Judges or Missionaries?

I invite you again to the series on Biblical Theology of Missions. I used a simple term in my earlier writings called a “Missionary Spectacle.” We can hear the heartbeat of God, when we choose to wear such a lens. In this write-up I have captured an overall view of the books of Judges and Ruth.

Sin Cycle

The period of judges can be understood as a time, of God chastening his chosen nation. We should keep in mind that the choice was for the Israelite nation to be a missionary vehicle in itself, to spread God’s glory to other nations. When this did not happen, God brought the nations into the Israelite territory. It would be a good learning exercise to count the number of nations that invaded Israelites after every one of their sin cycles. A typical sin cycle in the book of Judges was like this: Israelites sinned. God brought foreign rulers who oppressed them. Israelites cried out to God. He raised a judge, who would fight the oppressor, deliver the Israelites and then there would be peace for certain years until the life time of the judge. The highlight of the book is missiological in the sense that every foreign nation came to know the God of Israel. The question to us is: Like the judges, do we bring peace to our community in our generation, fighting the oppressive structures around?

War between Gods

The Old Testament stories of wars happened in a context of  fight between gods. The God of the winning side was considered great. And one another interesting truth is that these judges, most of them were people like a simple Gideon, a sinful Samson, a one and only woman named Deborah and so on. One common factor in all of their victories was that the war was waged by God Himself because the Israelite side was weak, in numbers, in military terms, personality-wise and in many ways. However, the more impossible the situation was, the more the glory of God. There were super natural miracles like how the river Kishon wiped the Canaanite army during Deborah’s leadership (Judges 5:21), which was a repeat of the famous Red Sea incident. Even today in our power encounter in the context of missions, God wages war and He wins ultimately. God wants us to be his warrior and representatives by heeding to His call. We inherit blessings when we choose to obey.

Story of Grace

The story of Ruth happened in the time of judges. When we view this beautiful story through the lenses of a missionary spectacle, we can see God’s love for a Moabite widow and how he brought her in His sovereignty into a genealogy of prominence. Ruth became a fore-mother of the Lord and Saviour Jesus! She made a choice of faith in God in the toughest time of her life. She said to her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi, “ ...Your God will be my God...” (Ruth 1:6) which I am sure, became a pivotal point of change. I long to hear many such voices in our nation, who would say, “Your God will be my God” to the disciples of Jesus. We need to remember the promise God gave to Abraham, the father of the Israelite clan that all nations would be blessed. We have an inclusive God, a loving God. Praise God for His son, Lord Jesus who is a mixed-race Saviour. The third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, enables us to be witnesses of the triune all over the world (Acts 1:8). When we accept this God and spread His glory, our stories will be read as stories of grace for time, immemorial. 

God turns any scenario into a mission context. We like the judges are missionaries of the gospel. Amen!