– Task that biblical characters must carry out by order of God. The great examples of the OT are the vocation of:
Abraham, who so willingly accepted the mission that God had reserved for him:
Gen 12:1-2 : The Lord said to Abram: “Leave your country, your family and your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you”.
Moisés:
Ex 3,13-14 : When I go to the Israelites and tell them that the God of their fathers has sent me to them.
Isaiah:
Is 6,8-9 : “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” “Here am I,” said I, “send me.”
Jeremiah:
Jer 1,4-10 : The word of the Lord was addressed to me in these terms: Before you were formed in the womb, I already knew you.
Ezekiel:
Ez 2,3 : “Son of man”, he said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to that nation of rebels”.
And other prophets:
2Chr 24:19 : The Lord sent them prophets to convert them to the Lord. However, they preached in vain and were not heard.
– Jesus, the Anointed of God, was sent by the Father for the greatest of all missions: to save humanity from sin, as it is written in:
Heb 10,1-9 : The Law […] is absolutely powerless to perfect those who attend the sacrifices.
Jn 3:17 : For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn him, but that the world might be saved through him.
John 5:24 : Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
Jn 12:49 : Indeed, I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me, he himself prescribed for me what I should say.
Paul sums up this wonderful divine intervention:
Rom 3:31 : Do we then destroy the law through faith? Not at all. On the contrary, we give it all its strength.
Rom 8:3 : By sending his own Son on account of sin in the likeness of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.
Romans 9:30-31 : That the Gentiles, who did not seek righteousness, obtained justification, which comes from faith.
Rom 10 :4: For Christ is the end of the Law, to justify everyone who believes.
Gal 3:13 : Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, becoming a curse for us.
Gal 4,4-5 : But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, who was born of a woman.
2Cor 5:21 : God made him who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Heb 2,14-18 : The children partake of the same nature, of the same flesh and blood, he also participated.
– To carry out his mission, Jesus sends his disciples all over the world:
Mt 28,18-19 : All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and teach all nations.
Lk 10,1-11 : After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples and sent them out, two by two.
Jn 15:26 : When the Paraclete comes […], the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me.
Jn 17:18 : As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Acts 6:6 : They presented them to the apostles, who, praying, laid their hands on them.
Acts 9:15-16 : Go, because this man is a chosen instrument for me, who will carry my name before the nations.
Acts 13:2-3 : The Holy Spirit said to them: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have destined them for”.
Acts 22:21 : But he answered me: “Go, because I will send you far away to the nations”.
Acts 26:17-18 : I chose you from among the people and the Gentiles, to whom I am now sending you.
Rom 1 :5 : We have received grace and apostolate, in order to lead, in his name, all pagan nations to the obedience of faith.
Rom 11:13 : I declare this to you, men of pagan origin: as an apostle to the pagans, I try to honor my ministry.
Rom 15:16.18 : To be the minister of Jesus Christ among the pagans, exercising the sacred function of the Gospel of God.
Gal 1,15-16 : But when it pleased the one who kept me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace.
Gal 2,7: On the contrary, they saw that the evangelizing of the uncircumcised was entrusted to me, like that of the circumcised to Peter.
