Many Christians wrestle with biblical passages in which God commands the slaughter of the Canaanites-men, women, and children. The issue of the morality of the biblical God is one of the major challenges for faith today. How can such texts be Holy Scripture?In this bold and innovative book Douglas Earl grasps the bull by the horns and guides readers to new and unexpected ways of looking at the book of Joshua. Drawing on insights from the early church and from modern scholarship, Earl argues that we have mistakenly read Joshua as a straightforward historical account and have ended up with a genocidal God. In contrast, Earl offers a theological interpretation in which the mass killing of Canaanites is a deliberate use of myth to make important theological points that are still valid today. Christopher J. H. Wright then offers a thoughtful response to Earl's provocative views. The book closes with Earl's reply to Wright and readers are encouraged to continue the debate.

W. Eugene March shares the amazing journey of God s chosen people from slavery in Egypt to the freedom before entering into the Promised Land as described in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. This eight-week study focuses on real life issues such as conflicts, leadership, holy living, and offerings. While these books of the Bible take a scholars approach to the story of the Israelites, Immersion Bible Studies: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers is written in easy to understand language that explains and clarifies the Scripture and helps grow our faith. Easy-to-follow, step-by-step suggestions for leading a group are provided, as well as questions to facilitate class discussion. Immersion, inspired by a fresh translation the Common English Bible stands firmly on Scripture and helps readers explore the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs of their personal faith. More importantly, they ll be able to discover God s revelation through readings and reflections."

Though Christians believe themselves to be held in the care of the of the God of love and strength, yet they find that sufferings come their way. Moreover, whole communities, even whole nations, experience sufferings - all of which frequently raises the question, 'Where is the God of Justice?' This book explores this question.

Take a Refreshing Plunge into theBible

Journey inside the pages of Scripture andyou ll meet a personal God who enters individual lives and begins a creative workfrom the inside out. Immersion Bible Studies is your guide forthat journey. Shaped with the individual in mind, Immersionencourages simultaneous engagement both with the Word of God and with the God of theWord to become a new creation in Christ.

Immersion, inspired by a fresh translation, the CommonEnglish Bible, stands firmly on Scripture and helps you explore the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs of your personal faith. More importantly, you llbe able to discover God 's revelation to you through readings andreflections.

So, take the plunge and find the transforming loveand knowledge of a personal God. Job features 6 sessions.

Full of Judgment, Full of Eyes When it comes to the Hebrew prophets of old, few can match the obscurity of Ezekiel, the son of Buzi. Largely ignored by New Testament writers, he is thought to have seen a UFO and provided an archaic description. The rabbis of Israel thought otherwise, convinced that Ezekiel's merkebah held the secrets of all creation. But there is much more than chariots here, as author Joe Conti deftly explains: > Why the cherubim are the essence of life, reflected in life below > Why their 3-to-1 grouping validates the quadriform gospel accounts > Why the fall of Tyre confirms his writings, together with Babylon's tree > Why Gog and Magog are not Russia - Turkey is the nation to watch This is a game of last man standing, as the Son of man gets a glimpse of glory, plunges the nations into the pit, breaks the idolatry of the Jews, and brings them back in fear to Zion, the mountain of the Lord.

The oracle against the King of Tyre, found in Ezekiel 28.12-19, is a difficult text that inspired diverse interpretations in Late Antiquity. For example, according to one rabbinic tradition the text spoke of the first man, Adam, while the Church Fathers found in the same text a description of the fall of Satan. This book studies the rabbinic sources, patristic literature, the Targum, and the ancient translations, and seeks to understand the reasons for the diverse interpretation, the interaction between the exegetical traditions and the communities of interpreters, in particular between Jews and Christians, and the effect the specific form and wording of the text had on the formation and development of each interpretation.

Drawing on both pastoral and scholarly experience, John Holbert offers a fresh approach to the preaching of a familiar scripture.To be a Joban preacher, he says, is to draw on the pain and honesty inherent in the text. Holbert understands the preacher's task as interpreting the whole of the book of job, not just the narrative and the poetry.This integrative approach allows the book's entire theology to inform sermons. Included for illustration are an embodied sermon and a narrative sermon based on passages from Job.

"The purpose of this collection of Brueggemann's essays is to bring to the fore a much more extensive critical engagement on his part with the current discussion about the Old Testament, its character, its authority, its theology, and especially its God.... Readers of these essays who think they may have grasped what Brueggemann has to say about the theology of the Old Testament from reading his magnum opus will find that he is still thinking, still listening, and still helping us understand the scriptures of Israel and the church at an ever deeper level."

