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Israel continues to exist as God’s people only as a result of God’s gracious saving actions in the deliverance from Egypt. The story of God’s people is rooted in grace. Israel’s life before God is one of response to grace. This is the heart of covenant. God reaches out and offers Israel a special relationship. The Creator God who delivered Israel from Egypt now invites God’s people to discover the purpose of their deliverance. Israel’s response to God’s grace may be summarized by the phrase faithful obedience. Through faithful obedience, God’s people begin to embody an ethos that reflects God’s character before the watching world. The call of God on his redeemed people is a call to holiness, but it is a holiness in the service of mission. The Sinai Covenant serves as a testament to God’s people of the centrality of mission, holiness, and community. The Sinai Covenant instructs and shapes God’s people into a missional community that reflects God’s character to/for/in the world.

The Sinai is the third explicit covenant in the Pentateuch. Several scholars, Frank Moore Cross and his student S. Dean McBride, Jr., have observed that five explicit covenants (Noah, Abraham, Sinai, Phinehus, and Moab) are embedded within the Pentateuch, which give these books an even greater interconnectedness. These five covenants form a chiastic structure with the Sinai covenant at the center:

A Noahic Covenant (Gen 9:9-17)

B Covenant Grant to Abraham (Gen 17:1-14, cf. Gen 15:1-21)

C Sinai Covenant (Exod 19:1-Num 10:10, esp. Exod 19:1-34:28)

B’ Covenant Grant to Phinehas (Num 25:11-13) – Ps 106:30-31

A’ Covenant in Moab (Deuteronomy, esp. 29:1-32:47)

The outer bracket (A and A’) focuses on the issue of stability. The Noahic covenant is with all living things and guarantees the stability of the heavens and earth. The covenant in Moab is made between God and Israel and serves to sustain Israel’s life in the land without Moses through the presence of God in the Torah. The inner bracket (B and B’) focuses on issues of land and priesthood. God’s land grant to Abraham guarantees Israel land whereas God’s grant to Phinehas (the savior of Israel at Baal-Peor) provides for a perpetual priesthood for Israel’s life in the land. The Pentateuch then centers on the Sinai pericope which focuses on Covenant and the institution of the proper worship of God.

Covenant is the rubric used by God to communicate his vision for God’s people’s life and work in the world. The idea of covenant is not unique to Israel. It is drawn from the wider Near Eastern culture of the day. The use of covenant is another example of the way that God incarnates himself into the culture as a means of communicating to humanity and redeeming discrete human cultures. God borrows an element common to a culture and uses it as a platform for communicating the divine will for humanity. Covenant teaches God’s people the true nature of reality—in particular the transcendence of God and the high value and worth of all human beings including women and other persons whom cultures tend to marginalize. At the center of the covenant’s portrait of God stands God’s holiness. The covenants also reveal God’s desire for men and women to live in an exclusive relationship with God rooted in trust and faithful obedience. God is holy and desires his people to likewise reflect his character in their corporate life together and in their engagement with the nations.

In particular the Sinai covenant and its recapitulation on the Plains of Moab in Deuteronomy offer God’s people a polity for shaping life according to God’s will. In Genesis 12:3, God called Abram to lead a family that existed as agents of blessing for the nations. The Torah as a whole details what this looks life. It is crucial to read the various laws, lore, and instructions for worship within the missiological framework provided in Genesis. The goal of the Sinai Covenant is not obedience, but the creation of a missional community that would reflect God’s character in the world, to the world, and for the world.

© 2011 Brian D. Russell

The Ethics of God’s New Missional Community

In our understanding of God’s people we have continually used this definition: God’s people are a missional community that reflects God’s character to/for/in the nations. In the stories of Genesis 12–50, it is easy to see mission and community, but what about character and holiness? In the above section, we have recognized the importance of God’s faithfulness to his promises as a key theme. This included observing times when God is faithful despite the actions of God’s people.
Genesis 12–50 is fundamentally about God’s faithfulness in the progress of his mission to bring blessing to the world through Abraham, but there are clear hints of the expectation by God of a distinct conduct and lifestyle for the success of God’s mission.

