DESTINY AND DESTINATION
By Dr. Michael S. Heiser
By Dr. Michael S. Heiser
“I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain” says Paul
while imprisoned. His ambitions are
repeated a few verses later: “When
therefore I have completed this…I will leave for Spain by way of you” (Romans
15:28). It’s certainly ambitious for him
to be making travel plans. But Paul wasn’t
making casual conversation or planning a vacation. He believed that his life and ministry would
not end until he reached Spain. We aren’t
sure if Paul made it, but he was passionate about getting there. Why?
He saw himself in the prophecy of Isaiah 66.
DAY OF SALVATION
Throughout his letters, Paul quotes Isaiah and other Old
Testament books to show that the long-promised day of salvation would come
during his lifetime. In the Old
Testament, the Jewish belief in Jesus as the Messiah was preceded by something
Paul referred to as “the fullness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:25).
In Romans 9-11, Paul says that Gentile (non-Jew) inclusion
in the people of God was made possible by the hearts of the Jewish people being
temporarily hardened (11:25-26).
Accomplishing the mission of Gentile evangelism would undo this
hardening. Only then would Paul’s
longing for the Jews to believe in Jesus come to full fruition. And only then would the deliverer (Jesus)
come again from Zion (11:26).
Isaiah 66:18-20 prophesies that the Lord would gather all
nations to see His glory. He would give
them a sign of His promised salvation.
The sign would be delivered by Jewish exiles, sent by God into far-off
nations – specifically the lands of Tarshish, Put, Lud, Tubal and Javan. The conversion of the Gentiles would result
in the Jews in those nations returning to the Lord.
THE SIGN PAUL SAW
Paul interpreted Isaiah 66 through Christian eyes. The “sign” “sign” (אות ‘ot)was
the virgin-born Jesus (compare Isaiah 7:14 – “The Lord Himself will give you a
sign”).1 At Pentecost, Jews whose ancestors were exiled
to foreign nations came to Jerusalem from those nations. They witnessed a sign of the Holy Spirit
coming upon the disciples, heard the gospel miraculously in their own language,
and believed (Acts 2). Returning to
their countries – nations scattered throughout the Mediterranean – they spread
the word to the Gentiles.
Reading Acts 2 carefully, we can see that the nations listed
move east to west, beginning with the region where the Jews were first
exiled.2 Paul’s missionary efforts began
at the geographic midpoint of those listed nations and moved westward.
THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
Spain – the location of ancient Tarshish, listed in Isaiah
66:19, was the end of the world, according to the thinking of Paul’s time. When Paul wrote Romans, he and other
believers had taken the gospel to every region in Isaiah 66 – every region
except Tarshish.
Paul believed that his mission, “the fullness of the
Gentiles” and the salvation of his fellow Jews, would be fulfilled once he
reached Spain. His focus was evident
when he and Barnabas were rejected at Antioch:
“[We] are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us,
saying , ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring
salvation to the ends of the Earth’” (Acts 13:46-47). For Paul, reaching Spain was about the gospel
being fulfilled – there was no other option.
This is something we wouldn’t pick up on without reading our Old
Testament.
1.
Isaiah
11:10-12 says this about the messianic king:
“In that day the root of Jesse will stand as an ensign.” The Hebrew for ensign is נס (nes) which is messianically translated
as“sign” (אות ‘ot) in the Aramaic paraphrases of the Old
Testament – the Targums.
2.
Although Acts 2 and Isaiah 66 refer to the same
nations, Isaiah employs broader geographic terms. Isaiah also presumes a Jewish exile in
Babylon and Media-Persia.
This article is excerpted from “I Dare You
Not To Bore Me With The Bible”, by Dr. Michael S. Heiser.
