Mission in the Old Testament

Israel as a Light to the Nations

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781441238795
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Walter Kaiser questions the notion that the New Testament represents a deviation from God's supposed intention to save only the Israelites. He argues that--contrary to popular opinion--the older Testament does not reinforce an exclusive redemptive plan. Instead, it emphasizes a common human condition and God's original and continuing concern for all humanity. Kaiser shows that the Israelites' mission was always to actively spread to gentiles the Good News of the promised Messiah. This new edition adds two new chapters, freshens material throughout, expands the bibliography, and includes study questions.

No one can charge the Old Testament with beginning its story in a chauvinistic way, as if it were addressed exclusively to Jewish people. Genesis 1–11 is decidedly universal in its scope and outlook, for it addressed all peoples, all cultures, and all languages from the very beginning of time. It covers as much time, even on a minimalist chronology of the events from the creation of the world in Genesis 1 until the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, as is found in the rest of the Old Testament (Gen. 13–Malachi)—at a minimum, if not more! Rather than being pro-Jewish or featuring Israel as God’s favored or pet nation (a view that is incorrectly applied to all of the Old Testament), Genesis 1–11 began with the original human couple, Adam and Eve, and moved on until the (then known) seventy nations[5] of the world were encompassed in the scope of its message (in the table of nations in Genesis 10).

“Blessing/Bless”: The Words of “Promise”

The earth is filled with a multitude of peoples and nations by the time we come to the end of the first eleven chapters of Genesis. All of this is a result of the blessing of God. In fact, blessing, or the verb to bless, is one of the key concepts of these opening chapters, a theme that is continued in the promise-doctrine of the Old Testament under a constellation of terms, until the New Testament finally settles on the word promise. Blessing was indeed the precise noun and verb that connected this section of the book with the announcement of the promise-plan of God in Genesis 12:1–3, where a summary of the word to bless or blessing occurred five times in these three verses alone.

But just as the blessing of God was at work from the creation of the world onward, in like manner the earth was simultaneously being overwhelmed by one catastrophe after another. There were at least three such crises that fell on humanity from Genesis 1–11 as a result of the sin of those times: (1) the fall, (2) the flood, and (3) the failure of the Tower of Babel. However, with each crisis came a blessing or a promise from God that formed the worldwide blessing of God offered to all mortals.

The Three Crises and Three Promises in the Plan of God

The scope and import of the word of God could not be more extensive than that given in the opening chapters of Genesis. The original couple, progenitors of the whole human race, failed the test of obedience that God had designed for Adam and Eve. Because they yielded to the temptation of the tempter in the Garden of Eden, a curse fell not only on this couple but also on the ground, its products, the created order, and all humanity. But the curse did not have the last word: God graciously blessed them with his word of promise as well.

1. Genesis 3:15—The Fall and the Male Seed of the Woman

But the story did not end with judgment or a curse, for in Genesis 3:15 God declared that he would personally put “enmity” between the Serpent—that old dragon, the devil (see Rev. 12:9)—and the woman, between the Serpent’s “seed” and the woman’s “seed.” But then in a sudden turn of events, God predicted that the Serpent would bruise the heel of one of the woman’s “seed,” a male descendant from among her offspring. The Hebrew pronoun in this text was clearly a masculine pronoun, not a feminine or even a neuter pronoun. In fact, in the third-century BC Greek Septuagint translation of this passage, the Greek grammatical rule of agreement between the pronoun and the neuter antecedent was deliberately broken in this single instance alone, out of some 150 instances in the book of Genesis, to show that the translators understood the text was speaking of a coming male. All this was done about three centuries before the Christian era had arrived!

Most surprising of all, however, the male child of the woman’s “seed” would strike back by crushing the head of the Serpent. This, of course, would be a lethal blow. It guaranteed that the coming Man of Promise, from the male line of Eve, would once and for all settle the issues that the sin of Adam and Eve had raised. The defeat of the evil one would result in an overwhelming victory in which evil would be vanquished once for all.

