Anticipation in the Pentateuch

William Dumbrell on the trajectory of the Pentateuch:

The remainder of the Pentateuch comments on Genesis 1-11. By the time that the covenantal theology of Israel is fully developed in Deuteronomy, a program to which the rest of the OT remains committed, the national failure of Israel has been anticipated. The Pentateuch makes clear, however, that this failure in no way vitiates the eschatology already developed in these books. A people of God will be constructed and will enjoy the ideal of rest in a Promised Land. God will be their God and will indwell them forever.

—The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 68.

Torah In Deuteronomy

Old Testament scholar William Dumbrell on the term torah ("law") in Deuteronomy:

The concept of torah is critical for Deuteronomy. Usually the term is understood as "teaching, instruction," but its meaning in Deuteronomy is stronger. Torah is covenantal law, the divinely authorized social order of Israel that attests its election. Deuteronomy is entirely about this law and the blessings that obedience to the law will bring.

 —The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 66.

If You Will Keep My Covenant

The way covenants function in the Scriptures is what I consider a problem area for interpretation and theologizing. I suppose it may have something to do with the noncovenantal thinking of the evangelicalism in which I've been reared. But I think it also has to do with the way the whole Bible hangs together, which is a very complex matter.

Exodus 19:5 is an example of this. Which covenant is in view? Here's what William Dumbrell says, which seems right-minded to me: 

The covenant in mind may be prospective and have Exodus 20 in view. In the OT, however, references to keeping a divine covenant are consistently to a covenant already in existence (Gen. 17:9-10; 1 Kgs. 11:11; Ps. 78:10; 103:18; 132:12; Ezek. 17:14). It is possible that Exodus 19:5 points back to 6:5 and 3:13-15 and that continuity with the patriarchal covenant is involved, especially in light of the patriarchal style of address with which Yahweh begins verse 3. Involved in the Sinai arrangement that follows is continuity within the Abrahamic covenant but, for Israel, a specialized responsibility within the covenant. 

 —The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 37.

The Temple Motif in Ezekiel

The temple motif pervades Scripture. And I am willing to argue that it is one of the main theological realities that holds the whole together. If one understands the biblical theology of the temple, one really does understand a great deal of how Scripture, how history, and how theology are unfolding.

Ezekiel's prophecy provides no small witness to that biblical theology. The temple teaching in Ezekiel, however, cannot be understood solely on its own terms (which approach would be hermeneutically unsound, since that's not the way Scripture works). Unless one already grasps a good deal of the sweep of the Bible's temple teaching, one will likely simply be befuddled by Ezek. 40-48, or just flatly misunderstand it and do damage to the glory of Christ.

Consider the broad-brush painting of Ezekiel produced by the palette of William Dumbrell, a man who has labored in the canon for many years and understands its interconnectedness.This portrait gives only a hint of the scope of the temple teaching in the Bible, but one can hear and see Genesis to Revelation in this brief word focusing on Ezekiel:

Yahweh is depicted in Ezekiel 1 as enthroned and accompanied by ministrant attendants. . . . They function only as bearers of the throne. Yahweh is moving from his heavenly palace, in judgment against the Jerusalem temple. The book thus commences with Jerusalem and her temple under imminent judgment. Yet the covenant faithfulness of Yahweh has led us to expect a movement beyond judgment. So the book of Ezekiel concludes with the magnificent conception of Yahweh enthroned in what must be the New Jerusalem, permanently located among his people in a new city from which, in Eden terms, the waters of life flow.

—The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 153.

Song of Songs: The Holy of Holies

In his excellent theological survey of the Old Testament—The Faith of Israel—William Dumbrell says that early disputes about the canonicity of the Song of Songs were virtually settled by a pronouncement of Rabbi Akiba. That's powerful, you say.  So what was it?  It was this marvelous word: "The whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; all the writings are holy, and the Song of Songs is the holy of holies" (m Yadayim 3:5).