Firstfruits from the Nations 8: The Command to Multiply and Fill the Earth

The Command to Multiply and Fill the Earth

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1:27-28

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14

The creation of male and female in the image and likeness of God is without doubt the crowning achievement of His creation week. The nature of the image of God in man is not a question which can be fully explored here, but no doubt it has partly to do with the responsibility and authority given to mankind in the very same verses to exercise dominion over the rest of creation. Incredibly, the eternal God who occupies the throne of the universe made for Himself human likenesses to rule with Him and represent His glory in the sphere of the earth – not in an ultimate sense, but in a very significant one.

The reality of mankind’s possession of the image of God gives meaning to the command to multiply and spread out over the earth – a directive given both to the first couple (Gen. 1:28) and to Noah and his sons after the flood (Gen. 9:1). This should not be seen as preemptive action against overpopulation or even entirely as a safeguard against Babylonian mob rebellions against God (Gen. 11). Rather, it is in line with God’s eternal purpose to fill the earth with His glory. Each human is an image-bearer of the glory of God. Therefore, whenever a new piece of earth is subdued and occupied, the likeness of God comes to that place. So Adam and his posterity were expected not only to “work” and “keep” the garden (Gen. 2:15), but also, apparently, to move outside of Eden and subdue more of the earth for God and fill more of the earth with the image of God. What exactly constituted the world outside of Eden pre-fall the text does not specify. It seems right to conclude from what we do know that it was both “good” along with the entirety of creation (1:31), and also fell short of the beauty of Eden, and was in need of human vice-regents of God to work, subdue and rule it (2:5). Thus, had Adam and Eve not sinned and broken their covenant with God, they would, it seems, have acted upon their responsibility to multiply, expand the boundaries of their paradise, and fill the earth with the glory of God.

That, of course, was not how the story ended. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and they and all of their offspring inherited death. Two things, however, remained true and were reaffirmed in the covenant made to Noah. Mankind retained, at least in some sense, the image of God (Gen. 9:6), and God still desired for him to spread out across the face of the earth (Gen. 9:1). God still intended to have all of planet Earth in subjection to Him, populated with His image-bearers.

What became required post-fall, though predetermined before the foundation of the earth, was the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to succeed where Adam failed and through redemption bring to reality the vision of an earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. Jesus is the perfect Image of God; the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3). It was Christ, the glorious second Adam, to whom God subjected the world (Heb. 2:5-9). He rules perfectly, exercises dominion perfectly, and images the Father perfectly. Moreover, by means of His atoning work and the Spirit He has delivered to His people, Jesus restores the purity of the image of God in man, tarnished as it was by the fall. Genesis 1 is no doubt the backdrop against which Colossians 3:10 should be read, wherein we are called to put on the new self, “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (see also 2 Cor. 3:18). Christ, the Author of the New Creation, has granted us, as those who reflect His likeness, to reign with Him both now and in the New Heavens and New Earth (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 5:10). History is moving toward a day in which the earth will be created new, evil will be banished, and the glory of God will fill the globe as it was intended to (Rev. 21:1-22:6).

As the gospel of the glory of Christ advances to every people and to every place, and the image of God is renewed in those who bow to the Lordship of Jesus, this globe is at last beginning to realize what it is to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Christ. When Christ told His followers to make disciples of all the nations, perhaps we may hear in His commission an echo of the command given in the beginning: “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth with bearers of my image.” This time, of course, natural procreation is not in view. Rather, it is the reproduction and mobilization of believers in Jesus, new creatures who bear His likeness, so that there is on every piece of geography under the sun worshipers and reflectors of the glory of God.

~~posted by Ambassador

Firstfruits from the Nations 7

Rahab the Harlot

“But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.” Joshua 6:25

”By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Hebrews 11:31

The instructions of God to Israel prior to their entering of the Promised Land made clear their responsibility under God toward the nations that inhabited Canaan. “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.” (Deut. 7:1-2)


Much could and has been said about the justice of this radical judgment against the nations of Canaan. Israel was the unique instrument of His wrath against these peoples. Centuries ago, their doom had been decreed, though God in forbearance waited until their iniquity against Him was “complete” (Gen. 15:16). Without the fullest measure of the sanctifying Spirit which comes upon the people of God under the New Covenant, it was necessary that Israel keep herself physically separated from those who were hostile to Jehovah so that the nation would be preserved in some degree of holiness until the coming of Christ.


