Lesson for January 2, 2022
The Doctrine of the Client Nation to God
Lesson 1
A client nation is a national entity under the authority of God that is assigned the responsibility for the preservation, communication and fulfillment of the Canon of Scripture, the Bible. This includes the spreading of the Gospel. Before Israel became the first client nation, and established the concept of nationalism, the Word of God involved divine revelation by the spoken word, visions, and dreams. When Israel became a nation under the leadership of Abraham, they became responsible for the authorship, custodianship, and dissemination of the written Word of God, as it was given to them over time. This divine revelation eventually became our Old Testament Scriptures. Israel lost its status as a client nation by rebellion and rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. During the Church Age and the time of the formation of the New Testament, God’s client nation changed from Israel to Gentile nations.
We have references to the client nation concept in Scripture. Exodus 19:4-6, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if hearing, you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine; then you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to Me. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” Deuteronomy 7:6, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Deuteronomy 26:18-19, “And the Lord has today declared you to be His people, a people for His own [a treasured] possession, as He promised you; therefore, you are to keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a holy people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”
There are two categories of client nations to God in human history: the Jewish client nations of the Age of Israel with a specialized (Levitical) priesthood and the Gentile client nations during the Church Age with a universal (royal) priesthood. The Gentile client nation category follows a similar pattern as Israel. For example, Israel’s priesthood was based on physical birth, but the Church’s priesthood is based on the new spiritual birth. Both priesthoods were assigned the responsibility to guard the Word of God and spread the Gospel.
Believers in the Church Age are called a holy priesthood because each believer is a priest. Believers represent themselves before God in the Church Age and offer up the spiritual sacrifice of themselves by the fulfillment of the Christian Way of Life. Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” God no longer requires animal sacrifices and offerings. In the Church Age, He wants “the sacrifice” of our spiritual lives. I Peter 2:9, “But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out from darkness into His marvelous light.”
The idea of an elect (chosen) race comes from II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new spiritual creation; old things (spiritual death) have lost their power, behold, new things have come to pass.” Believers in Christ are Royal Family of God, a new race (spiritually speaking), and this is the key to Gentile client nations in the Church Age.
A client nation to God is a nation under divine protection, because it has a large pivot (remnant) of spiritually advancing believers. Spiritually maturing believers have blessings that overflow to others around them and to their nation. A client nation is destroyed by believers, not unbelievers, because believers fail to become part of the pivot by their rejection of accurate Bible doctrine, which is a rejection of God.
God directs and controls history based on the response from His client nations. The pivot of spiritually maturing believers in a client nation is responsible to do five things: 1) evangelize its own population at home 2) communicate Bible doctrine to the believers in the nation 3) be responsible for the custodianship and preservation of Bible doctrine 4) provide a safe haven for the Jewish race 5) send out missionaries to evangelize other nations. Therefore, freedom must exist within the client nation for this to be accomplished.
As the pivot shrinks, the nation begins to lose its client nation status with God and undergoes the five cycles of discipline. It was always a remnant of positive believers in the nation of Israel that had impact through their spiritual lives in the Old Testament. However, the pivot was not large enough at times to negate national discipline from God. There were periods of apostasy (following false teaching) in Israel in the Old Testament. Apostasy in a client nation is always a cancer. If it grows long enough, that client nation will be destroyed under the fifth cycle of discipline.
Jeremiah 6:13-14, “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for profit, furthermore from the prophet even to the priest everyone manufactures lies. In fact, they allege to solve problems of My people, saying, `Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” Ezekiel 13:10-16, “It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, `Peace!’ when there is no peace. Now when anyone builds a wall [the lies of politics], behold, they cover it with whitewash [the false solution to the problems of the client nation]; so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall. A flooding rain will come, and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a violent wind [fifth cycle of discipline] will break out. Behold, when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, `Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?’ Therefore, thus says the Lord God, `I will cause a violent wind to break out in My wrath. There will also be in My anger a flooding rain and hailstones to consume it in wrath. So, I shall tear down the wall [the political lies] which you plastered over with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare; furthermore, when it falls, you will be destroyed with it. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Therefore, I will spend My wrath against the wall and against those who have plastered it with whitewash; then I will say to you, `The wall is gone along with its plasterers, along with the prophets of Israel who prophesy [falsely]to Jerusalem, and saw visions of peace for her where there is no peace,’ declares the Lord God”
Political solutions are useless without spiritual solutions. Political solutions are temporal; spiritual solutions are eternal. Political solutions relate to the power of man; spiritual solutions relate to the power of God. Political solutions are often erroneous and destructive to a nation, while spiritual solutions offer hope to a nation and eternal life to individuals in that nation if they believe in Christ as Savior. Political solutions are subject to corruption; spiritual solutions are eternal and incorruptible. Spiritual solutions never include violence or coercion, but a change in the soul through Bible doctrine. The solution to mankind’s problems in every dispensation is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
The pivot is the remnant of spiritually maturing believers who have positive attitudes toward Bible doctrine. If there is a large pivot, the nation will be delivered from historical disaster. It there is a small pivot, then only the pivot is delivered, while the nation is destroyed. The size of the pivot in historical disaster determines the outcome of that disaster.
The principle of deliverance depending on the size of the pivot is derived from the fact that spiritually maturing believers are a blessing by association and have historical impact. When judgment falls on a nation, the pivot is still secure because they are living their spiritual lives for Christ. If a spiritually maturing believer dies during historical disaster, which results from divine discipline, it was not a matter of personal divine discipline (it was simply God’s sovereign will to advance them to Heaven).
There were five Jewish client nations in the Old Testament:
- The Theocratic Kingdom, B.C. 1441-1020, from the Exodus until the prophet Samuel. The theocratic kingdom, where God was the ruler of Israel, ended when the Jews said, “We want to be like other nations and have a human king.”
- The United Kingdom was from King Saul to Rehoboam, B.C. 1020-926.
- The Northern Kingdom was from Jeroboam to Hoshea, B.C. 926-721. In 721 B.C. the fifth cycle of discipline was administered by the Assyrians under Sargon II.
- The Southern Kingdom was from Rehoboam to Zedekiah, B.C. 926-586. The fifth cycle of discipline was administered by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar.
- Judah became a client nation from B.C. 516 until 70 A.D.
The present role of the United States as a client nation may be in jeopardy unless a larger number of Christians are advancing to spiritual maturity. In every generation of U.S. history, there has been the ingredients of the client nation: evangelism, Bible teaching, missionaries, and pro-Israel policies. The U.S.A. as a client nation is reflected in our Constitution’s purpose, which provides freedom to evangelize and to teach the Word of God. We still have a pivot of spiritually maturing believers, since the U.S.A. has not been destroyed. However, accurate Bible doctrine is rarely taught, and the Gospel is rarely presented correctly. Therefore, it is the pivot of spiritually maturing believers who are living their spiritual lives that is keeping this nation from being destroyed. That could change as the size of the pivot shrinks. Therefore, it is important for us to continue to advance spiritually.