In last week’s column I mentioned that my wife Jean and I have served as missionaries in several countries. Foreign missionaries leave their home country to serve God among people living in another place. Missions is based on the idea that God is the God of people everywhere. He is the God of all nations. This idea is not new—it is at the heart of the Bible’s message—and on the biblical timeline missions shows up in the middle.
Perhaps we think of missions as beginning 2,000 years ago. After Jesus was resurrected and before he ascended into Heaven, he gave his disciples marching orders, his final instructions on what they were to be doing until he returned. We call those instructions the Great Commission—the foundation of missions.
In this week’s column I want to go back even further, another 2,000 years prior to Christ. There we encounter a man named Abram—or as we more commonly know him, Abraham. In one sense, Abram was a missionary: his story started when God told him to leave his homeland and to travel to a new place. Once there, God gave him a three-part promise: a land, multiple descendants, and God’s blessing (Genesis 12:1-3). Let’s consider these three promises: First, the promise of land was fulfilled in the region called the Promised Land. In Abram’s day they called this place Canaan. Later it was called the country of Israel. But this geographical place is just a picture of a future place, a new heaven and a new earth where God and humans will live together.
The second promise to Abram was many descendants. How many descendants? More than the stars in the heavens or the grains of sand on the beach—too many to be counted (Genesis 22:17). But there was a problem with this second promise: Abram and his wife Sarai had no children. You can’t become the father of a multitude without having at least one child to start with. But because God promised it, Abram believed it. Therefore, God changed his name from Abram (“exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”) to signify his role as the father of many nations (Gen 17:15). Today we consider Abraham the biological father of the Jewish and the Arab peoples, but we also consider him the spiritual father of all who have faith as he did.
That brings us to the third promise: God promised to bless Abram, and to bless the whole world through him! The greatest blessing was of a relationship with God. He said, “I will be their God” (Gen 17:6-7). But this promised blessing was tied to Abram’s trust in God. As we have said, Abram and Sarai had no children, but because God promised him an heir, Abram believed the promise, and God credited his faith as righteousness (Gen 15:6, Romans 4:3-5). This may be the most amazing verse in the whole Bible: faith is the key to being declared righteous! God accepts us, not based on perfect obedience— which none of us has—but based on trusting him! This is the key lesson we learn from the story of Abraham.
Someone has said that the rest of the Bible is about God keeping his promise to Abraham! It started in the Old Testament with the nation of Israel. The promise was expanded in the New Testament with Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, as the Savior of the whole world, and with the Church, the gathering of all who believe as Abraham believed. But the promise to Abraham is still being fulfilled. God told him that all the nations of the world would be blessed through him. We are still waiting for the culmination of God’s Kingdom on earth when Christ returns as King of Kings to rule with all who have believed as Abraham did. As Abraham’s rightful heir, Christ will bring God’s blessing to all the nations.
Missions fits into this story after the time of Christ and before the coming Kingdom. Like Abram, missionaries leave their homelands to serve God in another place. Even if God has not called you to relocate, he has called each of us to trust him—faith like that of Abraham is still credited as righteousness. And we enjoy God’s blessings, we are still sent to tell others about those blessings!
Greg Giles is a published author, who, along with his wife Jean, has embraced the call to serve and teach around the globe. Their life together has included missionary work in Liberia, Bangladesh, teaching in China, and raising a family in Bemidji, Minnesota. Between global travels and local commitments, including serving as superintendent of Corn Bible Academy and their current part-time roles at Corn Heritage Village, the Gileses have found “home” in many places; yet, they now happily reside in retirement in Cordell. Please visit his website at reflections-on-wisdom.com.