Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament

by Ellen F. Davis

“This is a book about getting, and staying, involved with God―what it takes, what it costs, what it looks and feels like, why anyone would want to do it anyway. It is at the same time a book about reading the Old Testament as a source of Good News and guidance for our life with God. The key piece of Good News that the Old Testament communicates over and over again is that God is involved with us, deeply and irrevocably so.”
―from the Introduction

With sound scholarship and her own vivid translations from the Hebrew, Old Testament professor Ellen Davis teaches us a spiritually engaged method of reading scripture. Beginning with the psalms, whose frank prayers can be a model for our own, Davis reflects on the stories of the patriarchs and the pastoral wisdom of the book of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs in helping us cultivate those habits of the heart that lead to a rich relationship with God.

Genres: Theology, Faith, Religion, Christian, Old Testament, Spirituality, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2001

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books like these "keep me alive in famine." There are so many gems in this book, so much insight and wisdom. Ellen Davis has been studying the wisdom literature of the Bible for years and walking with God for a long time. It is a great kindness that she shares what she has learned with her readers.

She studies texts which are often marginalized or flat out avoided in the church today: The Psalms of Lament, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Job chief among them. Reading Davis reminds me that I have a place in this world and a place before God. This is so needful in a world where I do not fit well and in which I often feel useless. Without Old Testament theology and especially the neglected portions aforementioned, the church is as she terms it, "impoverished". I could not agree more.

A few quotes that I really appreciated:

“Does this book [Job] teach us sympathy for the sufferer? I don’t know. Surely it means to breed in us humility before the one who is suffering. Job instructs us perhaps more about respect than about compassion; if we read this book well, then it enables us to honor the sufferer as a teacher, a theological resource for the community.” 123

“Because our life is now securely hidden in God, we can relax in God’s service. We are free to serve God with whatever skills we have. And when those skills fail (as they will), then we may go on serving through our willingness to share God’s own abiding grief and endless love for the world.” 181

[Sam Blades · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, and it loved me right back. Queen Ellen picked me up, dusted me off, put a band-aid on my knee, told me to toughen up a little, and sent me back outside to play. Thank you, Ellen Davis, for this lovely little book. You’re my hero.

“This is a book about getting, and staying, involved with God—what it takes, what it costs, what it looks and feels like, why anyone would want to do it anyway. It is at the same time a book about reading the Old Testament as a source of Good News and guidance for our life with God. The key piece of Good News that the Old Testament communicates over and over again is that God is involved with us, deeply and irrevocably so. We hear that message affirmed in many different voices and in shifting moods: in the voices of the psalmists crying out to God across the full range of human emotions, from grief to joy, from uncontained rage to dumbfounded gratitude; and also in the voice of God, spoken through poets, storytellers, prophets, and teachers. As it turns out, God’s life is as complex as our own—and it is so, precisely because God’s life is bound up inextricably with ours.”

[Tim Hoiland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ellen Davis on the Psalter: “It is called the Book of Praises, yet it includes more laments than anything else. Pondering this contradiction might provide a good way to sharpen your aim in prayer. Here is a starting point for that meditation: When you lament in good faith, opening yourself to God honestly and fully—no matter what you have to say—then you are beginning to clear the way for praise. You are straining toward the time when God will turn your tears into laughter. When you lament, you are asking God to create the conditions in which it will become possible for you to offer praise—conditions, it turns out, that are mainly within your own heart.”

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend, even if you only read one section or one chapter, it's worth getting. I read it during a time where I felt really far from God and pretty depressed, and some chapters really helped; it wasn't cheesy, or a cheer up pal, God's got Your back (which I mean He totally does, but sometimes it can come off sounding cliche) type of comfort,but real stuff. It gave me a different perspective on the Psalms and the book of Job too. It was a good mix of scholastic-ness and devotional/feels. There was a few chapters that I found just okay, but overall an excellent read.

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was wonderfully surprised by how much I was captivated by the author's unpacking of the Hebrew Bible (OT)! Since it was recommended by Walter Brueggemann, I should have guessed as much! But wonderful introduction to themes in the OT, insightful and accessible commentary on Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Job, Isaiah and more.

[Danielle DeBoef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing, thoughtful and challenging, this is a book that I will always have in my library but it will regularly be off of the shelves and in the hands of myself or a friend!

I have loved reading this book sporadically over this past year, taking time to focus on certain chapters for Bible projects or other interests. I would love to read it again in one swift(er) time frame.