In Genesis 17, God cuts a covenant with Abraham in which God gives the rite of circumcision. The chapter opens, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him, saying, ‘I am God Almighty; walk continually before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly multiple your numbers” (Gen 17:1-2). Genesis 17 is a significant moment in Abram’s life because God gives him the new name Abraham to signify a new epoch in his life and by cutting an explicit covenant with Abraham. These opening verses raise an expectation of a lifestyle that is congruent with God’s character. The combination of “walk” (Heb: hlk) and “blameless” (Heb: tmym) occurs elsewhere in the Pentateuch to describe Noah, “This is the story of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the peoples of his day, and he walked continually with God” (Gen 6:9).

Genesis 17 does not give detailed information about what was expected of Abraham. The only regulation mentioned in Genesis 17 is the necessity for future generations to circumcise all males within their households. Otherwise, we must wait for the Sinai Covenant (Exodus 19:1–Num 10:10) to encounter specific ethical and cultic regulations. As we discovered in the previous section the emphasis in the book of Genesis is on God’s faithfulness. The next passage however serves to establish further the force of God’s exhortation:
“Then the LORD spoke, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him that he may guide his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him” (Gen 18:17-19).

God is poised to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wickedness found in those cities. Due to his relationship with Abraham, God reveals his intentions. In response, Abraham will intercede successfully on behalf of his nephew Lot (18:22-33). With the negative example of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah in the immediate context, verses 17-19 clearly present a contrast between God’s expectations for Abraham and the lifestyle/ethos of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, this verse establishes an expectation that part of Abraham’s vocation was to “guide” his children in the way of the Lord. This clearly suggests that Abraham was to instill an ethic of faithful obedience into his household.

This text is critical for understanding the interconnectivity between mission, holiness, and community. In this context we clearly see all three elements. Abraham’s family (community) was to embody a distinct ethos (holiness) as part of embodying the promise of serving as a blessing for all nations.
Genesis 22:16-18 “[The angel of the LORD] said, ‘I swear by myself, utters the LORD, that because you have done this—you have not withheld your only son, indeed I will truly bless you and expand the number of your offspring so that they are as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the grains of sand on the seashore. Moreover your offspring will inherit the gate of their enemies and all nations of the earth will find blessing for themselves in your offspring because you heeded my voice.’”
Abraham’s willingness to follow God’s command to sacrifice Isaac epitomizes faithful obedience. This text embodies the tension between God’s promises as unconditional and the necessity of human response. In the context, we need to read God’s words to Abraham as an affirmation of his faithful obedience. God already promised Abraham all of the things included in the text. It is clear that Abraham’s obedience was not the cause of the God’s promises, but Abraham’s obedience points the way forward for God’s people. It is the desired response to God’s prior grace.

Genesis 26:2 The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land about which I am speaking to you. 3 Live in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your offspring I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to Abraham, your father. 4 I will multiply your descendants as though they are the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will find blessing, 5 because Abraham heeded my voice and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.”

In Genesis 26:2-5, God directly extends to Isaac the promises initiated with Abraham. God’s appearance occurs during a time of famine and serves to assure Isaac of God’s presence with him lest Isaac flee to Egypt. Verse five is critical for our reflection on the ethics of Israel’s ancestors. God cites Abraham’s obedience as the basis for renewing the promises for Isaac. God promises Isaac land, many descendants, and the mission of serving as an instrument of blessing. Abraham’s willingness to heed or listen to God’s voice functions as the model for Isaac to follow. Obedience enhances the ability of God’s people to advance God’s mission in the world.

In Genesis 39, Joseph models faithful obedience despite his circumstances. By Genesis 39, Joseph is serving as a slave in Egypt in the household of Potiphar an officer under the Egyptian Pharaoh. The narrator describes Joseph as handsome. His good looks attract the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife. Joseph resists her by asserting his faithfulness in serving as a steward for Potiphar. Moreover in verse 9 he adds, “How can I do this great evil and sin against God?” Joseph’s goal is witness. He will not act in ways that dishonor God. This is the essence of a holiness rooted in mission. Joseph understood that his actions directly impacted the way that others would perceive his god.

