Chapter 8 Summary

The description of the peaceable kingdom in Isaiah 11 declares "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord / as the waters cover the sea" - referring to a flood of personal knowledge, not theological scholarship. Hebrew verbs of perception lend themselves to emotive force more than their English renderings (know, remember, hear, etc.). Yd` ("to know") implies love, even to the extent of sexual intimacy. God is allowing himself to be emotionally transformed from his wrathful, vengeful, remorseful past. Love was not his motive in creating humankind, making a covenant with Abraham, delivering Israel from Egypt, or driving the Canaanites from the land before them. God's "steadfast love" in the Mosaic covenant was a fierce mutual loyalty between liege and vassal rather than any gentler emotion. Even in answering Hannah's prayer, God reveals kind feelings. God took notice of problems and...