1 & 2 Kings - Peter Leithart

1 & 2 Kings: A Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible by Peter Leithart

Brazos Press 2006

Rating: 9

Readability: 8

Impact: 9

Read it Again: Yes

Recommend It: Yes

What to Expect

A stout Reformed perspective on 1 & 2 Kings, it's Gospel message, and it's applicability in issues of today.

The Brazos Theological Commentary series is written by theologians, not Bible scholars and digs deep into the issues of the text, but not so much every detail. (Both have wonderful places.)

Leithart takes a small bite at a time and addresses important issues in Kings that are often issues today. He also gives an excellent over all look at Israel's history that pull things together.

The chapters are short. This could be an excellent Bible study companion to read over a long course of time, or a sit down and get through it read. :-)

Very good. Exciting and pertinent.

My Squib

I went through 1 & 2 Kings in my Ligonier course, but the book was so...uh..boring. Mostly caught up in the historical arguments against it and very little about the actual text. (Not to say it didn't have some interesting things to say and learn from.)

So...When I saw this at Exodus Books I got really excited.

It talked about so many different things and really made me think more about the implications of Kings. I really, really enjoyed it.

I've always loved Kings and it has some of my favorite people...Benaiah, Elijah, Jehu, Jehoiada, and Josiah.

So glad I read this. I wrote so many notes...gah.

From the Book

This book covers way to much for me to give you a quote that would properly represent the book, but here's a few a copied out in my journal.

"Always, the church's greatest tests come not from the kings who call for imprisonment and torture; Christians relish martyrdom. The great tests arise from lying prophets, from wolfish bishops, and priests, pastors, and preachers."

"If memory shapes our sense of who we are, it is no accident that the communal amnesia of the modern church produces churches without root or rudder, churches that trim their sails to every wind of doctrine. Forgetfulness is ingratitude, and ingratitude is one of the original sins. Worship is history class, where we are renewed in our communal memory and where we confess our forgetfulness of the Lord and his commandments.

Memory binds our past with our present, but in Scripture memory of the past is never nostalgic, but always evokes confidence for the future."

"The book of Kings leaves Isreal east of Eden, awaiting a return that is not yet come. And so it leaves us, a divided Christendom exiled in modern secularism, enduring the times of the Gentiles. It leaves us in exile, but it does not leave us without hope."

Hope this was helpful and, if you haven't read it, I hope it piqued your interest. :-)

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian