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“My Calling” by Dr. Grant Osborne

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

“My Calling” by Dr. Grant Osborne

commentary by OsborneThe following is a “Guest Post” from Dr. Grant Osborne. He is publishing a series of commentaries on the New Testament, and has written about his life and why he is writing these commentaries. The commentaries are available through Logos Bible Software, and if you use my coupon code, RedeemingGod7, you can get a discount on your purchase of any Logos Base Package.

Here is the post from Dr. Osborne:

I have the greatest job in the world. No, I actually have one of the greatest, if not the greatest, jobs in all of human history (apart from Christ’s, that is). My point is this: there is a God, and he raised Jesus from the dead, brought salvation to mankind, and spoke directly to us through his revealed Word. What can be better than proclaiming this salvation and teaching his Word to an incredibly needy world? That is exactly what I have been doing for fifty years, but now at the end of my journey I get to put everything I have learned together and spend my remaining years studying his Word more deeply than ever and communicating the results to God’s people. I get to produce a set of Bible studies/commentaries on the entire New Testament for the church. As I look back, I believe God was uniquely preparing me, my entire life for this moment.

My career has centered on two aspects of ministry—pastoring churches and teaching seminary students. I have pastored two churches and been interim pastor of three others. I have taught in two seminaries for a total of 43 years. But let me step behind that first. I learned long ago that every time I study his Word devotionally it is not enough just to sit in my prayer room and meditate. I want to share the results with others. That started back in high school. Nothing beats the joy of passing on His truths to others and seeing them get excited too. That has carried over into being a pastor and a teacher. I love preaching and teaching, but I’ve discovered I love the whole process. Sermon preparation is actually devotional Bible study.

As I have taught seminary students over the years, I have always pictured them in the pulpit or the classroom sharing what I am giving them with others. It is 2 Timothy 2:2 at work, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” I am engaged in the most important relay race in history, passing the baton off to “reliable people” who will continue to pass it on from generation to generation. One of the great joys is travelling around the world and seeing grads who have had me in class continuing to share the truths they have received. I feel a part of me is all over the world!

Writing commentaries like the series I am doing now is in reality simply teaching on a much larger canvas. I picture Christians around the country and around the world sitting in my classroom reading my lessons and setting out to share the truths about God’s revealed Word with others. Even after fifty years of studying and sharing I still get thrilled as I see the deep treasures of meaning about Galatians or Romans uncovered for the time to me, and then I have the privilege of writing them down to thrill countless others who will read them in the near future. It doesn’t get much better than this! So in a sense each commentary is a series of sermons or of seminary classes delivered one after another in the pages of a book that is far more than a book. It is buried treasure uncovered for all to see! And God has allowed me to participate in the process by which he unlocks these treasures.

The result: I love God’s Word more than ever. This series of taking the results of hundreds of years wrestling about the meaning of these New Testament books by men and women of God for two thousand years and sharing the current understandings of these wondrous truths with God’s people in the church has me more excited than I’ve ever been. Academic commentaries are incredibly important and must be done, but the process is not finished with them. I know; I’ve done several. Their problem is that they keep these wonderful truths within the academy and put the results high on the shelf of academia far from the eyes of the people in the church. They are above the heads of the rest of us. Yet the truths they uncover are so important. So the task of taking the cookies off the shelf and putting them on the table to be enjoyed is incredibly exciting to me. That is what I am trying to do, and it is a thrilling process to be part of.

For many of you readers, this commentary series may be the first ones you have ever read. I want this to be an exciting first foray into the world of the biblical texts, so that as you enter this adventure the journey is fun and filled with meaning. For others this commentary may be one of many you are consulting. Having done both kinds, the academic and the lay commentary, how will these commentaries enhance the more detailed coverage in the others. My recommendation is that you consult this one first to get a lay of the land, to see the whole field of meaning laid out for you before getting bogged down in the minutia of detail in the longer volumes. My commentary will help you to see the issues and understand them clearly so that you can get more out of all the confusing details in the others.

Osborne on Revelation

Just for fun, let me share on a question I am often asked. After all the decades of teaching and writing, do I have a favorite biblical theme or theological topic? I have reflected on my life’s verse an enormous amount, 2 Timothy 2:15, “Work very hard to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, correctly handling the word of truth.” That pictures me standing before God, ashamed because I have been shallow in my “handling” of his Word. My whole career has been an attempt to teach and preach his Word deeply and accurately, teaching my students to do the same. So a favorite topic has always been discipleship and the responsibility, but even more the joy and privilege, of communicating His Word to others. At the same time, I am known by students as a person whose favorite passage is the one I am on right now, as they hear me constantly say, “Wow, isn’t this a great verse?!”

