis 9:1 But just several generations after God gave these instructions to Noah and his sons, Noah’s descendants thought they had a better idea. They would consolidate authority and resources in a centralized society, building a tower, a place of worship, to call gods down from heaven to do their bidding.
They said to each other, “Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the earth.” Genesis 11:4
What would the Creator do? This time, rather than destroying disobedient mankind for their presumptive arrogance, God miraculously gave each family line a different language, there by decentralizing society. By speaking different languages they were unintelligible to each other. And so began the migrations described in Genesis 10 with each of seventy language groups setting off to settle an area of the earth. Further God said,
“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Genesis 11:6
It is often assumed and taught today that the world would be a much better place if we were all united by a common language under one world government. But that is another lie from the father of lies, Satan. Countering God’s Promise the great counterfeiter devised a plan to gather all of mankind to himself, overthrowing God’s rule.
The deceiver’s ‘no borders’ movement seeks to do away with nations and nationalities. We are told that we should recognize ourselves as world citizens seeking to establish one language, and one governing authority doing away with divisive national identities. In Satan’s ideal world, borders would be open and people could migrate wherever they pleased. However globalism, the idea of one governing secular authority with one universal language is the very thing God came down to put an end to at Babel. In fact, atheistic globalists seeking to exclude God from the public square, invented the term Christian Nationalism as a pejorative scare-label to stigmatize. Satan desperately seeks to silence Christians from teaching that faith in the Creator has political implications.
Why would God act to suppress mankind’s unity when a secular one-world government seems like such a good idea to many?
Concentrating absolute power in the hands of a supreme ruler or elite group is dangerous because, as we see over and over again, man is no longer good but is instead prone to all manner of evil. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Jeremiah 17:9
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands… may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. James Madison, Federalist 47
Power easily corrupts sinful men. Absolute power is always a deadly recipe for human disaster. As God points out, when supreme rulers have unchecked power, nothing is beyond their reach. No one is safe. When seen in that light, the original seventy nations and the differing languages are a blessing of God, one of the checks and balances to slow the growth of tyranny. In fact, the Scriptures teach us that,
God made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. Acts 17:26
The various languages, nations, and their respective cultures are blessings from God that should be celebrated, not dissolved. Not only did God create the nations but he also assigned a heavenly being to oversee each nation.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the Sons of God. Deuteronomy 32:8
What does the term Sons of God mean?
The Hebrew term, bene ’elohim, translated in English as the Sons of God, refers to spiritual beings who are a part of Yahweh’s divine council. These celestial beings sit in Yahweh’s council, confer with him, and assist in carrying out his decrees. 1 Kings 22:19-20, Daniel 4:17 God is sovereign but, just as loving parents seek to include their children in decision-making, and just as God desires us, his earthly children to bring our petitions to him in prayer, Philippians 4:6, Yahweh invites these divine beings into his heavenly council to join him in decision-making.
The heavens praise your wonders, Yahweh, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies above can compare with Yahweh? Who is like Yahweh among the Sons of God? In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; He is more awesome than all who surround Him. Who is like you, Yahweh God of the heavenly host? You, Yahweh, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you. Psalm 89:5-7
God presides in the great assembly; He renders judgment among the gods. Psalm 82:1
In addition to assigning the Sons of God, members of his divine council, the task of overseeing the 70 nations, God also chose a people that he would personally oversee.
The Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance.
In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye…
Deuteronomy 32:9-10
God chose an elderly man who was, at the time of God’s call, an idol worshiper, Joshua 24:2, named Abraham and his barren wife, Sarah. God intended to turn this unlikely couple into a great nation. God promised that through this childless couple, he would provide a way for all of the nations and language groups scattered across the earth to return to him.
The Lord God had said to Abram, “Go from your country,
your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:1-3
To assure Abraham that what he Promised was true, God entered into a Covenant with him.
But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him… 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” Genesis 15:8-21
This ceremony may be strange to us but for Abraham this was standard operating procedure for establishing a covenant. It was known as cutting a covenant. Today we use similar language when we say we cut a deal but the ceremony is vastly different.
In Abraham’s time when two rulers entered into a treaty or a contract they would cut sacrificial animals into two pieces and lay the pieces opposite one another. Then the two rulers would together both walk the line between the two split animal pieces. This symbolized the fact that both parties were agreeing to the terms of the contract, but going further than modern-day contracts, both were saying that should they violate the oath they would face the same fate as the animal – death.
Today we enter into contracts such as a mortgage and both parties acknowledge that they have both rights and responsibilities and will face a penalty for breach of contract.
There is one major difference between the normal covenantal ceremony of ancient times and the ceremony here in Genesis 15. Notice that both parties do not pass between the sacrificial animals. God alone, symbolized by smoke and fire, passed through the animals. By so doing God is swearing on himself that he will keep his Promise to Abraham and all of Abraham’s descendants.
When God made his Promise to Abraham he swore the oath on himself because he had no one greater to swear by. Hebrews 6:13
The rest of the Biblical story describes how God would bring the Covenant blessing to all the nations of the world through the one nation that he had personally chosen for himself. God’s nation was the vehicle through which God would bring salvation to the world. Israel was singled out to be a kingdom of priests showing all of the other nations the way back to God.
Out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exodus 19:5-6
Despite being personally chosen by God, his nation Israel, like all mankind, continually strayed from God’s instructions for them. They often ignored God’s commands, even going so far as seeking and worshiping false gods. Throughout the centuries, to correct this situation and so that Israel would never forget that they owed their existence to Yahweh, God sent prophets to instruct his chosen nation in the way that they were to live. And that brings us to the prophet Isaiah.
The prophets God sent to Israel did two things.
First, they reminded Israel of God’s commands that had been given to Moses at Mt. Sinai and reminded them of God’s discipline if they neglected those commands. Notice I said discipline. God’s Covenant love for his people was unconditional. God had promised Israel, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8 Even when Israel sinned grievously, God, true to his Covenant Promises to Abraham and Moses, never abandoned them. God was like a devoted parent lovingly disciplining his children for their own good so that they could experience true freedom and liberty.
God relates to His creatures through clear, objective structures provided in Scripture that define authority, obligation, blessing, and judgment. His Covenant establishes the relationship; which governs how that relationship is lived out. It is under this structure that human liberty originated, grounded in the transcendent will of the Creator who is the sole giver of all our liberties. Bill Peacock, Excellent Thought Substack, 3-19-26
Second, even in the midst of their sin and rebellion, the prophets reminded Israel of their greater purpose. It was through Israel that God would use his nation to bring all the scattered nations of the world back to himself restoring what was lost in Eden. Just as God had offered the free gift of eternal salvation to Israel it was through Israel that all of the peoples of the earth would be blessed.
How could all of the nations of the world be blessed through the descendants of Abraham?
Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow… when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. 1 Peter 1:10-12
Of all of the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament Isaiah is quoted the most by the New Testament writers. In fact, although it predates the writing of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John by 700 years the Book of Isaiah has been called the Fifth Gospel because in it the prophet describes the coming, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Messiah.