In this masterwork, one of America's leading biblical scholars takes a fresh look at the theology of the Old Testament. Anderson cuts his own path and provides us with creative new insights on all the major sections of the Old Testament. He illuminates the nuances of the various covenants and theological shifts in a highly readable style. His conversation partners include the formative contributors from both the Christian community (Eichrodt, von Rad, Childs) and the Jewish community (Heschel, Herberg, Levenson) while interacting with the most recent developments in the field, especially Walter Brueggemann's Theology of the Old Testament.

2012 Reprint of 1899 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This book is a series of eighteen meditations contrasting the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. Murray shows us the blessings God has given us, along with the conditions necessary for the full and continual experience of those. Murray's discussion of covenants is instructive, describing the nature of a covenant, the difference between the two covenants, and the transition between them. His ultimate goal, however, is to show "what exactly the blessings are that God has covenanted to bestow upon us." And here Murray's spiritual insight and ability for profound teaching shines through. His "humble attempt" to instruct the believer can have a renewing and transformative effect.

With An Introduction And Appendices. Eight Lectures Preached Before The University Of Oxford In The Year 1889 On The Foundation Of The Late Rev. John Bampton, Canon Of Salisbury.

"No scholar of this generation has had a greater fire in his bones for communicating the word of God than Walter Brueggemann. These essays on Jeremiah exemplify his insistence that criticism should lead to interpretation, and remind us again why prophets like Jeremiah still matter in the 21st century." - John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament, Yale "Like Fire in the Bones is a gift to the churches and to anyone interested in prophetic literature with its harsh rhetoric, blazing visions, and demanding yet merciful God. Jeremiah may have had fire in his bones, but Brueggemann sets fires with his pen. He shows how Jeremiah speaks into the abyss of historical catastrophe with speech that matches experience. He underlines the disputatious political character of theological speech. He reiterates Jeremiah's call to covenant loyalty even in the face of religious and government forces that suppress and silence words of life. He illuminates Jeremiah's bare-boned hope for a world in the thrall of empire and social amnesia. If ever there was need for imaginative rereading of Jeremiah and of the texts of common life, it is now. At this, Brueggemann is a master." - Kathleen M. O'Connor, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary "Jeremiah, the longest book in the Bible, is neglected much too often by preacher and teacher alike. That neglect is due, in significant part, to the prophet's often-sharp words that strike too close to home, in his own generation and in ours. It is telling that the prophet Jeremiah, the focus of these essays that span much of Walter Brueggemann's prophetic ministry, has been in his head and heart for such a long time. Again and again, Brueggemann's own words have mirrored Jeremiah to us, and the times in which we presently live could profit from hearing them again." - Terence E. Fretheim, Elva B. Lovell Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary

Synopsis: Like the book of Romans in the New Testament, the book of Deuteronomy provides the most systematic and sustained presentation of theology in the Old Testament. And like the Gospel of John, it represents mature theological reflection on God's great acts of salvation, in this case associated with the exodus of Israel from Egypt. Unfortunately, for many Christians, Deuteronomy is a dead book, either because its contents are unknown or because its message is misunderstood. The essays in this collection arise from a larger project driven by a passion to recover for Christians the life-giving message of the Old Testament in general and the gospel according to Moses in particular. The "meditations" cover a wide range of topics, from explorations into the meaning of specific texts to considerations of the ethical and homiletical relevance of the book for Christians today. Endorsements: "Dan Block is a world-class scholar and dynamic Bible teacher who has a passion for helping the church understand the Old Testament. In this volume, which is the fruit of decades of careful study in the book of Deuteronomy, Dr. Block brings clarity to crucial issues in biblical interpretation and reveals the grace of God in the law of Moses." --Philip G. Ryken President, Wheaton College "Daniel Block makes a persuasive case for the critical importance of the book of Deuteronomy. It culminates the Pentateuch and throws a long shadow of influence on the rest of the Old Testament. One must understand Deuteronomy to understand the Old Testament. Through his erudition and his love for the word of God, Block powerfully unpacks this crucial book. His passion is contagious and his insight will transform how you read Deuteronomy." --Tremper Longman III Robert H. Gundry Professor of Old Testament Westmont College "Block writes with energy, passion, and clarity. He is at home both in teasing out linguistic details and in delineating large theological landscapes. Known as a first-rate teacher, Block's research is thorough, his arguments compelling (e.g., the Shema' text), and his graphs and tables helpful. This good menu of articles on worship, leadership, mission, the Decalogue, etc., is flavored with spicy ANE input, with challenging applications, and above all with scholarly acumen and spiritual fervor." --Elmer A. Martens President Emeritus and Professor of Old Testament Emeritus Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary Author Biography: Daniel I. Block is the Gunther H. Knoedler Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24 (1997), The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 25-48 (1998), Judges and Ruth (1999), and Deuteronomy (NIVAC, forthcoming).

