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!

What is "that" in Your Hands?

God asked the above question to Moses, for which he replied “a Shepherd’s Staff.” (Exo. 4:2) In Dorcas’ case, it was her “Needle.” She spent her days in stitching, remaking, mending, altering garments for poor widows who lived in Joppa. She was always doing good and helping the poor. The name Dorcas means, “gazelle”—an emblem of beauty. Its Hebrew equivalent, Tabitha is the Syro-Chaldaic form of the Hebrew -  Zibiah, or Tsibiah, which was the name of a princess of Judah, the mother of King Joash.

Life of Dorcas (Acts 9:36-43)

A Disciple

 Dorcas is the only named woman disciple in the Bible. Possibly Dorcas came to know Christ as her Saviour from Philip, the evangelist. She caught the vision of how she could serve Christ with her money and her needle. Her salvation experience led her to doing this good work. We should be aware that giving of alms and doing good works alone gain no merit with God. God sees our hearts, and then our talents.  All who do good works are not the disciples of Christ. But all disciples of Christ are called to be doers of good work. 

Apostle James at length discusses in his letter about how salvation and good works are inseparable.  The cup of cold water is acceptable when it is given in His name. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” (Mark 9:41) People who see our good works should ultimately praise God! (Matthew 5:16). When we do good works, our attitude should be not to publicise ourselves (Matthew 6:1). In Dorcas’ case, it was the women who spoke praises of her!

A Beautiful Woman

We do not know whether Dorcas was a physically beautiful woman or not. In the New Testament there is not a single mention of the physical beauty of a man or a woman, but we only read about the inner beauty of people. She certainly lived a lovely life, and had eyes reflecting the compassion of the Master whom she so faithfully served, who went about doing good (Acts 10:38). Her beneficiaries saw in her, the beauty of Jesus.

She had the hands and feet of Jesus. Jesus said, “I was naked, and you gave me clothing…. ….I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Matt 25:36-40, NLT). True to these verses, the hands of Dorcas clothed the sisters who needed clothes.   The woman mentioned about in Proverbs 31 had hands to offer too. Her hands were busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fibre. She extended a helping hand to the poor and opened her arms to the needy (vs 19-20). These women had hands that helped and so were beautiful. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)

A Minister

For some reason, Dorcas became ill and died. While the funeral procedures were happening, the women whom she had helped all along, sent two men to call Apostle Peter who was in nearby Lydda.  They knew that he would exercise supernatural power because just then he had healed Aeneas, a paralytic man. When Peter came he must have been moved as he saw the exhibits of the coats and garments Dorcas had made for the needy women. He said, “Tabitha, arise!” and life returned. Dorcas sat up, and Peter presented her alive to the saints and widows. They would have been over-joyed to get back their much-loved Dorcas.  After the resurrection of Jesus, this was the first incident in the early church. So it became a powerful display of the resurrected power of Jesus Christ. 

In her resurrected life, a healed Dorcas would have taken up her needle in her hand immediately.  On the one side, she started to help the needy women again. On the other hand, the message rang, “Dorcas is alive again,” and many believed in the Lord. After the resurrection of Lazarus we read that many of the Jews believed on Jesus. It is true in a spiritual resurrection too. A transformed life attracts others to the Saviour. We read that after the miracle, Peter stayed in Joppa for many days, to teach and disciple the new believers. Peter stayed with Simon the tanner, a saint who prepared skins for leather to the glory of God, just as Dorcas made up her garments with her consecrated hands. 

Professions, Positions, Power are powerful pulpits to propagate the gospel.  It is interesting that in the midst of her funeral, Dorcas woke up and was able to see how she had influenced the lives of people around her. Like Mary of Bethany she did what she could. How have we influenced lives around us? Christianity teaches us not only to live and let live, but also to help live. Dorcas might not have been an outgoing personality like Deborah. Probably she did not have children to dedicate like how Hannah and Salome did. But she had a hand and a heart to serve. Following Ecclesiastes 9:10, let us do it with all our might whatever our hands find to do for the glory of God!