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The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Dever
Creator: Graeme Goldsworthy
Publisher: Crossway Books
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $26.39
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Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 75239
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 960
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 2.3
ISBN: 1581347170
Dewey Decimal Number: 221.06
EAN: 9781581347173
ASIN: 1581347170
Publication Date: April 10, 2006
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Product Description
"For many Christians the Old Testament is daunting and confusing. The books are long and speak about a culture dramatically different from ours. Mark Devers sermons do not substitute for reading the Old Testament, but they do provide a wonderful help in understanding it. Dever unpacks the major themes of each book with remarkable clarity, and the book also shines in conveying the message of the Old Testament for today. Here is a survey to the Old Testament that is accessible and spiritually edifying." Thomas R. Schreiner Professor of New Testament, Associate Dean of Scripture and Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary "To hear the Bible tell its own story in its own waythis is the obvious but all-too-rare strategy for reading the Book of books. I thank Dr. Mark Dever for showing us how. We are immeasurably enriched." Ray Ortlund, Jr. Senior Pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville The Old Testament is the story of Gods promises to his people. Below its somewhat obscure surface is hidden magnificent truth about the love and power of God. Throughout its pages the reader can find promise after promise from God, all of which are fulfilled in the New Testamentin the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Author Mark Dever introduces readers to the Old Testament as a glorious whole so that they are able to see the big picture of the majesty of God and the wonder of his promises. "This is a bold project, some might say foolhardy, but Mark Dever has brilliantly succeeded. This is no mere textbook; it is powerful preaching. We are not only introduced to the sweep and message of each book of the Bible but, above all, confronted by our great God and called to obey his living word." Vaughn Roberts Rector, St. Ebbes Church, Oxford, England, Author of Gods Big Picture "In these distinctive overview sermons, Mark Dever manages to bring together around the core issues of each biblical book three concerns that ought to occupy every faithful preacher of Gods Word: theological content, exegetical wisdom, and pastoral application. Here is a walk through the Bible that is well worth taking!" Timothy George Dean, Beeson Divinity School, Executive Editor, Christianity Today "Mark Dever has done the Christian community a great service in publishing these sermons. The material is academically informed but presented in a very accessible way with relevant application. With its Christological focus and careful Christian application of the Old Testament, this book enables readers to get into the theological heart of the message of each biblical book." David Peterson Principal, Oak Hill College "Mark Dever has written a needed book and written it well. With a pastors heart, a scholars mind, and the intimacy of a friend, Dever introduces the reader clearly and creatively to a book that has changed the world but to which contemporary culture remains largely unexposed. This book is warm, engaging, straightforward, and profound. It will be a valuable resource for individuals, study groups, churches, unbelievers and believers alike. Dever takes the reader on an unforgettable journey into the most remarkable and moving book ever written." John Shouse Professor of Christian Theology, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary "This is a good book, written by a pastor/scholar for people in the pew. Clear, concise, thoroughly readable. Buy two and give one to a friend." Alistair Begg Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Chagrin Falls, Ohio "I have long desired a book that would unlock the richness of the Old Testamentassisting both the pastor in the pulpit and Christians in their devotions. This is that book." C. J. Mahaney Sovereign Grace Ministries
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| Customer Reviews:
 Absolutely wonderful December 1, 2008
This book, "The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made", & its companion volume, "The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept" are a wonderful way to study the Bible. There is an overview sermon by Mark Dever for each book of the Bible that is really helpful in understanding what you are reading in the Bible. It's an invaluable resource & works really well in small Bible Study groups.
Excellent Resource November 15, 2007
I have been using this book as a guide for teaching a Bible Study class at my church. Mark's ability to capture the essence of each book and provide a high level view of how the Bible is designed plus his ability to elaborate on the intent and message of each book has given me a view of the Scripture that I had not noticed before. I have a much greater appreciation of how God designed His written Word. Having this knowledge makes reading and studying the Word more exciting. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to dig a little deeper in understanding what God wants to communicate to us through His written Word.
One Sermon On Each Old Testament Book: EXCELLENT November 1, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As I have made my way through the Bible, I have been weekly interacting with Mark Dever in his two summary-of-the-Bible books, Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made and The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept. For the last many years Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, has periodically preached single messages covering an entire book of the Bible. Modified transcripts of these sermons make up the bulk of the content of these two books.
