Hebrew Evangelism
“You are my witnesses,” declares YHWH, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me.” Isaiah 43:10
I Am He – Go ahead. Ask your pastor, “What is the purpose of evangelism?” What answers do you imagine you will receive? “To win souls for Jesus.” “To bring people into a saving knowledge of Jesus.” “To save people so they can get to heaven.” “To increase the size of the church.” Whether the answers sound like recruitment or fire insurance, one thing is abundantly clear. Evangelism in Christian circles is usually about being saved, and it usually requires accepting Jesus as your Savior. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the direction of the prophets.
Isaiah’s great prophecy demands a closer look. In this prophecy, God recognizes Israel as His witness and His servant. What is the purpose of God’s election of Israel? Ah, there it is – right in the middle of this verse – “so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He.” Doesn’t that seem a bit strange to our ears? Did God choose Israel so that Israel could understand that YHWH is God? But we already know this, right? Is that all there is to this – just to know there is a God? Hardly!
Notice the pattern of evangelism here. First, God chooses witnesses. We don’t decide to become proclaimers of His majesty. He chooses us. He assigns us a purpose – His purpose, not ours. What is that purpose? To be witnesses to what He has done. Yes, that’s right. That’s all. Just to observe, consider and report God’s mighty acts. Right? No, not right! To be a witness is not simply to be an observer (that would be Greek). To be a witness is to take the stand and vouch for the veracity of the observed event. To be a witness is to speak out the truth. To be a witness is to accept the responsibility of bearing true testimony when it matters (by the way, it’s remarkable that the root word has a homophone that means “again” or “repeated”). “You are my witnesses” is a call to action, not observation. It is a call to tell God’s story by recounting His interventions in the lives of men.
As truthful storytellers, we become His servants. It isn’t possible to be His servants unless we have the right story to tell, and in this case, that story is the story of Israel. Why are we commanded to tell this story? Not so that we will remember, but so that we may know (yada’) and believe (‘aman) and understand (biyn) that I am He. Faithful witnesses recount truthful stories and in the process enter into ultimate, purposeful knowing, stable, reliable establishing and careful considering of this one overarching reality: YHWH is the only God. There is no other god. There never has been any other god. There never will be any other god. All creation witnesses to this fact – and so do we. YHWH is God.
This is not a statement about God’s existence. We do not provide an apologetic for “God exists.” That is trivially irrelevant. What matters is that YHWH is the only God. The God of Israel, YHWH, is the only God, and we, His children, are witnesses to this truth. We do not witness to the existence of a supreme God. We witness to the truth of this God, YHWH of Israel. What He says, what He does, who He is – this is what matters more than anything else in life. Unless we know this God, YHWH, we have no god at all.
But this isn’t the end of the story either. The purpose of faithful storytelling is not for us. It is for them – as we shall see.
Topical Index: I am He, witnesses, apologetics, Isaiah 43:10
Good job Skip!
I have taught evangelism for years to evangelists and so very few get this. The other issue the church doesn’t understand is the connection to healthy worship and evangelism. People just don’t get it.
Thanks, JC
Evangelism in many Christian circles here in Australia is about sacrificially loving (through actions) other people so that they can taste the goodness of the One who is their rescuer, their Messiah; so that broken people can experience healing, transformation and growth by Yeshua’s Spirit within community. It’s also about challenging injustice and corruption and holding people in places of authority to account.
Not all Christian circles are still stuck back in the ‘win souls for Jesus’ era. Many understand what Kingdom life really means and how it can transform our society for good. ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.
We witness to the fact that the only God is the one who revealed himself in his Son Yeshua, the God who suffered for us so that we can be transformed and be a ‘blessing to the nations’. Israel’s Messiah is the whole world’s Messiah. Yeshua is the focal point; he is the climax of the story.
That’s great to hear. I can’t wait to share all this with you in person – sooner than you think.
Not the same topic but can someone help me on this? With the speaking of GOD to His prophets of old through visions , dreams and everyday life is it possible that there is a name for all of this? Because I shared one time with a Pastor how GOD spoke to me through an image while I was awake, he told me that I was a “MYSTIC” . He was not unbelieving nor was he upset so I did not take it as a rebuke. What is a mystic in the good sense because I know that whenever there is a wicked side there is a righteous side too. Hope you can help me on this. Thank you.
Epistemologically, a mystic is one who has a direct and unfiltered experience of God. This isn’t the same as an encounter that is subjected to rational categories, evaluated and analyzed. This is an immediate, self-authenticating divine encounter which CANNOT be reduced to logical, rational explanation. Technically, mystics are not able to communicate such an experience in human language because all human language employs logical and interpretive paradigm categories. Practically, nearly all mystics attempt to communicate these experiences (and in the process reduce the experience to something other than what it is). A vision is not a mystical experience since it is already experienced as visual categories.
“visions , dreams and everyday life is it possible that there is a name for all of this?”
Hi Carol,
That’s an interesting question; I usually think of Eastern religions when I think of mystics and do not associate mysticism with wickedness.
According to Wiki: Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight.
I remember during the campaign process of Clinton’s second term, Senator Joe Lieberman was on TV on his way to speak with some of his conservative Jewish constituency.
So I was expecting to see the Senator enter a room at a country club full of business men in leisure suits, but nearly fell out of my chair when he open a door to a darkened room with men sitting on the floor praying or meditating with beads in their hands.
Rather than my picture of conservative Jews, they looked like Indian Sikhs to me.
The Sikhs I was familiar with from my younger days believe that there is one God and our purpose in life is to praise God and make ourselves Holy.
They are mystics in my view who spend much of their day in mediation or prayer.
In my experience, mystics tend to be more introverted, like monks, but the Prophets seem to be more extroverted; often telling others what they didn’t want to hear.
In my view, both mystics and prophets seek to focus on God’s will.
According to WIKI? That’s hilarious.