How much of this prediction did Eve understand, much less did those who read this story during Old Testament times? A strong hint is given to us in Genesis 4. When Eve conceived a son, she named him Cain, saying, “I have brought forth a man, even the Lord” (Gen. 4:1, author’s translation). Most English versions translate this phrase as something like “with the help of the Lord.” However, the Hebrew text merely has the direct object sign (ʾet) and the words “the Lord (Yhwh)”; it does not have any Hebrew text for the words “with the help of.” It would seem, instead, that “the Lord” is in apposition to the “man,” whom Eve had just brought forth. Consequently, it may be fairly stated that Eve thought that the birth of her first son Cain would be the answer to the promise of Genesis 3:15, and that this male descendant would be divine and therefore would be the answer to all the trouble her sin had initiated! Her instincts were correct; her timing was way off.

But, some object, Cain was not even in the messianic line. True, but the text reports only what Eve thought. She apparently understood that the male offspring promised to her would be no less than a divine-human person. Again, we say that while her instincts and general understanding were correct, her timing and identifying abilities were far from on target. She must have gotten the idea that one of her sons would be this conquering hero who would vanquish the Serpent, that old dragon, the devil. She hoped that relief and correction to her sin would come sooner rather than later. But she, and we, would need to wait until the Messiah was born in the line of David.

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An Excursus on Enoch

Before we take up the second crisis, it is important to note another forerunner of the missionary movement in the early days in Genesis 1–11. The half-brother of Jesus, Jude, appealed to “Enoch, the seventh [Jude does not say the seventh what; perhaps the seventh important person] from Adam [Gen. 5:18–24], [who] prophesied about them [the evildoers of Enoch’s and Jude’s day]: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him [the Lord].’ These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage” (Jude 14–16).

The depth of Enoch’s theology surprises us for its being so early in the biblical canon. But there can be no denying that Enoch spoke as a “prophet” from God to the wicked generation of his day. If his people did not receive by faith the warnings, then Christ’s coming would surely catch them off guard. This included a warning about all ungodliness, all wicked ways, all grumblings, all faultfinding, all evil desires, all false flattery to gain some advantage, and all defiant words—presumably against God and his people. Enoch, only the seventh person worthy of note from Adam himself, was a prophet preaching righteousness to his generation, whose people were pretty much altogether in one language group until the division of their tongues into different languages in Genesis 11. Thus, the message had a universal appeal to all the peoples.

Enoch himself had this witness: he “walked with God.” Because of the quality of his life, this mortal man went directly into the immortal presence of God: the text says that “he was no more, because God took him away” (Gen. 5:24) after he had lived 365 years. Moreover, those years were not lived as a recluse or a monk away from society; the text clearly says that “he had . . . sons and daughters” (Gen. 5:22)! So his witness was worthy of special mention.

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2. Genesis 9:27—God Dwelling in the Midst of Humankind

The second crisis came in the flood that destroyed all mortals on earth except the eight who were in Noah’s ark: Noah, his wife, their sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), and their sons’ wives. But when the eight survivors emerged from the ark, God gave a special promise to Shem (Gen. 9:27)—that God would “dwell in the tents of Shem.” This promise to “dwell” was most encouraging, for it assured mortals that despite God’s transcendence, he would come to planet earth to take up his residence with the line of Shem, the group of people we know as “Semites,” and live in the midst of them.

This word of promise came about as the aftermath of Noah’s drunkenness. After he had heard what his son Ham had done to him while he was sleeping off the effects of his wine, he uttered a prophetic word. The structure of Noah’s response in Genesis 9:25–27 is in the form of a heptastich (a poem consisting of seven lines), and it is divided into three parts by the repeated refrain about the servitude of Canaan, a son of Noah’s son Ham.

The critical lines come in verse 27, where according to the NIV Noah proclaims: “May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.” The key question is, Who is the subject of “may he [paraphrased in the NIV and elsewhere as “Japheth,” but there is no Hebrew text for the reading “Japheth”] live in the tents of Shem”? We concur with the decision of the Targum of Onkelos, Philo, Maimonides, Rashi, Aben Ezra, Theodoret, Baumgarten, and Delitzsch that the subject is “God” and not “Japheth.”

