Unlocking the Bible Story: Old Testament, Volume 1 by Colin S. Smith

Unlocking the Bible Story: Old Testament Volume 1
by Colin S. Smith

ISBN-13: 9780593197882
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Released: December 6th 2016


Source: review copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
In Unlocking the Bible Story, Colin Smith moves gradually through portions of the Bible to explain how it all holds together. He tells God's one grand story of salvation and reflects on major themes along the way. In volume 1 he moves through the Pentateuch and Historical Books of the Old Testament, which tell the story of God creating the world, choosing a people for Himself, and loving them despite their continued sin.


My Review:
Unlocking the Bible Story is the first volume in a series and covers Genesis through Nehemiah. The book includes a Bible reading plan based on the One Year Bible published by Tyndale House. Each chapter covered a group of verses but didn't cover every verse in that part of the Bible. The author mainly focused on verses critical to understanding the New Testament, and he pointed out how things in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the New Testament. His commentary was casual in tone and easy to follow. He didn't focus on controversy but on understanding the main points made in that group of verses. For example, for creation, he talked about how God created us, how we are made in the image of God, how Adam and Eve used to walk with God, how marriage is established by God, etc. At the end of each chapter, he had a section that focused on Christ in these passages, what we learned in these passages, and a prayer based on what we learned. At the end of the book, there's a study guide for each of the chapters with questions to answer.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to Christians who are unfamiliar with the Old Testament. However, I was disappointed in the sections covering the kings as I felt the author sometimes summarized things in a way that misrepresented the truth. He said that Saul put the ark of the covenant in storage (because it was not in the city where he ruled?), making it sound like Saul halted the worship of God. Yet for most of his rule, the ark was in the tabernacle and priests performed sacrifices. The author also made it sound like David only had two wives. He described David as humble because he accepted God's declaration that David's son would build the temple and only gathered all the materials for the temple (and planned how the priest would do their duties, gathered the money needed, etc.). However, David did this because he didn't feel that Solomon was up to the job (1 Chronicles 22:5), which seems rather prideful rather than humble, in my opinion. Anyway, the author made many good points, just be sure to read the text for yourself.


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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