But within this economy of judgment, it is evident that it was not the other nations’ ethnicity, skin color or culture which displeased God, but their rebellion against Him, or their lack of faith in Him as supreme, and their resultant propensity to turn Israel away from Him. This is the reason given for their destruction in the very text above quoted: “for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods” (Deut. 7:2). It should not be a surprise, then, that in cases where there was faith exercised on the part of Gentiles devoted to destruction – a confession of Jehovah as the only true God – wrath was diverted and mercy was extended. One such case was the woman of Jericho, Rahab, whose family became the sole believing remnant, set apart for God from out of the inhabitants of Jericho before its destruction.


When the spies met Rahab, she was a prostitute who had, by the grace of God, come into an as yet immature, but nevertheless real faith in the supremacy of the God of Abraham. Her faith is demonstrated by the confession of her lips (“the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” - 2:11), by her willingness to protect the spies in spite of possible danger to herself, and by her remarkable confidence that she and her family, though Gentiles, could be spared if she but asked for exemption from the decreed judgment which waited imminently across the Jordan.


The story can be read in Joshua chapter two, and therefore needs not be retold here in detail. Getting waylayed in an ethics quandary over her lie is probably off target from the purpose for which this account was given. In short, Rahab’s God-fearing, faith-induced actions for the benefit of the spies from Israel resulted in the promise of safety for her and her family if she would only hang out the window of her dwelling the cord with which she let the spies escape. God approved of the spies’ promise to Rahab, for when He brought down the walls of Jericho flat, her home in the wall apparently survived alone (Joshua 6:17-25).


The instructions which the spies gave to Rahab for her salvation bear much resemblance to the instructions given through Moses to the people of Israel prior to the visitation of the angel of death as the tenth plague against Egypt (Ex. 12:12-13). There as here, it was required that an identifying marker be placed over the dwelling of those who believed the Word from the Lord, and there as here, staying within the refuge of the home flagged with crimson was the only guarantee of safety. The spies told Rahab: “Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless” (Joshua 2:18-19). The passover in Egypt and the protection of Rahab’s family in Jericho point beyond themselves to the work of the Savior Jesus Christ, and the faith which is required to become attached to Him and benefit from His atonement. Only those who take God at His Word, hide themselves in Christ, and are willing to be marked by the “foolish” and “shameful” reality of His cross will be spared wrath – will be passed over – when the day of judgment comes.


From this story, several things may be noted. I list only a few. First, that true faith acts upon itself, and without works, faith is shown to be dead. Others in Jericho acknowledged the supremacy of Jehovah and shrunk back in fear (Joshua 2:9-10). Rahab on the contrary acted upon her faith by receiving the men into her home (it is this for which she is commended in Hebrews 11), hiding them from their pursuers and obeying their instruction to hang the cord out her window. Second, that God is often inclined to select the most unlikely people for salvation – such as this harlot – so that His mercy is magnified all the more. We must not overlook or despise such if we are to be like Christ. Third, note that an entire family was spared destruction through Rahab’s actions. Certainly personal faith is required. But in God’s kind providence, it is often true that the coming to faith of one individual in a new community or city is used to interrupt the “futile ways inherited from the forefathers” (1 Pt. 1:17) and set a new course for righteousness and Godwardness for an entire family. Heralds of the gospel should pray and labor for such household-wide demonstrations of the Spirit’s power. Fourth, see how Rahab, though a Gentile by birth and a prostitute by profession, came to occupy no second-class position in the people of God. Hers was a full inheritance of the promises. Incredibly, she married a man of apparent wealth and standing in Israel, became the mother of Boaz and the great-grandmother of David the King, and receives mention in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:5). Faith is the instrument for membership in the Israel of God, not bloodline or status. Everyone who believes is entitled, on the basis of the crucifixion of Christ, to receive a full inheritance among all those who are being sanctified by faith in Him.


The fragile structure of this universe is about to crumble at the shout of the King of kings and Lord of lords at His return. His messengers have been sent in with a word of hope: run to and be sealed up by the Lord Jesus Christ while there is time, so that when He comes to judge the living and the dead, you are spared destruction! There is no recourse but to hope in Him, whose blood seals forever servants for God from every tribe, language, people and nation (Rev. 7). Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. His is a redemption which has the efficacy and authority to reach into the most hostile and godless of peoples and create a refuge for those who believe!

