Here’s the title and abstract for my ETS paper this fall. It will be a rewrite and reframe of a chapter of my dissertation.

Title

God’s Delight: Old Testament Portraits of What Makes God Happy

Abstract

The biblical authors care deeply about what makes God happy. Throughout the centuries and across various genres, the authors of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings state over one hundred times things in which God delights. This paper presents a thorough analysis of “God’s delight” in the Old Testament, focusing on the use of two Hebrew roots, חפץ and רצה, the most common words used to speak about the things in which God delights. The objects of חפץ and רצה are grouped into five categories with a total of twelve subcategories. Categorizing the objects of God’s delight in this way brings into focus twelve complementary portraits of God’s delight, portraits which are naturally combined into a composite portrait of messianic hope. In this composite portrait of God’s delight, we see the ideal Israelite and Israel’s king, one marked by inner wholeness, who carries forward God’s wisdom, righteousness, and mercy. Within the composite portrait are Israel’s land and images of their sacrificial theology. The time frame of the portrait is “the year of Yahweh’s favor,” the time of his delight, occasioned by the ministry of the Servant of the Yahweh and Israel’s restoration. “God’s delight” is an overlooked aspect of Old Testament theology and a foundational concept for understanding how messianic hope is developed across the canon.