Many have wondered when reading the biblical record of God’s dealings with nations, kings, individuals - and especially Israel -why did He use one nation or tribe after another to punish Israel, and then use a different nation to punish the punisher. Decades or centuries later, God then used Israel in turn to punish and utterly destroy the same nation that punished Israel. There seems to be a continuous cycle of nations of the world rising and then falling. Some rise again, only to fall again - usually by the attacks from other nations that previously rose and then fell and rose again. Some, however, God decreed that He would use a certain nation to destroy another forever - never to rise or even to exist again. Truly, God RULES in the kingdoms of men! (Daniel 4:17,25,32)
Why?
Why all this cyclical rising and falling of nations, kings, empires and peoples over centuries and millennia?
The reason God used the great flood to destroy all of mankind, and every living thing is explicit: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." (Genesis 6:5-7) This one mighty act by almighty God is DIRECT intervention. He did not use another nation to punish and discipline another - ALL were worthy of destruction. So all were destroyed directly by God - except for eight people!
God has one overarching purpose in the world. It was true before the great flood. It has been true ever since. God always sees the big picture! All things work together toward this result. All the rising and falling of empires, and all that goes with these events, is so they might KNOW THAT HE IS THE LORD (Psalm 46:10)!
There are approximately 100 references in the Old Testament that contain the phrase "that they may know that I am the Lord", or "and they will know that I am the Lord God", or other similar wording. Over 60 of these are in the Book of Ezekiel. When God uses repetition in His word, there is a reason - He wants us to get the point. In almost all of these references, He is acting and intervening in the affairs of nations by bringing about circumstances and events that are designed to cause the parties involved to KNOW THAT HE IS GOD! (Ezekiel 25:10-11; 27:35-36; 28:25; 36:37-38) In fact, all that God does in the world is for this purpose. He is involved in all things small and great, but He is single minded at the same time. He has one single purpose: that all the world would come to know that HE IS THE LORD. The world has not known this since the garden of Eden.
Now, since God sent His Son to the earth, it is still "that they might know the Lord". . this is why God does everything He does. It always has been the reason why. It always is - it always will be - His purpose that the world will come to know Him - now and forever. This is the answer to the "why" of every question, the answer to the "why" all things (John 3:16).
Do you know that God is your God - and that He is Lord? Do you KNOW God, and Jesus WHOM HE HAS SENT...?
"They then said, What are we to do, that we may [habitually] be working the works of God? [What are we to do to carry out what God requires?] Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you: that you believe in the One Whom He has sent [that you cleave to, trust, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger]." - John 6:28-29 (Amplied Bible)