“In the Box” posts highlight new books I’ve received in the mail.
The past few weeks I have had a few exciting titles arrive at my doorstep. I’m truly blessed to be able to read so many great books, and Christian publishers seem to never let up in their race to get high quality materials out the door. We are truly blessed with an abundance of Christian resources to help us in our walk with Christ.
The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 edited by and Richard Patterson (Kregel)
This book looks like it will be a joy to read. Mitch Glaser is the president of Chosen People Ministries, an organization dedicated to evangelizing the Jews. He recounts in the introduction how pivotal a role Isaiah chapter 53 plays in Jewish evangelism and his hopes for this book. Glaser and Bock have brought together a team of scholars who address the question of how to interpret Isaiah 53 from a variety of angles, but a practical, evangelistic fervor is promised to permeate the book. I look forward to jumping into this book and providing my review in the next couple weeks.
Interpreting the Parables (2nd Edition) by Craig L. Blomberg (IVP)
This book arrived yesterday and I am excited to see it. Blomberg provides a systematic treatment of parables and the book is a comprehensive manual for how to exegete these dearly loved treasures of the New Testament. I appreciate that he takes C.H. Dodd and Joachim Jeremias to task, arguing that there is a limited allegorical sense to the parables. I’ve never been able to square Jesus’ own explanations of certain parables with what was a prevailing view in scholarship of their “single-point” nature that emphasized just one main punch to the story line. This book promises to be an education in itself, coming in at over 450 pages, but like all of IVP’s softcover reference titles – the quality and the design of the book make it a joy to peruse.
From the Cauldron to the Cross by Shari Hadley (WinePress)
This book looks fascinating. It is a personal testimony of a journey from Wicca to Christianity. The author is also a public speaker and licensed clinical social worker. Her story is of the power of God’s grace and promises to be an encouraging read. Dr. Neil Anderson has written the foreword.
I can’t leave out a good work of fiction. I was captured by Bryan Litfin’s well-crafted story-world as I read and reviewed book 2 of the “Chiveis Trilogy”. This book is the conclusion to the series, and I am eager to find out what happens to Teo and Ana–the main characters of this post-apocalyptic, medieval-esque story about recovering the Christian faith.
This missions resource looks really good. It’s on a special sale now through June 15 at 4pm Eastern. See the info below from Westminster Bookstore. And consider checking out this excellent missions resource.
I mentioned in my last post that I found that variations of the following promise are found at least 28 times in the Old Testament: “I will be their God and they shall be My people.” Often it includes a promise that God would dwell with His people, or make His dwelling place among them. Seeing this great theme of Scripture and how it intersects with the Church – God’s people today, is both thrilling and educational. We can find our place in the narrative of Scripture and see the “already/not yet” fulfillment of these promises in our own experiences.
Today I thought I would just list these promises and let us meditate on them together.
Genesis 17:7-8 “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
Exodus 6:7 “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
Exodus 19:5-6 (with 20:2) “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Theses are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel…. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
Exodus 29:45-46 “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.”
Leviticus 26:11-12 “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
Deuteronomy 4:20 “But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.”
Deuteronomy 7:6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Deuteronomy 14:2 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Deuteronomy 26:18 “And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments,”
Deuteronomy 29:13 “That he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
2 Samuel 7:24 “And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God.”
1 Chron. 17:22 “And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.”
Jeremiah 7:23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.'”
Jeremiah 11:4 “That I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God,”
Jeremiah 24:7 “I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”
Jeremiah 30:22 “And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
Jeremiah 31:1 “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”
Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Jeremiah 32:38 “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Ezekiel 11:20 “That they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Ezekiel 14:11 “That the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord GOD.”
Ezekiel 34:24 “And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.”
Ezekiel 34:30 “And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD.”
Ezekiel 36:27-28 “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
Ezekiel 37:23 “They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Ezekiel 37:27 “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Hosea 2:23 “And I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people‘; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.'”
Zechariah 8:8 “And I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”
Zechariah 13:9 “And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people‘; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.'”
2 Corinthians 6:16-17 “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,'”
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
Revelation 21:7 “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
I’ve been wanting this book for some time now. A few years back, I took a course in Biblical Theology from The Bethlehem Institute. We used IVP’s New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and Graeme Goldsworthy’s intro to Biblical Theology, According to Plan (IVP), as texts (both are phenomenal books by the way). My instructor also highly recommended this book. Then, when I read Beale’s recent book, The Erosion of Inerrancy (Crossway), a whole chapter was devoted to the theme of the cosmic temple idea. That plus having recently finished John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One (IVP) made me very eager to get this book.
The Temple and the Church’s Mission traces the theme of “the dwelling place of God”. Beale argues that Eden was a cosmic temple modeled after the heavenly abode of God. All future temples were modeled after Eden, and Rev. 21-22’s “new heaven and new earth” are expressly a renewed Edenic temple-city which fills the whole earth.
From what I’ve read and heard of the book already, it promises to be an insightful and rich read. I look forward to jumping into the book in the near future.
“In the Box” posts highlight new books I’ve received in the mail.
The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 edited by and Richard Patterson (Kregel)
Interpreting the Parables (2nd Edition) by Craig L. Blomberg (IVP)
From the Cauldron to the Cross by Shari Hadley (WinePress)
The Kingdom by Bryan M. Litfin (Crossway)
I mentioned in my 
I was pleased to find a book on my doorstep last week. Adrianna Wright from