All nations, just as all individuals, have a clear cut call from God. (Jeremiah 29:11 for individuals). The Bible refers to nations as “ethnos” rather than geographical divisions.
Acts 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations {ethnos} of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.
It’s not likely you’ll ever hear a sermon on this. Although you might learn about God’s divine intolerance for world government. That has been tried and failed, badly. About 5,500 B.C.E. at the Tower of Babel all human beings spoke the same language; after they tried to replace the government of God with their own under the direction of a wicked dictator Nimrod, God scrambled all the languages and communication became impossible. Today the unstable nature of the European Union should give us pause; maybe this is not God’s perfect will for Europe. God prefers Unity over Union.
However, God does have a clearly defined political jurisdiction in mind for all nations and a specific contribution to the whole of mankind for each individual nation. The United States of America was formed officially 236 years ago but the call itself is eternal. And that destiny for this nation is clearly given in the Declaration of Independence.
All men are created equal.
America’s global contribution concerns the sanctity of the individual. That is what we Americans bring to them world table; it is the reason people flock here from across the globe. It is also the same reason we can fail as a nation. If individualism gets out of hand as it has in the past four decades is leads to an identity crisis which we now seek to correct.
There are 191 nations today; each one has a call. It is not my job to know what the call is for each one of them but I believe I know the call of these three.
- England demonstrates a respect for history, especially national history, and because of that respect England also is able to adjust to changes in the world and to culture. But like individualism in the USA it is also possible for that ability to become a trap and send the county into free fall.
- China demonstrates respect for and love of national identity, but in the 16th century China pulled away from the world to protect herself from change and world interaction. China became fearful. When you embrace fear you make yourself irrelevant. Fear is rightly called “frozen.” China wanted to preserve its identity so carefully that it withdrew into itself and the Chinese people have suffered great loss from this over the subsequent years.
- Estonia showed the world how to rid itself of a tyrannical dictatorship of the Soviet Union through spiritual warfare, in her case, the power of music. To my knowledge Estonia has not lost that power or its ability to teach the rest of the world.
Controversial Palestine may be a nation in God’s eyes but because it claims to own Israel it cannot be identified as one. God set aside Israel as His own nation with its own specific territory, and a land mass considerably larger than the one Israel now occupies. Because God disciplined His people for a time, other nations assumed they could take over. They do that at their peril. God has promised once Israel is back in her land He will defend it at all costs.
Goat nations are those that disobey basic moral law and rebel against God. They do not need to stay that way. Like individuals, they can repent and reform. Today Syria is a good example of a nation badly astray. Also, North Korea is a goat nation which is coming down in our lifetime, thankfully.
I will let my readers search out their national Godly ethnos. If you find that out, let me know.