ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS

OkoyeISRAEL.qxd 4/24/2006 6:43 AM Page iii American Society of Missiology Series, No. 39 ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS A Mission Theology of the Old Tes...
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American Society of Missiology Series, No. 39

ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS A Mission Theology of the Old Testament

James Chukwuma Okoye

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Founded in 1970, Orbis Books endeavors to publish works that enlighten the mind, nourish the spirit, and challenge the conscience. The publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Orbis seeks to explore the global dimensions of the Christian faith and mission, to invite dialogue with diverse cultures and religious traditions, and to serve the cause of reconciliation and peace. The books published reflect the opinions of their authors and are not meant to represent the official position of the Maryknoll Society. To obtain more information about Maryknoll and Orbis Books, please visit our website at www.maryknoll.org.

Copyright © 2006 by James Chukwuma Okoye. Published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, U.S.A. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. For permissions, write to Orbis Books, P. O. Box 308, Maryknoll NY 10545-0308, U.S.A. Manufactured in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Okoye, James Chukwuma. Israel and the nations : a mission theology of the Old Testament / James Chukwuma Okoye. p. cm. — (American Society of Missiology series ; no. 39) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-57075-654-2 (pbk.) 1. Missions—Biblical teaching. 2. Bible. O.T.—Theology. 3. Missions—Theory. I. Title. II. Series. BS1199.M53O36 2006 230'.0411—dc22 2005031851

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The Hermeneutics of Mission in the Old Testament

What a difference it would make to biblical studies if full justice were done to the Bible as a book about mission from beginning to end, written by missionaries for missionaries! Given its content and intent, how could one study it in any other way? —Andrew Kirk, What Is Mission? 20 A mission theology of the Old Testament? Some people are surprised at the title of this book since they either deny or ignore the theme of mission in the Old Testament. But the title is not meant to be provocative but only to draw attention to a much neglected aspect of Old Testament theology. The book will examine how and when Israel became missionary, or at the least opened up her covenant with Yahweh to the gentiles. It also will investigate the theological foundations for such development. This chapter will be developed in five movements. It will first outline the tension between election and mission in the Old Testament. It will then examine the works of scholars to see how they address the theme of mission in the Old Testament. An investigation of the theme of mission will then follow in which I shall discern and outline four faces of mission in the Old Testament. Fourth, the question of the hermeneutics of mission in the Old Testament will be addressed. That is, given the diverse nature of the material in the Old Testament, how is the theme of mission in it best approached? This section will also outline the method to be followed in this book. Fifth and finally, the problematic of a Christian reading of the Old Testament will be addressed. ELECTION AND MISSION The Old Testament hardly looks like a mission document, for from beginning to end it is focused on Israel. Israel is God’s elect, other nations 1

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are not. The verb used for the concept of election is rjb (baμha| r, “to elect”), a verb that expresses both God’s predilection for Israel and God’s choice of Israel from among all the nations. In Deut 7:7 Moses says in the name of God: Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you, not because you were the most numerous of all peoples—for indeed you were the smallest of all—but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors. Only with Israel as a people has Yahweh made a covenant. Only to Israel has Yahweh said, “I shall take you as my people and I shall be your God” (Exod 6:7). The reason for this choice is so that “you, out of all peoples, shall be my personal possession” (Exod 19:5). Yahweh is portrayed as the main protagonist in the early wars of Israel, dispossessing the Canaanites of their homeland in order to make unhindered space for Israel. God commanded Israel to “put them under the curse of destruction; you must not make any treaty with them or show them any pity” (Deut 7:3). In much of the Old Testament, the Canaanites are a symbol of what is hateful to Yahweh, and it is not always clear that they too are enfolded by God’s love. A text such as Deut 10:19, however, displays the type of tension that we are drawing attention to, for it recalls that Yahweh loves the stranger and commands Israel to “love the stranger, then, for you were once strangers in Egypt.” Though there are quite a few texts of this nature, it is nevertheless true that most texts of the Old Testament evince a one-sided emphasis on the election of Israel and God’s partiality towards Israel. They sometimes run the risk of conscripting God into a national agenda. Some of these texts have been lifted out of context and been manipulated by some nations and peoples in the cause of injustice and even genocide against other peoples. All the more important, therefore, that a responsible hermeneutic be brought to bear on such texts. The classical prophets of Israel created “ethical Yahwism” and fought to liberate the image of God from national agendas. Yet some segments of the prophetic tradition continued to depict Yahweh as partial to Israel in a manner unfair to other nations. In some late prophetic oracles, salvation for Israel was still often intrinsically linked with judgment on its enemies or on the nations. An example is Isaiah 60:12: “for the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly destroyed.” Even in liturgy we meet with the war-dance liturgy of Psalm 149:5-7: The faithful exult in glory, shout for joy as they worship him, praising God to the heights with their voices, a two-edged sword in their hands, to wreak vengeance on the nations, judgment on the peoples.

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The hope that Yahweh will, in the last times, destroy the armies of the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat is held out in Joel 3:9-21 and Ezekiel 38-39. In fact, Daniel 7:27 proclaims that finally “the kingship and the rule, and the splendors of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High . . . whom every empire will serve and obey.” “The people of the holy ones of the Most High” are Israel, whose heavenly patrons are the “holy ones of the Most High,” that is, the divine beings who formed the council of Yahweh. There is an undeniable “Israel-focus” in segments of the Old Testament story. But one of the contentions of this book is that such a focus is to be read not in isolation but in relation to internal transformations of the tradition that indicate that Israel’s election had a missionary intention. Israelite tradition in the Old Testament has indeed also many texts that show that Yahweh cares for all humanity and the entire creation. Some texts even seem to place the election of Israel in function of the salvation and welfare of the world. Developing this thesis is the burden of this book. We here give a few examples. The account of creation in Genesis 1 shows the unity of humanity under the one God and creator who cares for all. The narrative of the election of Abraham, the ancestor of Israel, has God’s care for all humanity written all over it. Abraham is destined to be both father of Israel and father of many nations (Gen 17:5). God promised him, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.” But God also established him as an instrument of blessing for all families when God said, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:2-3 NRSV). The choice of Abraham could therefore be seen in function of “blessing” for all humanity. When Israel left Egypt an >eμreb rab (“mixed multitude,” Exod 12:38) went up with them. The reference is most probably to other enslaved ethnic groups in Egypt.1 These were equally beneficiaries of Yahweh’s redemption and stood with Israel at Sinai. They were all bound both to Yahweh and to each other by covenant. The power of the covenant at Sinai (Exod 19-24) was to make them all the one people of God. Already the point was being made that Israel was more a covenant community than heredity linked by blood. Some scholars (for example, Norman Gottwald) even posit that Israel as a nation was formed in Canaan when the revolution of oppressed peasants came under the influence of the Moses group coming from Egypt and thus under the banner of Yahweh as the liberating deity. Although this hypothesis leaves many questions unanswered, it radically reinterprets the notion of election. In this scenario, Israel would be the

1. Reading this text in light of Lev 24:10 (the case of the man whose mother was an Israelite woman but whose father was an Egyptian), some have interpreted the “mixed multitude” as products of miscegenation between Israelites and Egyptians.

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covenant community that is meant to manifest the nature of Yahweh and the benefits of life under Yahweh. Election would in this case be intimately connected with mission. Many psalms sing of the universal and just rule of Yahweh and thus evince Yahweh’s concern for all creation. Psalm 82 depicts how God demoted to mortals the erstwhile heavenly rulers (

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