Daniel is a difficult book. But it is a book about the meaning of history, and people today need its message. The whole church needs reassurance, especially in view of Marxist claims to be able by human effort to introduce a utopian world government. "When the church lets part of its message go by default people look elsewhere for a substitute," writes Joyce Baldwin. "All the more reason, then, why the church needs to be counting on the certainties...

Get to grips with one of the least-read and least-understood parts of the Old Testament with this helpful study of the Minor Prophets CHAPTER ONE: HOSEA- ISRAEL'S UNFAITHFULNESS AND GOD'S FAITHFUL LOVE CHAPTER TWO: HOSEA- LOVE BEYOND DEGREE CHAPTER THREE: HOSEA- BOOK OF SALVATION CHAPTER FOUR: JOEL- THE PROPHET OF THE DAY OF THE LORD CHAPTER FIVE: JOEL- WHY DOES GOD ALLOW IT? CHAPTER SIX: AMOS- SCOURGE OF THE COMPLACENT CHAPTER SEVEN: AMOS- MAN'S...

Following the Hebrew canon, the author offers a basic introduction, which includes critical issues such as authorship, unity, dates of composition and revision, and structure. Drawing upon current scholarship, Dr. Nogalski shows how these issues are relevant to the theological themes and movements that help characterize the text and hold meaning for us. The last decades have seen many changes when it comes to the study of the four Latter Prophets...

This excellent source on one of the most important prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible is a commentary that is succinct, yet thorough in covering the whole book with attention to literary and hermeneutical issues in a rather straightforward way. Carol Dempsey takes her readers on an informative and insightful study of the book of Isaiah and discusses how Isaiah was God's poet of light. He was there to shed light on the injustices of his time, give...

Building on recent developments in biblical studies, this book introduces the prophetic literature of the Old Testament against the background of today's postmodern context and crisis of meaning. Pulsating with anxiety over the empire--Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian--the prophet corpus is a disturbing cultural expression of lament and chaos. Danger, disjunction, and disaster bubble beneath the surface of virtually every prophetic text. Sometimes...

Serious Bible readers, including biblical scholars, Sunday Bible teachers, laypersons of church, and even the Sunday school kids, ask the question, "Is Balaam a good or bad person?" or "Is Balaam a prophet of God or a pagan diviner?" However, nobody has provided a relieving answer for the question up to this day. Then, what does the Balaam story in the passage of Num 22-24 tell us about the character of Balaam? More fundamentally, what does the passage...

"I am putting my words as a fire in your mouth; these people are tinder and it will consume them." (Jeremiah 5:14) In the book of Jeremiah, not only is the vocabulary of "word" and "words" uniquely prevalent, but formulae marking divine speech also play an unprecedented role in giving the book's final form its narrative and theological shape. Indeed, "the word of the Lord" is arguably the main character, and a theology that is both distinctive and...

Obadiah, Nahum and Zephaniah are probably among the least-read books of the Bible, and rarely preached. However, Gordon Bridger encourages us to study and apply these three Old Testament prophets for several compelling reasons. As part of Scripture, endorsed by Jesus, they claim to bring a message from God, and teach us some major truths: the importance of focusing on God, who is personal, sovereign, righteous and loving; of facing up to sin and...

The last chapters of the book of Isaiah offer a vision of new hope at the dawn of the postexilic period. The dense and complex imagery of light, espousal, and victory gives expression to the joyful reality of a return to Jerusalem and to the as-yet-unrealized dreams of rebuilding and repopulating what has been laid to waste. Trito-Isaiah's proclamation of God's salvation or victory appears both as a brilliant light and a terrible darkness in these...

Daniel asserts that the meaning of history is that God's kingdom is coming. As it does, faithful people persevere in their work for God. Believers can rely on the certainties the book proclaims: God is sovereign over human affairs and is effectively bringing in his eternal kingdom, which will encompass all nations. In this Tyndale commentary, Paul House shows how Daniel rewards readers who embrace its historical, literary, and theological features...