A final comment: I have been asked which of the commentaries in this series will best demonstrate these points. That is hard to say. For background information, the Gospels are best, because every passage will have a new set of historical background passages to uncover. I love historical background; it turns a two-dimensional lesson into a three-dimensional IMAX event. The hearer enters the world behind the text and experiences it anew through background. For sheer exciting new learning, the Book of Revelation cannot be beat. Most of us are a little afraid and confused by the bewildering images. Yet it is a truly wondrous book, and its message is so relevant for our day. I absolutely love teaching it! Among the epistles, it is a hard choice. For devotional value, I love Ephesians and Philippians (or 1 Peter for that matter); for theology, I love Romans or Hebrews. For practical church issues, 1 Corinthians is so valuable. Tough choices!

This set of commentaries is available through Logos Bible Software, and if you use my coupon code, RedeemingGod7, you can get a discount on your purchase of any Logos Base Package. You can also buy the paperback version on Amazon.

God is Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: commentary, Logos

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One of the best commentaries on Exodus I have read

By Jeremy Myers
8 Comments

One of the best commentaries on Exodus I have read

Exodus GarrettIf you are tired of reading commentaries on Exodus that seem to do nothing but talk about the Documentary Hypothesis (aka the JEDP theory), and if you have sometimes found yourself yelling at the pages “I don’t care if was the J, E, D, or P source, just tell me what the text means!!!”, then the new commentary on Exodus by Duane Garrett is for you.

I knew this commentary would be good when he wrote this about the JEDP theory:

Much of this discussion is of doubtful value, either in terms of gaining better tools for interpreting the text or in terms of finding criteria for dividing it into its supposed sources. It maintains only a shell of intellectual coherence (p. 17; cf. p 18).

This is a scholarly and gracious way of saying “The JEDP debate is BS.”

And the commentary only got better from there.

I loved his insistence on an early date for the composition of Exodus. He doesn’t side with the “scholarly consensus” that Exodus was written during the post-exilic era.

Following in the same vein, Garrett actually believes that Moses wrote Exodus! While I often benefit from commentaries that were written by source-critical scholars, I find it so refreshing to read a commentary written by a world-class scholar who actually believes Moses wrote Exodus during the time period in which the events took place.

Speaking of which, Garret actually believes the events of Exodus took place. Again, in today’s scholarly circles, this is a very rare position to take! But I love it.

Exodus Garrett

Best of all, Garrett writes his commentary much as he says the book of Exodus was written: “the vocabulary consists primarily of common words” (p. 21). Garrett writes to be understood; not be prove how smart he is. Again, it is so refreshing to read commentaries of this sort.

As I read through the introductory material, I found his discussion of Pharaoh Akhenaten’s conversion to monotheism to be absolutely riveting, as well as his thorough and detailed summary of the date of the exodus and the location of the Red Sea crossing. But then, I’m a bit of a Bible geek.

As for the commentary on the book of Exodus itself, it was top-notch. Most of the questions I had about Exodus were given adequate space for discussion. He talked about how the ten Plagues may have been designed to prove the powelessness of the Egyptian pantheon (though he ended up saying that this was not the point, p. 301).

He also wrote a good discussion of “Theodicy in Exodus” which is an attempt to explain how God could get Himself involved in the questionable behavior of killing children in the 10th plague (p. 214; I was not fully satisfied with his explanation on this).  And of course, in light of a recent study of mine, I was glad to see that he wrote several pages about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart (p. 370).

One great element to this commentary is that each section concludes with some helpful “Key Theological Points.” This allows the commentary to not just be an explanation of the text, but also to show the student of Exodus how the text guides and informs our theology.

If you are preaching through Exodus or studying it on your own, this commentary on Exodus by Duane Garrett is definitely one you show consult.

 

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible commentary, Bible Study, Books I'm Reading, commentary, Exodus

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An Excellent Commentary on Judges and Ruth

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

An Excellent Commentary on Judges and Ruth

Chisholm Commentary on Judges and RuthKregel Publications recently sent me Robert Chisholm’s A Commentary on Judges and Ruth to read and review on this blog. Robert Chisholm is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, though I never had the privilege of sitting under him in any of my classes when I was there. After reading his commentary on Judges and Ruth, I really regret not being able to take any classes with him.

Though I probably have not read more than five commentaries on Judges and Ruth, I can safely say that this commentary is one of the better volumes available for Judges and Ruth. Combining top-notch exegetical skill, a clear and compelling writing style, and deep pastoral insights, Robert Chisholm has provided a commentary on Judges and Ruth which should be part of any Bible student or Pastor’s library who plans to teach or preach on the books of Judges and Ruth.

