Does the Old Testament depict a God of grace?
A repeated characteristic of discussions nearly the Bible is the difference between the Sometime Testament and the New, and the mode God is depicted in both. You lot don't accept to be Richard Dawkins to notice some of the images of violence in the Quondam Testament morally and theologically challenging, and this is the starting indicate for people like Steve Chalke to argue that many (all?) of the biblical writers made mistakes, and that nosotros take to be selective about which parts of the Bible we take every bit the 'discussion of God'. And there is a widespread trend, amongst 'ordinary' readers of the Bible, to want to draw a distinction between the God they observe depicted in the Former Attestation and the God and Begetter of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That creates some problems. Information technology opens to the door to an essentially anti-semitic reading of the Bible ('Jewish Bible bad; Christian Bible practiced'); it ignores some of the difficult sections of the New Attestation, not least Jesus' teaching almost judgement (and so that, for instance, Chalke has to concede that Luke is also mistaken in his depiction of God); and it fails to accept account of the repeated assertion past New Testament writers that Jesus' birth, ministry building, death and resurrection were 'to fulfil' or 'according to' the Quondam Attestation scriptures.
Preston Sprinkle's recent volumeCharis addresses this question from 1 specific point of view: is the God of the One-time Testament a God of grace (the way we translate the wordcharis in the NT—though many would debate that we should translate this every bit 'souvenir'). Sprinkle is well qualified to write on this, as he has a PhD in Old Testament, teaches class on it, and is clearly in touch with recent scholarship. Just this is no academic tome; information technology is non a tome (at around xl,000 words) and it is written in a dynamic, fire-from-the-hip, energetic preaching manner. Some of the phraseology will feel quite American to UK readers—merely that is more worth bearing with.
In that location are three bully virtues to this book. The starting time is that, in setting out his bold claim that 'The Old Testament is all about grace' (p 27), Sprinkle demands that we read it in a item mode.
The reason we typically miss it is because nosotros've been trained to read the Bible, especially the former Testament, morally. That is, we by and large await to the Old Testament as a showcase of moral examples. We demand to be like Abraham, live similar Jacob, and exist a leader like Moses, Joshua, or David. We should fight like Samson, flee like Joseph, and stand God like Esther.
Is there a trouble with this? Aye. There is a huge problem with this. In fact there are two huge issues with this.
Starting time, this moral approach puts the emphasis on people rather than on the chief subject, the primary character – God.… Second, almost of the characters of the Old Testament are not practiced examples to follow.… Instead of reading the Bible morally, we should read it theologically. (p 28)
I would contend that the aforementioned is true of all of our reading of Scripture—and it is particularly important for our preaching. Only it is helpful to accept this spelled out and so conspicuously, and in one sense this is half of Sprinkle's statement about whether the OT is about grace.
The second virtue of the volume is the roller-coaster overview of some cardinal episodes in the OT covered in the brusque capacity. The first explores the creation narratives, and there are piece of cake pickings here for talking almost the grace and gift of God. Sprinkle's theological reading is well informed, in that he is happy to talk most the ii creation narratives, and notices the change in the terminology for God from the first to the second. Some readers might find his approach to the text sounding rather literalistic (especially in the reimagining of the naming of the animals), and he ascribes the changes in perspective to Moses' authorship, rather than different theological traditions or editorial textile.
The next chapter gives the states a whistle-stop tour through the patriarchs, and connects it volition the genealogy in Matt 1. And then nosotros review Moses and the exodus, always with an eye backwards to its connections with the creation story and forwards to the gospels. There is here a characteristic inversion of what we might look; under the heading 'God is e'er doing his devotions' we read:
When you are apathetic toward God, he is never apathetic towards you. When you lot don't desire to pray and talk to God, he never is tired of talking to you lot. When you forget to read your Bible and listen to God, he's always listening to you.
So we have an exploration of kingship, starting with the Book of Judges and running through the ups and downs of David'southward reign. In this affiliate comes my favourite illustration of Sprinkle'due south combining scholarly insight with the preacher'southward passion.
