The Majesty of God in the Old Testament: A Guide for Preaching and Teaching

by Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2007

Overview

In The Majesty of God in the Old Testament, Walter Kaiser demonstrates how God’s unsurpassed majesty and greatness can be captured in contemporary teaching and preaching. Kaiser accomplishes this goal by walking through an exposition of ten great Old Testament passages that are rife with evidence of God’s majesty. He also demonstrates how various types of preparatory studies—word, historical/archaeological, thematic, Bible background, and theological—can be used to help pastors make the Old Testament more relevant to their congregations. In addition, he addresses potential problems peculiar to the preaching of the Old Testament.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Another form of a rhetorical question expects the answer, ‘None.’” (Page 26)

“Finally, the writers of the Old Testament used verbs to denote possible similarity or equality” (Page 26)

“Hebrew uses repetition to show emphasis, thus the threefold repetition makes clear that what is most outstanding about our God who is now calling Isaiah to his service is God’s holiness.” (Pages 149–150)

“Furthermore, ‘God’s name,’ noted J. Alec Motyer, ‘is qualified by the adjective ‘holy’ in the Old Testament more often than by all other qualifiers put together.’” (Page 146)

“The Hebrew word for ‘holy’ is qodesh, which means ‘withheld from the ordinary use,’ ‘treated with special care,’ and ‘belonging to the sanctuary.’¹ Even though there are holy people, holy places, holy garments, holy ointment, and holy food, the point is that these are holy not in and of themselves but because they all belong to God. This brings us back to what the word basically means: set apart from ordinary or common use and dedicated to God’s use. Thus things and people do not become holy by some sort of magic but by being set apart and dedicated to God.” (Page 143)

Praise for the Print Edition

Those who preach about the greatness of God do business in deep waters. This book will help all of us who read, teach, or preach to navigate those waters.

—Haddon Robinson, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Hats off to Walt Kaiser for demonstrating again that, in the end, the Scriptures are about the greatness of God. Using passage after passage of the Old Testament, Kaiser reminds us that the real subject of the Bible is God himself: his marvelous person, his wisdom-filled ways, his loving will. This book will serve as a bracing theocentric tonic for all who are determined to avoid those anthropocentric treatments of Scripture that seem so prevalent today.

—Duane Litfin, President, Wheaton College

Product Details

• Title: The Majesty of God in the Old Testament: A Guide for Preaching and Teaching
• Author: Walter C. Kaiser
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 176

About Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

Walter C. Kaiser (1933–) is an evangelical Old Testament scholar, writer, speaker, and educator. He earned degrees from Wheaton College and Brandeis University.

Kaiser taught Bible and archaeology at Wheaton College and taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in several capacities. He currently serves as the Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2006 retired as their President.

Kaiser has contributed to numerous publications like Journal for the Study of Old Testament and Westminster Theological Journal. He has also written over 30 books including Toward an Exegetical Theology and A History of Israel: From the Bronze Age through the Jewish Wars.