The period after the return from exile was one of deep confusion for Israel. For while she had indeed been set free from captivity, the deliverance was partial at best. The Persians remained the sovereign political and military power in the region (later replaced by a series of empires beginning with Alexander the Great and...
Category: Understanding the Bible
Understanding the Bible 13: Israel’s Release from Babylon
Why is God so relentlessly committed to the project of salvation? Why does YHWH persevere in covenant faithfulness when Israel has proven so unable to fulfill her calling? In this installment of our introduction to the Bible, God declares his answer: love. God loves so dearly that he cannot abide humanity’s suffering. “For my sake…,”...
Understanding the Bible 12: God’s Promise of Restoration
Waiting is profoundly difficult; all the more so when you know the one you are waiting one is capable of acting immediately. Yet this is God’s call to exiled Israel – to wait upon the Lord for the day of salvation (in this case release from captivity). But this waiting is not to be passive...