~~posted by Ambassador

Firstfruits from the Nations 6

The Imagery of the Feast of Tabernacles

When we read of the institution of this feast in Leviticus 23:24-44, we immediately notice several features which set it apart from the other feasts, as follows:

First, its timing as the last great feast of the year, and specifically, as the feast which took place immediately after the Day of Atonement, is significant. After the most solemn day of the year, in which Israel was to afflict herself, mourn for her sins, and offer a sacrifice of blood for those sins (Leviticus 23:27), the Jews then celebrated the most joyful feast of the year. This feast was a celebration of the ingathering of the harvest of grapes and olives, and so it is sometimes called the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16). But this ingathering of the harvest is only a small part of the significance of the celebration – for ultimately, the feast looked ahead to the ingathering of God’s people from all the nations, and their joyful celebration together in God’s presence (see Zechariah 14:16-21). The basic meaning of the feast, then, is to remember that, after the effective sacrifice of the Day of Atonement (fulfilled by Christ on the cross), there would follow the bountiful fruits of this sacrifice. Christ’s atonement would have the effects of bringing people from all over the world to rejoice in the presence of God. That is the essence of what the Feast of Tabernacles looked forward to.

Second, this truth is also fleshed out by the tabernacles, or booths in which the Jews were supposed to live during the days of the feast. These booths looked backward to when God first redeemed his people from Egypt, so that they had to put up crude booths for shelter (Leviticus 23:42-43); but also, they looked ahead to when God would “tabernacle” among his people, which he did in fact when he took upon himself human flesh, and dwelt in their midst (John 1:14); and even as the climax of redemptive history was the Son of God’s taking on human flesh to tabernacle among his people, and ultimately to give his life for them; so also the culmination of redemptive history will be when he comes again, to the thunderous pronouncement, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people and he shall be God with them, their God!”. So in sum, the Feast of Tabernacles, coming at the end of the year, and immediately after the Day of Atonement, looked ahead to the day in which the final fruits of Christ’s great atonement would be enjoyed – and these fruits would be the gathering of a people from every nation to rejoice in the very presence of God.

Third, this feast is different from the others by virtue of the water-pouring ceremony, which marked the climax of the celebration on the last great day of the feast, so that it was said among the ancient Jews, “he that never saw the rejoicing of the place of drawing of water, never saw any rejoicing in his life” (Misn. Succa, c. 5. sect. 1, 4, cited in John Gill’s commentary on John 7:37). In this joyful ceremony, water was drawn from the pool of Siloam (which means “sent,” and corresponds to the ancient messianic term “Shiloh”, see Genesis 49:10) and taken in a golden vessel to the foot of the altar, where it was poured out. The Jews believed that this was done in fulfillment of Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation”; and furthermore, that it was representative of the life-giving Spirit who would be poured out upon all flesh for salvation, in the days of the Messiah. Hence, when Jesus stood up on this notable occasion and cried out for all who thirst to come to him and drink, promising to flood them with the Holy Spirit of life (John 7:37-39), he was claiming that he was “Shiloh,” the Messiah from whom salvation would flow, and from whom the life-giving Spirit would proceed, bringing joy to all who had been thirsty and dry.

And fourth, this feast was notable for its temple-lighting ceremony, in which four golden candelabras of magnificent height and brightness were lighted in the temple courtyard, so that from the temple a great light flooded the darkness round about, and all Jerusalem was enabled thereby to walk in light. This ceremony was likewise done in anticipation of the day of the Messiah, when would be fulfilled that promise of God to the Christ, in Isaiah 42:6-7: “I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness”. And also Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined”. Hence, when Jesus cried out a little later, in conjunction with this feast, “I am the light of the world,” he was manifestly holding himself forth as the fulfillment of this ceremony, and hence, the Messiah who would bring to the people the light of life. So then, as we look to the nature of this feast and the sayings of Jesus during the course of its celebration, we see him as a wondrous fulfillment of its imagery, in these four notable ways: he was the one who would gather in the fruits of God’s full harvest from all the nations, in consequence of his bloody atonement for them on the cross, which would be a cause for great joy and feasting; he was the one who would tabernacle among his people, and so bring to them God’s presence, the heart of the covenant promises, forevermore; he was the one who would draw out water from the wells of salvation, flooding the people with his life-giving Spirit; and finally, he was the one from whom would shine, as the true Temple, that is, as God in visible, human form, the light of the world of dark and desperate men. In all these wonderful ways, we see Jesus as the great fulfillment of the great Feast of Tabernacles.

