The Missionary God

2008-08-26

David petitions the Lord in Psalm 86, and in the midst of his prayer he says this:

“Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.”

David knew that the God of Israel is different from any other god. Note the contrast between the first and the last verse: “there is none like unto thee” (Psalm 86:8) and “thou art God alone” (Psalm 86:10). The other gods are figments of humankind’s imagination; they were designed by humankind to be cheap imitations of the real God, but were weak, predictable, and able to be manipulated, restrained to the human experience. If humankind performs, then the god will respond. This is “created reality”; if the god does not respond, then humankind did something wrong, or some other excuse is made. Everybody has a god like this.

The real God is the creator-owner of the universe. He is alive, and no one can control Him by anything one does. He is foreign to humankind, but He knows them and cares about the fate of them. That is why God is pursuing all people all over the world to come to a right understanding of who He is. Otherwise, people will neither know God nor be saved from certain eternal death.

All nations will come before God and worship Him. Many of the Psalms talk about this, and Revelation talks about how people from every pocket of the world will be saved from otherwise certain oblivion. This is the Missionary God; He is seeking to save those who are lost. We were those lost people. All of humankind is in the same boat. There are still billions of people who need to hear about Jesus Christ.

God started Israel from a wandering nomad named Abraham and made him into a great nation. He planted this nation at the intersection of three continents so that anyone traveling throughout the world would pass by and see how Israel was different from their pagan neighbors. God used the Diaspora to use the same people throughout the world to be a witness to Him. This dispersion served as a forerunner for the Church that would come and tell the whole message of the crucified Messiah who also was risen from the dead.

God uses people in the same way today: He either is sending His people out to the world to be salt and light, or He is bringing the unsaved to His people. Opportunities are countless to be a part of the Missionary God’s plan. God wants people to be saved from the created reality of false gods and spirituality, and for people to come to a clear understanding of who He is and who they are before Him.

What is your part in the Missionary God’s plan?