'Egypt My People ... and Israel My Inheritance': The Non-Israelite Nations In The Latter Prophets

New Studies in Biblical Theology #63

by Daniel C. Timmer

Few parts of the Old Testament are more challenging to read than the prophets. Not only are so-called messianic passages relatively rare, but apart from Jonah, these books seem to present a message that is particularly negative, if not xenophobic, when it comes to the 'nations.'


Daniel Timmer contends that this impression is not only mistaken but diametrically opposed to the books' message. Following the direction established by God's foundational promise to Abram in Genesis 12, Timmer examines the presentation of the nations in the Latter Prophets in their original contexts, through the New Testament and into the church's contemporary mission. He explains how the prophets' negative presentations of the nations fit into God's purpose to redeem people from every tribe and tongue, he explores the radical significance of the prophets' frequent predictions that non-Israelites will become integral members of God's chosen people.


This study also deals with practical issues, including the place of ethnicity and nationality in Christian identity and the church's fraught relationships with secular and political power structures.


This is a volume in the New Studies in Biblical Theology. The NSBT is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology.

488 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Parker]

Timmer ably demonstrates the fact that the prophetic material pertaining to foreign nations is not nationalistic in character, and more particularly that it's not aimed against political entities, populations, or people groups. Instead, the "oracles against the nations" are primarily intended to critique ideologies sourced in pride and idolatry. Yet, on the other hand, these prophetic texts consistently hold out the possibility of redemption for the "remnant" of any people group that places its faith in the merciful Creator.

This framework for reading the prophets opens wide the door to preaching these books to our secular age. Wherever pride and idolatry combine to produce ideologies analogous to those of the ancient Near Eastern empires, the Scriptures may address those sinful worldviews directly and pointedly. But because these oracles are rooted in the gospel concepts of judgment and redemption, they don't merely "deconstruct" (as do the impotent ideologies of the modern world, which can only suggest an alternate form of idolatry) but rather point in the direction of true human flourishing through the resurrection of Christ.

Reading this book opened my eyes to varying forms of imperial idolatry at work in the modern world (not least in the literal imperialism of the United States, which runs deeper than I previously imagined). Likewise, it's equipped me to preach these difficult texts more confidently. I highly recommend this book to any preachers looking for a way in to preaching the latter prophets!

As an aside, I have no idea why goodreads thinks this book is nearly 500 pages. Including the bibliography and indexes, my copy is only 315.