I mentioned last week that I have been reading an excellent book by Dr. Francis DuBose titled “God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission.” The book was published in 1983 when Dr. DuBose was professor and director of World Missions Center at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. In chapter 3 DuBose presents a survey of the theological sending passages within 7 Scriptural categories, the first being the Pentateuch.

While DeBuse hightlights multiple sending passages in the Pentateuch there are two specific references that seem to be most significant. The first is the climatic use of the sending in Genesis as seen in Joseph’s words to his brothers, “God sent me before you” (Gen. 45:5).

DuBose writes:

That Joseph should discern the hand of God in his getting to Egypt was remarkable in light of the ungodly deeds which were the human side of the story. Three times Joseph is explicit in his use of the sending (vv. 5,7-8). “God sent me before you to preserve life. . . . to preserve for you a remnant on earth,” he emphasizes. This passage is profound in its covenantal and salvific implications. There is more than providence here. Joseph’s words reach both back to the Abrahamic covenant and forward to the Exodus deliverance. The Hebrew people later corroborated Joseph’s conviction that God had sent him to Egypt, and it is not surprising that Hebrew hymnody repeated the sending language in the celebration of God’s redemptive leadership in Joseph’s life. The sending of Joseph was seen as a prelude to the sending of Moses and Aaron (Ps. 105:17, 26) and, therefore, of the Exodus.

The second major example of sending in the Pentateuch that speaks to me is in the book of Exodus, where there are more than 17 references to the sending, all of them related in some way ot the mighty salvation event of the Exodus. Once again DuBose writes:

In 3:10-15, there are five references to the sending. God said to Moses, “I will send you” (v. 10) and “I have sent you” (v. 12). In addition, he said to Moses that he was to tell the people “the God of your fathers has sent me to you” (v. 13); “I AM has sent me to you” (v. 14). “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you” (v. 15). Thus the great salvation event of the Old Testament was to be accomplished by God’s mission through Moses. Moreover, the fact that in this sending context God revealed himself, not simply as the covenant God of the patriarchs, but for the first time as Yahweh, adds a sublime dimension to it. As the story of God’s sending of Moses unfolds, the language of the sending attends the descriptions of the succeeding events (4:13, 28; 5:22; 7:16).