~~posted by Zioneer

Firstfruits from the Nations 5

The Call of Abraham

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-4

For many Christians, the Old Testament with its laws, curses, and ethnic specificity is, in juxtaposition to the New Testament, narrow and harsh – nearly absent of grace. It is true and providentially fitting that a new degree of grace was introduced with the coming of Jesus (John 1:14, 17). But the entire biblical story, properly viewed, is a story of God’s disposition to save. Over and again, He takes initiative to spare and redeem a race that is in ardent rebellion against Him. Scripture, Old and New Testaments, is the story of God making a way for wayward creatures, post-Eden, to get and remain in fellowship with Him. This is the lens which really ought to color our reading of the Old Testament: God’s initiative-taking disposition to save, which would culminate and be finally satisfied in the person of Christ.

In Genesis 11, in the days shortly after the flood, the people of the earth banded together to build a city and a name for themselves, in direct rebellion to God’s dictate to Noah to multiply and spread over the earth. God came down and confused their languages, Himself assuring the dispersion which He had commanded. But happily, as the rest of the redemptive story would play out, God scattered the nations not as an end to itself, but with the view to regathering them into a new people, who would call upon His name from all the tongues of the earth, so that the entire earth would be filled with His glory.

God’s saving initiative is brought to the fore in the very next chapter when God selects Abram, an idol-worshiper from Ur of the Chaldeans, to leave his home and go to a land that God would show him. It is noteworthy that the generations from Adam to Noah to Abram are summarized in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, while the thirty-nine which remain cover only the lifespans of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. There is no missing the fact that this is a significant man, who fathered a significant family which will play the central role in the drama of redemption for centuries to come.

Abram’s call is accompanied by promises. First God would make of Abram a great nation, He would bless Him, and He would make His name great (v. 2). Notice, the would-be constructors of Babel had expressed, “let us make a name for ourselves” (11:4). Shortly after interrupting their autonomous attempts to build a legacy, God swears to Abram that He will make Abram’s name great. The end for this special, elective favor from God is that Abram “be a blessing” (v. 2) and that in him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v. 3). This would be the case in spite of the opposition Abraham would endure, for God promised, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse” (v. 4).

Some attach a lot of significance to the debate over whether the Hebrew behind the last verb in verse three should be translated passively, “shall be blessed” or reflectively, “shall bless themselves” because of the Hithpael form used in the restatement of the blessing in Genesis 22:18; 26:4. For now, it is probably sufficient to say that the rest of the biblical witness leaves no room for guessing as to what this blessing is or how it will be experienced by the nations. The blessing is ultimately none other than the seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would spill out his lifeblood to purchase for Himself a new race of ransomed men and women without respect to ethnicity (see Gal. 3:16). The blessing is transmitted as followers of Jesus obey His call to make disciples of every nation. The flower of worldwide proclamation was not yet at bloom in Genesis 12, but certainly this promise was to have the effect of guarding Abraham against exclusivity and egocentrism even in his day. God was temporarily narrowing His revelations and covenants to one man, family and nation, but only so that blessing could be, in the proper time, expanded across the entire earth to the descendants of the other peoples who had migrated from Babel – the seventy nations listed in the table of Genesis 10. Is it any coincidence that Jesus sent his second wave of witnesses out as seventy (Luke 10:1)? The blessing of Abraham had arrived, embodied in Jesus Christ, and the time had come for all families of the earth to be blessed.

Notice that God asked Abram to leave his home and family (v. 1), which echoes the call of Jesus for ambassadors of His name to do the same. In both cases, it is promised that the one who goes will receive back from God more than he left behind, both land and family (Mk. 10:29-30). Abram and his wife acquired people in Haran, who accompanied them to Canaan (v. 5). Whether these were servants, fortune-seekers, or followers of Abram’s God is not specified. But it seems that already Abram was attracting to himself others from outside of his family who would know the blessings of the covenant between he and God. Already God is blessing Abram by adding to his number, and already, Abram is being a blessing. Notice also that God moves Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans, a place of relative obscurity northeast of Canaan, to the center and cross-road of the earth, the geographical stage upon which the unfolding narrative of salvation history would be centered up through the time of Christ. God is preparing this nobody from nowhere to be a blessing to the world. Scripture relates that “at that time the Canaanites were in the land” (v. 6). This worshiper of Yahweh was now to sojourn and live in the midst of this foreign, idolatrous, observing people whom he existed to finally bless.

