God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? (Enlarged/Expanded, Expanded)

Description:

God has a bad reputation. Many think of God as wrathful and angry, smiting people right and left for no apparent reason. The Old Testament in particular seems at times to portray God as capricious and malevolent, wiping out armiesand nations, punishing enemies with extreme prejudice.

But wait. The story is more complicated than that. Alongside troubling passages of God's punishment and judgment are pictures of God's love, forgiveness, goodness, and slowness to anger. How do we make sense of the seeming contradiction? Can God be trusted or not?.

David Lamb unpacks the complexity of the Old Testament to explore the character of God. He provides historical and cultural background to shed light on problematic passages and bring underlying themes to the fore. Without minimizing the sometimes harsh realities of the biblical record, Lamb assembles an overall portrait that gives coherence to our understanding of God in both the Old and New Testaments. This expanded edition includes an updated preface, afterword, and appendix addressing the story of Noah and the flood.

Brief description:

David T. Lamb (DPhil, Oxford) is MacRae Professor of Old Testament and dean of the faculty at Kairos University. His love for teaching the Bible was developed while on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in California and Pennsylvania. His books include God Behaving Badly, Prostitutes and Polygamists, and The Emotions of God. He lives with his wife, Shannon, near Philadelphia, and they have two adult sons.

Review Quotes:

"Dave Lamb's book is a popular apologetic that answers the question, Is the God of the Old Testament angry, sexist and racist? He prefaces his answers with a solid biblical interpretation guideline. The author emphatically states, 'When we approach Scripture, we must take the context seriously.' Dave really does that! The word context appears fifty-nine times, scattered throughout the book. Dave's solid contextual analysis of passages--which might appear to say, Yes, Yes, Yes in answer to the question about God's anger, his view of gender and his view of races--was a highlight for me. Dave's unraveling of many problematic texts in terms of contextual analysis is superb. In addition, his many, many masterful word studies shed lighton his contextual analyses. Dave writes with winsome humor. He loves the Old Testament, and you can tell that as you read the popularly written, academically sound, easy-to-read flow of material in each chapter. After reading Dave's book, I am sureyou will appreciate that Dave views the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament as one."