An Iranian Pair Brings to Mind an Earlier Memory
The other week my wife and I helped a young Iranian couple with a kitchen installation. They were both here in Germany seeking asylum, hoping for a permanent visa. They’re a terrific couple who spent three years in a horrible camp in Greece before realizing Greece wasn’t going to offer them asylum. Trapped there, they were simply going to be left there indefinitely, stuck between Iran and Europe on a remote island where most wouldn’t even notice their plight.
I’m not sure if it was Lesbos but they were clear it was an awful place. Their story is pretty amazing. He was Muslim but unsatisfied and curious to learn. A Christian neighbor gave him a Bible. As he read it, he realized its truth and decided to become a Christian while still living in Iran!
She was from a Muslim family with no interest in religion at all. He prayed for her for years before she had a dream in which Jesus appeared and spoke with her. It was the turning point and she also gave her heart to the Lord.
An Earlier Time, An Amazing Realization
Last Sunday, it brought to mind an earlier experience not long after moving to Germany. An Egyptian Copt came to our church on Christmas Eve. He was also seeking asylum as some of his relatives had been beheaded by radical Islamists.
He was living in government housing with many Muslims who were also seeking asylum. It gave him nightmares, living in fear that they might also kill him . But in our church he found people from many Muslim nations who were Christians; people from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Tajikistan. I had the joy of telling him that in Christ, all the nations have become one.
Coming from a tight-knit Egyptian neighborhood church, it was new to him and he struggled to understand. I was able to explain that he was witnessing the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed. It was an amazing realization.
An Amazing Prophecy – Fulfilled Before our Very Eyes!
I’m often asked by fellow Christians why we don’t see miracles like during the times of Christ or the early church. It’s a great question but not an easy one to answer. Perhaps our focus on miracles we can see, blinds us to the miracles that are not so easy to see.
This miracle was one I didn’t see until I became part of a church comprised of people from many nations that also had many asylum-seekers from Middle East nations. It was then that I realized that God promised Abraham he would be a blessing to all the nations of the world. It’s a very early prophecy that immediately followed the curse on Babel that confused languages.
The Promise of Blessing to the Nations Begins at Babel
It’s easy to miss what the builders of Babel were doing. For the Ancients, the language was clear but today the meaning is lost. The tower was actually a temple structure, a place to meet God. The Ancients set up altars on mountain tops to get closer to God. A tower was needed since they settled on a plain (Genesis 11:1).
They built the tower in defiance of God. The purpose in building the tower and city was so that the people wouldn’t scatter (vs 4). The tower would also provide a name for themselves as it would be built to the heavens. God’s response was:
“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” (11:6).
Hence why God confused their languages to break their unity. It was right after the curse that divided mankind into nations and peoples that God raised up Abraham. Abraham would be the “one” who would restore the nations to “one” – or more exactly, it would be through Abraham’s Seed – i.e., the seed promised to Eve (Genesis 3:15).
How is it I’m Privileged to See What the Prophets Only Longed For?
When I realized I was seeing the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise, there I was in church, in tears. How could it be that God would grace me with being a witness to what the Prophets never saw but ever longed for? I certainly was totally unworthy. Yet there I was, amazed and humbled.
It’s one of the coolest parts of being part of God’s church. The church is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. We are one in Christ. For my Coptic friend, it meant there was no longer reason to fear – at least, not in the church! Though we all came from very different backgrounds, everyone has been given a new life in Christ. The old had passed away and the new life makes us one in Christ.
This is the marvelous blessing to the nations. It’s not just that that we are saved. It’s that we become one in Christ. And not just one in Christ, but one nation and one people in Christ. We are the Israel of God.
That’s right. We’re not just fellow citizens in the new Jerusalem, we are Abrahamic heirs to the promise! It’s why I feel so strongly about our treatment of foreigners. They are the salvation of the nations and what a blessing it is to them!
As I reflected on it last Sunday, I was again in tears. What a blessing to not just see it, but to be given the chance to participate. Miracles still happen! To God be the glory!