Do you love the Old Testament? Alec Motyer, the evangelical Gandalf

I knew I was going to be reviewing Alec Motyer’s Loving the Old Testament (Christian Focus, 2015) before I began reading it, so upon commencing this book I started scribbling down points in the very back which I considered “particularly helpful parts.” I wasn’t far into the book before I realized that I would have to essentially jot down every major point as particularly helpful. In nearly every conceivable way this little book is outstanding to the point that I can hardly believe so much useful content is concentrated into so few pages. If your typical book is coffee, Loving the Old Testament is espresso.

Loving the Old Testament is a bit difficult to describe. Try imagining a miniature overview of the Old Testament. Now blend it with a brief biblical theology in the tradition of Vos or Clowney. Now add several asides inserted at helpful points where Motyer devotes special attention to exegeting selected texts. Round it off with a hearty dose of practical pastoral applications peppered throughout and add a forward by Tim Keller and an afterward by D. A. Carson. If you could imagine all of this in 130 pages, you’ve got Loving the Old Testament.

As far as the strengths of this book, they are legion. It’s clearly written, interesting, supported by meticulous and creative scholarship, not infrequently humorous, reverent and pious (in the best sense), and very practically applicable especially to a local church context. Furthermore, if you know anything about biblical studies from the last 100 years, you’ll know that Motyer is essentially the evangelical Gandalf. (And anybody who is still living who used to hang out with Martyn Lloyd-Jones must be as old as Gandalf.)  I can enthusiastically recommend Loving the Old Testament as an ideal book to give to an interested layman or to use in a discipleship course. It also might make a useful tool for Sunday school classes, Wednesday night Bible studies, or even a sharp youth group.

Since all proper book reviews comment on a book’s weaknesses, here are three, purely because they’re compulsory. First, the book includes a small handful of curious typographical errors. These obviously don’t detract from the overall message or content, but might make you smirk occasionally.

Second, the book is remarkably brief, really more in the booklet category. There’s obviously nothing wrong with brevity, but you may feel as if you want “more for your money.” Lastly, Motyer does assume a fairly traditional covenant theology and amillennial hermeneutic of the Old Testament prophets, which will delight some of our readers while irritating others.

These perfunctory weaknesses out of the way, I don’t think I could recommend Loving the Old Testament highly enough. In a day when the vast majority of our teaching and preaching almost completely neglects the first 77.2% of the Bible, this book could result in a revival of learning the whole counsel of God, and even a revival of the spiritual life of the church. Loving the Old Testament is really a delightful little book in every way. If you’re a pastor, I’d encourage you to buy a couple dozen copies and keep them on your free book table or stocked in your bookstore.

Timothy Raymond, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana

Read other book reviews like this one in the new issue of Credo Magazine!

Read the magazine as a PDF

A. W. Tozer once said that the most important thing about you is what comes into your mind when you think about God. I think the same could be said about Jesus. Who you think Jesus is and what you think Jesus did has major consequences for eternity. Jesus himself said this much in John’s Gospel. Belief in him, he taught, results in eternal life; yet unbelief results in eternal condemnation (John 3:18). So what we think and believe about Jesus really matters. Eternity hangs in the balance.

For this reason alone it is critical that Christians spend time studying what the Bible says about Jesus, who he is and what he has done. One of the most fruitful ways to do this is to look at Jesus through the traditional categories of prophet, priest, and king. As we transition from Old Testament to New Testament we discover that these offices find their fulfilment in Christ. He is the long-awaited Davidic king who inaugurates the kingdom of God, reigning and ruling over God’s covenant people. Yet this kingdom is announced, since Jesus is the prophet, the one who not only speaks the word of God but who is himself the Word, the Logos. Yet Jesus is not only a king and a prophet, but a priest. As Hebrews explains, he is our great high priest, the one who mediates between God and his people, interceding on their behalf by offering up himself as the perfect and sufficient sacrifice, the Lamb of God.

In this issue of Credo Magazine, three theologians walk us through this three-fold distinction, helping us understand each office better in light of the coming of Christ. So we invite you to come, like Mary (Luke 10:38-42), and sit at the feet of Jesus in order to marvel at how these offices display the glory of Christ.