So far so good for me. I’m in the middle of a project on the Prophets in my Old Testament class for seminary. I think the biggest theme that Goldingay seems to hit, God working in ways contrary to our thinking, is very key to a lot of the Old Testament.

YHWH, the God of the Bible,and of Jesus Christ,is the God who actually meets us in the messiness of life wherever we’re at.YHWH is faithfully idiosyncratic, with an idiosyncrasy of love;but we try to make YHWH into an idol which is in conformaty to what the “world” is,as the pressures that weighed on the Isrealites to clamor for a king. YHWH can even deal with that!

Great points, Scot…about God not favoring the obvious choices. He was, and remains, all about empowering the obedient. Period. What we can do with all our gifts and ability may appear awesome…but not compared to what God can do through tarnished Eikons who humbly seek to be used by him for his purposes.

I’m preaching through Joshua this week and am struggling with knowing how to understand “the ban” as it is presented in Joshua 6-7. It is one thing to say that God accommodates to the human situation, it is quite another to understand how God orders the wholesale extermination of men, women, children and animals as an act of “devoting” those creatures to his glory as Victor in battle.
Does Goldingay deal with this subject?

Mike,
Not directly; war is not in this section. Herem warfare, etc., is discussed in the previous chp pp. 475ff and I posted about that last month.

I still agonize over the herem parts…
I know Prof Goldingay’s (and most good OT profs) will say don’t run on to Jesus to interpret backwards… but — i see only two ways to go here — 1) Jewish reading methods, which, like it or not, virtually always depend upon supplementing the written Torah with the oral Torah (Talmud, targums, midrash etc) — and we should note that most (nearly all?) orthodox Jews have interpreted herem out of usage for a long, long time (much like they have also interpreted away levirate marriage)– or –
2) Fulfillment in Christ… (eg Joshua did not give them rest, as Hebrews says…and all those who went before in faith didn’t get to the full rest til Jesus)… This doesn’t have to become superseccionist (sp?) — from a humble Christian perspective, i think its just saying JEsus incarnate, crucified and resurrected IS our oral tradition who fulfills all the law and prophets and writings… (2 Cor 5 — all have died so all may live for him — is Christ fulfilling herem nonviolently…
grace and peace,

i’m very keen on the section re when YHWH is and is not acting…
as in Joshua — is God indeed always? often? or sometimes? at work? The angel of God says he is not a partisan for Israel, which for me at least puts the whole project into asterisked territory….
grace,