[Daniel Supimpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I found out about accidentally, a real hidden gem by Ellen Davis. Accessible writing, short reflections—most of them were sermons by the author—, with great insights on the Old Testament. I had to pause after most chapters and pray with heart and mind.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book four times and will probably read it many more within my lifetime. It's by no means a systematic commentary on the Old Testament, but each time it helps me to open up the first half of my Bible and see it in a new light. Professor Davis writes with humility and a Biblical perspective, demonstrating how the Old Testament can be viewed in light of Christ's sacrifice. I especially appreciated her commentary on how the "difficult" Psalms can (and should!) be used by modern Christians.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional!!!!! One of the best books I have ever read. I am changed, moved, challenged...will be returning to this work often.

[Bryant Cornett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Christian should read this book.

I've been called an Old Testament Christian before, so it's not likely a surprise that I would like this book. But Ellen Davis does something special and unexpected here, because I don't agree with her on a number of points. Still, this book gave me a view of a facet of the diamond that is the Gospel that, frankly, I'd never seen.

The book is divided into five sections: the Psalms, Love, Wisdom, Disciplines of the Heart and Ecotheology.

Here are some things that opened Scripture up for me through this book:
1. How can we reconcile those hard Psalms--the ones that pray for the destruction of our enemies? Davis reminds us that the Psalms "are undisgussedly human utterances (pg. 9)." While the rest of the Bible is formatted as God's Word/message to us, the Psalms are our imperfect prayer to God--God's Word THROUGH us. And as imperfect beings, harshness shows through. When pressure from the outside mounts, then the Psalmist leans in with "cries of anguish and rage [that] would seem to violate all the rules for Christian prayer." (pg. 14) Davis points out that this truth of heart to God is the first step toward praise. The answer I loved here is this idea that these Psalms show real-time conversion back to the heart and mindset of God. The Psalmist almost always comes out a different door than he went in.

"The point of the shocking psalms is not to sanctify what is shameful (for example, the desire for sweet revenge) or to make us feel better about parts of ourselves that stand in need of change. Rather, the Psalms teach us that profound change happens always in the presence of God. " (pg. 5)

"So the Psalms call for honest speech, but honesty is not everything in an intimate relationship. We must also speak wisely, at least some of the time." (pg. 9)

2. OK, I get that, but how do we reconcile the seemingly totally wrong, disrespectful and accusatory prayers? Don't they pray for others destruction? Who is that God? Davis points out that Psalms 1-72 are dominated by a focus on self. They are full of "I" and "me" and and accuse God of all sorts of terrible deeds. They push and prod. They tell God to leave well enough alone and pray down destruction on the heads of their enemies and even children. "These cries of anguish and rage would seem to violate all the rules of Christian prayer." (pg. 14)

Davis helped to sharpen my focus on these prayers by pointing out "When you lament in good faith, opening yourself to God honestly and fully-no matter what you have to say-then you are beginning to clear the way for praise. . . . When you lament, you are asking God to create the conditions in which it will become possible for you to offer praise-conditions, it turns out, that are mainly within your own heart." (pg. 15)

These psalms begin with God and mark the beginning of our journey, but also with acknowledgement, from the Psalmist, that the God who created the heavens actually cares about us. Davis points out what a remarkable assumption that actually is, but that "the lament psalms regularly trace a movement from complaint to confidence in God, from desperate petition to anticipatory praise. ... The fact that the Psalms never clearly report a change in external circumstances is one mark of the Bible's persistent realisim. ... One further mark of the realism of the Psalter is the fact that it includes two psalms-Psalms 38 and 88-that make no turn toward praise." (pg. 21) This real time turning of men in the midst of terrible circumstances shows us how we can begin and move through tragedy.

Lastly, Davis reminded me, when considering the hurt experienced by the Psalter, to ask, "Is there anyone in the community of God's people who might want to say this to God about me-or maybe, about us?" (pg. 28) Putting ourselves on the pointed end of the Psalter's prayer gives a new perspective to this challenging text.

This is getting a little long, so I'll wrap up. I love this book. I don't align with everything Davis says (especially the way Davis seems to limit the power of God in Chapter 6 and the power within Ecclesiastes in Chapter 9), and felt that such a great book was lessened by what seemed like a thrown together fifth section-devoid of the critical eye and research that I appreciated throughout the rest of the book. Despite those weaknesses, this book helped me with the above and Chapter 7, on the Song of Solomon should be required reading for all Christians. It opened in me a view of the love of Christ that has me as the pursued.

I learned more from this book that I' could possibly share here, and I pray that others will search for the wisdom contained here.

