“From these, the coastland people spread in their lands each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.”
-Genesis 10:5
Genesis 10:5 is really a list of all kinds of people. It’s names, and their descendants, generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and you see this picture, even in the verse that we just read, of peoples, languages, clans, nations, which we’ll see more in Genesis 11, but we’ll really see throughout the rest of the Bible, this picture of different people groups, different languages, different clans, different nations.
From the very beginning here in the Bible, pretty close to the beginning, we’re seeing this picture of a diversity of peoples in the world. Again, we’ll see more in Genesis 11 about why that is, but we obviously see this in the world around us today. Not just around the world. In most of the places where we live, we see all kinds of different people groups. We hear different languages. We meet neighbors from different nations. Not just geopolitical nations, like 200 or so United Nations today. No, we also see different national groups, clans, people groups, in those nations.
Today, I was praying for the Bondo Poraja people in India. You think about India, there are all kinds of different people groups across India and the Bondo Poraja people basically have a mixture of traditional faith and Hinduism. They have a supreme deity they worship. However, they worship many other Hindu deities, and they participate in different ceremonies, and so you see this one picture of small, relatively small people group in India, and there’s thousands of people groups like that around the world. Every one of us is a part of one of them, so some say, “At least 11,000 people groups in the world.” Others say, “Over 16,000 distinct people groups in the world.”
A day is coming when people from every tribe and tongue will surround the throne of God in praise. This drives our prayer.
Genesis 10:5 Wants God’s Grace To Be With Everyone
I dive into all of that because we also know the very end of the Bible makes clear that there’s coming a day when men and women from every single nation, tribe, or clan, people group, and language will gather around the throne of God and sing his praise. God wants his grace, his love, his gospel, his glory to be known and enjoyed, not just by one group of people, one type of people, one nation of people in the world, he wants to be known, and enjoyed, and worshiped in all the people groups in the world, so this must drive our praying.
Genesis 10:5 Prays For The Bondo Poraja People
We pray, God, we pray right now for the Bondo Poraja people in India. God, we know they’re worshiping other gods besides you, false gods that are not the one true God. We know that life is found in you, in relationship with you. We know that Jesus and the proclamation of the gospel of Christ is necessary for them to know you. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel among the Bondo Poraja people. We pray that your grace would be made known among them. We pray that you would bless followers of Christ near them in India. Some who are missionaries who have moved there, others who are in churches in India.
God, please, please, please cause your grace, the gospel, we’re praying right now for the Bondo Poraja people. Please cause your name to be haloed among them, that people group. We pray that they would come to know your grace, your love, your mercy in the gospel. We pray that churches would be planted among the Bondo Poraja. God, we’re praying this. How ever many are listening to this right now, we’re just praying, pleading for this, among this people group in India. Cause your grace, your love to be known among them, the Bondo Poraja people, we pray.
This Verse Prays For Other Groups Who Haven’t Received The Gospel
God, as we pray for them, we pray for thousands of other people groups like them, many of whom are still not yet reached with the gospel, not yet reached by your grace, and your love in Christ. God, may it not be so. Please, please, please, use your church, use us today to get the gospel to them. God, help us not to rest until every single language, clan, nation, people group, tribe has heard the gospel. God, help us to work toward that, and use our resources toward that. And help us in your church to live, and give, and pray, and go toward that end. So God, we pray that your name would be haloed, known, enjoyed, worshiped among all the people groups of the earth. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
