This book is aimed at personal and (perhaps to a lesser extent) small group Bible study. The series of Crossway Bible Guides seeks ‘to explain and apply the message of the Bible using non-technical language’ and ‘to encourage discussion, prayer and action on what the Bible teaches’ (8) and this volume meets these aims admirably. Each study looks at a section of the biblical text, explains what is going on in that text and then turns to questions of application in the life of the Christian. Each main section is followed by a few questions and occasionally we come across ‘Digging Deeper’ and ‘Stop and Think’ sections—the former providing more detailed background information about the characters, geography or history of the text, and the latter explaining unusual phrases or ideas from the original text. This book is very helpful and useful especially for those who are intimidated by the OT. Theology students may find that it does not answer some of the questions which they might have, so it would be an idea to have a good commentary on hand as well. Whilst also designed for use in small groups, the fact that there are only three questions for discussion at the end of each study means that a small group leader using this material will have to do some extra preparatory work in order to facilitate a fuller discussion around the text.

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