Let no one tell you that God’s missionary nature kicked into gear at the end of the ministry of Christ as a sort of supplemental or eleventh-hour plan. Israel was chosen as God’s special instrument to bring about worldwide salvation. Built into the very first promise to the father of the Hebrew people is the reality of universal participation in the covenant of grace. Have you been called out by God? Have you been blessed in Jesus Christ? Have no doubt that He intends for you not to indulge in that blessing privately, but to engage in the on-going fulfillment of this ancient Abrahamic expectation by heralding the good news wherever there are not yet worshipers for Christ.

From the very beginning, the God of Abraham has been disposed to redeem and bless, and He has created a way to do so that brings much honor to the Godhead and much joy to all the peoples of the earth.

~~posted by Ambassador

Firstfruits from the Nations 4

The Inhabitants of Gibeon

“And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.” Joshua 9:15

The truth which is most often induced from the account of the Gibeonites and their false testimony to Israel is the deceitfulness of sin and the need for Christian believers to be on guard against it, pleading to Christ for wisdom, and not leaning on their own understanding, as Joshua and the people of Israel did to their own frustration. This is no doubt the primary lesson of the account in Joshua 9.

But there is another message for us in the story of the Gibeonites, namely, a testimony to the fact that whoever casts himself on Jesus can find mercy, whatever his ethnicity, and whatever his crimes against God and the people of God.

In the opening verses of Joshua 9, there is a contrast in reactions to the report of Israel’s early victories in Canaan between the alliance of kings and the inhabitants of Gibeon. In the arrogant and foolhearty spirit of a yet-to-be written Psalm, the kings of Canaan “set themselves, and [took] counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’” (Psalm 2:2-3). In their own strength and wicked conspiracy, they attempted to triumph over Joshua and the people of God. Their dishonesty aside, the actions of the Gibeonites demonstrate that they, in contrast, feared the God of Israel and perceived correctly that their only hope was to join themselves to His people at any cost, so that by some means they might find themselves in His favor and so escape His wrath.

“And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us’” (Joshua 9:6). They had not, in fact, come from a distant country, but wanted to avoid the destruction which God had prescribed for all of the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan. The grounds for their request was, as they stated, fear for the LORD, the God of Israel. “For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth” (9:9-10). Moved by recognition of the obvious supremacy of this God of awesome wonders, they risked a desperate and improbable facade for the opportunity to perhaps be granted immunity in Him.

Due to the self-reliance of Israel’s leaders, they were spared death, and entered into a league with Israel which could not be broken even after their true identity was realized. In the midst of two crimes, the Gibeonite’s deception and Joshua’s failure to wait on God, the number of God’s people was swelled by the addition of a pagan nation which sought refuge in Him, demonstrating more faith in His promises and power than the Israelites themselves at many points in their history. Truly, by all rights, they should never have been welcomed by the people of God; but they became, in God’s secret wisdom, firstfruits of all Gentiles who would find refuge in Him.

Confronted by Joshua after the discovery of their lie, the Gibeonites cast themselves on his mercy. Like all who obey the gospel, they did not plead their own merit, but threw themselves at the feet of the only one who could spare them. “We feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it” (9:24-25).

Joshua, who bore the name and this day anticipated the role of Jesus his antitype, extended pardon in accordance with his faithfulness to the covenant. “So he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to this day, in the place that he should choose” (26-27). Hear this! A scheming and idolatrous people came into the promises of God, were spared the wrath they deserved, and were given positions of service in the temple of the living God, where they would learn true worship and be turned away from their impotent religion. What was put forth as their “punishment” became their salvation, because as the Psalmist would later sing, “A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10).

Moreover, in the following chapter, God works one of His most amazing victories to date for Israel against the five kings of the Amorites, and it is worked on behalf of their servants the Gibeonites, who, when faced with vengeful slaughter, once again threw themselves at Joshua for mercy saying, “come up quickly and save us and help us” (10:6). God performed the astounding miracle of stopping the sun for a day as He fought for Israel and for Gibeon.

As a further testament to grace, these temple servants are mentioned among those who returned from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 8:20). They were, in fact, among “the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities” (1 Chron. 9:2). And so, early in the story of Israel’s possessing of the promised land, a foretaste is given of the coming flood of nations into the people of God in the account of the inhabitants of Gibeon and their desperate plea for covenant protection.