It's no wonder that David pens the terminal judgement in Psalm 23: 'Surely goodness and mercy shall [hunt me downward] all the days of my life (Psalm 23.6). This may seem like an unusual translation, but is the literal meaning of the Hebrew word radaph – 'to pursue, hunt, chase'. Radaphis oftentimes translated 'follow', which is terribly weak. It lacks aggression. Radaph is most often used in the onetime Testament of a hunter chasing downwardly his prey or a soldier seeking to conquer his enemy. It'south an aggressive discussion juiced upwards on steroids and loaded with caffeine. It describes a bloodthirsty warrior, a famished king of beasts, a transcendent creator who volition stop at cipher until he conquers his prey. He will hunt, pursue, fight, hunt with unbridled passion until he conquers and devours and loves. (p 92)
The next chapter has a challenging championship ('Whore') and challenged content, as an exploration of Ezekiel 16 and Hosea, and the metaphor of State of israel every bit an unfaithful woman. Sprinkle doesn't appear to concede much here to feminist readings, or suggest that these texts might be highly problematic to the modern ear. 'Tattoo' looks at the later prophets, and includes a story about someone with unwanted aforementioned-sex attraction which is bound to challenge other readers. (Sprinkle has written at length about sexuality elsewhere.)
The final capacity depict things together by stepping into the New Attestation, exploring the birth narrative in Luke, the motley band of disciples, and the pregnant of Jesus' expiry, connecting it with all that has gone before. I confess a balmy disappointment that, in rightly rejecting the idea that Mary and Joseph were turned away from the 'inn', Sprinkle doesn't follow through the logic of commencement-century life and imagines that animals are kept outside rather than in the family abode (p 133). (I was also disappointed that he surprisingly followed the traditional misreading of the sheep and the goats earlier, on p 81).
Overall, though, this gives a fantastic overview of primal aspects of the Old Testament, together with some bully insights in reading afresh. Sprinkle'southward theological read might be felt to connect things togetheralso easily, only that is maybe a better error that disconnecting the parts.
The third bully virtue of this book is the example it offers of the employ of language, which whatsoever preacher could feel inspired past. Of Isaiah, he says:
Centuries afterwards, prophet Isaiah finds himself in the same fatal (and probably fetal) position. 'Woe is me…!' (p 70)
Of David, he comments:
Within seconds, a human being subsequently God's own heart turns into a man after the woman next door (p 91).
And the description of Jesus' nascency is quite something.
As Mary grunted and pushed, sky came crashing downwards to world, and Joseph received the son of God, the serpent-crushing Messiah, the illegitimate child, into his artillery. (p 134)
And how is this for a theological exposition of the cross.
But God wanted to exercise more than just satisfy his wrath and forgive our sins. He wanted to stretch out his bloody, tattooed hands for all to meet. Broadcast across the splintery tree whose roots to plunge down deep, reaching the rich soil of Eden. (p 168).
I found a few issues with the book too. Sprinkle admits from the beginning that he is downplaying the question of obedience in response to grace, and in a postscript he addresses this drawing on the observations of John Barclay (though before the publication of his book on this). This stands in some tension, if not contradiction, with the claims fabricated by Tullian Tchividjian in the introduction:
Grace doesn't brand demands. It simply gives…it doesn't await a return on investments.
…which makes the parables of the talents or pounds rather problematic.
But there is another issue that he passes over likewise hands—the sovereignty of God continued with the acts of violence in the OT. At i point, Sprinkle notes God's grace in rescuing people from a tearing stop, but he passes over the problematic fact that the vehement end that others encounter and they avoid is attributed past the author to God himself.
It is quite clear that this is written primarily for an American audience, and the outcome in that location of people stoically disciplined in their prayer lives and Bible reading, only devoid of a sense of God'due south grace, is i that I don't recall is so common on this side of the swimming. But you will learn a lot from this book; it might give yous ideas for a sermon series; and information technology is great fun. you cannot say that about all that many books on the Old Attestation! The ship of biblical estimation has steered too near to the rocks of dividing the Old from the New. Sprinkle might non ready united states quite on the final course nosotros need to steer, simply he grabs hold of the tiller, and yanks information technology round, heading us in (very oftentimes) a ameliorate direction.
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