Helps students learn how to engage with Isaiah for themselves, by alerting them to key issues and questions raised by the text

Integrated overview of the most significant themes in Isaiah

Some books on how to read the Bible are academically informative, but their rationality can make God seem distant. Other books are spiritually vibrant but provide few tools that truly help God's people read the Bible better. Readers need a guide that combines the academic with the spiritual—that integrates textual analysis with the illuminating and transformational work of the Holy Spirit. Drawing from his experience training students to study the Bible, Andrew Abernethy provides a holistic method that helps readers listen carefully to what God was saying to the original audience and what God is saying to us today. Using clear examples, he lays out six steps: Posture Flow Context Whole Bible Savor God Faithful response Chapters provide guidance on interpreting biblical genres, factoring in historical backgrounds, reading each passage in context, tracing the redemptive storyline of Scripture, and more. Then, building on a strong grasp of Scripture's meaning, readers engage the traditional practice of lectio divina and consider how to respond faithfully to the text. The goal, Abernethy says, is to encounter God and to be shaped by the Word as we savor its richness. Filled with practical features such as illustrations, maps, timelines, and discussion questions, Savoring Scripture is a valuable guide for students and anyone who wants to study the Bible more effectively. God has given us a Bible that is for the hungry—for those willing both to depend on God for provision and to put in the mental effort to enjoy the feast.

The book of Isaiah has nourished the church throughout the centuries. However, its massive size can be intimidating; its historical setting can seem distant, opaque, varied; its organization and composition can seem disjointed and fragmented; its abundance of terse, poetic language can make its message seem veiled--and where are those explicit prophecies about Christ? These are typical experiences for many who try to read, let alone teach or preach, through Isaiah. Andrew Abernethy's conviction is that thematic points of reference can be of great help in encountering Isaiah and its rich theological message. In view of what the structure of the book of Isaiah aims to emphasize, this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume employs the concept of "kingdom" as an entry point for organizing the book's major themes. In many respects, Isaiah provides a people living amidst imperial contexts with a theological interpretation of them in the light of YHWH's past, present and future sovereign reign. Four features of "kingdom" frame Abernethy's study: God, the King; the lead agents of the King; the realm of the kingdom and the people of the King. While his primary aim is to show how "kingdom" is fundamental to Isaiah when understood within its Old Testament context, interspersed canonical reflections assist those who are wrestling with how to read Isaiah as Christian Scripture in and for the church. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.