Not only does Robert Chisholm explain the biblical text in a way that makes sense and reveals the cultural, historical, and grammatical contexts of Judges and Ruth, he also deals with modern questions that the text address, such as the issues of female leadership, the consequences of spiritual compromise, and the often bewildering actions of God in relation to His people on earth.

I say “bewildering” because the author of the book of Judges seems conflicted about how to understand God’s apparent behavior toward His people. Sometimes in the book, sinners, idolaters, and murderers live long and healthy lives, apparently with God’s blessing, while at other times, one little mess-up causes God’s wrath to fall upon whole generations of people. The author of Judges tries to explain these events, but such explanations often fail. Then there are the times that God uses enemy nations to punish Israel, and others times that God uses enemy nations to deliver Israel (e.g., Shamgar and Jael). You can almost hear the author of Judges trying to make sense of this.

Then, although punishment often seems to follow idolatry and compromise, deliverance sometimes seems to come out of nowhere. The people have not repented, they have not returned to God, but God delivers them anyway. Again, the author seems to be asking why sin can lead to punishment, but restoration does not seem to require repentance. These sorts of dilemmas are everywhere in the book. Chisholm brings out these apparent inconsistencies, but does little to resolve them.

And that is my main criticism of this book. Never once, that I could found, does Chisholm challenge the apparent violence of God in the book of Judges. He says that the violence is “harsh” and “punitive” (p. 58) but says it is necessary to protect the Lord’s reputation. Really? What reputation? It seems that God’s violence toward others, and God’s violence toward his own people by others does an awful lot to damage His own reputation. But that is an interpretive and theological issue that is a current pet project of mine, so I will leave it alone. 

Aside from that one criticism, there are numerous other strengths to this commentary. I like how Chisholm provided good preaching tips for how to teach Judges and Ruth, and also provided a list of recommended commentaries. Overall, this is a fantastic commentary on Judges and Ruth, and everyone who teaches or preaches through these books should have a copy in their library. You can get it from Amazon by clicking here.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Books I'm Reading, commentary, Judges, Ruth, violence

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Book Projects Update

By Jeremy Myers
3 Comments

Book Projects Update

book writingNo, I haven’t forgotten about my various books projects.

In case you are wondering, here is my progress on some of the books I am currently working on:

Close Your Church for Good

I am finished writing the book. It just needs to get published.

Sadly, I am a few years away from getting the whole thing out… It turned out to be over 100,000 words, and so the editing and typesetting process is taking me much longer than anticipated. Besides, a lot of the material needs to be reworked and reworded, and some of the points need to be explained and defended in better (or more gracious) ways.

Commentary on Jonah

I am half-way through writing my Commentary on Jonah. I am almost all the way through chapter two, and am thrilled at some of the things I am discovering. However, it looks like this will be a big volume also. I am sitting at about 50,000 words on this book already as well, and I am only half way through…

The reason I stopped is because I encountered several issues in the book which I thought deserved more attention and study… and one of them turned into a brand new book project….

When God Pled Guilty

This is my current project at the top of my writing pile. It is the reason I took a break from the Commentary on Jonah. Some of the issues in Jonah are the reason I started studying the violent portrayals of God in Scripture in the first place, and why I am going to have to revise some of what I have already written in the commentary. I needed a better explanation for the storm that came upon the sailors and the message that Job preaches to Nineveh than the explanation I was given in Bible college and seminary.

So once I am done with When God Pled Guilty, I will (hopefully) finish the Commentary on Jonah. Although, now that I say this…. there is a five-volume project I have wanted to tackle for about ten years now, and have recently felt my mind being pulled in that direction… Aargh!

Other Book Projects

Aside from these three book projects, I have four or five other manuscripts in various stages of development. Sigh. So much to write…

I never understand when some writers talk about writer’s block! My only writer’s block is that my entire life is too short a block of time to write everything I want.

Along with these books projects of my own, I did finally get things going on my publishing company, Redeeming Press. We currently have two authors we are working with to get their books out, and I am in conversations with half a dozen more. I love the idea of helping people get published, but at the same time, it keeps me from doing my own writing and publishing. Oh well, I knew that was part of the cost…

Anyway, some people have been asking, so I decided to give an update on the blog. And remember, I give away all my newly-released books for free to newsletter subscribers. So if you haven’t subscribed, do so today if you want to get free eBooks, and please, tell your friends and family about my newsletter as well so that they can get the free eBooks when they come out.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: books, Books by Jeremy Myers, close your church, commentary, Jonah, writing

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