Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Joshua, which is part of the NIV Application Commentary Series, helps readers learn how the message of Joshua can have the same powerful impact today that it did when it was first written.
Synopsis
Reading Joshua can be, frankly, a jarring experience. Serious, troubling questions about God's attitude toward his created peoples arise, questions with no easy answer. But the book of Joshua presents itself, warts (and wars ) and all, and asks readers to let it tell its story from its point of view and out of its ancient context. It asks them to give it the benefit of the doubt and permit it to speak to them. This commentary aims to give its voice a clear hearing -- to translate its ancient cultural form in such a way that it freely speaks about the life of faith today. Basically, the book of Joshua tells how biblical Israel navigated a major historical transition early in its national life. The book shows that guiding these changes is Israel's God, Yahweh, through his chosen servant, Joshua. The introductory sections to follow set the scene for entering the book of Joshua and the ancient world about which it reports. Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from our world to the world of the Bible. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. They focus on the original meaning of the passage but don't discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable -- but the job is only half done The NIV Application Commentary Series helps bring both halves of the interpretive task together. This unique, award-winning series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into our present-day context. Joshua helps readers learn how the message of Joshua can have the same powerful impact today that it did when it was first written.
Synopsis
The NIV Application Commentary helps you communicate and apply biblical text effectively in today's context.
The book of Joshua recounts major transitions in the lives of God's chosen people and speaks of subjects that are difficult to comprehend, such as war and ethnic cleansing. Robert Hubbard navigates through these chapters, probing beneath the surface of the biblical text to apply the timeless themes of the book of Joshua to our lives in the twenty-first century.
To bring the ancient messages of the Bible into today's context, each passage is treated in three sections:
- Original Meaning. Concise exegesis to help the reader understand the original meaning of the biblical text in its historical, literary, and cultural context.
- Bridging Contexts. A bridge between the world of the Bible and the world of today, between the original context and the contemporary context, built by discerning what is timeless in the timely pages of the Bible.
- Contemporary Significance. This section identifies situations that are comparable to those faced by the original audience and explores personal, cultural, and societal applications of the passage to those situations. The author also alerts the reader to problems they may encounter when seeking to apply the passage and helps them think through the issues involved.
This unique, award-winning commentary is the ideal resource for today's preachers, teachers, and serious students of the Bible, giving them the tools, ideas, and insights, they need to communicate God's Word with the same powerful impact it had when it was first written.