Introduction
The God of the Bible has clearly
revealed His will, in that believers of this age ought to share the Gospel with
all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). God’s plan, in giving Christians His Son, is
for them to be His tools for use in this age.[1]
However, the question must be asked: what is the theology of missions? Ott and
Strauss claim, “It is a theological reflection on the nature and task of
mission.”[2]
At first glance, it seems to belong mostly (or even solely) to the domain of
the New Testament (NT) era. It would seem a disagreement exists as to whether
or not the Old Testament (OT) has anything to say about missions at all—or
whether or not missions should have been a priority to the OT era people of
God.
To that question, A. Scott Moreau,
Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee respond in the affirmative. They write, “From
the very opening words of the Bible important themes in mission appear that are
expanded throughout the Old Testament. They lay the foundation for what is
found more explicitly about mission in the New Testament.”[3]
This paper will show that missions was not only anticipated by but also active
in the OT. First, the foundation for missions in the OT will be considered.
Then, some examples of missions in the OT will be shown. The NT usages of OT
texts will be examined, while the very mission of Jesus Christ will be held as
a paradigmatic example of OT missions.
The
Foundation for Missions in the Old Testament
No discussion of a theology of
missions in the OT is complete without a reference to Genesis 3:15. That verse,
which is quoting God’s judgment upon the serpent, states: “And I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall
bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (NKJV). The immediate
interpretation of this prophetic utterance is clear: the descendant of Eve will
come and overthrow the power of Satan. This is a commonly interpreted Messianic
prophecy.
The background of this prophecy is
the sin in the Garden of Eden. Ott and Strauss correctly point out that only by
understanding the original sin was a rejecting and breaking of the relationship
with God will one understand that Genesis 3:15 is a future restoration of that
relationship.[4]
The reason this restoration is missional is because it involves God going after
mankind to save them. The restoration could not be anything but this. If that
is the case then Genesis 3:15 is of necessity a missions text in the OT.
An objection immediately presents
itself: if this is a prophecy, and the prophecy finds its fulfillment in Jesus
Christ, how does this support the thesis that there is missions in the OT? An
answer can be found in Moreau. God deliberately came after Adam and Even in
their specific situation, and provided them skins (presumably of animals God
killed) to wear (cf. Genesis 3:21). This means God concerned himself with
mission as it relates to all of mankind from the very moment of the first sin.[5]
David Filbeck agrees with this
assessment when he states, “This universality of sin and its total effect on
life from the individual to the societal to the whole world . . . [points] to
the missionary message running throughout the Old Testament.”[6]
Filbeck is using the argument from the universality of sin to the universality
of the redemption to be found in Christ; it is the same redemption being acted
upon with the shedding of blood rather than the fig leaves Adam and Eve had
supplied themselves.[7]
The theological symbolism is clearly that one’s own righteousness is not good
enough to cover one’s own sins. Only the righteousness of God can do that. If
God involved himself in that, then Genesis 3:15 is indisputably an instance of
missions in the OT; it is not merely a foreshadowing of it. Once the foundation
for missions in the OT has been established, the examples of missions in the OT
should be considered.
Examples
of Missions in the Old Testament
The foundation of OT mission would
mean little without any examples of mission taking place. On the contrary,
there are several examples of mission occurring within the confines of the OT.
Some of them look very much like the NT and even modern models of missions.
Others look different, though they manage to fit the mold of missions (given
the foundation of Genesis 3:15). The examples of missions to be considered will
be either individual or corporate instances of missions. Both are central to
spreading the message of God in the OT, just as both individual and corporate
considerations are needed in the Great Commission of the NT.
Abraham
The first OT example of missions to
be considered is Abraham. Genesis 12:1-3 proclaim, in part: “Now the LORD said
to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country . . . to the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation . . . and in you all the families of the
earth will be blessed” (NASB). Abraham was called from his geographical
location, culture, and comfort to cross cultures on behalf of God. Not only
this, but he was promised that from him would come a great nation, even the
Messiah (through whom all families of the earth would be blessed). This is
precisely how all missiologists would identify a cross-cultural missionary.
David Filbeck has an interesting insight
concerning the term “families” in Genesis 12 and “nations” in Genesis 22. The
ideas behind these words convey the meaning of biological lineage (in the
former case) and ethnicities or peoples (in the latter case).[8]
This means that, as a missionary, Abraham’s mission would ultimately bless all
people by all people groups, whether they are large or small. Theologically,
the reaffirmation of the Abrahamic covenant comes in Genesis 22 only after
Abraham successfully passes the test of obedience to God. Since Abraham trusted
God with his lineage, then it is within his lineage that the Messiah will be
found.
