Israel, the people of God, and the nations

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2002 by Schnabel, Eckard J

The exodus was, according to Israel's story, the most significant act of God since the days of the creation. The prophetic announcement, the historical reality, and the legal stipulations surrounding the exodus indicate that Israel's role as a witness among the nations and to the nations was a passive one at best.

IV. ISRAEL WELCOMES FOREIGNERS WHEN THEY TURN TO YHWH Members of other nations can become members of Israel. The book of Joshua mentions two examples of foreigners joining Israel: Rahab the prostitute who asks for mercy (Josh 2:8-13), and the inhabitants of Gibeon who want to avoid the fate of the inhabitants of Jericho and Ai (Josh 9). In the time of the judges there is Ruth the Moabite who comes to live in Israel. In the time of David one encounters people who were evidently full members of the community of Israel while maintaining their non-Israelite ethnic identity, such as Uriah the Hittite who fought in David's army and followed purity laws (2 Sam 11:6-13).

The admission of non-Israelites into the community of God's people thus was a definite possibility. None of the relevant texts, however, alludes to Gen 12:3 or to a divine commission as the motivating factor. None of the texts recounts or implies "missionary outreach." And none of the texts implies that the admission of non-Israelites was regulated by ritual or cult. Thus it is not helpful to assume that these texts might help us to understand how Israel understood the implications of Gen 12:1-3.16

The book of Jonah addresses the possibility that pagan nations, when they hear a message of judgment, repent and are spared by God (Jonah 3:4-5, 10). Jonah is the only example in the OT of a prophet who is sent by YHWH to a pagan nation with the charge to preach a message of repentance from sins. His reaction indicates that the thought that a prophet of Israel should go and preach to a pagan audience with the goal of saving them from God's judgment was quite foreign to him. He refuses God's commission because he begrudges the Ninevites being an object of God's mercy. It is doubtful whether the book of Jonah should be labelled a "missionary text":17 Jonah is not simply a "reluctant prophet"18 but a prophet who would rather die than watch the Ninevites repent and be spared judgment (4:3). While the rhetorical question with which the book ends may be aimed at challenging Israel to share God's concern for "that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left" (4:11), such a concern is not linked, in the story of Israel as told in the Pentateuch and in Israel's liturgy, with a comprehensive missionary call to lead the nations to YHWH.

Non-Israelites join Israel of their own accord-for various motives, sometimes as a result of military actions. While it may be theologically appropriate to speak of demonstrations of "the outreach of the grace of God,"19 there is no exegetical evidence that allows us to speak of examples of an outreach of the people of God.