Here's SOME THINGS I UNDERLINED:
"If God has a best friend (and why not?), then surely it is Moses." (pg. 46)

"God accommodates [Moses'] complaints and makes in-course corrections. God does not take a human being so fully into the divine confidence--you might say, God does not depend on a human being so fully--until Mary conceives by the Holy Spirit." (pg. 16)

"The Song [of Solomon] captures the ecstatic aspect of love that is the main subject of the whole Bible." (pg. 67)

"That the Old Testament represents God chiefly as angry Judge and vicious Warrior is a false stereotype. While these images are not absent, they are more than balanced by striking portrayals of God as Lover or Husband, infatuated with Israel beyond all reason or deserving. God is not too proud to grieve terribly over Israel's unfaithfulness, nor to be giddy over her return home. ... [This covenant's] primary quality is love at the highest pitch of intensity." (pg. 77)

"The very idea of wisdom, as the Bible understands it, challenges the mind-set of our society and the view of knowledge that all of us have to some extent internalized." (pg. 94)

"...consider how [the Proverbs] define success: the establishment of righteousness, justice and equity." (pg. 95)

"But 'true wisdom is such that no evil use can ever be made of it.' That is worth our pondering because we, more than any previous generation, are witnessing the evil effects of perverted knowledge, knowledge not essentially connected to goodness. ... No other generation has been so successful at using its technological knowledge in order to manipulate the world and satisfy its own appetites." (pg. 96)

"The sufferer who keeps looking for God has, in the end, privileged knowledge. ... She passes through a door that only pain will open, and is thus qualified to speak of God in a way that others, whom we generally call more fortunate, cannot speak." (pg. 122)

"The fourth-century Greek theologian St. John Chrysostom said that Job's greatest trial was that his wife was not taken." (pg. 125)

"...our role as comforters is not to solve the problem of pain; even less is it to stick up for God. Trying to vindicate God to a person in agonizing pain is like explaining to a crying infant that Mommy is really a well-intentioned person. ... While [Job's friends] remain mired in their convictions, Job is moving." (pg. 130)

"...Job rails against God, not as a skeptic, not as a stranger to God's justice, but precisely as a believer. It is the very depth of Job's commitment to God's ethical vision that makes his rage so fierce, and that will finally compel an answer from God." (pg. 133)

"The Garden of Eden was the place where the first human creatures might have acquired wisdom: Eden was the place for total intimacy with God, and that is the sole condition fur becoming wise. Day by day they might have grown in wisdom and stature, taking those strolls with God in 'the breezy time of day" (Genesis 3:8). But they could not wait to get smart, so they chose the quick and dirty method..." (pg. 149)

"For us the true measure of our wisdom will never be the grade point average we covet, a degree or rank, the right job, the book accepted by a prestigious press. No, we will be wise when we desire with heart, soul, mind, and strength only the things that God also desires for us--and nothing else compels us, or ever catches our wandering eye." (pg. 151)

"Worship is a vigorous act of reordering our desires in the light of God's burning desire for the wellness of all creation." (pg. 152)

"And there we recognize that our frailty is not meant to cause us anxiety and sorrow. Rather, God means it to be a source of confidence, and even, as it was for Etty [the Dutch Jew previously mentioned that died in Auschwitz], a source of joy. For it is exactly that frailty--the strict limits to our powers, their inevitable failure, the certainty of death--that creates the need and the desire to see God's power at work..." (pg. 167)

"Contrition means finding the courage to let your heart break over sin. Willfully letting your heart break and then offering the pieces to God is a radically counter cultural idea in our society" (pg. 168)

There are so many other things I underlined here, but for now, I'LL END WITH A PRAYER:
Lord of all, Creator of the universe, Motivator of all that is Good, Thank you. Thank you for the beauty that is Wisdom visited on this person, Ellen Davis, and the expression of her love that is this wonderful book. I don't question Your great motives and You don't owe me anything, but there is excellence here in tiny corners of smallish books and forgotten lectures that could change everything. Release this wisdom. Release this love and let us, let every man that has thought he checked the box on the Gospel, and let every woman who purchased a neat little bowl to put on a very special shelf to hold the Gospel--let each and every one of us know that within You, within your Word, there is something beyond all value. Let us see that men gladly gave their lives so that we could just experience this moment and decide. Nudge us toward the Light, Lord, and bless the nudgers, like Davis, who carry the water for tens of years so that one or two or ten thousand may drink. We sow and water, Lord. You provide the increase. I love You. Amen.

[Audrey Marcusen McMacken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have owned this for two years and don't remember how I came across the book. But added it to a "wellness focused" work-education funded book purchase a few years back. And then in the midst of a rare Tuesday morning of no-shows, caught up paperwork, and empty email inbox, EPIC in basket, and work education modules (IYKYK) I pulled it from a drawer and started.