This is not the only way in which
Abraham was a missionary. His very wandering itself constituted missional
activity. Through his unwilling discussion with Abimelech in Genesis 20, he
reveals that his God has the power of life and death and is the one true God.
Through Abraham, God was narrowing his focus to a particular people—but He did
not do this for the purposes of exclusion. In fact, W. Bryant Hicks wrote of
this, “Israel was his [God’s] special treasure for the very purpose of being a
blessing to them [other nations].”[9]
Theologically, then, Abraham stood as an OT example of a missionary: he carried
the message of God cross-culturally while anticipating the future Messiah who
would redeem the sins of the world.
Jonah
The prophet Jonah is a famous—or
perhaps infamous—example of an OT missionary. He was, in fact, a prophet of
God. Without rehashing the entire story of the book of Jonah, one can say that
he is acting as a poor missionary, but a missionary nonetheless. While prophets
normally brought messages to Israel and Judah, God did use prophets to
pronounce judgment on other nations. While that contributes to the
popular-level stereotype that the God of the OT was uninterested in the
salvation of the nations at this time, the story of Jonah proves otherwise.
Johannes Verkuyl uses the story of
Jonah to make the argument that mere presence was not enough to satisfy the
missionary motif of the OT. There was a real sense of purpose and missionary
calling to go answer the “missionary call to all people sounding forth.”[10]
Interestingly, what begins the missionary call to Jonah is a pronouncement of
judgment. “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their
wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2, NASB). Jonah’s response was that
he did not want to; he would later say this was because he knew that God was “gracious
. . . and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (4:2, ESV).
Even in the midst of pronouncing judgment, even God’s disobedient prophet knew
that it was for the divine purpose of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Verkuyl presents this missionary
story as one that always contained hope for salvation and the forgiveness of
sins in response to repentance.[11]
Verkuyl makes the astute point that it was merely the attitude of the prophet
that revealed a singular focus on Israel alone with respect to redemption. He
claimed, “He [Jonah] wanted a God cut according to his own pattern: a cold,
hard, cruel-natured god with an unbending will set against the heathen. He
cannot stand to think of the Gentiles as part of salvation history.”[12]
Yet they clearly are a concern of God’s, and God is not merely content to stand
by—He sends his missionary to proclaim the truth.
The Israelites in the Wilderness
The Israelites were God’s chosen
people; they were descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had been in
Egypt for four hundred years (cf. Exodus 1), and eventually Moses was called
(cf. Exodus 3) to lead them out of Egypt and speak for God. This was to result
in Israel being a blessing to all nations by living and proclaiming the message
of God. Unfortunately, they did not always do this. In fact, they looked out
for their own interests. Walter Kaiser shows this by Israel’s rejection of
God’s plan for them to be a kingdom of priests and their priestly role.[13]
Kaiser’s observations suggest that the argument that the OT did not intend for
there to be missionary activity like the NT fails, because it relies on the
poor behavior of the Israelites (and their rejection of God’s plan). He
elaborates, saying, “Israel began looking out for her own interests . . .
becoming a club of the pious and forgetting her calling to be sharers of
blessing.”[14]
The missionary intentions for Israel
did become a missionary reality, however. Christopher J. H. Wright, OT scholar,
suggests that the Law was given to Israel in order to form them into the kind
of nation that God would use to mediate the blessings of redemption to all
other nations.[15]
This explains, at least in part, the wilderness wanderings. While it was a
punishment for the lack of faith in God, it nonetheless was a time where they
lived by the Law given at Sinai, and began to grow accustomed to it.
This is not to say they were ultimately
successful. However, the wilderness time culminated in the conquest narratives
of the book of Joshua. In chapter 2, two spies were sent to Jericho, and they
lodged at the house of Rahab, “a harlot” (v. 1, NKJV). While they are there,
she protects the men, and lies to the king of Jericho as to their whereabouts.
This act is said to be an act of faith by the author of the book of Hebrews.
However accidental the meeting of the spies and Rahab seemed, it was
orchestrated as an act of mission from one people to another. Joshua 2:9 and 11
explain, “and [she] said to the men: ‘I know that the LORD has given you the
land . . . for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth
beneath” (NKJV). This is the optimal result God intended: the evangelization of
people from every tribe and tongue, and it was accomplished via the Israelites’
wandering experience (and its ending).
Isaiah
The famous quote from Isaiah 6:8 has
God asking the Trinitarian question, “Who will go for Us?” with Isaiah’s
response being, “Here am I. Send me!” (NASB) While Isaiah’s mission is not
cross-cultural, in a very real sense it is counter-cultural.
This is because verses 9-10 state that the people of Israel will not hear
Isaiah’s message. They will reject it.
