Running throughout the biblical texts is the idea of a divine plan, according to which God’s intention to bless Israel as his beloved people is intimately tied to the eventual blessing of all of the families of the earth as well. By means of his covenant with Israel,...

According to the biblical texts, what is repeatedly said to provoke God to wrath is not the failure or refusal of his people to give him what he wants for his own sake but their persistent practice of the type of unjust, oppressive, and violent behavior that destroys...

Because the God of the Hebrew Bible desires and demands that his people obey him for their sake rather than his own, the chastisements he is said to inflict on them are seen as expressions of his love and concern for them. His commitment to their wholeness and...

In important ways, the biblical understanding of justice and judgment contrasts sharply with the manner in which these concepts are understood in English. In biblical thought, to judge or do justice is an expression of love and compassion, since it involves acting to...

According to the narrative in Genesis, in the face of the violent, unjust, and destructive behavior that prevents human beings from attaining the good he intended for them from the beginning, God remains committed to making it possible for his intentions for them to...

The declaration that all that God created was “exceedingly good” in the Genesis account clearly conveys the idea that from the start God wanted only what was good for the world and the human beings he fashioned from the earth. At the same time, however, the biblical...