Genesis 12:1-3 Missions: The Big Picture in the Bible
10/8/00 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
Let me start off with a couple of cautions. You are used to me expounding a few verses. For this message, we are going through the whole Bible. We will look through the major sections of the Bible to trace the theme of missions through its pages, beginning with the section known as the Law and History, then the Writings of wisdom and poetry, next the Prophets, then into the New Testament with the Gospels and History, the Letters, and, finally, Revelation.
Another caution is that this will not be a practical sermon. I will not give you any practical counsel as to how to apply what we read. I have but one aim – to reveal to you the big picture of missions in the Bible. You might think, “Thank goodness it’s over,” when I’m done. My prayer is that you will marvel at the glorious design and work of God.
Law and History
Law and history covers the books from Genesis through Esther. We will start with Genesis 12 to see the first revelation of God’s plan for the world through the Jews.
The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Up to this time Scripture presents God’s relationship with the world in general. This chapter marks the beginning of his covenant relationship with Israel. It seems that his focus moves from the world to a single people. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. But verse 3 reveals the purpose for giving such attention to Abraham: all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
God’s intention is not to restrict his love to one people, but through that one people group to bring blessing to all the people groups. He reiterates this point several times.
17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me (Genesis 22:17,18).
To Abraham’s son Isaac he said: 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed (Genesis 26:4).
To Isaac’s son Jacob whom God also named Israel he said: 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring…(Genesis 28:14).
How will all the peoples be blessed? We will get to that later. The concept of descendants will figure prominently. Right now, we are noting that in the very origin of Israel, God intended for her to spread his blessing to the peoples of the world.
Writings
Let’s move now to the Writings, which cover the book of Job through the Song of Solomon. This time we will take selections from the Psalms. Most of these I have drawn from John Piper’s book Let the Nations Be Glad. The Psalter is oftentimes referred to as the songbook or prayer book of Israel. But now notice the appeals to the nations and peoples of the earth to join in the worship of God.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).
1 Clap your hands, all you nations;
shout to God with cries of joy….
9 The nobles of the nations assemble
as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
he is greatly exalted (Psalm 47:1,9).
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
2 that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you (Psalm 67:1-5).
9 All the nations you have made
will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name (Psalm 86:9).
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples…
7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength…
10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity (Psalm 96:3,7.10).
What becomes clear is that Israel’s worship of God was not to be kept to herself. She was the prophet to the world, who called people of every people-group to join her in the true worship of God. The Jews were to call out, “Come join us in worship. Enter God’s temple with us. Know with us God’s redemption.”
The Prophets
We then have the prophets – Isaiah through Malachi. We will let Isaiah speak for them. I want you to observe two themes that come through. One is the fuller revelation of the blessing that the nations are to receive. In the Law we simply know that the nations will be blessed. It is not made clear what the blessing is and how it will be obtained. In the Writings, we gain greater insight that the blessing means that the nations will be included in the worship of God and, it seems, salvation, although most of the passages could be interpreted to mean that the nations will observe the salvation of the one nation Israel. In Isaiah it becomes clear that God intends to include all the nations in his redemption and in the final establishment of his kingdom.
The second theme to note is the fuller revelation of how the blessing is to come. Again, the Law speaks of blessing to come; the Writings speak of declaring that blessing; but it is in the Prophets we see that the blessing comes through the Messiah.
Note the blessing. All the nations will enter the kingdom of God:
2 In the last days
the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths” (Isaiah 2:2-3).
The blessing will come through the Messiah, the Root of Jesse:
10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
12 He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth (Isaiah 11:10-12).
Again the blessing:
6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines (Isaiah 25:6).
Again through the Messiah:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
13 See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so will he sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand (Isaiah 52:13-15).
Note here the missionary call to the nations:
18 And I… am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory.
19 “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations…and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations (Isaiah 66:18-9).
Gospel and History
We now move into the New Testament with the Gospels and history of the early church in Acts.
Matthew, the most Jewish of the gospels which gives us the quote: he will save his people from their sins (1:21), nevertheless is the one which relates the story of the magi coming from other nations to worship the Messiah.
He says that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 42:1-4:
18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
19 He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he leads justice to victory.
21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”
It is in his gospel that Jesus gives the Great Commission:
18 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
In the book of Acts, Luke reveals how the apostles and the early church carried out their commission. It took the apostles awhile to grasp the full implications of the gospel – i.e. that it was to be embraced even by nonJews. Jesus had told them 8 … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (1:8).
Peter in one sermon would make this statement to the Jews: 25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, “Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed” (Acts 3:25). Even so, it wasn’t until he had received a vision and was brought to the home of the Gentile Centurion Cornelius that Peter understood that the blessing of the nations meant the salvation of the nations.
It would be Paul, however, who would receive the special commission as Apostle to the Gentiles and who would devote his life to spreading the gospel as widely as possible among the different peoples around the Mediterranean, which more than half of Acts chronicles.
Letters
Let’s move along to the section of Scripture known as the Letters. These are the epistles written to churches and individuals and cover Romans through Jude. It is in these letters that the blessing recorded in the Law is most clearly propounded. We will read one selection from Romans as an example.
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised…
16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be” (Romans 4:9-18).
Remember, when we read the passages from Genesis, I asked how the nations or peoples were to be blessed. I said we would address that later and to meanwhile note that the concept of descendants would figure prominently. Paul is bringing that out now. The spiritual descendants of Abraham, i.e. those who truly belong to the covenant God made with him, are the people who receive Christ by faith. Those people, by the way, come from the peoples of many nations.
And this leads to the next point: in Christ the many peoples become the one people of God. 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:26-29).
Recall how we saw the revelation of the blessing to the peoples become more and more clear as we progressed through the scriptures? It is in the New Testament that this blessing receives full revelation, a blessing that before was a mystery. Thus Paul could write in the epistle of the Ephesians:
4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:4-6).
What a wondrous revelation! The blessing of belonging to God, of entering into his kingdom, is given to people of other nations and people groups. It is not reserved for one people group. We are not left with the prospect of being outsiders looking in; people who behold God’s glory in the salvation he gives to the privileged one nation.
By the way, don’t forget that we belong to those other peoples that even the apostles couldn’t believe would be included. We belong to the category of a distant land and foreign tongue. We live in the “uttermost ends of the earth” as far as the early church was concerned.
Revelation
We finally come to the last section of Scripture, the apocalyptic writing known as Revelation. Apocalypse means revelation, and it has to do with the end time. What does Revelation reveal about the nations and the end time?
One is that Christ died to save people from every people group in the world.
9 And they sang a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10).
9 After this I looked and there before me was 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. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9,10).
Another is that the peoples of the world will enter into the kingdom of God. The promise to Abraham that all peoples will be blessed through him will be fulfilled.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it (Revelation 21:22-26).
This is the big picture of the Bible. God will be worshiped by all peoples. People from all nations and peoples will enter the kingdom of God. And this is the glorious enterprise that he has given to us – to call them in, just as we were called. He has given to us the wondrous privilege to play a role in the most ambitious, the most powerful, the most merciful and loving, the most glorious undertaking in all of history. Where do you fit in this picture?
