Throughout the first Genesis creation story and the Exodus narrative, God demonstrates the love and concern He has for His people by performing immense acts of hesed. In Genesis, for example, God creates the world so that human beings can love it and love one another, as they were created with his image in mind. In Exodus, the Israelites try God’s patience again and again, but even still, he continues to help them and leads them to the Promise Land. Time and time again, God demonstrates his merciful attitude towards the human race by giving them countless opportunities to be His people. In ‘Second Isaiah,’ God is again depicted as showing mercy and love by trying to redeem the Israelites in preparation for Him to become the God of all nations. ‘Second Isaiah’ uses recurring examples from Genesis and Exodus to demonstrate what God has already done for us, and now, what he wants to do next. In the first Genesis creation story, God already is demonstrating his commitment to the people. In the Old Testament, it is made evident that the creator is the redeemer, and God’s acts of creation are a sign of his pledge of redemption. The same God who created the beauty of the world and the human race will also be the God who redeems that human race. In the Book of Isaiah, God speaks through the prophet and says, “My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens…The Lord’s chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon” (Isa 48:13-14).
The bible teaches us many things about God. From Genesis and Exodus we can learnwhat the Judeo-Christian view of God was. Genesis shows us that God made the sun, the moon,the earth and every living thing. During the days of creation God made all things good. On theseventh day of creation God rested and declared all he made to be very good (Genesis 1:31). God created human beings in his own image. We as humans can be certain of our owndignity and self worth because we have been created in the image of God. The book of Genesisshows us that people disobey God by choosing to do wrong. Even great bible heros failed Godand disobeyed him. The bible teaches us that God is forgiving. God has many attributes. God makes no mistakes and this is wisdom. God is infinite, heknows
The prophet Isaiah played an important role in the development and expression of Judaism as a dynamic, living religion through the impact of his works. The impact of Isaiah is evident in both the development and expression of Judaism both in his time and in modern society, as his teachings, for the Jewish people, prove to be relevant to the times. Considered among Jews as one of the greatest prophets, Isaiah has contributed to and affected the life of adherents in the Jewish faith through his political and religious influence, his prophetic messages concerning
The passage that I choose to write about was Genesis chapter 1 verses 1-5. I choose this passage because I was interested in studying how God supposedly created the earth and turned darkness into a world full of life and spirit. Genesis 1 begins by saying “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”(NKJV) I think that the purpose of this verse is to summarize the things that God would do in the future. This text tells us that God existed before the heavens and the earth. We also learn that before God started to create, the earth was empty, dark, and lifeless. The text also represents the beginning of everything earthly by saying God will create life on earth and in
Isaiah prophesized that people should obey and trust in the Lord. God trusted that Isaiah would inform people that He was with them and that His love endures forever. In Isaiah Chapter 65-66, god revealed himself to simmers. He said they would be judged both for good and evil. God just wanted the people to be obedient. “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” God is admirable because He once again was giving people another chance. “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me, declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendents endure.” Isaiah 66:22. God is to be admired in that in Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6. God prophesized though Isaiah about the birth of a boy who would be great. God through Isaiah offers future hope for the nation of Israel. Jesus would be the difference between light and darkness, life and death. Anyone who offers hope of a better future is a person who we would look up to and respect and that is God. God is always admirable in everything that I have known him to do. He protects us as we are his children. He is hard on us sometimes, but is always loving towards us. God is to be respected because he wanted his people to be obedient and live holy. He judged but he has never given up and always gives us chances to repent. We are his creation, though a work in progress. God has a plan for us and just tries
In Isaiah’s Immanuel, Dr. Edward Hindson truly dives into the book of Isaiah. Hindson helps us to grasp the importance and statute of Isaiah. He was not simply a prophet among prophets. He stands out as a citizen of Israel and a servant of God. Hindson does not hold back on his praises of Isaiah and agrees with W.R.Smith, that he is the second most important person throughout the whole story of Israel (2). Isaiah’s writings style still puts modern day scholars in awe. However, Isaiah’s Godly leadership is a principle throughout the book that far exceeds his other attributes. His wisdom, words, and visions from God guided the nation of Israel throughout the reign of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Hindon discusses the history of not only Isaiah
At the beginning of time, God created mankind, creatures made in his own image, with whom He could have relationship with. Unfortunately, the original humans, Adam and Eve, shattered this relationship by turning away from God and sinning, putting themselves before Him. All of the descendants of Adam and Eve, mankind itself, have and continue to suffer from the repercussions of this Original Sin. Ever since that time, thousands of years ago, God has been working through human history in order to repair His relationship with Humanity, redeeming them from the effects of sin. His plan of salvation began with a covenant He made with a nomad named Abraham, whose descendants became the nation of Israel. This covenant established the Lord's intentions to bring about redemption for humanity through the nation of Israel. Sadly though, the ancient Israelites time and again were unfaithful to their covenant with God, and would worship the false idols of the nations around them. Because of their sin of apostasy, the nation of Israel eventually split in two, and was then wiped out by foreign invaders, sending in the Hebrew people into exile. It was during this exile that the Prophets, men who would speak on behalf of God, began to predict the coming of the Messiah, an 'anointed one' of
Isaiah’s terminology when describing God as “The Holy One of Israel”, not only shows reverence by admission of God’s holiness, but also emphasizes the point of the great offenses that the Israelite nation committed against God. As a holy God, he cannot allow sin in his presence, and therefore, must bring effect to the cause. With God’s ultimate goal of reconciliation, punishment is used to its effect while the Servant’s main role was making it available to the people.
