The Message Old Testament Prophets: In Contemporary Language - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576831957 ISBN 13: 9781576831953

Publisher: Navpress Pub Group, 2000

Synopsis

If the Old Testament Prophets always seemed distant and dusty then you haven't read The Message. Translating directly from the original languages, Eugene Peterson recounts the stories of God's judgement and action in such a way that you will be unable to escape the reality of God's character and his involvement in our lives today. A MESSAGE THAT IS COMFORTING BUT NEVER COMFORTABLE. The prophets of the Old Testament weren't particularly popular. Their messages-straight from God-made the people of their day very uncomfortable. When God spoke through his prophets, he didn't pull punches. He told his people exactly what he thought of them, using images and language that were powerful, graphic, and sometimes shocking. And while the prophets proclaimed a message of comfort, they never compromised the truth in order to make people feel comfortable. Eugene Peterson restores the passion and power of the prophets' message to a generation that has become perhaps a bit too comfortable with God. The words of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, and others cut through our defenses, pierce our hardened hearts, and open our eyes to see ourselves as God sees us-and to see him as he really is. It's not comfortable, but it is a message of great comfort.

About this title

Review:

The words fresh and new are so overused, we are rightly skeptical when we hear them applied to books. However, in The Message: The Old Testament Prophets, Eugene Peterson again boldly takes on sacred text, translating it into the vernacular in--dare we say it?--fresh, new ways. Where once the Old Testament prophets may have seemed outdated, his heavy use of metaphors and fiery prose make the text sing, loudly proclaiming righteousness and direction to contemporary culture.

This from Jeremiah, chapter seven: "Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you're swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, and tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods and buy every novel religious commodity on the market--and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, 'We're safe!' thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals!"

The Message: The Old Testament Prophets satisfies our hunger for more of Peterson's no-holds-barred, knock-you-down scripture, while whetting the appetite for the full biblical text, slated for release in 2002. It jars us out of our complacency, pricks our conscience, resonates with alarming clarity. Don't ignore this call to holiness from a modern-day prophet. --Cindy Crosby

About the Author:

EUGENE H. PETERSON is a writer and poet. He has authored more than twenty books and is a contributing editor to Leadership Journal. He is Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. Eugene also founded Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, where he ministered for twenty-nine years. He lives with his wife in Montana.

About this edition

• Publisher: Navpress Pub Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1576831957
• ISBN 13: 9781576831953
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 592
• Editor: Peterson Eugene H.