On Nationhood and Prayer

I’ve been praying for Canada lately. If you’ve been following our political scene, we got rid of one failing, bitterly disliked Prime Minister and replaced him with the behind-the-scenes architect of his most abject failures. It’s been 17 months since we had a federal budget, gas prices and food prices are through the roof, youth unemployment is soaring, immigration is wildly out of control and I’m seeing drug addicts and homeless people in every city in Ontario that I visit.

In short, lots to pray about. But how to pray is a good question.

After all, to pray for Canada, we have to decide what the word “Canada” even means these days. The most recent quarter of its population arrived sometime in the last nine years, and many candidly admit they are here for the free health care and not much else. What “shared values” do I have with large numbers of my neighbors? With many, I don’t even have a shared language to discuss it in. Ten percent of “Canadians” hold multiple citizenships, and that number goes up every year. So how do you pray for a nation that’s not a nation in any meaningful sense of the word? What sort of things do we ask for? In short, what is the Lord’s stake in all this?

Allotted Periods and Boundaries

Paul makes offhand mention in his Areopagus address that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place”. His purpose in this, Paul said, was in order that these nations should seek God. He did it for their good. There was something about homogeneous, distinct ethnic identity and culture that was preferable to the alternative. God created nations to better facilitate relationship with him.

The apostle wasn’t pulling this idea out of the air. It came from Moses, who wrote, “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” The vocabulary of the song of Moses reminds us of Genesis 6. That is the first mention in scripture of these beings called “sons of God” to whom Moses refers. We are also reminded of Genesis 11, in which the Lord dispersed the nations. It was after this point, presumably as they settled territory throughout the world, that God circumstantially set the boundaries for each people group.

If we wanted to know the original number of nations with distinct languages after Babel, we could get some idea from Genesis 10, which lists the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth. If you count carefully, the number appears to be seventy. Perhaps this is the “number of the sons of God”. Of course, much has changed since then, as nations migrated and mingled, and eventually formed empires. In the original order, multi-ethnic empires did not exist. Perhaps this is what Paul meant when he referred to God having determined “allotted periods” as well as boundaries for every nation. He recognized that some nations have shorter lifespans than others, after which they vanish from history. Amalek comes to mind. These beginnings and endings God also determines in his infinite wisdom.

The Gentiles and God’s Providential Care

We often think of God as directing his providential care uniquely toward Israel. Indeed, Moses insists on this. After saying that the Lord fixed the borders of every nation under heaven, he finishes with, “But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” It’s no novel concept that God has a special relationship with one people group, though many deny it today. But the entire Old Testament testifies to this truth. The OT is on one level the story of Jacob’s children: how God kept his promises to the patriarchs despite the repeated sins and errors of all but one of his seed. Nations and empires come into it only insofar as they interact with Israel.

That said, we find references to God’s providential care for other ethnic entities sprinkled throughout scripture, and I find them touching and affirming. After all, Israel was to be a “city set on a hill” and a “light to the world”. Through the seed of Abraham, God determined to bless all nations.

So then, finding evidence that Gentiles matter a great deal to God is not a difficult task. I came across several instances just the other day in my study of Judges.

Untouchable Nations

Moab

When Israel came out of Egypt, God gave them territory that belonged to the Canaanite nations. He was also very clear with Moses that particular nations were, at least at that time, untouchable. First, Moab:

“The Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.’ (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.)”

Interesting, no? That’s God “determining the boundaries” of Moab. The Emim (giants, again calling us back to the offspring of the sons of God in Genesis 6) had presumed to settle in Ar, but God used Moab to clear them out, just as he would later use Israel to destroy the descendants of the Anakim in Canaan.

Ammon, Edom, Caphtor

Second, there was Ammon:

“When you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there — but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim — a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)”

This passage is rich with references to God’s providential care of the nations. Like Moab, Ammon enjoyed God’s blessing and protection. He brought them into a land with allotted boundaries, displacing the Zamzummim. Emim, Zamzummim — whatever you want to call them in the local dialect — these were giants, and God used Ammon to wipe them out. Both Ammon and Moab enjoyed special protection and blessing because they were children of Lot, Abraham’s relative.

Moreover, the writer of Deuteronomy tells us God had also done exactly the same thing for the children of Esau, Jacob’s brother, who came to live in Mount Seir and became known as Edomites. He destroyed the Horites and gave their territory to Edom. Likewise, it appears there were giants in Gaza called Avvim. God used the Caphtorim to destroy them. These were the original Philistines.

Defying the Post-Babel Order

In all these situations, we see God ordering and determining both the locations in which people groups settle and the duration of their existence as distinct ethnicity-based entities, moving nations here and there to possess territory and to dispossess others not so favored.

So here’s a question: Is the Lord still doing this today? It almost seems to be part of the natural order post-Babel. We cannot say with biblical certainty that Canada or the US have enjoyed the same sort of divine protection and blessing enjoyed by Edom, Moab and Ammon, though many have claimed it over the years. Moreover, these are not nations but rather multi-ethnic empires or states, which arise from spirit of Babel at work in the world. Like nations, God uses such entities to accomplish his purposes, but we cannot confirm they enjoy the “allotted periods and boundaries” attributed to national identity.

Governments would like us to think of all our neighbors as “Canadian” or “American”, no matter where they came from, when they came, and even when they maintain in their hearts a higher allegiance to the people and culture from which they emigrated. That is not the way scripture talks about nations. While a certain amount of intermingling always occurs, in the Bible nations are always recognizable entities, at least for the time God allows them to exist.

When I pray, does the word “Canadian” mean anything to the Lord, or the word “American”, or, for that matter, the words “French”, “German” or “English”? It’s a reasonable question, and one for which I do not believe scripture gives us obvious answers.