We don’t want to over-interpret these passages, but the implications are clear: holiness matters. Faithful obedience enhances the missional success of the people of God. Too much is at stake in God’s mission to disregard this aspect. Scholars often debate a key question about the Abrahamic covenant: Is it conditional or unconditional? Perhaps the best answer is, “Yes.” God’s call of Abraham and his descendants is certainly an unconditional offer of promise and blessing. God offers unmerited favor and promises to Abraham. Yet, this unconditional offer nonetheless requires a human response to enact it. Genesis 12–50 is more interested in demonstrating the grace and faithfulness of the LORD who called the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the necessity of a holy community is clearly implicit and adumbrates a more thorough treatment beginning in the book of Exodus.

What do you think?

© 2010 Brian D. Russell

God’s Universal Intent and God’s Particular Election of Abram
The biblical story temporarily narrows with the call of Abram. Genesis 1–11 are the stories of all humanity. They have an international focus. God created the world earth and crafted humans to spread across the globe and serve as God’s visible representative. In God’s creational vision, all people were the people of God. In Genesis 1–11, there is no Israel, but only people and ultimately nations (Genesis 10). The Scriptural story moves from the narrative of all creation to a plot that follows the destiny of a newly called people. It begins with Abram whose family will be the wellspring of a new missional people.

Let’s reflect more on two key aspects of God’s call on Abram: God’s universal intent for creation and God’s particular election.

First, verse 3 “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” is the interpretive key. This clause brings mission to the forefront. God’s purposes are much wider than merely calling Abram and his family to a new life and offering promises to him and his descendants. Rather Genesis 12:1-3 offers a clue that the Bible is ultimately the story of God’s working to bring salvation and wholeness to all creation. God calls Abram for the sake of all people. Abram’s family will serve as God’s agency to bring blessing to all peoples on earth. Just as humanity was crafted for participation in God’s mission at the time of Creation (see Gen 1:26-31), God’s recreated people are born anew to work toward the fulfillment of God’s creational purposes. In other words, Gen 12:1-3 serves as reengagement of humanity’s original mission, but with a twist. If the original mission involved humanity’s care and faithful stewardship over the created work, God has now recalibrated the mission to deal decisively with humanity’s foibles and sins. In the beginning God desired to have women and men, persons created in the imago de, fill the earth and serve as his visible representatives. As we saw, in Gen 11:1-9, God achieved the goal of filling the earth with people, but there was a problem. The lostness of men and women prevented them from manifesting a witness for God. Even worse the lostness of men and women required their redemption. God moves to save a lost humanity by beginning with Abram and his family.

Second, God chose to work through a called people. This raises the issue of particularity. Why didn’t God call multiple persons from all over the planet? The answer is that God’s plan drives to a singular conclusion—the sending of Jesus. The call of Abraham established a beachhead into a lost world into which God would send his Son. The call to be the people of God is a privilege, but it is not a call to a privileged life. God’s people exist for God’s mission. They were called to be the conduits of God’s blessing to the nations. Their calling was to serve rather than to be served. Thus Genesis 12¬–Malachi 4 focus mainly on the potential and pitfalls of living as God’s people in the world. These texts record the forward advance of God people in preparation for the incarnation of the Son. But as we will see, the nations remain part of the story. Sometimes they will serve as adversaries who pose a threat to God’s promises and mission (e.g., Egypt and Philistia); other times we will witness persons born outside of God’s people become core characters in the narrative of redemption (e.g., Rahab and Ruth). So yes in his wisdom God did indeed call one family out of all the families on earth, but he did so for the sake of the many.

