What do these two countries have in common?
On every website I looked at they are both listed as ‘countries’ and it for this that they are linked by being the second smallest (Monaco 2km²) and smallest (Vatican City 0.44km²) countries in the world.
But that is not all they have in common – they are both incredibly rich countries (Monaco with more millionaires and billionaires per capita than any other country on earth, Vatican City through the giving of the worldwide Roman Catholic church and the income from tourists) and they are both by percentage of population massively Roman Catholic.
However you understand the biblical use of the words “tribe, “people” and “nation” the intention is clear: God intends to save men and women from every corner of the world, from every land however big or small, from every sector of society however rich or poor. We read:
Rev 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Rev 5:10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
For heaven to be complete – these nations must be represented there. If they are not, then heaven will not be the heaven of the Bible, and God will not be the God of the Bible who promised that they will be. So let me ask a simple question: Are you concerned for all peoples, for all nations? In this world in which we live where we are so mindful of the injustices that exist, of the countries that are so often at war, those that hit the headlines or charity adverts, of the massively unbalanced distribution of wealth, it is perhaps easy to overlook the real need of all peoples: personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So here’s the challenge – to pray for nations like these two – we’ll never see them listed as ‘needy’ countries, but in both every day people live and die in spiritual blindness. Let’s pray for the ‘missed’ countries of our world whose need of Christ is as great as any other.