discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 26
26 The Heart of God
ish scholars have noted that the number of springs equaled the number of Israelite
tribes, 5 though it is usually said that the palm trees were for the elders.
Elim had the same number of trees as the number of Noah’s descendants listed
in Genesis 10. Calling Genesis 10 the table of nations, Jewish tradition has
treated these 70 people as the forebears of 70 nations from which all human beings
descended. The Jewish Midrash also says that the earth’s people were divided
into 70 language groups. Thus, the image of Elim’s 70 palm trees being watered
by 12 springs creates a fascinating backdrop for the Sinai covenant and its
priestly kingdom concept. At the Israelites’ previous encampment, the water was
bitter; at Elim where 12 springs watered 70 palm trees, the water was sweet.
The Prophets’ Vision of Israel’s Mission
The Bible tells how Israel consistently failed in being both the holy people
and the priestly kingdom called for in the Sinai covenant. Because Israel’s
prophets talked repeatedly about global mission, it cannot be said that the Israelites
did not know the desires of God’s heart that were clearly announced by
passages such as Psalm 113:3: “From the rising of the sun to the place where it
sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.” Though some take the phrase
about the rising and setting of the sun to mean “from sunup to sundown,” the
reference is geographical and means from as far eastward as one can imagine to
as far westward as can be imagined.
Furthermore, the Old Testament prophets’ use of two Hebrew words, gôyim
and ‘am, makes plain God’s wish that His people participate in global mission.
Gôyim, a word meaning groups of people with distinct political, ethnic, or
territorial identities, is rendered in English as nations or peoples (see Isaiah 11:10;
12:4; 66:19; Jeremiah 16:19; Ezekiel 36:22-24; Daniel 7:13-14; Micah 1:2; 4:2;
Zephaniah 2:11; Haggai 2:7; Zechariah 2:11; 9:10; and Malachi 1:11). Those
who think the Old Testament focuses exclusively on Israel need to know that
gôyim (“peoples”) appears about 500 times in the Hebrew Bible. It often is used
together with and in contrast to ‘am, a word that means people in the sense of
them having descended from the same ancestor. Thus, gôyim most frequently
means non-Israelite peoples while ‘am is more often the label for Israel.
Nothing Left But the Covers
If you take missions out of the Bible, there is little left but the covers.
6 —Nina Gunter, former director of Nazarene Missions International