Finding the Love of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation by Elyse Fitzpatrick

Finding the Love of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation by Elyse Fitzpatrick ISBN-13: 9780764218019 Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: Bethany House Released: April 3, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Far too often, reading the Bible seems like just another obligation to check off your to-do list. But the Bible is so much more than a boring book of rules and regulations and stories of plagues and punishments.

The entire Bible is a love story, and every chapter is a scene in the epic romance between God and humanity. In this sweeping overview of the Bible, Elyse Fitzpatrick reveals how each section--the Law, history, poetry, and epistles--points to God's eternal love for you and the good news of redemption through Christ. You'll find yourself drawn to the Bible like never before as you begin to see Jesus on every page.


My Review:
In the first third of this book, the author talked about who was on the road to Emmaus with Jesus and what she was going to talk about in the rest of the book. I got impatient waiting for the actual study to begin, then I was disappointed with how brief the study was. Anyway, the author feels that the Jews of Jesus' time did not know how to properly interpret the Old Testament and that, after his resurrection, Jesus had to teach his disciples to see him in the Old Testament. So she is trying to teach us what she felt Jesus taught them.

She went through some stories and verses in Genesis, Ruth, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Daniel, and some other places to show us how to look for Jesus. We are to look for appearances of Jesus (like as the Angel of the Lord), prophecy about Jesus, types of Jesus (where a person's life had some similarities to Jesus and what he went through), and echoes of the gospel. She then taught that the law is any verse where we are commanded to do something while the gospel is any verse where God does the work. She feels that people only look for the places where we are supposed to do something and miss that this is in response to something God has done.

I do believe that we encounter and learn about God in the Bible, not just learn about events that happened or how we should live. I would agree that you can find Jesus all throughout the Old Testament. But the author repeatedly stated that ALL of the stories (while true events) are actually about Jesus (not the Trinity, but Jesus). That meant that some of her examples were a bit of a stretch. For example, she feels that Proverbs 31 is actually meant as a description of Jesus. Some things she said left me saying, "Uh, where did she get that?" However, if you're surprised to learn that Eve received a prophecy about Jesus or that God personally led the Israelites in the Exodus, then this book might provide new insights for you.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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