Some of biblical scholars assert the idea that there are neither messages nor visions about mission in the Old Testament, but J. Raymond Tallman said, “The bible is a book of mission from its beginning to the end,” David J. Hesselgrave said “The more the biblical scholars do world mission in the perspective of the whole bible, they will better understand that the bible is a book of mission,” Arthur F. Glasser said “The Old Testament is a book of mission.” Johannes Blauw confessed that there was time “he was ignorant of missionary ideas in the Old Testament,” and mentioned that “the Old Testament does not ignore or takes lightly of the missionary meaning and its evidence about people all over the world.” In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the activities of four patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are well recorded and God, the primary subject of mission, selected them as missionaries and did missionary work. Abraham was born a son of Terah, a descendent of Shem (Gen. 11:27) and was called upon a missionary at 75 (Gen. 12:4). He left his hometown, Ur of the Chaldeans and moved to the land of Canaan. Before he went to his missionary field, God gave him a vision that he will make into a great nation, his name will be great and will be a blessing, and in the missionary field, God gave him the same vision repeatedly (Gen. 12:13, 13:16, 15:5, and 22:1718). Abraham with his three hundred eighteen trained men born in his house defeated them and recovered all the goods and brought back the captured people. When the king of Sodom requested of the return of his people but not of the goods, Abraham took an oath in the name of God and returned the goods as well as the people. Abraham let known of God with good virtues to the King of Sodom (Gen. 14:1116). God commanded Abraham of circumcision and of mission for all nations by ordering circumcision of people they bought from a foreigner. (Gen. 17:1214) Abraham let known of God to Abimelech king of Gerar and his officials with the guidance of God (Gen. 20:18). Thus, Abraham’s mission was a life mission that took place within his life. Isaac was born as the only son of Abraham and Sarah when Abraham turned one hundred years old, and was offered to God as a sacrifice (Gen. 22:913). He obeyed to God’s word in the years of famine, and instead of moving to Egypt, he stayed in Gera. The year Isaac planted crops in that land, God blessed him with a hundredfold of crops and made him rich and very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that made the Philistines to envy him, so he had to leave the land. But later, Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar visited him with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces and told him “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you”, “Let us make a treaty with you that you will do us no harm,” and “And now you are blessed by the Lord.” and made a treaty with Isaac. Isaac absolutely obeyed to God’s commands, received great blessings from God in foreign soils, revealed God through his life, and did life mission that made the foreign king to confess the name of God.

• 이훈구(서울기독대학교, 선교학) | Lee HoonKoo