Leithart
What makes the United States ” one nation “? I offer some thoughts at Firstthings.com this morning. Read more
What makes the United States ” one nation “? I offer some thoughts at Firstthings.com this morning. Read more
Karen Joines ( The Incomparable Divine Kinsman of Second Isaiah ) gives this fine summary of the Old Testament description of Yahweh as go’el : ” Go’el used of God means that he is the ‘kinsman’ of those without kinsmen, that he can withhold life from the jaws of Sheol, that he is the rock that shields spiritual nomads from the sandstorms of life, that he liberates his people from bondage, that in revenge he destroys the enemies of his... Read more
O’Connell ( Concentricity and Continuity: The Literary Structure of Isaiah (Library Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) , 244-5). Historically, the sequence is: Isaiah prophecies concerning Judah’s cultic and social sins, but Judah is too blind and deaf to respond. The prophet and his message are “utterly rejected.” Isaiah warns of a military threat, first of Assyria against Ahaz and then of Babylon against Hezekiah, but both of the threats are delayed until the threats become even worse than they are. The... Read more
Yahweh is going to redeem Israel in the latter days, and the deliverance will be so dramatic that Israel will forget her former deliverance (Isaiah 43:18). As Robert O’Connell points out ( Concentricity and Continuity: The Literary Structure of Isaiah (Library Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) , 25), this announcement is surrounded by references to water: A. Path through the wilderness, v 16 A’. Destruction of Egyptians, v 17a A”. Water path through wilderness, v 19b A”’. Drink for the chosen... Read more
O’Connell ( Concentricity and Continuity: The Literary Structure of Isaiah (Library Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) ) finds a complex sevenfold structure in Isaiah: A. 1:1-2:5: exordium, appeal for reconciliation B. Two accusatory sections B1. Cultic, 2:6-21 B2. Social, 3:1-4:1 C. Two prophecies of punishment and reconciliation C1. Zion, 4:2-11:16 C2. Nations, 13:1-39:8 D. Exoneration of Yahweh, 40-54 E. Final ultimatum and appeal for reconciliation, 55-66 2:6 and 12:1-6 form transitional sections within this schema. But the seven sections are themselves... Read more
Traditional debates about faith and works might be clarified and illuminated by highlighting eschatology. To wit: God intends to establish perfect justice and peace, reconciling all things by the Spirit in the Son. That is the future of the world. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. Faith believes that God will do what He says He will do. A believer is one who looks forward to God’s future. If we believe... Read more
As Jacob re-enters the land after his sojourn in Haran, he sends ahead a present ( minchah ) to appease ( kafar ) his estranged brother Esau (Genesis 32:20-21). This is a “peace offering,” and not only in a metaphorical sense. The text uses the language of sacrifice, and other details fit with this. Jacob gives a combination of female and male animals (v. 14), always more female than male. This enriches the gift, because a female animal has an... Read more
God is, Edwards says, “self-existent from all eternity, absolutely perfect in himself, in possession of infinite and independent good . . . above all need and all capacity of being added to and advanced, made better and happier in any respect.” Edwards also says things like this: “That nature in a tree, by which it puts forth buds, shoots out branches, and brings forth leaves and fruit, is a disposition that terminates in its own complete self. And so the... Read more
Stephen Stein doesn’t much like what he calls Jonathan Edwards’s “strange and troubling” interpretation of Esther (an essay in Jonathan Edwards at 300: Essays on the Tercentenary of His Birth ). Edwards linked Esther with the account of the Amelikes in Exodus 17, and used the “curse of perpetual war with the Amalekites” to defend the violence against Haman and his sons: “Edward equated the figure of Esther with the church, the spouse of Christ. Therefore Esther’s request that the... Read more
What is an American? Twenty years ago, Garry Wills ( John Wayne’s America ) answered that the “archetypal American is a displaced person – arrived from a rejected past, breaking into a glorious future, on the move, fearless himself, feared by others, a killed cleansing the world of things that ‘need killing,’ loving but not bound down by love, rootless but carrying the Center in himself, a gyroscopic direction-setter, a traveling norm.” In this, the American differs from other forms... Read more
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