My reasons for this conclusion are: (1) in poetry, the subject of the preceding clause is presumed to be the subject of the next clause when a second subject is not expressly given, which in this case is “God”; (2) it is unnatural to use the indirect object of the preceding line (“Japheth”) as the subject of the next line unless there are strong contextual reasons for doing so, but no such reasons exist here; (3) the context of the following chapters designates Shem as being the first in the line of blessing; (4) it makes little or no sense to have Japheth living in the tents of Shem; and (5) the plan of the whole prophecy is to devote the first strophe to Canaan, the second to Shem and Canaan, and the third one to all three brothers—Japheth, Shem, and Ham.

On balance, then, the best option is to regard God as promising Shem a special blessing in which the Lord himself would “dwell” with the Semitic peoples. His “dwelling” (Hebrew: shakan) would be related to the “Shekinah” glory of God, which evidence of this presence was seen over the tabernacle by the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night and the glory that filled the tabernacle.

The overall report on Noah, however, is better than this narrative would lead us to conclude. We are told that “Noah [had previously?] found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8), for he was “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” (6:9). This was prior to the flood and the episode of his drunkenness, for we are told that during the 120 years in which the building of the ark was in progress (Gen. 6:3), Noah preached the gospel to those who came to watch the progress of this huge vessel on high and dry ground! One could imagine many a taunt and jeer about such a crazy undertaking for so large a vessel on high and dry ground so far away from any sea or large river!

But missionary that Noah was, he used these years as an opportunity to minister as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5). Noah was empowered and emboldened by no less than Christ himself during those days, for 1 Peter 3:18–20 taught that Christ went “in the Spirit” and preached through Noah to those scoffers who lambasted both Noah and God for such foolishness. If we accept Peter’s testimony (and surely we do), then “while the ark was being built” (1 Pet. 3:20), Noah preached to those who were held captive by their own sins and by their disobedience at that very time. Unfortunately, none of his listeners accepted the gospel, which must have included his three sons’ fathers-in-law and mothers-in-law and all their relatives.

Noah is among those early missionaries in Genesis 1–11. He was sent to warn the peoples of his day of the impending disaster and of God’s provision for deliverance if any would receive God’s free offer, just as Enoch had been sent for the same purpose!

3. Genesis 11:4—Making a “Name” for Oneself or Being Given One

But that left open a question: Which Semite would receive the blessing of having God “dwell” in the midst of them? Would he come from an Arab Semitic line or a Jewish Semitic line? Or would he hail from one of the many other Semitic peoples? The English word Semitic comes from Shemitic, from which the “h” was dropped as it came through Greek translation. Both words were adjectival forms of the Hebrew word shem, meaning “name.”

That question was answered only after the third crisis arrived. It came as the Tower of Babel was being built. Once again, the people sought a “name” or a reputation for themselves (cf. Gen. 6:4; 11:4) by their own achievements. Worried about their unity, but not a unity given by their Creator, they thought it would best be expressed in a tower that would symbolize their own bonded unity and their own genius of togetherness.

But the whole project was suddenly interrupted when the Lord intervened, confusing their language so that they were no longer able to communicate with each other. Curiously, when they dropped their conversation with God, wherein they learned what his will and ways were, they simultaneously lost their ability to communicate with each other—a situation that has some strong similarities to our present predicaments in the postmodern issues of communication and interpretation.

Once again, for the third time in these early chapters of Genesis, God’s antidote for the mess that humanity had managed to concoct was a promise. God chose a Hebrew Semite named Abraham to be his means of bringing the gospel blessing to all of the world. Even though God had revealed his grace all throughout the millennia of Genesis 1–11, now in Genesis 12:1–3 he would give the most succinct statement of his promise-plan for all of the ages to come.

Conclusion

For several millennia prior to God’s call to Abraham, God had been seeking a people who would honor his name and respond to his invitation. But the rebellion of the first couple was often repeated in the lives of others who needed first to repent and then believe the good news offered to them.

Three major crises and three words of promise filled these early millennia of witness for the One who was variously called the Man of Promise, the Seed of the woman, the One who would dwell in the tents of Shem, and the One coming through Abraham’s seed by which the whole world would be blessed. The key word in this section was the “blessing”...