Idolatry And the Hardening of the Heart
Subtitle: A Study in Biblical Theology
Publisher: T. & T. Clark Publishers
Published: February 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 213
ISBN-13: 9780567025739
Subjects: The Bible; Religion; Religion - Commentaries / Reference; Biblical Criticism & Interpretation - General; Christian Theology - General; Bible; Biblical teaching; Idolatry; Theology; Bible - Criticism  Interpretation - General
Description: Meador's compelling new book provides a biblical, theological answer to Isaiah's question: "Why, O Lord, do you cause us to stray from your ways, and harden our heart from fearing you?" Transparently, the biblical answer is pervasive, explicit, easy to understand, and interrelated to every major biblical theme. The hardening of the heart is quite simply God's disciplinary punishment for the specific sin of idolatry. Idolatry and the Hardening of the Heart is an exercise in biblical theology. Beginning in the Hebrew Bible the hardened heart finds rescue in the "new covenant" promises that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea prophesy. In these prophecies God promises to remove Israel's idols, cleanse the people, anoint them with God's spirit, write God's law upon their hearts, and turn the people's hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. The New Testament tells how Jesus of Nazareth activates these promises and brings them into effect in the lives of those who respond to him in faith. Paul preaches this message as well, and the book of Revelation applies this message to the historical context of the seven churches of Asia Minor, who lived with the agonizing temptation to compromise with the idolatry-laden Roman emperor cult. Meadors examines the biblical rationale for idolatry and the hardening of the heart as it unfolds in specific passages - Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 29, Psalms 115, 135 - and examines the phenomenon through the rest of the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels, the letters of Paul, and Revelation. -- from back cover.