Evangelicals Now
Christian news worldwide
magnifying glass Search archives
home Home check the archives Archives Subscribe Subscriptions Advertising Information & booking of classifieds Adverts Find a local evangelical Church Find a church for the search engines and extremely curious! About us Contact us Site Map
Printable
Version

Knowing God the father through the Old Testament

A timely bombshell

KNOWING GOD THE FATHER THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT
By Christopher J.H. Wright
Monarch. 224 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978-1-85424-703-2

Once more we are indebted to Chris Wright for some fresh and challenging insights into the Old Testament and always through the lens of the New Testament fulfilment. This is especially true of the theme of this book since only through Jesus do we understand the full wonder of God as Father. Rarely in the OT is God addressed in this intimate but radical way and yet Chris Wright takes us through whole swathes of Scripture unveiling the attributes and activity of God in his fatherhood.

We investigate the concept of sonship as it is seen in God’s people and their walk with God and ultimately fulfilled in Christ. There is a reminder of this theme inspiring some of the great prayers of the OT. The whole issue of justice, not least in the concept of a ‘just war’, is seen as undergirding, not denying God’s fatherly concern.

There is much here for the reader new to studying Scripture in depth, but there is plenty of gloriously fresh material for those of us who know our way around the OT. Chris Wright balances well known tracts with Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon alongside a great chapter on Hosea with his outworking in his disfunctional family relationships of the message of triumphant love. We even discover the weird story of Gog and Magog having a place in the overall theme of strong divine fatherhood at work.

In an age of generally superficial understanding of the character of God with a vague belief that God will sort things out in our messy world and often feeble church this book should come as a timely bombshell. It should disturb our ‘limp evangelical pietism’ (see p.145) and, before we put the book down, we have a helpful final chapter from the New Testament on the whole wonder of the riches of personally knowing God.

Philip H.Hacking,
retired Anglican vicar, now itinerant preacher, and ex-Chairman of the Keswick Convention and Word Alive