Trying to reveal the intent and message of the author of each book and God's design for how that message would fit into the whole of the Bible and redemptive history, Dever attempts to fly us above the details to get the big picture of the Bible. Message of the Old Testament opens with a chapter on the big picture of the Bible. Then, he follows with a chapter on the overarching theme of the Old Testament, which he summarizes as "Promises Made". Finally, grouping the books of the Old Testament into groups (i.e. Pentateuch: "The Great Story", Historical Books: "The Other Millennium", Wisdom Books: "Ancient Wisdom", Major Prophets: "Big Hopes", and Minor Prophets, "Eternal Questions") he delves into the message of each book, each having its own chapter of approximately 20-25 pages apiece.
How helpful is this book! Rightly, we are directed to dig deep into a text, and we have this modeled in excellent expository sermons that may spend weeks on a single verse and years on a single verse. This type of expository preaching is good; it is right, and it is to be emulated in personal study. But without Dever's model, the Christian may be very prone to lose his or her way. If we truly want to know the God of the Bible we must know His message, and in order to know God's message in a single verse we must know the message of the chapter, and to know the message of the chapter, we must know the message of the book, and to know the message of the book we must know the message of the Bible.
I imagine what Dever is doing is similar to how I play with the map program, Google earth. Sometimes to better understand what I'm looking at up close, I need to zoom out. We must be in the habit of doing this, and that is exactly what Dever does: He zooms us out. He describes what he is doing as flying over the Biblical landscape rather than walking (or crawling) through it.
Not only is the concept of the book an excellent one, but so is the implementation. This book has been years in the making. Written with knowledge and precision of the scholar, but at a level that a lay Christian can easily understand, I know of no other resource like this that I can recommend as highly. The hours and hours of hard work, reading, prayer, and research that went into each sermon is evident. Each chapter, full of excellent content and providing a good introduction and expository summary of the book, is made even better by the pastoral bent of the work. Dever will not settle for mere knowledge, but pushes the knowledge all the way to the heart, with the hope that the reader will love the Holy, redeeming, loving, and self-giving God that His Word reveals.
Beginning in December 2006, I have been leading my smallgroup on a study through the entire Bible, focusing on one book of the Bible for 2 weeks at a time. We have been using Message of the Old Testament as a supplement to our daily reading and study precisely for all the reasons stated above. The consensus of the more than 20 people who have likewise been weekly interacting with Dever is "Excellent". You would do well to purchase this book and make good and slow use of it. I do not have the same level of familiarity with the The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept that I have with this one but will post a review of it as soon as I do; I expect that it is more of the same (but I can tell you that just the foreword by John MacArthur makes it worth the price).
Historical Christianity, not "replacement theology" July 17, 2006
36 out of 47 found this review helpful
To correct the previous reviewer's post, Dever's position on Israel is not some new "replacement" theology but the historic Christian understanding prior to the invent of 19th century dispensational theology. Dever views God's promises to Israel in light of a covenantal structure rather than a dispensational one. The Old Covenant completely fulfilled in Christ, must now be viewed through His fulfillment and establishment of the New.
The previous poster's claims of a 7 year tribulation and millenial kingdom etc. are not to be found in Dever's book because Dever simply has a different theological lens and eschatological viewpoint than that offered by Dispensationalism.
This should not cause a loss of rating, for it is not the substance of the book, rather, the book should be judged on its faithfulness to the Scriptures.
 Could be a great book, but has one big flaw. June 13, 2006
18 out of 85 found this review helpful
I really would like to give this book a five star review. The book is I will admit very helpful for those of us going into the seminary. Each chapter is a sermon based upon a book of the Bible. In other words, from Genesis forward, each book of the Bible is given an overview of its importance and its need in the larger text of the Bible. For those who will be ministers, this book helps you to see how you too can give an "overview" sermon on a particular book of the Bible. For those of you who will be teachers, this book helps you to gain extra information that can help you when teaching a class on Old Testament theology. The writing is clear, the sermons are engaging, and Pastor Mark Dever knows a lot of what he is talking about. It is good to know and have examples on how one can use the Old Testament in ministry, whether teaching or preaching, because so many people (sadly) have a harder time understanding the OT more than understanding the NT. Thus I would really like to give this book a five star review because I know that I will use it when I teach and minister the Old Testament when I finish up my seminary program.