Third, the call of Abram involves the creation of a new community. God commands Abram to unplug from his ties to culture, family, and kinship networks of Mesopotamia to strike out anew on his own. As discussed earlier, this is a separation not for privilege but for service/mission. It is also a means of God creating a new community. In Genesis 1, God created humanity last in order of created things (living and non-living). Humanity was crafted to serve as a missional community to reflect God’s character to and for the Creation. In an analogous way, God calls Abram and his family to live and serve as a new humanity. This communal aspect is vital. It is easy for us to view Abram’s call as a solitary one. Our Western individualism makes it easy to think of Abram as a lone hero figure. But from the beginning, Abram is not alone. Abram’s wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, and his many servants accompany Abram on the journey. At the beginning God created humanity for authentic relationships. This continues in the new humanity that God creates. In the popular imagination, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob function as heroic individuals, but at their core, these are family stories. The mission of God always advances through community. It is decisive for us in our day to hear the Scriptural testimony regarding the crucial role that community plays for the advancement of the Gospel.

Any reflections, questions, or critiques?

© 2010 Brian D. Russell

Here are notes on Joshua 5:13-6:27. I’ve tried to include some missional reflections where appropriate. In particular a missional hermeneutic will highlight the role of Rahab in the narrative.

5:13-15 A Chance Encounter

Israel is poised to take possession of the land of Canaan. God has brought God’s people miraculously across the Jordan, and they are camped at Gilgal. In the previous verses, Israel has prepared for the coming battles in unique ways. First, all of the males of the Wilderness generation, those who had been born after the deliverance from Egypt, are circumcised (15:1-9). Second, God’s people celebrated the Passover for the first time in the land of Canaan (15:10-12). Both of these actions are remarkable because they are not the standard practices of invading armies. Instead of rehearsing battle formations or sharpening weapons, God’s people engage in God centered practices. Circumcision is a public testimony of one’s belonging to and allegiance to the LORD. The Passover is a time of communal remembering and celebration of God’s mighty acts in the deliverance of God’s people from Egypt. The implications of these actions are profound. The strength and success of God’s people is dependent wholly on the LORD. These acts of obedience are the very types of preparation necessary for Israel’s success.

5:13-15 narrates another part of Israel’s preparation for taking possession of the land. Joshua receives a final reminder of his role in a remarkable encounter near the city of Jericho. Israel is poised to move against the Canaanite city of Jericho. In 5:13, Joshua finds himself in the vicinity of Jericho. Our text does not give details as to his intentions or plans, but Joshua is likely doing what any military commander would do on the eve of a military campaign–he is scouting the lay of the land. Yet Joshua finds himself suddenly in the presence of a “man.” This figure accosts Joshua with a drawn sword. The man remains unidentified and obviously perplexes Joshua. Despite the evidence given by a drawn sword, Joshua asks, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?”

Verse 14 announces to Joshua and the reader that this is no mere man. It is the angel of the LORD through whom Joshua is physically confronted by the presence of God. The commander of the LORD’s armies answer is remarkable. Whose side is he on? Neither. This is the wrong question. For Joshua, his success is not dependent on whether God is on his side. Rather Joshua needs to make sure that he, Joshua, is aligned with God. This is the proper stance for the leader of God’s people. Joshua immediately recognizes his error and assumes a position of humility by bowing down in worship of the LORD. He asks, “What do you command your servant, my lord?”

Verse 15 records the answer of the “man.” Joshua is to remove his sandals in recognition of the sacredness of the moment and of the place (cf. the response of God to Moses in Exod 3:4-5). God’s people must acknowledge and respect God’s holiness as a first order of business. This lesson is vital for Christian leadership. God emphasizes to Joshua through this encounter that the keys to success for him are maintaining the proper allegiance to God and recognizing the importance of God’s holiness.

6:1-5 Marching Orders

Verse 1 informs us that Jericho has fled behind its wall. The peoples of Canaan are terrified by the approach of God’s people. This terror is divine induced. God’s actions are the cause of this (cf. Josh 2:9-11 and 5:1). But Jericho with its high walls presents a challenge.

