'Egypt My People . . . Israel My Inheritance': The Non-Israelite Nations in the Latter Prophets (NSBT)

Few parts of the OT are more challenging to read than the prophets. Not only are so-called messianic passages relatively rare, but apart from Jonah, these books seem to present a message that is particularly negative, if not xenophobic, when it comes to the 'nations.'

Daniel Timmer contends that this impression is not only mistaken, but diametrically opposed to the books' message. Following the direction established by God's foundational promise to Abram in Genesis 12, Timmer examines the presentation of the nations in the Latter Prophets in their original contexts, through the NT and into the church's contemporary mission. He explains how the prophets' negative presentations of the nations fit into God's purpose to redeem people from every tribe and nation, and explores the radical significance of the prophets' frequent predictions that non-Israelites will become integral members of God's chosen people.

The volume also deals with practical issues, including the place of ethnicity and nationality in Christian identity and the church's fraught relationships with secular and political power structures.

Reviews

"The Latter Prophets continually bear witness to a God whose ways with the nations both highlight his sovereignty and surprise us. Timmer's impressive study brings what the prophets have to say about the nations to the foreground and explores how this relates to the gospel and contemporary politics." - Andrew Abernethy, Professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College, Illinois

"What a fine, learned and timely book. An excellent example of exegesis, theology and cultural critique! ... There is much here for both the preacher, the apologist and the historian/cultural analyst. This is one of the most thorough books I have read on the topic of the nations in the prophetic oracles, and it is unique in working from a biblical-theological and canonical perspective. Timmer shows, in the end, not just the view of the foreign nations within each prophetic book, but their place within the trajectory of the biblical canon. There is not only divine judgment for nationalistic idolatry and arrogant overreach but also a concern for the salvation of the nations (and in particular individuals within the nations) and their purification to live in the presence of God as his people in a new creation... I enthusiastically recommend this book!" - Stephen G. Dempster, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, Crandall University, New Brunswick

"In his timely book, Daniel Timmer unfolds the rich and diverse ways in which the Old Testament prophets depict the nations in God's sovereign purposes of judgment and salvation. He skillfully shows us how to do biblical theology by weaving together ancient imperial contexts, the prophets' countercultural engagement with their world, and the contemporary relevance of their unique view of power. Look no further for help if you've ever had the (mis)impression that the God of the prophets is ethnocentric and xenophobic!" - Jerry Hwang, Associate Professor of Theology, Trinity Christian College, Illinois

Daniel C. Timmer is professor of Biblical Studies for the PhD program at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. Previously he taught at at Farel Reformed Theological Seminary, Montreal, Canada, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, and the University of Sudbury, Ontario. He is the author of Creation, Tabernacle, and Sabbath and A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, salvation and spirituality in the book of Jonah(NSBT).