The command must have startled the 11 disciples. They heard marching orders before. Jesus sent His disciples out on prior occasions with the word "Go." Matthew 10 finds Jesus sending the 12 out with these instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." This was an early commission. This time the disciples, the 11, heard a different command from the now resurrected Lord: "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Mt. 28:19).

That this was a surprise to the disciples, Luke tells us in the Book of Acts. Peter, who heard the words of the post-resurrection commission recorded in Matthew 28:18-20, was reluctant to mingle with Gentiles. The Gentile was but a dog in the eyes of a Jew. He was unclean. One did not associate easily and never dined with a Gentile. Peter needed a specific vision of the unclean animals to teach him that what God has cleansed must not be labeled unclean (Acts 10). Peter learned some new ways.

The Jew did not hold the Gentile in high regard. Jesus was assailed by the woman of Phoenicia (Mt. 15:21ff). She asked that Jesus heal her daughter possessed by a demon. Jesus, at first, refused. "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

He had been sent to the house of Israel, to the Jew first. The story, however, reflects the fact that the Jew considered the Gentile a mere dog.

The Jewish world went far beyond Jesus' focus upon Israel. The Gentile, said the Jew, was created by God to feed the fires of hell. If a Jew married a Gentile, the Jewish family would hold a funeral. Such marriage was the equivalent of death.

One of the striking features of Herod's temple was the court of the Gentiles. This temple (stand­ing during Jesus ministry on earth) had four courts: the court of the priests, of laymen, of women, and of Gentiles. The first three courts were on the same level and at the same elevation as the temple itself. From this level one could descend five steps to a walled platform. On the other side of the wall one would descend fourteen more steps to another wall which marked the boundary of the outer court, the court of the Gentiles. Fixed to the second wall were warning signs written in Greek and Latin. Two of the Greek signs have been found. Translated they read, "No foreigner may enter within the barrier and enclosure round the temple. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death." Even if the Gentile was a believer in Israel's God, the wall kept him from drawing near to the temple.

When the disciples heard the command of the risen Lord to "Go and make disciples of all nations" it must have seemed a radically new direction. Now the Lord is sending them to the outcasts, the unclean, the uncircumcised, the dogs.

This should not have been a surprise to those who listened carefully to God's Word. From the beginning, the Bible speaks of the nations. The call of Abraham out of Ur of Chaldea stands against the backdrop of the table of nations. The Shemites (Semites) are listed, but so are the descen­dants of Japheth and Ham. There's a reason for that list.

When God called Abraham, He promised that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12:3). The NIV translation obscures the purpose of God's blessing upon Abraham and his offspring. God promised blessings upon the patriarch SO THAT all peoples will be blessed. God narrowed the object of His special favour to the children of Abraham, yet a major purpose in instituting the nation of Israel was the blessing the other nations would receive.

It was during the Mosaic era that the nation of Israel was established. God rescued His people from the bondage of Egypt and covenanted with Israel to be her God. Israel became bound to their God and God gave His law.

God gave a law to live by so that Israel would be a distinct nation. They were not to live like their neighbors. The religion of the Canaanites included lewd sexual practices. By contrast the people of God must be pure and holy before God. They must not worship the idols, the Baals, the gods of other people. The law taught a clean way of life and condemned uncleanness in many ways. Israel was to reject the way of Egypt and refuse to adopt the ways of the Canaanites. God said, "You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6).

There were reasons for living God's way. One was a witness to the nations. Israel, by God's design, was to be a light to other nations. Moses challenges the people to heed God's commands: "Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people'" (Deut. 4:6). The Old Testament teaching of missions can be described as centripetal. Israel would gather in peoples from the nations who were moved by the life of Israel as they lived before and in obedience to their God.

Did it happen? In small ways it did. One shining example of a life transformed by the light of God's people is Rahab. She was a prosti­tute. That's not a noble profes­sion, but a common one in a sen­sual society. Her profession reflects the kind of people that inhabited the land. But her heart changed. She came to respect the God of Israel. She confessed, "The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below" (Josh. 2:11). She joined herself to Israel and was incorpo­rated into the covenant. She mar­ried into the tribe of Judah and became the mother of Boaz the ancestor of David and also of the son of David, Jesus Christ.

A generation later we hear Ruth's confession: "Your people will be my people and your God, my God" (Ruth 1:16). She became the wife of Boaz. This happened in spite of Israel. Elimelech fled the land of promise for a better living, but God intervened and blessed a citizen of the nations.

Solomon hosted the Queen of Sheba who traveled far to greet him. Her words of praise can be read in 1 Kings 10:9: "Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel, He has made you king, to maintain justice and righteous­ness." Yet, Solomon was too much like an oriental potentate and his many wives reflected the culture of Canaan rather than the righteousness of God. Soon divi­sion came to Israel.

Yes, there was a witness to the nations. Israel did sometimes serve as priests to God Most High. But her witness was meager and almost blotted out by another kind of statement. That other testimony said that the way of the nations is better than life with the Lord their God. When it comes to her witness to the nations one may write in red ink over much of Israel's history the word "failure."

The prophets' role included a message to the nations. Isaiah preaches to Egypt, Cush, Damascus, Syria, Babylon and others. Jeremiah is appointed as a prophet to the nations (Jer. 1:5). Jonah is sent to Nineveh. The nations are never out of God's sight. Although David's line is a dead stump, God will resurrect from that line a Righteous Branch (Jer. 23:5). Isaiah speaks of this Servant of the Lord and declares, "Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations" (Is. 49:1). About that Servant God says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Is. 49:6). The prophet predicts, "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it" (Is. 2:2).

Israel was special in God's sight, but God's sights were also upon the nations. Paul understood this message. It was not a new message. In Romans 15 he piles up the biblical warrant for his ministry to the nations. "For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God" (Rom. 15:8, 9). Paul traveled from Jerusalem to Illyricum (Albania) bringing the message to the Jew first and also to the Greek, the peoples of the nations. In Ephesians 2 he tells how the gospel breaks down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, making of the two one new socie­ty, one people of God.

The day is coming when all God's people will gather before Him, people from east and west and north and south. Nationalism, provincialism, ethnocentrism, elit­ism and tribalism have no place in God's scheme of things. The church has heard the command. Go to all nations, says our Lord and King. The obedient church hears and obeys. Young men and women travel to the ends of the earth, to peoples of a strange tongue and differing customs. Haltingly, at first, they speak the truth. There is a God who is real. He made the earth. Man has sinned. The wages of sin is death. Jesus took that death upon Himself at the cross. He who died lives today, is Lord and King and will return as Judge of the nations. We ought to follow Him and walk His way. And by the power of the word and Spirit people believe and become disciples. Perhaps a few, now some more, and ultimately a great throng gathers to worship our Savior and Lord. Jesus said, "Go make disciples of all nations." God's faithful people obey.

John's vision in Revelation reveals the outcome of this obedience. A loud voice is heard in heaven: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15).

If the disciples were surprised by the broad scope of Christ's command, they needn't have been. God had His eye upon the nations from the beginning. The plans are grand. The church's execution of these plans, however, is often too meager, too limited, too shortsighted. Like Israel, our lives often glorify the culture of those about us more than the Christ who saved us. When the Lord commands "Go", how can we who love Him confine ourselves to our comforts and our household. We have such a grand story to tell to the nations and we can speak until the last citizen of Christ's kingdom comes home.