| There are many Old Testament texts which address the heathen peoples directly. The general tone of these texts is "Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts" (Ps. 96:7-8). This is particularly the case with the Old Testament prophets. We must consider those prophets who addressed non-Jewish nations exclusively. By far, not only is judgment preached against heathen nations but also salvation through repentance (see Niniveh in Jonah) or through the coming Messiah. God was always the God of all nations, so that He naturally turns to the nations. Israel's particular role was not to hinder salvation for all peoples, for Abraham's calling included the mandate, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3). In Abraham, "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 18:18). For this reason, Paul and Barnabas support their evangelization among the Gentile nations (Acts 13:47) with a quote from the book of Isaiah, "It is too light a thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth" (Isa. 49:6). Missions in Jonah In the book of Jonah, God, who created all nations and wants to bring His salvation to all the peoples, demonstrates how He deals with the particularistic attitude of His people Israel, who claimed Him for themselves alone. To be sure, God's covenant with Abraham gave Israel a special position, but only in order to bless all the other nations of the earth (Gen. 18:18). The complete book of Nahum treats God's word to Nineveh (Nahum 1:1, compare with Nahum 1-3). The book of Jonah begins, as if it were a matter of course, with the command that Jonah proclaim God's word to a heathen city. "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it." That the sin of the Gentiles is a sin against God, is also considered obvious, for they too are under the Law of God: "for their wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah 1:2). In spite of his disobedience, Jonah confesses to the sailors in which God he believes: "I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land" (1:9). He uses the description of God-Creator of heaven and earth-which the Jews preferred when speaking to Gentiles, and which implies God's universal sovereignty over all human beings. (Compare 2 Kings 19:15, Isa. 37:16, 40:12, Jer. 10:11, Acts 4:24, 14:15, 17:24-25, Rev. 14:6-7). After that, the sailors, having first prayed "every man to his god" (1:5), then cry to the Lord (see their prayer in 1:14), and even "feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows." (1:16). It is very significant that the book of Jonah reports not only the conversion of the heathen in Nineveh but also that the mariners brought sacrifices and offerings to the true God. In his prayer in the fish's belly (2:2-10), which includes parts of various Psalms, Jonah remembers that, "Those who cling to worthless idols (literally, 'the vapor of emptiness') forfeit the grace that could be theirs,"-the grace that they can only receive from God. Jonah then promises to bring the Lord offerings and vows. (2:9-10). The command to preach God's message in Nineveh, having been given in Jonah 1:2 and repeated in 3:2, we see that its fulfillment is described with classic terminology of missionary activity: Jonah "proclaimed" and the residents of Nineveh "believed" (3:4-5 NIV). The prophecy of judgment does not contradict the fact that the sermon was intended to be evangelistic. Both Peter in his sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2:14-26) and Paul in Athens (Acts 17:14-31), preach judgment only to wait for the reaction of their audience before introducing the theme of grace. The prophet uses the term "to turn" which is otherwise used to describe Israel's turning from sin to her God. In 3:5-9, the book reports a mass conversion of Gentiles that has few parallels, even in the history of Israel. The report ends with the message of 3:12, "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do, and he did it not." Jesus later uses Nineveh's conversion as an accusation against His Jewish contemporaries, "For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation... The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and, behold one greater than Jonah is here" (See Luke 11:30, 32, and Mt 12:41). What a disgrace to Jews: Gentiles are being held up as good examples for them! Jonah being a good theologian, knew very well that God wanted to be merciful to the heathen Gentiles as well as to Israel. The prophet's anger (4:1) that arose rests on this knowledge, "Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." (4:2). It becomes evident here, that Jonah had fled from his evangelistic mission for theological, not from personal reasons! As a Jew, the prophet could not endure the thought of heathen Gentiles, especially their enemies, being treated with the same mercy as Israel. Using the first verdant and the withered gourd, God however illustrates His relationship to the heathen, and concludes in the final verse with a distinct justification for Old Testament missions, "But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (4:11, NIV). Missions in Joel The prophet Joel proclaims not only the pending judgment over Israel (Joel 1-2) but also the future judgment upon the heathen Gentiles who oppose His people. In both cases, the prophet speaks of God's grace and salvation and of returning to the Lord. Both sections have the proclamation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Joel 3 in common. This is as significant for the salvation of Israel as it is for all the nations ("all flesh" Joel 2:28). For Peter, this text was fulfilled on Pentecost ("but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16). For this reason, he quotes the whole chapter (Acts 2:17-21), beginning with the outpouring of the Spirit with miraculous signs upon "all flesh" (Joel 2:28)-that is, upon Jews and Gentiles alike, upon all men and women, etc., continuing with terrible judgments (2:30-31) and ending with the statement that from this time on, all can be saved by calling on the Lord, and that salvation will come out of Zion (2:32). When Paul wanted to prove in Romans 10:11-12 that all people, not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles, can be saved through faith on Jesus Christ, he quotes not only Isaiah 28:16 "he that believeth shall not make haste," but also the same promise from Joel cited by Peter (Joel 2:32) "whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be delivered"). In 1 Corinthians 1:2, the description that "all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ" is used to define the universal church. Paul assumes in both cases that his audience knows that Joel 2 refers to "all flesh." Paul adopts not only the meaning of "calling on the name of the Lord" from Joel, but the significance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as well, for God has "saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost... shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (Tit. 3:5-6).
|
