Book Review: Loving the Old Testament

A Christian's Pocket Guide to Loving the Old Testament. Alec Motyer. 2015/2016. Christian Focus. 144 pages. [Source: Borrowed]

First sentence: The Bible is God's gift to us as a domestic and personal 'means of grace.'

Premise/plot: Do you love the Old Testament? Do you want to love the Old Testament? Do you wonder what makes the Old Testament so important--so essential--to the faith? Or perhaps you wonder why there is an Old Testament at all. Perhaps you think all we need--all we really need--is the New Testament. Alec Motyer's little 'pocket guide' to loving the Old Testament is a lovely little book.

My thoughts: I love the Old Testament. I do. I love the Bible cover-to-cover. I read the Bible cover-to-cover. Motyer didn't have to persuade me to give the Old Testament a chance. But. I think this little book serves as a lovely little reminder to the Christian church--to Christians in general--that the Old Testament IS very much worth reading. In fact, Motyer argues that we could not know Jesus properly without the Old Testament. (19)

Have you ever given the Old Testament that much weight in your theology?

Favorite quotes:

Never be afraid to exalt the sovereignty of God to the nth degree and beyond. It's the pillow on which we can lay our heads. We are only safe in this world because it's His world. (37)

Salvation was (not simply made possible but) actually accomplished on Passover night. Before Passover they could not leave Egypt; after Passover they could not stay. Before Passover they were a slave people, helpless and hopeless, under an edict of extermination; at Passover they became a pilgrim people, dressed for the road, a people liberated to walk with God. (69)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible