discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

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iah. God’s covenant with Abraham was about global mission. Many of the
lyrics in David’s Hebrew hymnal (the Book of Psalms) point to God’s heart for
the nations. The Temple built by Solomon was to be a worship center for all
peoples and not just for those born as Hebrews. Isaiah, perhaps Israel’s greatest
prophet, declares that God’s people were to “bring my salvation to the ends of
the earth” (Isaiah 49:6, NIV). The sidebar “Blessing All Peoples” gives the key
missions passages that involve those four figures.
Old Testament
The Heart of God 23
The reason Winter, former missionary to Guatemala, says that “missions is
the basis of the Bible” is that God has revealed himself in Scripture to be desirous
of a holy, loving relationship with all people. Both Hebrew and Christian
Scriptures tell of a God who initiated, and continues to initiate, communication
with people. After earth’s first inhabitants sinned (Genesis 3:14-15),
Yahweh launched a campaign to salvage His lost creation. That salvage campaign
is a major focal point of the Bible. The Living Bible’s paraphrase of 2
Chronicles 20:17 refers to God’s “incredible rescue operation” (TLB). The ultimate
success of the rescue operation that is global mission was glimpsed by
John who said in Revelation 7:9 that he saw “a great multitude that no one
could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before
the throne and in front of the Lamb.”
The Mission Implications of Genesis 1—11
While much of the Old Testament focuses on the Israelites, it begins by
describing God’s relationship to all of humanity. In Genesis 1—11 the Creator
involves himself with all peoples. Thus, before Yahweh became identified as the
God of Israel, He had revealed himself as the God of all humankind. The way
in which the Hebrew word ‘adam is used shows that the Old Testament is
about the whole human race and not just about Israel. ‘Adam, which appears
more than 20 times in Genesis 1—5, can mean humanity as a whole as well as
the very first human being. More than two-thirds of the times ‘adam is used in
Genesis, it appears with the definite article as ha-‘adam. When that is done, the
word does mean all of humanity or humankind instead of a particular person. 2
This dual use of ‘adam reflects the collective worldview prevalent among
the cultures of Old Testament times. That collective worldview means that the
first readers of Genesis would have seen all human beings as bound together in
a corporate unity. This corporate outlook, which has significant implications
for Christian mission, is reinforced by the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 10,
which point to the solidarity of all human families before and after the Flood.
The first readers of Genesis would have understood its early part to be about