‘My Name Will Be Great Among The Nations’ The "Missio Dei" In The Book Of The Twelve -- By: Jerry Hwang

Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 65:2 (NA 2014)
Article: ‘My Name Will Be Great Among The Nations’ The "Missio Dei" In The Book Of The Twelve
Author: Jerry Hwang


‘My Name Will Be Great
Among The Nations’
The Missio Dei In The Book Of The Twelve

Jerry Hwang

([email protected])

Summary

Recent OT scholarship has increasingly recognised that the Minor Prophets were compiled by Hebrew scribes to be read as a cohesive anthology. While acknowledging that each book of the Minor Prophets exhibits a distinctive individuality, scholars continue to debate how to interpret the collection as a coherent whole. In this vein, I propose that the major themes of the Minor Prophets—land, kingship, the move from judgement to salvation, and the relationship of Israel to the nations—find a unifying link in the missio Dei. The plan of God to redeem his entire creation is progressively unfolded in the Minor Prophets, in that the apostasy of God’s people in God’s land (Hosea; Joel) is but the first step in a history of redemption which culminates with the recognition by all nations that Yhwh alone is worthy: ‘For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations’ (Mal. 1:11). As such, the missio Dei in the Minor Prophets not only provides a reading strategy for interpreting the collection as a unified Book of the Twelve; it also shows how the Minor Prophets make a unique contribution to an OT theology of mission.

1. Introduction

The Old Testament Minor Prophets appear at first glance to offer little of relevance and much which is problematic for a biblical theology of mission. Although the book of Jonah furnishes a notable exception, the rest of the Minor Prophets seem more concerned with judgement against the peoples rather than their salvation. Indeed, the sustained

intensity of their oracles against the nations ostensibly vindicates the claim of Richard Dawkins that ‘[t]he God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction’ who is ‘a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser.’1 The character of God in Dawkins’ account is antithetical to the missio Dei to redeem the world, for God’s plan is to annihilate people rather than to bless them.

This verdict against the God of the Old Testament stands at odds with Christopher Wright’s influential assertion that the missio Dei provides the key for ‘unlocking the Bible’s grand narrative.’2 For all reading strategies which emphasise the primacy of mission among the Bible’s many themes, like Wright’s, the new-atheist charge of divine tyranny highlights the nee...

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