Boundaries of the Nations

"When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance."
- Deuteronomy 32:8-9 ^NAS

^{Since we have been looking deeper into Genesis I thought it would be a good idea to explore what God thinks about boundaries. God is the creator of boundaries. From the very beginning of creation God created boundaries and divisions. For example: Sun-Moon; Earth-Heavens; Day-Night.}

^{In Genesis 11 God scatters the peoples and diversifies their languages. We see above in Deuteronomy that the boundaries or borders of the nations ae established according to the number of the sons of Israel (Jacob).}

^{Look at a map of the world and all the various countries and their boundaries. Every country has an allotment of land. Then try and find tiny Israel. God gave Israel just a portion no bigger than the state of New Jersey and the rest of the world wants to tear that land away from them! Shame!}

^{Today we have issues with immigration and borders. In the Bible if a foreigner wanted to attach themselves to the nation of Israel they were required to accept the God of Israel and the culture of Israel (Book of Ruth). They were required to accept the laws of Israel (Leviticus 17.10-14; 20. 2-3).}

^{Israel was required to love the stranger because the stranger was coming in to become a part of the nation. They would never allow their enemies to live among them and subvert their culture.}

^{Today the elites would destroy the borders that God has created and they want to destroy the culture and variety of nations. They desire to create a sterilized world that will be subject to their control.}

^{God created variety of cultures, borders, and laws. An immigrant should and must be required to love, respect, and defend the nation they wish to immigrate into. This is the way God means it to be.}

At the Tower of Babel, mankind made the foolish decision to worship the heavenly host rather than serve Yahweh (יהוה), the Most High God (Gen. 11). As a result, most Bible scholars believe that God confused their language by dividing them into 70 dialects according to the 70 descendants of the sons of Noah (Gen. 10 & 11). Most of them also believe that those dialects provided the basis from which all human languages originate.

As the people of Babel formed communities around their individual languages, different people groups called "nations" began to arise. Each nation developed ethnic customs and religious rituals based on the worship of whatever false god they followed from Babel's heavenly host. This is the origin of all false religions, ancient mythology and pagan folklore that is ingrained within the very fabric of the Nations today.

 

What most scholars fail to realize, however, is that God (Yahweh) set the boundaries of those nations according to the number of the children of Israel; namely, the 70 members of Jacob's family who went down to Egypt (Gen. 46:26-27; Ex. 1:1-5). The connotation is that, when the 70 nations of Babel rejected God's mission for humanity, He gave it to the 70 members of Jacob's family (Israel), who were in His thoughts from the beginning.

 

Based on this substitution, God used the 70 members of Jacob's family to measure out His allotment of land to the nations. The Hebrew word for allotment literally means rope, which is synonymous with the ancient ropes that were used to measure out plots of land. Thus, Yahweh measured out His inheritance of land for each nation (i.e. set their boundaries) with an eye on the intended number of the children of Israel.

Within those allotments, God granted a Promised Land with specific borders to the children of Israel through father Abraham (Gen. 15:18-21). He also promised to bless or curse the nations according to how they blessed or cursed the children of Israel (Gen. 12:3). Hence, the boundaries of all the nations are regulated according to their relationship with the Jewish people and their support of God's covenant regarding The Promised Land allotted to them.

 

In other words, when God predestined the appointed times of the people and the boundaries of their habitation (Acts 17:26), He based it all on their support of God's chosen people Israel and their possession of Promised Land. Hence, throughout history, the nations that have transgressed God's covenant with Israel and sought to reduce their boundaries have all seen their boundaries reduced down to this very day.

 

This phenomenon is as timeless as the Nations themselves and understanding this foundational truth will help God's people develop a biblical world view regarding His eternal covenant with the people of Israel and the land that He has promised them. It also provides prophetic insight into what ultimately governs the outcome of all military conflict and the future of those nations who come against Israel.

 

Let us pray that our leaders would embrace God's Covenant with Israel and support their return to The Promised Land according to Scripture (Ez. 36).

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood: Gen 10.1

These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. Gen 10.32

All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six; and the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten. Gen 46.26-27

Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. Exodus 1.1-5

In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. Gen 15.18-21

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Gen 12.1-3

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations 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; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Acts 17.24-28

Also, thou son of man, prophesy upon the mountains of Israel and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. Thus hath the Lord GOD said: Because the enemy hath said regarding you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession; Ezekiel 36.1-2…read entire chapter.

The Sacrifice of Seventy Bulls - God desires to bless all the nations through Israel

During Sukkot in the time of the Holy Temple, a unique sacrifice was offered on the altar—with a unique intention.

In chapter 29 of the book of Numbers, the Bible outlines the sacrifices which are to be offered over the span of the holiday. Counting the number of bulls which are offered over the seven day period, we find that the total number was seventy. And in chapter 10 of the book of Genesis, there are seventy nations mentioned. These are the primordial nations, sometimes referred to as the “seventy languages,” which represent all humanity. The Talmud (BT Sukkah 55:B) teaches that the seventy bulls that were offered in the Holy Temple served as an atonement for the seventy nations of the world. Truly, as the rabbis observed, “if the nations of the world had only known how much they needed the Temple, they would have surrounded it with armed fortresses to protect it” (Bamidbar Rabbah 1, 3).
Here we can already sense that inherent within the very nature of the holiday, an inexorable bond—as expressed through its sacrificial requirements—links it to the earth’s peoples. Sukkot was mandated by the Creator Himself to be a holiday for all the world.