In Francis DuBose’s book “God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission” the author highlights the sending theme found throughout scripture by surveying the theological sending passages within 7 Scriptural categories. Last time I shared a portion from the book concerning the theme of sending found in both the Historical and Poetical books. This week I want to review the emphasis on sending in the prophetic books of the Old Testament.

The prophets were first and foremost sent men whom God had sent. The dramatic call and sending of Isaiah is recorded in 6:8: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? . . . Here am I! Send me.” In God’s call to Jeremiah, he said: “all to whom I send you you shall go” (1:7). Haggai 1:12 emphasizes that the people had obeyed the words of the prophet Haggai whom the Lord had sent. Zechariah declared that the Lord had sent him to the nations (2:8), and he repeated this declaration a number of times (2:9; 4:9; 6:15).

The prophets emphasized strongly the fact that God sent his prophets to do his will. Jeremiah spoke a number of times of the fact that God repeatedly and persistently sent his servants the prophets to the people (7:25; 25:4; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4). God sent his messengers even though they were not always what they should be (Isa. 42:19).

Even the false prophets are evidence that God is in the prophet-sending business. God simply denies that he has sent these false prophets (Jer. 14:14; 23:21; 27:15; 28:15; 29:9; Ezek. 13:6).

Furthermore, DuBose speaks of both a dominant theme of judgment and one of God’s providential care and blessings found within the sending theme of the prophets. In regards to judgment he writes:

Isaiah spoke of the word of God’s judgment sent to his people (9:8); of God sending judgment on a godless nation (10:6); of God sending a wasting sickness among the stout warriors (10:16). Jeremiah spoke of God sending serpents among his wayward people (8:17); of God sending a sword after his disobedient children (9:16); of God sending for fishers and hunters to fish out and track down his people and to judge them (16:16); of God sending the judgment of rejection upon his people for their sins (23:38); of God sending his people out of their homeland and into captivity (24:5); of God sending the sword, famine, and pestilence to judge the people (24:10). Other references to God sending various forms of judgment in Jeremiah are: 25:9, 15-17, 27; 26:12, 15; 29: 17, 20; 43:10; 48:12; 49:37; 51:2.

In regards to the theme of God’s care and blessings, DuBose writes:

Isaiah spoke of God sending to Babylon to rescue his people (43:14) and of God’s word prospering wherever God sends it (55:11). Daniel spoke of God sending his angels to deliver the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace (3:28) and of God sending his angel to protect him from the jaws of the lion (6:22). Joel spoke of God sending his people grain, wine, and oil (2:19). He also spoke of God’s providential blessing of renewal which will come after the army of pestilence which God had sent among them (2:25). Zechariah spoke of God’s providential care through the company of angels “whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth” (1:10).

Later DuBose highlights one of the most significant sending passages in the prophets when he discusses Isaiah 61:

In the climactic Isaiah 61, the servant of the Lord declares: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted” (61:1). In the following list of the redemptive deeds of God’s servant, everything proceeds from the verb sent.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion -
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit (vv. 1-3).

How ought the sending emphasis in the Old Testament affect our understanding of God? Of the church? Of the Christian life? Should this play a significant part in a missional theology of the church? How does the overall sending emphasis influence your thinking?