Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations

When did God first begin to send the news of Himself and His salvation to the four corners of the gentile earth? Wasn't it in the apostolic age, with Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles? In this book Kaiser goes back much farther. He says that God has always had a missionary heart for the whole world, and desired from the earliest Old Testament times for the whole world to know of the coming Man of Promise-and for Israel to be His active emissary in spreading that news.Kaiser begins by pointing out that Genesis 1-11 is "decidedly universal in its scope and outlook." Israel was not yet in the picture, and God dealt directly with all inhabitants of the earth until finally choosing Abraham's line.Kaiser's contention is that God didn't forget the rest of the world when He chose Abraham. Instead, God was choosing Israel to be His light and emissary to the rest of the world. In Exodus, for example, God delivered Israel not only for their own benefit, but so that "the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD."After this promising start, Kaiser looks at: -King David -the Psalms -the stories of Ruth and Naaman -Isaiah's Suffering Servant passages -Jonah, the minor prophets -and the apostle PaulHis studies of the PSALMS and the stories of NAAMAN and JONAH are the most instructive, original, and compelling. Kaiser examines Psalms 67, 96, and 117, showing that God's desire was for the whole world to recognize Him as the only true God. He points out such evangelistic declarations as: "I will sing to You among the nations," and "proclaim among the nations what [Yahweh] has done."Likewise in the stories of Naaman and Jonah, Kaiser examines God's motive for telling these specific stories. Kaiser says of the Naaman story, "Why spend so much space in the biblical narrative to tell this story?...the divine revelation wanted us to see that Yahweh was truly calling all the families of the earth-even one's enemies-to the same Savior and salvation." Kaiser's exegeses of these two stories are not only insightful, but delightful! He explores them with the interest of a story-teller, in the process discovering God's heart for all nations. I was particularly struck by the contrast Kaiser drew between Jonah (judgmental, selfish, Israel-oriented) and God (merciful to the Ninevites, concerned for them, not just for Israel).The book is more than worth buying and reading, if only for these three sections (Psalms, Naaman, Jonah; Chs. 2,3,5). Sadly, the rest of the book is less convincing. In his look at the Davidic promise, for example, he tries to show the promise of David's Seed was to be a "charter for humanity," taught to all nations. Unfortunately, "charter for humanity" is his own translation of 2 Samuel 7:19, which differs markedly from most accepted translations. This highlights an effort on Kaiser's part throughout the book to prove that Israel's message of salvation was strictly based on proclaiming a "Man of Promise." But his evidence is weak, as his example of Naaman shows: In one passage, Naaman says "Yahweh" rather than "Elohim." According to Kaiser, this proves a belief in a coming Messiah. In Jonah he also overlooks the fact that Jonah preached only a message of simple repentance.This points to the book's greatest weakness-Brother Kaiser fails to address the verses and positions that might contradict his thesis. John Piper, for example, believes mission to the Gentiles did not begin until Pentecost, and points to some persuasive verses for this idea (i.e. Acts 15:14-18, Romans 16:25-27, Ephesians 3:4-10). Kaiser provides no rebuttal or explanation for these arguments, which are the majority position in conservative evangelistic circles.In spite of these weaknesses, Kaiser provides a brief (75 page text) and valuable overview of the Old Testament with an eye for God's heart for mission. The writing is accessable, and the chapters on the Psalms, Naaman, and Jonah challenged me deeply to take a second look at God's heart. From the book I learned that the same God who so loved the world in John 3 was still so-loving the world back then. I'm not so certain that He commissioned Israel as an active outgoing agent for that mission, however.

This book is a short, scholarly discussion of several significant Old Testament passages on God’s mission to the Gentiles. It’s valuable to any Biblical scholar interested in missions, but the writing style is academic and can be difficult to follow in places. He does organize his topics, but his arguments are not always clearly ordered with thesis statements, arguments, examples, and conclusions. In many places, he states differing views on a single passage and it is hard to tell which view he agrees with. As such I found this book to be a difficult read and the main learning that I got out of it was in terms of new light on certain Scripture passages. After reading Glasser’s book I could see how these passages fit in to the larger story of God reaching the Gentiles and I appreciate the deeper look. However, Kaiser does seem to make some extreme statements that I found challenging, such as claiming on page 47 that there is adequate information in the Old Testament on the coming Messiah to come to a saving faith in Him. This is a highly debatable assumption. He also writes on page 82 that Paul got his instructions for mission from the Old Testament. I find this challenging after reading Glasser where he shows that Paul was taught by Peter about the Great Commission and Acts 1:8. I have no doubt that Paul began to recognize God’s purposes for the Gentiles in the Old Testament after his transformation, but I do not want to minimize the role of Jesus’ words in the way that Paul lived his new life.This book will be useful to me as a reference book. I would like to study the Servant Songs again and apply what I’ve learned from this book to my understanding of that passage. I will also incorporate into my own views some of the ideas that I’ve learned, such as the terms “centrifugal” and “centripetal” in application to missions, and the idea of missions being a tool to draw God’s own people to repentance. This book will be good to keep nearby in planning Bible studies or missions curriculum because of the wealth of information that Kaiser provides from other scholars and the depth of exegesis of these particular passages.

Very good read! Interesting points are developed throughout this book.I recommend all Christians should read and study this book.Our God from the beginning of time is a missionary God!!!

A revised edition of the older version. A precise and concise guide of God's mission for Israel to the gentiles in the Old Testament.