We should always remember the general statements God makes about nations and sin and righteousness.

“Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sin is a disgrace to any people.”
Prov 14:34

“Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,
The people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.”
Psa 33:12

Yes, the Son does rule the nations

“7 I will tell of the decree.
Yahweh said to me, “You are my son.
Today I have become your father. …
8 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance,
The uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron.
You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Psa 2:7-9

And the purpose … what is the purpose?

“that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
Acts 17:27

God raises up nations and lowers nations, seeking for His eternal purpose that as many men as possible might be delivered from their sins! Paul does treat this as if it should be natural thing, seeking God and drawing close to Him.

“‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’”
Acts 17:28

You see, God really desires that we repent of our sins and turn to Him.

God Himself has said it.

“For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves, and live.” Ezek 18:32

There are three wrong ideas
we may fall into here.

Sometime we are willfully blind. Our distorted theology may blind us to God working in history to both help the righteous and punish the wicked. Some are so focused on God’s love that they cannot see that God both can and does punish men in history. Often even US !

“But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”
Heb 12:8 KJV

On the other hand many have so distorted the message of Scripture the other way, that all that they can see is vengeful, wrathful, God. This also is a misconception.

Then comes the third distortion. Sometimes we see all the evil in the world and do not understand that God IS working in the world, and we wonder why God does not do something?

So why doesn’t God do something about all the wickedness in the world?

“The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient WITH US, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
2Pe 3:9

This is a short period of amnesty.

God is going to bring both us and them to account for our sins. In between God is giving both us and them time to think through our situation, and repent, before it is eternally too late.

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.