Review of Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture
by
Alastair
Roberts and Andrew Wilson Crossway,
2018
This is a fine and helpful book on several fronts. First, the authors
offer a lucid and compelling model of scripture as a musical composition. Going
into a fair amount of detail (which helped this author to understand because I
am musically illiterate), a rich and textured approach to the Bible emerges
from their exposition. This model is especially helpful in that handles both
the unity of the biblical story and the many different ways that story is told
that both unify and at times offer discordant or alternative points of view on
aspects of the story.
The bulk of the book traces the Exodus theme, the major biblical symbol
of redemption through the length and breadth of scripture. I believe the
pattern of Exodus to Exile is a macro structuring device that determines the
shape of the larger story as well as many of its parts. Roberts and Wilson are
judicious in their selection of material in this section so that even if here
or there one is not convinced by their explanation, I suspect that most of
their explanations here will carry conviction. And offer much grist for a
preacher or counselor to make use of in their respective work.
A final virtue particularly important to me was the Coda. In this final
reflection of the book the authors frame living and echoing the exodus in our
lives in terms of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I have maintained for a number
of years now a vision of Christian existence in terms of “Living Between the
Font and the Table.” I found much material in the exposition to support such a
view and for that I am particularly grateful.
In touch with the relevant scholarship but with a light touch, Echoes
of Exodus would serve well for individual or group study for almost any
level of bible reader. Bravo!
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