But Isaiah’s message is not simply
regarding Israel. Ott and Strauss speak of this when they write, “Isaiah
reveals one of his key themes in an eschatological vision of the nations coming
to Zion to worship and learn from the Lord.”[16]
This is a goal seen even in OT times, so that the argument cannot be made that
Isaiah is only referencing the future. It is not as though he was giving a
message wholly irrelevant to the people of Israel. The biblical picture is one
of the nations coming to Christ in His kingdom; even historically wicked
nations such as Egypt and Assyria will do so.[17]
The message of Isaiah with respect to missions is that this is a result of the
redemptive motif that runs throughout the OT.
In fact, one can make the argument that the context of Isaiah’s message
is not simply the fulfillment of redemptive history (in Genesis 3:15), though
that surely is the goal. Rather, the goal is also to show Israel’s failure to
act as the missionary entity they should have been.[18]
This suggests strongly that mission activity was central to the theology of the
OT.
Israel in Exile
The final example to give is Israel
in exile. This section can be summarized with the following comment: Israel
would not be God’s ambassador to the nations (in going to the nations and in
living for God), so God brought the nations to Israel. The Babylonians and
Assyrians drove them from the Promised Land. This accomplished a number of
things. First, it allowed a godly witness in a heathen land. Consider the story
of Daniel. He was taken to Shinar, in Babylonia. It was there he rose to prominence
and became a godly influence and testimony.
Further, Wright demonstrates that
even a return to the land of Israel would bring with it the idea of missionary
outreach. He wrote, “The promise of restoration for Israel would ultimately
extend the knowledge of God for his people first expressed in [Jeremiah] 13:11
. . . would eventually be fulfilled.”[19]
It certainly seems as though part of the divine purpose in exiling Israel was
the evangelization of the nations.
The
New Testament Usage of OT Texts in the Theology of Missions
A good way of showing that the OT
was active in its missions engagement is to show that OT texts actually taught
principles of missions. The NT actually uses OT texts in such a way to show
that world missions is such a priority for the theology and eschatology of the
OT. Among several texts, James Meek attempted to show that several NT texts
treat OT texts as missional. He began with Acts 3:25, which is a quote of
Genesis 12 and 22. Meek argues that the text teaches fulfillment of Genesis 22
is found in Christ (as the singular “seed”), and thus Gentiles and all nations
are included.[20]
Meek further claims that Luke reported this particular story for the express
purpose of connecting God’s promises and Gentiles. He claimed, “Gentiles are
included in the promises of God that were made to the fathers and that have
been fulfilled in Jesus . . . by fulfilling the promise to Abraham in Jesus,
God extended his blessing to all the families of the earth.”[21]
The other text that will be considered
is the quotation of Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:17-21 by Peter. This was in response
to those who thought the apostles were drunk. Notably, the explanation of these
signs includes what Stanley Porter says is “the extension of salvation to any
who call on the name of the Lord.”[22]
Porter also considers the eschatological tone of the book of Joel in the quote.
The idea is that Luke used Joel as a source to describe that the apostles were
then living at the beginning of the last days, so that all nations would begin
to come to Christ.[23]
If the NT used the OT as describing missions as something in the heart of God
from the beginning, then it remains difficult to dismiss the thesis that
missions was active in the OT.
Jesus
Christ as Missionary Fulfills the Law
If the NT used the OT texts to
discuss missions, it was only because Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of
redemptive history. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus states, “Do not think that I have
come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to
fulfill them” (ESV). Jesus was the ultimate paradigm of OT mission. Many people
do not realize that although Christ’s life is recorded in the NT, his life was
lived out in the OT times. Only toward the end of his public ministry did he
actively speak of the new covenant.
It is clear that however one
interprets the OT, Jesus’ life was the fulfilled promise of Genesis 3:15.
Moreau puts it this way: “God at lasts answers the hopes that the prophets had
planted . . . However, the fulfillment of their hopes comes in an unexpected
way. Jesus . . . came as a humble teacher prepared to die on behalf of his
people.”[24]
Jesus is the paradigmatic example of mission for several reasons. First, he
came as God living among men. If there ever were a culture change, God becoming
a man certainly qualifies. Second, he came to die. There is nothing more
central to redemptive history than the sacrificial payment for sins in the
death of Jesus Christ.
In a way, the entirety of Christian
existence on earth is predicated on the mission of Jesus. Daniel Carroll agrees
when he writes, “Migration is a key metaphor for understanding the Christian
faith. All Christians are sojourners and strangers in the world.”[25]
He further points to Christ as fulfilling the Law in a way that no one else
can; it is through the beneficence of God that one can be saved.[26]
Jesus Christ’s fulfilling of the OT Law in an OT setting is the clearest and
best example of the OT redemptive story showing the missions heart and activity
of God in the OT.