Having been prepared spiritually for a move against the city of Jericho, Joshua receives specific tactical instructions from the LORD in verse 2-5. First, God assures Joshua of success. The victory is already won. Second, God gives Joshua some unusual instructions. This will not be the typical siege of a well-fortified city. Instead of attacking the city by building siege works or by attempting to knock through the gate with a battering ram, God’s people are simply to march around the city in silence behind a procession of seven priests with trumpets leading the ark of the covenant (cf. Josh 3:1-11). Instead of a battle plan, Joshua receives a liturgy. God’s people are to march silently around Jericho for six consecutive days. On the seventh day, they will march around Jericho seven times. At that time, the priests will sound a long blast with the ram’s horn and the all of God’s people are to shout. The great wall of Jericho will come crashing down so that the people may charge into the city. Again notice the stress of the instructions. There is no sophisticated battle plan. The victory will be God given and conducted in a means that will bring glory and honor to the LORD rather than to the military prowess of Joshua and Israel.

6:6-14 Six Days of Witness

In obedience to the LORD, Joshua instructs the priests to prepare to lead a processional before the ark of the LORD. He then orders God’s people to march around the city before the ark of the LORD. Our text moves from commandment of God to implementation by God’s people. God’s instructions are followed by faithful obedience. As we saw in Lesson Two, faithful obedience is the key virtue to be embodied by Israel. Verses 8-9 record that Israel faithfully obeyed Joshua’s words. In verse 10, Joshua imparts the instructions about maintaining absolute silence during the march each day.

In verses 11-14, the narrator reports that God’s people continue the pattern commanded by the LORD for six straight days. They march in silence while the seven priests blow the ram’s horns in announcement of the coming of the ark of the LORD. They complete one rotation around the city and return to camp. This must have unnerved the inhabitants of Jericho. They must have wondered what the Israelites were up to. Our text does not report the activities of Jericho, but the warriors posted on its walls must have been hurling insults and launching arrows at the people of God. Yet each day for six straight days the Israelites marched around the city in silence except for the priests blowing of the ram horns before the ark of the LORD.

6:15-27 Victory and Deliverance
Our text takes its decisive turn on the seventh day. The seventh day is the Sabbath (Exod 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15). On the sabbath, Israel was to cease from all work as a testimony to the LORD who rested on the seventh day of Creation (Exod 20:11 cf. Gen 2:1-3) and who delivered Israel from slavery (Deut 5:15). It is fitting that God delivered Jericho to Israel on the Sabbath because the victory belongs to the work of God rather than to the Israelites. All Israel had to do was show up and obey the LORD’s commands.

On the seventh day, God’s people followed God’s commands to perfection. According to God’s instructions, Israel rose early on the seventh day and marched around the city seven times (verse 15). Upon the completion of the seventh circuit, Joshua offers instructions to the Israelites (verses 16-19). They are exhorted to break their silence and shout loudly in unison. The rationale for the shouting is grounded in God’s promise that the city is Israel’s. Thus, we should read the call to shout here as a celebratory shout in anticipation of experiencing the victory of God over Jericho. Moreover, since the victory is God’s, Israel is not to act in the fashion of other marauding armies. Israel is different. Jericho belongs to God. God has won the victory. Instead of looting and pillaging Jericho, Israel is commanded to devote the entire city and its inhabitants to the LORD. It is to be leveled and completely destroyed (cf. Deut 20:10-18). This sounds harsh. For reflection on the violence in the book of Joshua, see Optional Activities (Lesson 1). In verse 17, note that some Canaanites were to spared–Rahab and her family. This is significant. Rahab and her family alone survive the destruction of Jericho because Rahab recognized the power and glory of God (Josh 2:9-11) and aligned herself with God’s purposes by aiding and abetting the spies whom Joshua had sent.

Verses 18-19 provide some rationale for the command to destroy utterly Jericho and its inhabitants. Joshua warns the Israelites keep away from the people and material possessions of Jericho. Both of these exist as a temptation to apostasy for God’s people. Only items of gold, silver, brass, and iron are to be kept and these belong exclusively to the treasury of the LORD. Other nations used victories as an occasion to rape and pillage a defeated people and city. Israel is not acting to enrich itself at the expense of other people, but to take possession of a gift from God. Israel will enjoy God’s blessing as a gift–they don’t have to take matters into their own hands.

