How did God reach out to Gentiles before New Testament times? First, we need to understand the succession of Gentile powers which occurred millennia before. How did these Gentile powers influence Israel? And how did God use these Gentile powers to his advantage – and to theirs?

Previous posts have discussed how the kingdom of Assyria took the Northern Kingdom of Israel captive in 722 BC, Babylon conquered Assyria in 606 BC, and then took the Southern Kingdom of Judah captive in 586 BC. Yet, there were a series of sieges of Jerusalem before this final destruction. The first siege occurred in 605 BC, just a year after defeating Assyria. Daniel was one of those taken captive during this first siege (Dn 1:1-7). God gives King Nebuchadnezzar a dream about a statue (Dn 2), and he later builds an actual statue of his vision demanding all to worship it (Dn 3:1-6). Daniel’s four friends refused to bow down to the statue and are thrown in a fiery furnace, but no harm comes to them (Dn 3:7-27). Nebuchadnezzar then proclaims no one in his realm should say anything derogatory against the God of Daniel or they would be destroyed (Dn 3:28-29). God used the arrogance of Nebuchadnezzar to display His power and God received glory throughout his entire kingdom. No one knows how many proselytes were achieved because of this, but I’m sure it gave the Jews throughout the kingdom an opportunity to proclaim their God to many Gentiles in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom.

Later, God struck Nebuchadnezzar with boanthropy because of his arrogance (Dn 4:32). This is a mental disease where a person thinks of himself as an ox and where one’s hair lengthens and one’s fingernails become very coarse and thickened. When Nebuchadnezzar’s senses returned to him, he admitted God was the Most High (Dn 4:34, 37). This is the second time, recorded anyway, that God made the citizens of the Babylonian Empire hear about God. The Jews throughout the kingdom could then help their Gentile neighbors understand more about their God.

Next, once the Persian Empire conquered Babylon, Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. This occurred in the first year Cyrus conquered Babylon. This was actually prophesied by Isaiah over one-hundred and fifty years prior to the event (Is 44:24-45:13). Through a series of circumstances, God allowed Daniel to be thrown into a lion’s den because of his worship of God. Yet, God preserved Daniel (Dn 6:22). Cyaxares II (Darius) then gave a proclamation to the entire kingdom that everyone should respect the God of Daniel (Dn 6:26-27). God was now proclaimed to an even larger Gentile audience, as the Persian Empire was much larger than the Babylonian Empire. It stretched from India to the west coast of Turkey.

Then, once King Xerxes I ruled the kingdom, a prominent person within the kingdom, named Haman, was embittered against the Jews and made a plot to achieve their destruction. His deception was found out by a Jew named Mordecai whose niece, named Esther, who had recently been named Queen, told of his plot to Xerxes (Es 4:7-8, 7:3-6, 8:3-4). Xerxes allowed Mordecai and Esther to draft a letter with his seal which was sent to all of the provinces of the Persian Empire. It allowed the Jews to fight back without restraint against any who would attack them as Haman had ordered (Es 8:9-10). If nothing else, this caused many within the empire to at least fear or have a respect for the God of the Jews. I’m sure it made many question who this God the Jews served was and wanted to know more about him.

Many years later, Alexander the Great came on the scene and conquered all the land from Greece all the way to India, including all the land of the Persian Empire. When he approached Jerusalem, Jaddua, the priest in Jerusalem, showed Alexander the prophecy about him in the book of Daniel (Dn 11:1-3). Alexander believed this confirmed a vision he had received earlier. Alexander then allowed Jerusalem to be saved from attack, and the Jews were allowed to abide by their own laws. Many Jews went with him on his campaign. This further allowed many within Alexander the Great’s army, and many throughout the kingdom, to hear about the God of the Jews.

We can know many proselytes were created because in Acts 2 many of all these areas, now part of the Roman and Parthian Empires, were present in Jerusalem for Shavuot (i.e., Pentecost). This again helps us see how God has always been inclusive of everyone. Isn’t our God wonderful!

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens