God says to Isaac, “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”
– Genesis 26:4
So I just want to make the connection with God’s promise to Abraham back in Genesis 12:3 said, “I will bless those who bless you and who dishonors you I will curse. And in you, through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The whole picture when God called Abraham and really was starting the people of Israel was to bless this people for the spread of His blessing to all peoples.
God loves all peoples and nations from around the world.
And so when God now speaks the same promise in Genesis 26:4 to Isaac, Abraham’s son, He says the same thing, “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, will give your offspring all these lands.” In other words, I’m going to bless you and your offspring and in your offspring father this all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. So the whole picture is God’s blessing was never intended to center on Abraham and Isaac. To stop with Abraham or Isaac. His blessing was always to spread through Abraham through Isaac to all the nations of the earth.
God Loves All the Nations of the Earth
It’s the picture we see from cover to cover in the Bible. God loves all the nations of the earth, all the peoples, all the families, all the tribes, all the clans of the earth. God has created them all in His image and desires them all to know His blessing. Which is why Jesus came not just to save Jewish people from their sin, He came to save Jews and Gentiles, all people from all nations from their sin. To fast forward to the last book in the Bible Revelation 5 Jesus died to purchase people for God, to save, redeem, ransom people from every nation, tribe, language, and people group in the world, and all the ethnic groups.
Which is why he told His disciples and all of us who are His followers today in Matthew 28:19, “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” And this is why we must pray then for the spread of God’s blessing to all the nations, to all the ethnic groups in the world that they might all know His blessing. To pray toward that end, to use our resources toward that end in our lives, our families, and in the church. And to send out missionaries from our churches to take the blessing of God and the gospel to places and people groups where the gospel’s not yet gone.
Genesis 26:4 Encourages Intentional Missions
So this is why missions. This is not an optional program in the church for a select few people who are called to that. This is the purpose of God from the very beginning of the Bible. To bring His blessing to all the nations. And He is calling His people over and over and over again from Abraham to Isaac all the way to the New Testament, every follower of Jesus to use our lives to get the gospel to those who’ve never heard it. Which is why we pray continually on this podcast, and we’re going to pray today for unreached people, for people who have not yet been reached by the gospel. Over 3 billion people in this category.
From as best as we can tell over 7,000 people groups. Ethnic groups, like the Gonda, Bania people of India who are devoted Hindus worshiping millions of different gods. None of them worshiping Jesus as God, no known followers of Jesus among the Gonda, Bania people of India. They live in West Bengal, India. So think when you picture India on a map just picture the far Western part of India. So I want to lead us to pray for them. To pray for the spread of God’s blessing to them as another nation, as another ethnic group in the world. And as we pray, let’s just realize that if someone as a Father of Jesus or in the church does not take the gospel to the Gonda, Bania people in India, they won’t be reached with the gospel.
The Urgent Need to Spread the Gospel
They’ll continue to be ignorant of. They won’t have knowledge of access to the greatest news in the world, God’s blessing in Christ. So we must as followers of Jesus. As members of churches work to change that for the Gonda, Bania people of India, and every other people group like them. God, we pray right now based on your promise in Genesis 26:4. To cause your blessing to go to all the nations of the earth. So we’re asking God for your blessing to be made known among the Gonda, Bania of people of Indian in West Bengal India.
God, there are none of them who know your blessing in the gospel. None of them. God we pray that you would change that. God we pray that you would send out someone with the gospel from nearby. From far away someone with the gospel to this people group for the spread of your love among them. That they might know the name of Jesus. They would know the supremacy of Jesus above every other God in this world. That they would know that you alone are the one true God. And they would know you love them and you’ve made a way for them to experience your blessing for all of eternity, your salvation.
Genesis 26:4 Prays for Unreached People Groups
God, we pray for that over this people group and 7,000 other people groups like them. And God we pray that you would help us as your people today to realize that your blessing was never intended to stop with us or center on us. So we just sit back in our churches and ignore billions of people who don’t know the gospel. God we pray that you’d change that. We prayed for a missional awakening in your church that you had caused us to see your great glory. Your great grace, the great need among the nations, particularly unreached people groups. And God that you would raise us up to go, that you would send out many for among us.
You would use our resources and our prayers. God, to cause the gospel to go to all the nations of the earth. God, we pray for this. Don’t let us sit back and ignore. Turn a deaf ear to thousands of people groups comprising billions of people who don’t know your blessing in Jesus. God use our lives, spend our lives. Our families, our churches the making your blessing known among them as it’s been your purpose from the very beginning. We lay our lives down before you right now. We pray use us. Use your church to cause your blessing to go to all the nations. We pray this Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
