What’s Your Witness?
I love a good crime drama. Call me hooked on NCIS (all of them), Elementary, Murder She Wrote reruns, and any other show that has the whodunnit element. In TV Land, the case is closed when the good guys get the bad guys because these shows stop short of what happens next: trial by jury.
In a court of law, two opposing sides argue their case, each bringing their own witnesses to bolster their position. Eyewitnesses. Expert witnesses. Character witnesses. They’re chosen because of what they saw, what they know, and who they know. Their role is to influence the jury in determining the outcome of guilt or innocence, victory or defeat. Witnesses are crucial to the outcome.
The Old Testament relates the story of the relationship between Israel and God. It’s quite a compelling drama. God chooses a man, and through him births a nation: Israel. This nation ends up in bondage to Egypt, and God sends Moses to lead them out of slavery. The mighty hand of God delivers them as they escape the plague of the firstborn and cross the Red Sea on dry ground. Fresh water gushes from a rock, quenching their thirst. Manna from heaven satisfies their hunger. Their shoes never wear out despite a forty-year expedition in the desert.
The Lord defeats their enemies without raising a sword. As a nation, they grow and prosper under the kingships of David and Solomon. Israel has a front-row seat as an eyewitness to God’s power and provision. They should be the perfect people to proclaim him as God to their neighboring, pagan nations.
The prophet Isaiah writes, “My witnesses are you,” declares the Lord, “My servant, whom I have chosen. To the end that you may take thought, and believe in Me, and understand that I am He” (Isaiah 43:10). I selected this passage out of the TANAKH translation of the Jewish Study Bible because of the emphasis the translators place on “you”—the role of Israel as God’s witness.
The verses surrounding Isaiah 43:10 set up a courtroom scene. On one side are all the other nations with their gods. On the other side is God, with Israel as his only witness. On trial is the truth of God’s Word. Events foretold by God’s prophets generations before had and were still coming to pass. God challenges the other side to produce witnesses to the mighty works of their gods. And then he says to Israel, You are my witnesses.
The word witness is interesting in that it is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it refers to one who has personal knowledge or experience of something. It also means something serving as evidence or proof. As a verb it means to furnish proof of, testify, or bear witness to.
Israel certainly had the personal knowledge of God. They had experienced his power exerted on their behalf. They were witnesses in the noun sense of the word.
However, God never intended for Israel to simply be a noun, to merely observe his deliverance from Egypt, the miracles of water and manna, or his supernatural intervention on their behalf in conquering their enemies. God had reason for revealing himself to them: “‘You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he’” (Isaiah 43:10 NIV emphasis mine).
God reveals himself to us, not just for us to be beneficiaries of his goodness, but for us to know him more. To learn to believe him. To trust his promises, his faithfulness, and his love for us. He does this so that, in a world of competing gods, we can discern that he, and he alone, is God.
Israel ultimately failed in her commission to be a witness to the world. The people’s observation and firsthand experience of God’s activity didn’t translate into being a nation of enduring faith. They didn’t let their history with God inform their minds and transform their hearts to trust God’s character. Instead of being the witness they were intended to be, they eventually succumbed to the wisdom of the world offered by the pagan nations.
How does this Old Testament story have any relevance today? We only must open Facebook or listen to the news to know that God is on trial today too. Who are his witnesses? Who is God revealing himself to? Who has firsthand knowledge of God’s power in their lives? Who can bear witness?
God’s power is never limited by our unwillingness to testify to it. He will move in our world to accomplish his purposes regardless of how faithful we are in responding. But just as Israel experienced tragedy after tragedy for her unwillingness to let her experience with God become the substance of her faith, so, too, is it a tragedy when God moves in our lives and we don’t recognize it as an invitation to know him more. God plunks down a weight, tipping the scale toward believing him, and we pass it off as coincidence or simply good fortune from the gods, lacking the discernment to understand it is God.
Israel’s commission becomes our commission in Jesus’s final words to the disciples: “You will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NLT).
Jesus is God’s greatest invitation to experience his saving power, mercy, and grace. God wants to be known, and he wants us to proclaim him to our world. The most tragic thing of all would be for a believer to stay a noun and not become a verb.
You have a story of God’s work in your life to share. Tell someone. Be the witness Jesus beckons you to be. You’re crucial to the outcome.
loves doing life with her husband, Blake, morning snuggles with her one-hundred-pound chocolate Lab, French fries, and Chick-fil-A lemonade. She’s an empty-nester mom who prays she didn’t mess up her kids too badly. Her greatest joy is writing about her experiences when Jesus steps on her toes, picks her up, and dusts her off so others can discover him at the intersection of faith and life for themselves. Connect with her at www.deniseroberts.org.
Photograph © Raw Pixel, used with permission