The reason I won't give this book a five star review is because apparently Pastor Dever is one of the many growing "Replacement" theologians. The Replacement theology is that the Church fully replaces God's covenants and bindings with the Jewish people. Replacement theology is a theology that Dever aims toward whether he realizes it or not and is a theology built upon centuries of racism toward Jews within the Church. This racist thought goes back to the fault standing racism of "spiritualizing" Israel out of hatred toward the Jews that goes back from St. Augustine and even through Martin Luther to many of today's believers of postmillennialism, amillennialism, and preternism. Unlike the other reviewer, who I feel is wrong, Biblically speaking, Replacement Theology of the Church that Dever proports to is not built upon and understanding of Jesus Christ and His Earthly Ministry, after the resurrection of Christ and His ascension, up through the Apostolic period (Acts and a bit after Acts into the first few years of the Church history).
If you truly read the Old Testament, you will firmly see throughout the entire prophetic movement of the OT a literal interpretation toward a return of the Jews to the Holy Land (as seen in Ezekiel), the Millennial Kingdom centered around the Jews (as seen in such prophetic books as Isaiah), and through and into the teachings of the New Testament all the way through the futurist point of view toward a literal fulfillment of the Book of Revelation and, going back to the OT, books such as Daniel. There has always been a Biblical understanding, that is until the Church became a powerhouse of politics (especially against the Jewish people), that there will be a physical Israelite Kingdom where Yeshua will rule, as seen in both Testaments, and as expressed as being the Millennial Kingdom as finalized in the Book of Revelation. To say that there were prophecies that literally came true in the First Advent, but only will "spiritually" come true for the Second Advent is built on faulty reasoning and faulty understanding of Scripture. One must trust the Bible which says that there is a physical and spiritual manifestation of both the First Advent and the Second Advent.
While Dever is not a racist, I do believe, I do believe he is Biblically wrong in His replacement theology that states that Israel is of no importance now nor are we as Gentile Christians suppose to fully care and reach out especially to the Jewish people (we should witness, yes, says the Replacement Theologian, but not anymore than anyone else). Dever does not believe that the Israelites are of any importance anymore, as seen in his final words on his discussion in the examination of the Book of Joshua. I firmly disagree with Replacement Theology on the grounds that both the Old Testament and the New Testament firmly show through works like Isaiah and the Book of Revelation that the Israelites, the Jewish people, do have a specific fate in prophetic history. That the fact that the Jewish people are now able to return, and that movements both politically, spiritually, and prophetically encircle Israel to an exact and, on a wider berth, the entire Middle East, shows this prophetic futurist interpretation of Scripture to be exact and empirical.
First off, there is the Millennial Kingdom prophecies of OT and NT that will be fulfilled after the seven years of tribulation. We see this Yeshua controlled kingdom in books like Isaiah, for example. The very nature of the Millennial Kingdom shows that Yahweh will rule as Yeshua (the King of Kings, Faithful and True) from Jerusalem and that the people of Israel will finally reside in peace with their Messiah. Yeshua will rule over the nations in the Millennial Kingdom by way of Jerusalem, there He will rule over both Jews and Gentiles alike. From there, secondly, when the New Heavens and the New Earth come forth, at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, the world's center where Yahweh will live with us His people will be the New Jerusalem, just as pictured throughout the OT prophecies and finally pictured in the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation shows that the New Jerusalem will be a place of remembrance always and forever of many things, many of whom will be linked with Jewish history from Abraham til that time present.
Now please, realize that I am not saying that Pastor Dever is a racist or that he hold fully anti-Semitic ideologies. I believe that the Pastor is a good man who does a great job being a shepherd to his people, to those people Yahweh has lead to him. However, like a lot of Gentiles (and yes I am Gentile myself but I am also a full supporter of such groups as Jews for Jesus), there are those who hold to indifference toward the Jewish people because they (the Gentiles of the Church) do not recognize the Jewishness and the Jewish fate as clearly spoken of in the Bible, instead they spiritualize and symbolize to such an extent that the Jewish beauty of the Bible has been taken away. Which leads to, at the least, indifference toward Jews and Israel, to out right anti-Semitism.
Thus I say again. This book is very helpful for those of you who are either planning on being ministers or being teachers at seminaries, like I myself will hope to be one day as soon as I get through my seminary classes. I do recommend this book, but I want you the reader to know that there is a big problem with this book, at least in my opinion. Thus you should know the good and the bad concerning this book. The book has and will help me I know, but I also know where the faults of the book lies and so should you.
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