The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi by Kathie Lee Gifford, Jason Sobel

The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi by Kathie Lee Gifford, with Jason Sobel ISBN-13: 9780785215967 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson Released: March 6, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through BookLook.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Hear directly from Kathie Lee Gifford about her life-changing and ever-deepening connection with Jesus, the Lover of her soul. Explore dozens of ancient landmarks and historical sites from Israel, the promised land of God’s covenant. Dig into the original languages and deeper meanings of the Holy Scriptures. You’ll also find additional content from Messianic Rabbi Jason Sobel providing insight into the Hebrew language, culture, and heritage.


My Review:
The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi is a travelogue of sorts about the places Kathie Lee Gifford saw and the insights she learned while on various tours of Israel. These insights come from Ray Vander Laan's tours as well as the Rock and Road tours lead by a student of Ray's, Rod Van Solkema. Since you can get Ray Vander Laan's teachings through his video series and see the actual sites (rather than simply read brief descriptions of them), I'd recommend watching those videos over reading this book.

There were also sections by Messianic Rabbi Jason Sobel, but they often focused on speculative ideas, like numerology. For example, "According to some Jewish mystics, the letter hei is connected to the divine breath of God that releases His creative power and potential... Now it should make more sense why David picked up five stones. David needed the supernatural power that comes with a divine breath in order to punish Goliath, the wicked blasphemer, to restore honor to the divine name, and to bring shalom to the chaos. This is what letter hei--the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the number five--represent in Hebrew thought." What bothered me was that he presented his speculative ideas like they were solidly true rather than a cool idea, but we can't be sure was the actual motive, really happened, or was an intended connection. Some of his ideas were less speculative and others are commonly accepted connections, but they were all presented the same.

Anyway, each chapter focused on a specific site and on an event that happened there. The author either summarized the event or quoted the verses from the Bible. She provided some historical or basic Bible background information to the event, then provided a brief spiritual lesson. While much of this book had good information, there are many excellent books that provide biblical background insights which contain less speculation.


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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