By Pastor Kee Sue Sing • Feb 28, 2023
The 2023 edition of Our Best Thought is based on the devotional book, Missionary God, Missionary Bible by Dick Brogden. It is written by and for the Community, together with other devotional aids found. To subscribe to this Community on WhatsApp, click here. Send in your reflection on the readings via email here.
It has been two months since we began our devotional book Missionary God, Missionary Bible. We swept through the books of Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus – with the reading of Job intentionally inserted. The big idea through it all: God has a breathtaking mega-plan to bless and save the whole world.
We often think God’s heart for the nations begins in the New Testament – but in reality it starts from the earliest pages of Genesis. It has been most fascinating to discover the adventure of missions written all over in the pages of the Old Testament. Each day’s reading is connected to God’s great missionary plan of providing salvation to all peoples – and day by day we see how the case builds up, and the message of God’s grand plan reinforced over and over.
The opportunity to pause and pray for an unreached people group (the Mandinka of Gambia, Fula Jalon of Guinea, Gola of Liberia, Moor of Mauritania, ….. many of whom we come to know of only for the first time!) has been most rewarding and enlightening.
Lessons from Genesis
In the opening chapters of Genesis we saw how salvation history unfolds in the context of the whole earth and all the nations – it was universal in scope. Just as Adam and Eve’s sin resulted in the curse that befalls all humans everywhere, so shall all peoples and nations be redeemed and blessed through their Promised Seed (Gen. 3:15).
Arthur F. Glasser aptly states: “God called Adam and Eve to accept responsibility for this world as his vice-regents, to serve and control it under his direction and for his glory.” The power of evil was such a destructive force that it broke down good while letting evil triumph and degrading people to such an extent that God had to intervene with the Flood (Gen. 6:5, 6, 11-13). In addition, God called Noah to be His messenger, to be a preacher of righteousness to the antediluvian world (2 Peter 2:5), and to call all people to make the right decision for God and enter the ark. He was like a savior for his generation, but the Tower of Babel soon finished the good beginning after the Flood (Gen. 11:1-9).
God, for the third time, had to start from scratch, but this time with Abraham. The universality of the mission was explicitly mentioned for the first time in regard to Abraham. The Great Commission of the Old Testament declares: “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:3). The Lord stresses it three times to Abraham (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18).
In many places where Abraham traveled and lived, he built altars and called on the name of the Lord (Gen. 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18). He grew through his defeats (described in Genesis 16; 20), struggles, and victories (18:16–33; 22:1–19) in such a way that at the end God stated that “Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commandments, my decrees and my instructions’ (Gen. 26:5). The knowledge about the God of Abraham was to grow in the world in such a way that even “the rulers of the world have gathered together with the people of the God of Abraham” (Ps. 47:9). Abraham’s God would meet them, and they were to follow Him. “All nations on earth will be blessed through him” (Gen. 18:18) because God’s ultimate wish is always to bless all humanity. Abraham indeed is a model of God’s mission.
Abraham’s universal mission was repeated to Isaac (Gen. 26:4), and reaffirmed to Jacob (Gen. 28:13-15; 35:11, 12; 46:3). And in Joseph God most directly fulfils His promise to bless the nations whereby people from “all the world” were sustained by the food system that Joseph managed (Gen. 41:57). Joseph understood this mission and articulated the purpose of his life in line with God’s intention: “the saving of many lives” (Gen. 50:12).
Lessons from Exodus
In Exodus, we saw how Moses together with Israel needed to continue this universal mission to the whole world (Ex. 3:6-8; 6:2-8), starting as being light to the Egyptians, spreading out by the Exodus. The purpose of the ten plagues in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea was not only to show that the Egyptians’ gods were nothing (Ex. 12:12), but also to demonstrate to the Egyptians that God was the Lord (Ex. 7:5, 17). The series of episodes in the wilderness between the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai were to put God’s people into places of testing so as to train them unto trust and obedience. Furthermore, the way that Israel would faithfully represent God to the nations was through keeping the law. The law, by its nature, reveals what God loves, what He hates, and what is important to Him. The role of Israel, then, was to live in such a way that nations saw that Israel was different, and cause them to ask, in effect, “who are you, and who is your God?”
Lessons from Leviticus
After Exodus, we move into Leviticus – and that’s where every good intentioned Bible reading plan goes to die, right? Wrong! For as we wade through Leviticus, we got to see how big a part Leviticus plays in showing us God’s mission in the world! Two big fundamental questions Leviticus offer to answer in the God’s missionary plan: How do unholy human beings approach and interact with a holy divine being? What processes does God provide to heal the brokenness of being human in the world – where our relationship with God, with ourselves, with one another and with God’s creation is broken? Leviticus is about God working to heal all these broken relationships.
Leviticus is like the instruction manual for what Israel does now that God Himself lives like a next-door neighbour. We get to see how God called Israel to an ethical distinctiveness (Lev. 11:44, 45; 18:3). They were to be committed to a holy life, because only in this way could they live to the glory of God and His name, attract people to Him, be a light to the nations, and the nations could see their wisdom.
The mission of the Old Testament people can be summarized by God’s ideal for Israel: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests [thus, a mediatorial role of Israel for other nations is anticipated; they should be the means of bringing people to God] and a holy nation’ (Ex. 19:5, 6).
Gleanings from the Devotionals
What then are some implications for us gleaning from the devotionals so far?
Firstly, that mission work is important. How can we say we are not interested in mission when God Himself so clearly is? Mission is God’s work, He is doing it and wants it done. If we say we love God and want to worship Him, this will inevitably involve us in the work of mission. How involved we are in that work will reflect our spiritual vitality – how well we know the God of mission.
Secondly, God determines the principles and practices of mission. If the living God stands behind all missionary endeavour, then it is for Him to decide how mission should be conducted. Incredibly, God has chosen to use us as agents in this great enterprise, but it is still His work and He must dictate its principles, priorities and practices. We are not free to do His work our way, but must rather seek to do it His way.
Thirdly, mission is about more than merely going somewhere, sending someone, or doing something. Mission is primarily about being – being a special people with a special message that needs to be modelled in real life. This includes a believer’s suffering which is to be viewed, as seen in Job’s life and experience, as a witness not only to God’s sovereignty but also as a witness to His goodness, justice, grace, and love to the nonbelieving world. When God’s people submit to God’s purifying processes, they begin to shine, and that luster creates a holy jealousy in all who observe. God’s purification process in us is intended to have such an evangelistic effect. The call to an ethical lifestyle and living tangibly the message of God was a crucial focus that is to be emphasized in our own time again and again.
Lastly, the missionary task will be successful. Our greatest encouragement to persevere in the work of mission comes from the fact that – just because it is God’s work rather than our own – it will be crowned with success. Revelation 7:9-10 shows us that the redeemed from every tribe, nation and tongue will most surely be there in heaven. The elect will be gathered in and nothing will thwart God’s plans and purposes.
Hallelujah! To God be the glory!