Walter Kaiser's Tough Questions about God and His Actions in the Old Testament is a slender volume in which one of the most significant Evangelical scholars of the Old Testament deals with a number of issues -- from creation,
to the wrath of God, the genocide of the Canaanites, God'’s knowledge of
the future, polygamy, Satan, the view of women, and (what was probably my least favorite chapter), the application of the
Old Testament law -- in a practical, accessible way, with a pastor's heart. Kaiser is known for bringing deep exegesis into conversation with the living out of the Christian faith in daily life. And he doesn't disappoint here, either.The Old Testament, more often than not, appears inaccessible to most Christians. Some of us develop that age-old heretical notion that the God of the New Testament (and the grace known in Jesus Christ) is somehow at-odds with the legalistic God of the Old Testament. So we grow increasingly uncomfortable with reading the Old Testament. Even those of us who've collapsed the notion of biblical genres, and therefore read the Old Testament as some sort of divine legal code that somehow complements the New Testament -- find pieces of the Old Testament to be strange and foreign and therefore unaccessible.
But Kaiser breaks down those faulty perceptions. The God of the Old Testament, he rightly insists again and again, is the God and Father of Jesus Christ. His actions, when properly understood, demonstrate a beautiful and joyful unity of the Testaments -- a joy and beauty that can bring vitality to the Church's witness here and now.
This is a book that would be ideal for Church School classes, and belongs on every pastor's shelves.
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I received a free copy of this book from Kregel Publications in exchange for my honest review here.