~~posted by Ambassador

Firstfruits from the Nations 3

The Global God of Malachi’s Oracle

In the book of Malachi, the LORD calls his people to account for their apathy toward him. One by one, he takes their complaints and excuses against Him and shows them to be baseless. Israel had begun to judge God regarding His fidelity to her, but in these oracles, God rightfully turns the tables and becomes the holy Judge of His people. In Malachi, we are privy to a court session between the LORD and the ethnic seed of Jacob. Yet lest we feel that we have no right to be eavesdropping, in the midst of these Israel-specific injunctions, Malachi references God’s purposes toward the wider Gentile nations no less than three times in the opening chapter of this prophecy.

The first is in regards to His hatred for Edom, which He inserts in the introduction to form a contrast with His covenant love for Jacob:

“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” (Malachi 1:2-3)

Of course, similarly to Edom, Israel was judged by God when her cities were sacked and her people led captive to surrounding nations. But the tell-tale sign of God’s covenant love for Israel over and against her cousin nation was that He brought her back from Babylon with His strong arm in faithfulness to His promises. For Edom, there was no parallel deliverance. There was no King Cyrus issuing a decree of return. No Zerrubabal or Nehemiah returning the people to their homeland. Rather, “If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’” (1:4). Stand in awe at the mercy and the holy wrath of God.

All of this has one grand goal: the display of the global majesty and all-supremacy of God. “Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel” (1:5). Great indeed, in His authority and ability to judge those who profane His name.

But, praise be to God, He has purposes for the Gentile nations beyond being perpetual objects of His hatred. Indeed, the end for which He selected Abraham was that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him. This glad reality is testified to in verse 11, in the context of God’s rejection of despicable Israelite offerings.

“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts” (1:11).

Some render these being verbs (absent in the Hebrew Masoretic Text) in the present, following the Greek Septuagint (LXX), but the future tense is to be preferred because (a) where there is no verb in Hebrew, the tense must be determined from the context. Here, the last verb is a future (“I will not accept” v. 10) which makes it most natural to read future tense throughout verse 11, and, (b) it is not true that sacrifices were being made in every nation under the sun at the time of the writing of Malachi, so the present would be senseless. The words of the LORD look forward to an eschatological reality – Gentile nations praising the greatness of the God of Israel.

We should not wonder at the way universal worship is described in terms of incense and offerings to God, or imagine this literally. In this oracle, universal worship is cast, quite naturally, in the rites of Old Covenant cultic worship which Israel would have understood. A more significant question involves how the opening conjunction ki (for/because) functions as a ground for what comes before it. Somehow the future reality of international worship supports why God can have no pleasure in the half-hearted offerings of His people. Perhaps part of the Jewish excuse ran this way: Though our sacrifices are blemished and our worship lax, God will not turn from us. We are His only people – His only source for worship. Where else would He go to receive offerings? To whom else would He turn to be recognized as great? Israel felt, as the people of the Covenant, that they had a monopoly on service to God. But the LORD is not confined to getting His due praises from one ethnic group.

The same logic is at work in verse 14, our third references to the nations outside of Israel. Here, God will not accept a defrauder’s sacrifice, “For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.” Why should a robbing, apathetic Israelite worshiper believe that God should be forced to accept his second-best offering when God is capable of, and indeed promises that he will, secure true worship from all the nations? Hear the warning of John the Baptist to a future generation in Israel that also disregarded the limitless supremacy of their Covenant God. “And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Luke 3:8). Christ spoke similarly when he answered those Pharisees who were indignant over the worship of the multitudes in Jerusalem. “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). In this case, not stones, but Gentile nations explode into worship with the silence of Israel as true children of Abraham in accordance with God’s strange and grand purposes (Romans 11:11).

Let us celebrate a God who confined his purposes to one nation not out of lack of supremacy over all, or in a kind of rivalry with other territorial deities, but only as a temporary means of preparing the way for the One who would gather worship from every tribe and nation under heaven! The great King must reign where’er the sun does its successive journeys run. He will not be content until He has seen the reward of His sufferings and realized the homage of every tongue, Jewish and Gentile, on, over and under the earth; and He has every right to it.

Let us never think that we have an exclusive right to finding happiness in God. Let us labor that the nations which God has laid on our hearts ascribe glory to him not by means of their desolation, but their celebration. Edom tasted the anger of God and in so doing demonstrated his greatness beyond the borders of Israel. Many will magnify the supremacy of God in this way – by becoming objects of His just, burning anger. But God is pleased for many out of every nation to glorify Him more directly and deliberately through worship out of consciences made clean! This is possible because Christ has once for all tasted of the curse of the covenant. He whom the Father loved was made desolate. He was shattered and laid waste. He endured all of these curses in order that He might purchase for Himself a new Israel, beloved by the LORD, gathered out of every nation from the rising to the setting sun. Let there be no corner of this globe where His glory is untold!

~~posted by Ambassador

Firstfruits from the Nations 2

Jonah’s Story

“And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” Jonah 4:10-11

The well-known account of “Jonah and the Big Fish” is not ultimately about Jonah, and much less about an aquatic vertebrate. It is a living, vivid portrayal of the gracious character of God which He revealed centuries earlier to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7; cf Jonah 4:2). Furthermore, it is the portrayal of a God who exercises that mercy and steadfast love with universal generosity – to Israel, and to those nations which are outside of her covenant privilege.

Throughout the narrative, Jonah is set up against this compassionate God – as an anti-hero, if you will. Over and again, he selfishly pursues his own narrow interests (4:6-9), and shows no hint of true pity for the destiny of those who do not worship God (1:1-3; 4:1-3). In contrast, God speedily averts wrath and showers love on Jonah when he repents (2:1-10) and on the sin-laden Assyrian capital when its people seek Him (3:10).

In the Book of the Twelve, the story of Jonah probably originally served as a veiled indictment upon the Hebrews for their failure to return to Yahweh, and a promise that, should they return, forgiveness and mercy would be theirs. To display this, Scripture uses the example of non-Israelites – those with no history of covenant with God – who find mercy when they fall on Him. If Gentiles nations, enemies of Israel, received grace from the Lord, would He not have compassion upon His own people? The conversion of Gentiles was and is God’s inscrutable plan to provoke Israelites to jealousy and drive them back to their Savior so that a remnant of believing Israel always has a presence in the people of God (Romans 11).

Notice how the pagan sailors of chapter one demonstrate more faith and fear in God than God’s own prophet (who should perhaps be understood in this story as representative of a rebellious and calloused Israel). They cried out to Yahweh (1:14), offered sacrifices to Him (1:16) and reminded a sleepy Jonah to call upon Him (1:6). God had mercy on these idolatrous Gentile seafarers who sought His way of salvation.

After Jonah’s episode in the belly of the fish, and his own reception of divine mercy, more Gentiles are shown the grace of God. Nineveh repented within days of Jonah’s preaching. It’s proud king reduced himself to a pitiful beggar of mercy (3:6). God saw, and His wrath was turned away. It has always been and will always be the preaching of the Word, anointed by the Spirit, which brings about conviction and the obedience of faith among the nations. In spite of his reluctance, Jonah’s heralding of God’s message in Nineveh illustrates the miracle of Word-wrought conversion (Rom. 10:13-15; Rev. 22:17).

Though the antagonist of the story throughout, Jonah functions another way in this little book – as a pointer to the person and work of Jesus the Christ. Of course, I am thinking of the reference in the gospels, where the Lord himself calls Jonah a type in his “burial” in the belly of the fish and “resurrection” three days later (Matt. 12:40). The “sign of Jonah” was his miraculous emergence from the fish, which corresponds to the coming to life of the Son of God, upon which wonder all people everywhere must repent and believe or be damned (Acts 17:30-31). But accompanying this, we should not miss the gospel picture in chapter one. Here, the sailors initially refuse God’s call for Jonah’s life, and struggle in their own efforts to reach the shore. “Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them” (1:13). Finally, in desperation, they heed the voice of Jonah, and throw him overboard, exclaiming, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you” (1:14). God accepted the sacrifice, “and the sea ceased from its raging” (1:15). One life for many. The wrath of God satisfied against one person. It is the vicarious penalty-bearing of our innocent Lord Jesus, of whom Jonah, in his true guilt, is only a faint shadow, which makes sense of God at the same time “abounding in steadfast love” and “by no means clearing the guilty.”

How could a brutal and godless nation which harassed and persecuted Israel for decades find mercy in a moment by merely pleading for it? The answer is to be found in the gospel. Here, there is no external or biological means of commending oneself to a righteous God, and conversely, nothing preventing anyone who believes from tasting His free mercy. Every man, woman and child, no matter their ethnicity or heritage, who seeks mercy in God through the gospel will be accepted of Him because of the obedient substitution of Christ on a little hill outside of Jerusalem for people from every nation.

~~posted by Ambassador

Firstfruits from the Nations 1

This post marks the first in a series exploring glimpses of missions from the Old Testament. The Gentile converts from the Old Testament, truly are the firstfruits from the nations.

