Yesterday, we saw that God’s confounding the languages at Babel was in response to humanity’s propensity for evil. Forming people groups and scattering them was God intentionally slowing the spread of evil.

But look how Genesis is arranged: 11 chapters encompassing 2,000 years and four major events as articulated by Walk Through the Bible:

• Creation (Genesis 1 – 2)
• Fall (Genesis 3)
• Flood (Genesis 6 – 8)
• Nations (Genesis 11)

Beginning with Genesis 12, the rest of the Bible covers the next 2,000 years! What’s the next step? Once we have nations, God chooses one nation through which he will work to communicate to and save all the other nations! It’s right there in Genesis 12:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And…

• I will make of you a great nation, and
• I will bless you and
• make your name great, so that
• you will be a blessing.
• I will bless those who bless you, and
• him who dishonors you I will curse, and
• in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12.1 – 3, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

“You will be a blessing…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

A key concept: blessed to be a blessing – something the descendants of Abram (later, his name was changed to Abraham) never got really good at. The Jerusalem Jewish leaders of the early church seemed shocked to find this out:

When they heard these things [that a Roman centurion and his friends and family believed and received the Holy Spirit], they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11.18, ESV)

Sometimes in our families and churches we act like it’s “us four and no more,” but that has never been God’s plan. In one sense, we’re all called to be “cross-cultural missionaries!”

Those who had been scattered by the persecution triggered by Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they were still only speaking and dealing with their fellow Jews. Then some of the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who had come to Antioch started talking to Greeks, giving them the Message of the Master Jesus. God was pleased with what they were doing and put his stamp of approval on it—quite a number of the Greeks believed and turned to the Master. (Acts 11.19 – 21, MSG)