Sixty superlative sermons on familiar Old Testament texts. Many Christian preachers today largely neglect the Old Testament in their sermons, focusing instead on the Gospel accounts of Jesus' teachings and activities. As Fleming Rutledge points out, however, when the New Testament is disconnected from the context of the Old Testament, it is like a house with no foundation, a plant with no roots, or a pump with no well. In this powerful collection of sixty sermons on the Old Testament, Rutledge expounds on a number of familiar Old Testament passages featuring Abraham, Samuel, David, Elijah, Job, Jonah, and many other larger-than-life figures. Applying these texts to contemporary life and Christian theology, she highlights the ways in which their multivocal messages can be heard in all their diversity while still proclaiming univocally, -Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.-

Attempts to reconstruct the compositional history of the book of Isaiah confine themselves mainly to chapters 1-12 and 28-39, supposed to shroud the basic core of any early collection of Isaianic texts. Other investigations which verge on the group of prophecies concerning the nations in Isa 13-23 rarely delve into exegetical details to the extent that the reader of Isaiah would feel convinced to stand here on familiar grounds. Even others, overtly restricted to a small pericope inside Isa 13-23, often neglect the significance of this larger context. This book provides a thorough analysis of Isaiah 18-20, concerned with Egypt and Kush, from the earliest stages to their final contextualisation within the developing corpus of the Isaianic prophecies regarding the nations.

Since James Barr's work in the 1960s, the challenge for Hebrew scholars has been to continue to apply the insights of linguistic semantics to the study of biblical Hebrew. This book begins by describing a range of approaches to semantic and grammatical analysis, including structural semantics, cognitive linguistics and cognitive metaphors, frame semantics, and William Croft's Radical Construction Grammar. It then seeks to integrate these, formulating a dynamic approach to lexical semantic analysis based on conceptual frames, using corpus annotation. The model is applied to biblical Hebrew in a detailed study of a family of words related to "exploring," "searching," and "seeking." The results demonstrate the value and potential of cognitive, frame-based approaches to biblical Hebrew lexicology.

The Homicidal, Obsessive and Delusional Women of the Old Testament is a "Behind the Music" depiction of three women: Leah, first wife of Jacob, Michal, first wife of David and Athaliah, stepdaughter of Jezebel. The book examines the tragedy of their lives and offers valuable life lessons to be learned from them.

Six Minor Prophets Through the Centuries is the work of highly respected biblical scholars, Richard Coggins and Jin H. Han. The volume explores the rich and complex reception history of the last six Minor Prophets in Jewish and Christian exegesis, theology, worship, and arts. * This text is the work of two highly respected biblical scholars * It explores the rich and complex reception history of the last six Minor Prophets in Jewish and Christian theology and exegesis

Using narrative devices such as allusions and free associations, multivalent expressions, and irony, the author of Esther wrote a story that is about a Jewish woman, Esther, during the time of the Persian exile of Yehudites, and the Persian king, Ahasuerus, who was in power at the time. At various junctures, the author also used secret writing, or we could say that he conveys mixed messages: one is a surface message, but another, often conflicting message lies beneath the surface. For instance, the outer portrayal of the king as one of the main protagonists is an ironic strategy used by the author to highlight the king's impotent, indecisive, "antihero" status. He may wield authority-as symbolized by his twice-delegated signet ring-but he remains powerless. Among all the concealments in the story, the concealment of God stands out as the most prominent and influential example. A growing number of scholars regard the book of Esther as a "comic diversion," the function and intention of which are to entertain the reader. However, Grossman is more convinced by Mikhail Bakhtin's approach, and he labels his application of this approach to the reading of Esther as "theological carnivalesque." Bakhtin viewed the carnival (or the carnivalesque genre) as a challenge by the masses to the governing establishment and to accepted social conventions. He described the carnival as an eruption of ever-present but suppressed popular sentiments. The connection between the story of Esther and Bakhtin's characterization of the carnivalesque in narrative is evident especially in the book of Esther's use of the motifs of "reversal" and "transformation." For example, the young girl Esther is transformed from an exiled Jewess into a queen in one of the turnabouts that characterize the narrative. Many more examples are provided in this analysis of one of the Bible's most fascinating books.

Little known historical background and compelling humor combine to make this an unusual look at the role the Ten Commandments should play in the life of today's Christian. Reflection questions make it perfect for study groups and classes.