Conclusion
This paper attempted to show that
missions was not only anticipated by the OT, but also active in it. The
foundation for all of missions was located and examined in Genesis 3, followed
by a discussion of several OT examples of missionaries (for good or for ill).
These examples of action were followed by examples of NT writers treating OT
texts as a discussion of the mission and how it applied to all nations.
Finally, the very person of Jesus Christ is a paradigmatic example of both OT
theology and action in missions. Missions is not something found in the OT; it
is part of the grand metanarrative of Scripture: redemptive history.
Carroll R., M. Daniel. “Biblical
Perspectives on Migration and Mission: Contributions from the Old Testament,”
in Mission Studies, 30 (2013:), 9-26.
Filbeck, David. Yes, God of the Gentiles, Too. Wheaton, IL: Wheaton College, 1994.
Hicks, W. Bryant. “Old Testament
Foundations for Missions,” in Missiology,
ed. John Mark Terry, Ebbie Smith, and Justice Anderson. Nashville: Broadman
& Holman, 1998, 51-62.
Kaiser, Walter C. “Israel’s Missionary
Call,” in Perspectives, 4d, ed. Ralph
D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2009,
10-16.
Meek, James A. The Gentile Mission in Old Testament Citations in Acts. New York:
T&T Clark, 2008.
Moreau, A. Scott, Gary R. Corwin, and
Gary B. McGee. Introducing World Missions.
Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004.
Ott, Craig, and Stephen J. Strauss, Encountering Theology of Mission. Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010.
Porter, Stanley E. “Scripture Justifies
Mission: The Use of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts,” in Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament, ed. Stanley E.
Porter. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2006, 104-26.
Verkuyl, Johannes. “The Biblical
Foundation for the Worldwide Mission Mandate,” in Perspectives, 4d, ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne.
Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2009, 42-48.
[1] Craig Ott and Stephen
J. Strauss, Encountering Theology of
Mission (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), xi.
[2] Ibid., xix.
[3] A. Scott Moreau, Gary
R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee, Introducing
World MissionsBaBaker Academic, 2004), 27.
[4] Ott and Strauss, Encountering Theology of Mission, 6.
[5] Moreau, Corwin, and
McGee, Introducing World Missions,
31.
[6] David Filbeck, Yes, God of the Gentiles, Too (Wheaton,
IL: Wheaton College, 1994), 53.
[7] Ott and Strauss, Encountering Theology of Mission, 6.
They also go on to mention that this sacrifice for sins is only through the
shedding of blood, also a very important theological point.
[8] Filbeck, Yes, God of the Gentiles, Too, 62.
[9] W. Bryant Hicks, “Old
Testament Foundations for Missions,” in Missiology,
ed. John Mark Terry, Ebbie Smith, and Justice Anderson (Nashville: Broadman
& Holman, 1998), 56.
[10] Johannes Verkuyl, “The
Biblical Foundation for the Worldwide Mission Mandate,” in Perspectives, 4d, ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena,
CA: William Carey Library, 2009), 44.
[11] Ibid., 47. It is worth
noting that the people of Nineveh seem to be guessing as to whether or not
forgiveness is really available to them (cf. 3:9), but modern-day readers have
the benefit of theological hindsight.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Walter C. Kaiser,
“Israel’s Missionary Call,” in Perspectives,
4d, ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA: William
Carey Library, 2009), 13.
[14] Ibid., 14.
[15] Christopher J. H.
Wright, “Mission and Old Testament Interpretation,” in Hearing the Old Testament: Listening for God’s Address, ed. Craig
G. Bartholomew and David J. H. Beldman (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2012),
185.
[16] Ott and Strauss, Encountering Theology of Mission, 14.
[17] Ibid., 15.
[18] Ibid., 16.
[19] Wright, Hearing the Old Testament: Listening for
God’s Address, 190.
[20] James A. Meek, The Gentile Mission in Old Testament
Citations in Acts (New York: T&T Clark, 2008), 127.
[21] Ibid., 128-29.
[22] Stanley E. Porter,
“Scripture Justifies Mission: The Use of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts,” in Hearing the Old Testament in the New
Testament, ed. Stanley E. Porter (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2006),
120.
[23] Ibid., 122.
[24] Moreau, Corwin, and
McGee, Introducing World Missions,
40.
[25] M. Daniel Carroll R.,
“Biblical Perspectives on Migration and Mission: Contributions from the Old
Testament,” in Mission Studies, 30
(2013:), 11.
[26] Ibid., 17.
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