Friday, December 29, 2017

The divine council and intercession

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[O]ur earlier finding [was] that intercessory prayer goes not only hand in hand with the prophetic office, but also happens often in the Bib...
Thursday, December 28, 2017

Into the New Testament

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[W]hen the Word became flesh and lived among the people, the Son reflects the glorious name of the Father. Jesus too is full of “grace and t...
Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Still hoping

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In the Old Testament, the outpouring of the Spirit of God is limited (with few exceptions) to the leaders and particularly to the prophets. ...
Tuesday, December 26, 2017

By his sustaining grace

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Although human repentance is an essential aspect in the process of reconciliation, the book of Joel makes it clear that the process is initi...
Sunday, December 17, 2017

Aramaic irony

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The Edict of Darius declares concerning any who may hinder the reconstruction: “that a beam (ʾāʿ) will be ripped out of his house and, once ...
Friday, December 15, 2017

What manner of man?

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What is of great interest to us is that the priests in the book of Joel act under instruction of the prophet. Even the priests do not know h...
Wednesday, December 13, 2017

All of God

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Joel reminds us that any sacrifice that hopes to be effective has to be accompanied by repentance and a turning back to God. Even then, forg...
Monday, December 11, 2017

To everything there is a season...

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How do we evaluate these two broad lines of interpretations of God’s prohibition on intercessory prayer? Let us first note that until now th...
Friday, December 08, 2017

Hope for the wicked

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The second line of interpretation acknowledges that prophetic intercession is highly effective in God’s outworking of His plans. Precisely b...
Thursday, December 07, 2017

The power of prayer

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Although we have seen again and again that there is indeed a fundamental link between the sins of the party that is being prayed for and the...
Wednesday, December 06, 2017

So what is wrath?

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While I do not want to belittle the importance of this fundamental tension within God and the divine pathos or pain resulting from it, my co...
Tuesday, December 05, 2017

Hope through the ashes

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The book of Jeremiah is heavy on suffering and on warnings of a forthcoming judgment. However, when one looks at the message of the book as ...
Monday, December 04, 2017

A shift in viewpoint

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God’s holy anger is directed to and absorbed in Jesus. So one could say that just as the blood of the godless had been the joy and victory o...
Thursday, November 30, 2017

To what end suffering?

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Jesus’ cry of dereliction on the cross was not a one-off quotation from a psalm of lament. Both Jeremiah and Jesus were remembered as servan...
Wednesday, November 29, 2017

What of the violence in those prayers?

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It is one thing to understand Jeremiah’s prayers for divine justice by their own logic and terms; it is quite another challenge to test thei...
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Tuesday, November 28, 2017

What about Jeremiah?

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So, if Jeremiah’s imprecatory prayers appear at first sight like vicious selfish prayers, they often reflect the prophet’s concern for divin...
Monday, November 27, 2017

It's not automatic

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On many important ancient Near Eastern treaties, law codes, or covenants one finds appended an extensive set of curses. These curses functio...
Friday, November 17, 2017

Prophetic mediation

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The genuine prophetic mediator embodies not only the divine word but, to some degree, the divine pathos as well.— Standing in the Breach , p...
Monday, November 13, 2017

I am weary of holding it in…

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As the dialogue with God progresses, Jeremiah gives more and more expression to the tension of the mediator. On the one hand, he loves the p...
Friday, November 10, 2017

Intercession is a family affair

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But it is also important to note that on the full biblical revelation, our prayers for justice are not our prayers alone. The Scriptures in...