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

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 nation’s 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).

 Borrowed from: http://www.ascensionministries.net/boundariesOfTheNations.php