In the earliest traditions of the OT, it very much appears

Our aim is to better understand how belief in the afterlife developed among the people of Israel, and how this shaped their identity.  

The God of the Hebrew Scriptures is a God of pathos. His emotional world is very real. Unfortunately, many Christians read the Old Testament through a doctrinal lens that ultimately denies this idea.  In this episode, we engage with Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel to better understand God’s nature and character as presented by the Hebrew prophets.     

Ezekiel wrote a prophetic allegory which describes Israel’s betrayal of God in graphic and disturbing terms.  Generation after generation of faithlessness have left YHWH in a state of frustration and exhaustion. He’s verbally lashing out at the people of Israel because he’s angry, and above all, because his heart is broken.

From a literary perspective, the character of YHWH is presented as someone who does not exert absolute control over human affairs. He is not presented in the text as being a chess player who moves people as pawns on the board of human history. Time and time again we’ve seen how he set his hope on individuals and communities, and how he was let down. When the people that he was counting upon to accomplish his plans let him down, where can he turn? 

There is no better example of  how someone could be so blessed, and yet become so evil – than the character of King Solomon. On one hand, he is presented as the wisest, richest, most internationally influential king that Israel ever had.  On the other hand, he worshipped idols, he practiced human sacrifice, he was a sex addict and he implemented a race-based system of enslavement in his kingdom. Our task for today is to look more closely at this character to see what theological conclusions can be drawn.

Ancient Hebrew can be a very difficult language to translate. Sometimes, very important messages are lost in translation. In this episode we look at one of the greatest promises ever spoken to a human being, and consider how a fuller understanding of this promise may be affected by poor translation.

Ancient Near Eastern kings worshipped gods such as Amun, Marduk and Nabu becuase they expected to get something in return; things like wealth, power, and victory in battle. In contrast, for the Judaic people, worship wasn’t supposed to be a transactional, quid pro quo arrangement. The spirituality of the Hebrew Scriptures is not driven by what people can get from God. Rather, the texts assert that the most satisfying, deeply gratifying expression of worship is one in which a person lives in love relationship with YHWH. The purest worship is one that expresses love and gratitude for the things that YHWH has already done.

At this place in the OT narrative, being 'saved' wasn’t about going to heaven and it wasn’t about following certain steps for conversion. So what did it mean? Was the emphasis just on keeping the rules of the Torah, or was there something more? What we’ll discover is that there are beautiful nuances and subtleties in Hebrew religious thought.  And the story of Saul really provides some fascinating insights.

YHWH does not want the people of Israel to build their identity on their possessions, on their achievements, on their power, and especially he does not want to build their identity on their leaders. The role of leaders is simply to help the people of Israel fulfil the covenant that they had made with YHWH. Their identity and their purpose is to be grounded only in their relationship with YHWH, and to be nourished by the leadership that he himself exercises