The Queen of Sheba

“And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD,there was no more breath in her.” 1 Kings 10:4-5

”The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” Matthew 12:42

It was anticipated and prophesied by the prophets of old that Jerusalem would become the center of the world and the destination of seekers of God from the ends of the earth. “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths’” (Isaiah 2:2-3). The prophet is unmistakably looking forward here to something eschatological; and ultimately, it is not to be understood geographically, but Christologically. That is, Christ is the true temple (John 2:19-21), and it is He that the nations recognize as glorious and flock to in the last days.

Yet the glad reality Isaiah describes had a brief foretaste in the history of Israel under the reign of Solomon in a day when surrounding kings and peoples did take notice of Jerusalem and her wise and righteous ruler. Solomon’s early reign (before his heart drifted away from God and his kingdom split in two) was the high point of Israelite history, riding the crest of David’s successes. It was during this happy era that “people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom” (1 Kings 4:34).

The most notable and recognized of these foreign visitors was the Queen of Sheba (probably modern Ethiopia) whose story is briefly recorded in 1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-12. Let us consider this brief account and how it anticipates the ingathering of Gentile nations in the last days.

“Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions” (1 Kings 10:1).

Notice first that she came, initially, as a skeptic. She apparently did not go up to Jerusalem with the intention of admiring Solomon’s wealth and wisdom, but of disproving it. She came to “test him” with “hard questions” — riddles that would stump the king and question his reputation as a wise man. Yet as she saw the array of splendor on display in Jerusalem and listened to Solomon answer her every question, she was compelled to adore. In the words of Scripture, “there was no more breath in her” (1 Kings 10:5). She recognized that this degree of blessing could be from no other hand than the Lord’s. “Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness” (10:9). Whatever her theology previous to her pilgrimage, she came now, at least in this moment, to recognize and worship the one true King who had established the son of David on His throne. The wealth and wisdom of Solomon suddenly commended itself to her in a way she could no longer deny.

Notice as well that she brought something to Solomon. She presented the king with “120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon” (10:10). Given her own testimony concerning the abundance that was in Jerusalem, we should not imagine that the queen felt Solomon was somehow in need of her goods, so that she gave them out of pity. Rather, her gift served as a token of her respect and awe for so influential a man and so great a kingdom. In a picturesque scene from Revelation, we find the kings of the earth bringing their unique glories into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24), again as a symbol of allegiance and honor. International variety was part of what exalted the kingdom of Solomon, and what will exalt the kingdom of Christ. Even today, luxury is partially denoted by an exotic diversity of items from all over the world. Wealthy manors may have mahogany from Africa, silk curtains from China and carpets from Persia, together testifying to the owner’s connectedness, diversity of tastes and obvious financial means. Jerusalem under Solomon was home to precious stones, animals, lumber, and other goods from all over the known world – objects of import or gifts from heads of nations which magnified the glory of the city beyond its natural resources (see 2 Chron. 9:13-28). God delights in diversity. His kingdom is made up of people from every tribe, and each brings a unique contribution – a new perspective on the prism of the manifold glory of God. Of course, they add nothing to His glory, but they accent it and become pointers to it. Christ would not be content if he had the allegiance of every individual from one nation and no others, for He would be too small of a King. He demands and will receive praises from all the nations through their unique languages and customs (Rev. 7:9-10).

Notice furthermore that the queen received a blessing from Solomon. “And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants” (v. 13). Out of his abundance, Solomon granted his guest all that her heart desired, and she went back full. God promised Abraham that through him a blessing would come to the nations, of which this story is a type. This Gentile woman was drawn from the ends of the earth (Matt. 12:42) to see the glory of Solomon, and she was blessed for it. The New and Greater Solomon – the Lord Jesus Christ – is full and over flowing with every kind of spiritual bounty – forgiveness, inheritance, joy, hope, righteousness – for those from every nation who come to Him (Eph. 1:3; John 1:16).

The fullness of times has come. Zion is no longer just a city in Palestine, it is wherever Jesus Christ is reigning and receiving worship (Hebrews 12:22-24). Under the sway of His Spirit, the peoples of the earth are flooding in to know and be blessed by the Lord of the Nations. No longer, however, are God’s people simply waiting for the nations to come, they are going forth to invite and compel (Luke 14:16-23). As citizens of the New Jerusalem, we labor, in these final days, to see the Kingdom of Jesus Christ made famous among all the peoples of the earth.

~~posted by Ambassador