While I love to study the writings of the Old Testament, I often find it hard to stir up the same excitement in others. However, in my continuing pursuit of my M.Div. degree, I have come across a book that has renewed my vigor for the Old Testament and specifically the prophets. The book is called "Plowshares & Pruning Hooks" by D. Brent Sandy. I knew that I would enjoy the book after reading the opening bombardment of the first chapter. While the quarter is only one week old and much remains, I am glad that I can look forward to what I will learn this quarter.
"Climb into an eight-person raft for an October trip down the Upper Gauley River in West Virginia, and you will experience power. Millions of gallons of water being released from Summersville Reservoir turn the gorge into a competition between water and rock. The rock wins, and the water alters its course, surging over and around and between boulders and canyon walls. The result is roaring whitewater: massive hydraulics, towering liquid walls, class V rapids--powerful enough to stand your raft straight up in the air, with you and your buddies in it--maybe! Guides prepare rafters for the good and the bad: the rush of adrenaline, the teamwork, the risks. And they need to. Every year the river chews up and spits out hapless victims. But you are there to experience adventure, to behold beauty, to learn respect, to stand in awe, to feel power.
Prophecy is like whitewater, perhaps the most powerful whitewater in Scripture--maybe in all the literature of the world. This is language unmatched in what it beholds and in how it describes the beholden. Words of worship, terror and mercy are unparalleled. Words of beauty, passion and hope are unequaled. Words of adoration, condemnation and salvation are unrivaled. In order to speak to our hearts, the powerful language of prophecy brings God's might and wrath and humankind's sin and doom to life with surrealistic images."
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