Isaiah came during a pivotal time in history. The world was changing rapidly and life was on the edge of prosperity and ruin, as it is today. In this uncertain time Isaiah was called by God to deliver a message of warning, comfort, and deliverance. Christians view the prophecies of Isaiah as a projection of the coming of Jesus Christ. Isaiah spoke of divine judgment and the promises of God through the Prince of Peace. Isaiah’s message of the future King was very meticulous. He describes how Christ will come, Christ’s character and Christ’s purpose. In this paper I will dissect Isaiah’s prophecies in the Old Testament and reference them to the events of Christ in the New Testament.
Throughout the history of the world, people have been concerned with what it is to live a moral life. Many answers have been put forth for this question, but the best by far is found in the Christian Bible. This is because the Bible is a revelation from the Creator. While people can grope in the dark to find answers to moral questions by looking at natural law, they are always frustrated because the real nature of the world we live in is fallen and corrupt. We have an adversary who tries to deceive us and minds that are easily deceived. Even at our most rational, we make mistakes in logical inference, and need to be corrected. In this paper, we will look at biblical ethics in terms of meta-ethics, deontology, virtue theory, and
Thus, the historical and political setting for Isaiah 40-66 could be spread across the rule of three dominant nations, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. Boadt notes that while the theme of Deutero-Isaiah was Consolation, the overall theme of the book centered on God as the Holy One of Israel; foreign rule was God’s disciplinary tool, and God’s makes Zion the Divine dwelling place. (Boadt 1984, 417)
God develops many special relationships with His people throughout the Old Testament. Another word to describe the relationship between God and his people is covenant. The word covenant goes into the details of the relationship. Within the five books of the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), Historical books, Poetical books, and the Prophet books, one may pick up on the relationships being developed between God and humanity. God has an unconditional love for His people; He is always faithful to them. On the other hand, humanity has more of a conditional relationship with God. Humanity continuously falls short, making the love seem “conditional,” but are given a choice to either follow God into a relationship and receive love and benefits of the covenant or not. “No child of the covenant who presents to Him a faithless and insincere heart shall be included in its blessings.” Going off the idea of love being unconditional and conditional, this paper focuses on how the Old Testament is about God, humanity and their relationship.
Morality only exists if we believe in God; therefore if God doesn’t exist there is no morality. There have been so many evil acts committed in the name of God that it is difficult to maintain that a belief in God equates to morality. There are situations that happen every day where decisions are made based off of human rights that contradict the word of God. Morality comes from within, it is an understanding of right versus wrong and the ability to choose what is right. Knowing all this a belief in God is not a requirement for a person to be moral. (Mosser, 2011)
The depiction of God in the Bible’s story of creation, namely Genesis, brings to mind the image of an omnipotent, almighty and all-powerful child playing in a sandbox. Like a child his sole purpose seems to be to simply amuse himself, and possibly acquire a source of unconditional love. These needs are in contrast to the classic view of God acting with the idea of an ultimate plan. His actions clearly show that there is no perfect plan, or if there is it must be grossly overcomplicated. Consistently God makes poor decisions, and then eventually acts to fix the situation. The whole scenario conjures up an image of the crew of Apollo 13, alternately breaking things and then patching it together
Genesis is the beginning of the beginning, the basis for the rest of the Bible, and the start of it all. Genesis shows us creation, man’s sinful downfall, man’s rebellion, a chance for redemption, and God’s mercy.
Religious texts have been one of the main sources for laws and social customs since the conception of organized religion. Each religious text provides its followers with a code of conduct they are expected to apply to themselves, their actions, and their institutions. This code of conduct applies to the individual, as well as to the government and society to within which the people exist, and ultimately defines what a "just society" is in the context of that religion. Using stories and proverbs this code of conduct, and thus "just society", is not only set, but also shown in examples. In The Bible, the essence of a "just society" is laid out within passages that serve as "the laws", including Deuteronomy, and the Psalms,