Chapter 6 Summary

How does the catastrophic failure of the covenant with Abraham affect God? Recalling that he has no social life and no self-exploratory intellectual life, what can he to do next? Allow humankind to return to the pre-flood unconditional and universal command and bear with the consequences? Or break the promise he made at the flood and destroy humankind again because the Israel experiment failed? Twice he stopped just short of destroying Israel and starting over with Moses. With whom could he now start over? God will make good on his promise in Deut. 28 to use foreign nations as instruments to punish his erstwhile covenant partner, which opens the potential for a wider relationship with distinct nations through "definition-by-action." Judges 11:24 holds a clear echo of the polytheistic view that every nation had its protecting God, but no nation had the support of the highest...