Verse 20 reports the results of Israel’s faithful obedience. The walls of Jericho fall flat and Israel is able to storm the city from all sides.

Verses 21-25 record the aftermath of the victory. Israel obeys the commands of God and devotes the city and its inhabitants to destruction. Our text emphasizes two aspects. First, Israel acts in faithful obedience with word of the LORD through Joshua. All is destroyed. Only the items made of silver, gold, bronze and iron are kept. But even these valuables are not seized as personal booty by rampaging Israelites. Rather these are immediately secured for the treasury of the LORD. Second, Rahab and her family are saved. Notice that Rahab is repeatedly referred to as the prostitute (6:17, 22, and 25). The ultimate outsider to God’s people – a Canaanite, female prostitute—comes under the protective care of God. This emphasizes a crucial truth. God’s people are a permeable body. Yes, there are lines drawn between God’s people and the Canaanites, but the line is based on allegiance and not ethnicity. Rahab is able to celebrate the victory of God over Jericho because by her actions she has demonstrated that she is an Israelite. She enjoys the promise made to Abram that “in [him] all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3).

Verses 26-27 conclude the story of God’s victory over Jericho. After its destruction, Joshua pronounces a curse over the city. It is never to be rebuilt. If it is rebuilt the builder will lose his first born. In the days of the King Ahab, this grim possibility became a reality (1 Kings 16:33-34).

God was indeed with Joshua in achieving this great victory. Israel a ragtag collection of the children of escaped slaves from Egypt who had lived in the desert for forty years has just achieved an unprecedented victory over a heavily fortified city simply by marching and then shouting in obedience to the LORD. This achievement under the leadership of Joshua became the talk of the land.

Book of Joshua
missional hermeneutic

My former OT teacher and now colleague, Lawson Stone, has written an insightful blog on his reflections on Daniel 1.

I have been pondering the biblical character of Daniel all day, probably because I’m teaching a Sunday School class on the OT books that center around the Babylonian exile. The last survivors of Israel, i.e. the tribe of Judah, finally succumbed in 586 B.C. to the Babylonians, who destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the temple of Solomon, ravaged the countryside and left smoking villages and a devastated economy in their wake, deporting thousands of Judahites to Babylon where they were forcibly settled in ghetto-like communities doing force-labor for the Babylonian King, the infamous Nebuchadrezzar.

But I wonder. Daniel might not have been such a comfortable guy to know if you were a devout Judean.


Read the rest.

In the book of Joshua, God fulfills his promise to God’s people of life in the land of Canaan. God originally promised the land to Abram in his initial call (12:1, 7). This promise was reaffirmed to Abram’s descendants Isaac and Jacob and remained a central theme of the Pentateuch (Genesis - Deuteronomy). As we read and study parts of Joshua over the coming weeks, it is vital to set God’s promise of land into the context of God’s overarching plans for humanity. God promises Abram and his descendants the land of Canaan not merely for their own sake but for the sake of all nations. Genesis 12:2-3 reads, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (italics added). In other words, God has raised up Israel as his agents through whom he will bless all peoples.

Israel’s vocation as a means of blessing was reaffirmed at the feet of Mount Sinai. In Exod 19:5-6, God announced, “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” Precisely because God is king over all Creation he has appointed Israel to serve as a special people among all of the other peoples that inhabit the earth. They are to serve a priestly or missional function of connecting the nations to God by reflecting God’s character (holy nation). How does the promised land of Canaan fit into God’s mission? The land represents a foothold for God’s kingdom as God works to bring blessing and salvation to humanity and all creation following the spread of disobedience and sin as described in Genesis 3-11. God establishes a tiny foothold in the world because it will be in this land and through this people Israel that God will reveal himself most fully in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. But we are getting ahead of ourselves in the biblical story…