Enjoy J. Vernon McGee's personable, yet scholarly, style in a 60-volume set of commentaries that takes you from Genesis to Revelation with new understanding and insight. A great choice for pastors, the average Bible reader, and students!
Davies outlines the composition and date of Numbers, and the various attempts that have been made to establish a coherent and meaningful structure in its arrangement. Davies also shows how the application of reader-response criticism, feminist criticism and postcolonial criticism have contributed to our understanding of selected passages in the book. Addressing theological issues, Davies considers three themes that occupy much of the content of Numbers, namely; land, purity and holiness, and rebellion. The concluding chapter considers the contentious issue of the historicity of the book of Numbers in the light of recent discussions concerning the historical value of the Old Testament. Davies shows how some of the issues Numbers raises – war, disease, survival, hunger, race relations – are among the perennial problems faced by nations across the centuries and across cultures. While individual passages within Numbers may reflect a questionable sense of morality, Davies demonstrates that the book, when viewed in its totality, encompasses a number of important theological themes which recur throughout the Old Testament: the interplay of forgiveness and judgment, and of sin and punishment, and the need to trust in the power of God rather than human might.
For students, scientists, journalists and others, a comprehensive guide to communicating data clearly and effectively. Acclaimed by scientists, journalists, faculty, and students, The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers has helped thousands communicate data clearly and effectively. It offers a much-needed bridge between good quantitative analysis and clear expository writing, using straightforward principles and efficient prose. With this new edition, Jane Miller draws on a decade of additional experience and research, expanding her advice on reaching everyday audiences and further integrating non-print formats. Miller, an experienced teacher of research methods, statistics, and research writing, opens by introducing a set of basic principles for writing about numbers, then presents a toolkit of techniques that can be applied to prose, tables, charts, and presentations. She emphasizes flexibility, showing how different approaches work for different kinds of data and different types of audiences. The second edition adds a chapter on writing about numbers for lay audiences, explaining how to avoid overwhelming readers with jargon and technical issues. Also new is an appendix comparing the contents and formats of speeches, research posters, and papers, to teach writers how to create all three types of communication without starting each from scratch. An expanded companion website includes new multimedia resources such as slide shows and podcasts that illustrate the concepts and techniques, along with an updated study guide of problem sets and suggested course extensions. This continues to be the only book that brings together all the tasks that go into writing about numbers, integrating advice on finding data, calculating statistics, organizing ideas, designing tables and charts, and writing prose all in one volume. Field-tested with students and professionals alike, this is the go-to guide for everyone who writes or speaks about numbers.
C. L. Crouch and Christopher B. Hays introduce the Book of Isaiah in its diverse historical contexts, tracing its origins and development over several centuries: beginning with the career of the prophet Isaiah ben Amoz in eighth century Jerusalem, continuing with a late seventh century edition and the further revisions made in the late sixth century, and concluding with final shaping during the Persian Period. At each stage Crouch and Hays pay close attention to the historical, cultural, and theological conversations that influenced the book's aims and interests. Crouch and Hays discuss the theological and literary continuities among the book's contributors, as well as where language and concerns differed from generation to generation. They also consider the reception history of Isaiah and what the text has meant to people through history. With suggestions of further reading at the end of each chapter, this guide will be an essential accompaniment to study of the Book of Isaiah.
The book of Numbers tells a story with two main characters—God and Israel. The way the story is told sounds odd and often harsh to readers today. The main point of the book is nevertheless of immense importance for God’s people in any age: exact obedience to God is crucial. This comprehensive and erudite commentary presents a thorough explication of this significant Hebrew text. Timothy Ashley’s introduction discusses such questions as structure, authorship, and theological themes, and it features an extended bibliography of major works on the book of Numbers. Then, dividing the text of Numbers into five major sections, Ashley elucidates the theological themes of obedience and disobedience, which run throughout. His detailed verse-by-verse comments primarily explain the Hebrew text of Numbers as it stands rather than speculate on how the book came to be in its present form. This second edition includes revisions that reflect Ashley’s decades of experience with the book of Numbers, as well as updates to the footnotes and bibliography, which add many important works published in the last thirty years. With these new features, Ashley’s commentary solidifies its place as the church’s most faithful and definitive reference on the book of Numbers.
An ilustrated companion guide to the Bible provides insight, time lines, chapter outlines, and context, staying close to the text and offering running commentaries and descriptions.
Something in us aches for more—more hope, more joy, more freedom. All around us people are dancing to the steps of bigger, better, and faster, and we can easily join in without even realizing it. Before long complaining and comparing accompany our desire for more, yet we’re not any closer to filling the ache inside. God offers us another way. In this study of the Book of Numbers, we’ll find a group of people that wandered in the desert for forty years, unable to enter the Promised Land because of their complaining, grumbling, and lack of faith. The New Testament tells us that their story was written to warn us (1 Corinthians 10:6) so that we would not make the same mistakes and suffer the same consequences. God sent his only Son to die to buy our freedom from the sin that leads to discontentment, and we find our own promised land of peace and contentment in the life he gives us. By exploring Numbers we can come to identify the reasons for our complaining, learn contentment while being authentic about the difficulties of life, accept short-term hardship in light of the greater good of God’s ultimate deliverance, recognize the relationship between complaining and worry, and discover how to realign with God’s character and promises. Together we will learn contentment as we discover more of our incredible God who truly is more than enough. Only God can fill that ache inside and help us focus on his provision and purpose in the midst of life’s joys and pains. The Leader Guide, to be used along with the study's workbook and DVD, contains six session plan outlines, complete with discussion points and questions, activities, prayers, and more—plus leader helps for facilitating a group. Other components for the Bible study, available separately, include a Participant Workbook, DVD with six 20-25 minute sessions, and boxed Leader Kit (an all-inclusive box containing one copy of each of the Bible study’s components).