A Biblical Theology of Mission (Israel as Yahweh’s Witness)

Jehovah’s Witnesses take their name from Isaiah:

“You are my witnesses,” declares Yahweh, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. (Isaiah 43:10)

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares Yahweh, “that I am God. (Isaiah 43:12)

Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” (Isaiah 44:8)

In fact, Israel was formed for the purpose of bearing testimony to Yahweh that He alone is the true God. When Yahweh delivered Israel from Egypt and brought them to Mt. Sinai to make a covenant with them, He told them,

⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Exodus 19:5,6)

Among the whole earth which God possesses, Israel would be a royal priesthood.

Keil and Delitzsch comment:

As the priest is a mediator between God and man, so Israel was called to be the vehicle of the knowledge and salvation of God to the nations of the earth. By this it unquestionably acquired an intellectual and spiritual character; but this includes, rather than excludes, the government of the world. For spiritual and intellectual supremacy and rule must eventually ensure the government of the world, as certainly as spirit is the power that overcomes the world.

Though Israel as a nation is in rebellion against God, He still has a witness in the church, of whom Peter says,

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

We are to mediate Yahweh to the world, to all nations, testifying to His holy and redemptive character.