Our God is a Missionary God!, Part 1
August 22, 2024 | by: Bret Willoughby | 0 Comments
Posted in: Guest Writers
I first discovered that our God is a missionary God in high school. When I found myself talking into the cassette recorder mic, I was re-enacting seaweed wrapping around Jonah’s head; the salt water washed over me as I descended to the ocean depths. As a 15 year old boy, I was attracted to the gritty detail of Jonah. This was my final project as a high school sophomore in “Bible as Literature” in my public-school class. Growing up by the sea, I knew the smell, taste and texture of seaweed wrapping around my head.
God’s heart for all nations and peoples is infused throughout all scriptures and is not limited to just the book of Jonah.
God used Jonah, even though he got on the wrong ship heading away from Ninevah, his God-ordained destination. The Ninevites responded to God’s disobedient messenger. I can see Jonah stepping out from the shade God provided him, with his fist raised in anger at God because God spared Jonah’s mortal enemies the, Ninevites. The Ninevites responded favorably to God’s warning. Jonah would have been all too happy to see his political enemies smitten and judged by God. The book of Jonah demonstrates that it is not the messenger that people respond to, but the Holy Spirit in the individual that draws us to God the Father through the sacrifice of his Son.
An earlier assignment in the same class, required me to write down every promise in Genesis. That was the first time I learned of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12:1-2 is the Old Testament foundation of the missionary mandate. God made promises to Abram and his descents (who were later called Israel).
God promised:
- To give Israel land
- That Israel would become a nation
- To bless Israel so that Israel would be a blessing to the nations.
God promises to bless Israel and Israel is to be a blessing to the nations by describing the attributes of the one true, all powerful Creator. As I learned in my assignment, the Abrahamic Covenant is repeated again and again in the Old Testament. God was blessing Israel so that she would be a blessing to the nations around her. What was the message to the nations around Israel? It is found in another oft repeated verse, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8). This is the message that Israel and now the church is to share with the nations.
The word “nations” appears over 400 times in the Bible. It is easy to read the word “nations” as a political entity. But the Greek word that is translated “nation” in the New Testament is “ethnos” and is the etymological forefather of our word “ethnic.” The words “nation” and “nations” are about cultural groups; not geopolitical countries color coded on a map. God sees cultures, families and individuals.
Initially I limited my understanding of the Old Testament to God’s relationship with the Hebrew people to the exclusion of other cultural groups. But then I found other scriptures that illustrate that God is concerned not only with the Hebrews but with other people groups as well.
Hezekiah’s prayer in 2 Kings 19 is infused with the understanding that God will bless Israel so she would be a blessing to other nations. Hezekiah implores God to rescue Israel by petitioning, “So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD are God alone” (2 Kings 19:19).
God tells Jeremiah in 1 Chronicles 16:23-24, “Sing to the Lord, all the earth! ... Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods.” We are to declare God’s glory among all the nations and cultural groups.
Little did I know that four years later, as a college Sophomore, I would hear John Stott further expound on “Jonah the Reluctant Missionary” for a week. To be continued…
-Bret Willoughby