It has been a tough past week-ish with family tragedy and sadness. And I am so grateful for the timing of the second chapter- The Lament Psalms. It hit just right. And despite reticence and insecurity lately about reaching out in these ways and my too much-ness, I listened to the nudge to text photos of this chapters pages to (EM) my cousin-in-law. I'm glad I didn't doubt. She said, "I’m speechless. You know what I needed before I knew I needed something like the word- thanks for seeing that and knowing me. I sat reading the pages you texted me. Wow. I cried in the orthodontist office. Audrey- the way I imagine those words spoke to you- they spoke to me! Thanks for that!!!!!!!!"

So double endorsements for this book.

And, beyond that part. So much to come back to here. The last section on biblical ecology. All of this book. My copy has so many tape flags. A must reread or at least revisit.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that this author attempted to answer some tough questions.

[Hannah]

And all the Episcopalians said thank you Ellen F. Davis !!

[Traci Rhoades · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard Ms. Davis speak at a conference recently, and loved her quiet wisdom. This book is fabulous, full of disruptions in the Bible narrative I thought I knew so well.

[Chris Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calm luh Old Testament deep dive

[Katie Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you find it hard to connect to the Old Testament, or if you're just craving a fresh (scholarly) perspective on familiar passages, this is a must-read. Every chapter is short. Every chapter is mind-blowing.

[Maddy Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book from seminary. Such a delight to comb through it with my parish this summer.

[Circle of Hope Pastors · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great way to do what the title suggests. Not an exhaustive reading of everything in the Old Testament, rather a series of highlights that uncover enough for us to see what we might have missed at first glance. Ellen Davis applies her biblical scholarship to stories that inspire in new ways with just a little bit more information. Her insights on Job were especially revelatory. -Ben

[Susan Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read, Getting Involved with God by Ellen Davis, immediately after reading, Irresistible by Andy Stanley who feels we should concentrate far more on the New Testament than on the Old Testament since we are new covenant believers. Therefore it was interesting to then read a book from someone who obviously loves the Old Testament and believes it has a lot to offer us today. Davis’ understanding of the Old Testament was instructive and insightful. Her desire to see people engaging with God on a deeper level and using psalms, stories and books of the Old Testament to do so, was inspiring. It reinforced to me that God has always desired a close, personal relationship with his people.

Ellen Davis comes from an Episcopal tradition and writes from the position of enjoying meditative and liturgical practices, which are foreign to me. Consequently, there were parts of the book I struggled with. However, overall, I found the theme of connecting more deeply with God to be uplifting and encouraging. I found one of Davis’ most helpful suggestions was to slow down when we read the Bible. Sometimes we come to the Bible with the view we have to get a certain amount read. Instead, we should read slowly, looking out for unusual or unexpected phrases and words, and ask ourselves why the writer used this particular expression.

Davis’ audience would be mature Christians from liturgical churches. This is a very different audience to Andy Stanley’s, which explains their completely different approaches to the Old Testament. Both views are valid in their context.

Overall a thoughtful and encouraging read.

[Ben Crosby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book and a convicting call for Christians to engage more seriously with the Old Testament. Davis' chapters on the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes are especially excellent. The section on eco-theology gave me a substantially deeper appreciation for a type of theologizing about which I am often rather skeptical. I do, however, have some real reservations about her willingness to talk about God being vulnerable, God being open to pain, God needing reassurance from his human partners in covenant relationship (as seen most starkly in her analysis of the Sacrifice of Isaac). While one must admit that there is some good (though decidedly not convicting) textual evidence for this view, and that Davis' exegesis along these lines is often quite creative and interesting, her position does all the same contradict many of the ways that Jews and Christians have talked about God (as impassible, omnipotent, omniscient, etc). I would have appreciated some reckoning with that. Still, a good book that I am very glad that I read.

[JEM · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, not because I agreed 100% with it all but because it was a book that caused me to think deeply and to re-examine how I read the Bible. And I love books that do that! Loved how the author emphasizes “slow reading” and how she brings out so much from the original text - made me wish I had paid more attention in my Hebrew modules when I studied theology! Also, I have come across very few books that address those “tricky” passages in scripture.

I am particularly interested in reading more about what she wrote in the last two chapters about Christians and our relationship and responsibility to creation (which I believe, having read up, she addresses more in depth in other works).

Read this with my friend (who has a stellar reputation for gifting me books that make me think 😀) and am really looking forward to discussing it in person when we meet up in August!

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Job p 127 sitting shiva -“silence requires us to be present to the unexpressed needs of others, needs of which they may themselves not yet know. Cultivating that habit of silence should be seen as one of the special responsibilities of Christian community in a noisy world.”

142 The book is not about justifying God’s actions; it is about Job’s transformation... The real question is how much it costs Job to become a father again. How can he open himself again to the terrible vulnerability of loving those whom he cannot protect against suffering and untimely death?” He also boldly overturns social norms and gives his beautiful daughters inheritances just like the sons. Power of love he has for his children. “The inspiration and model for this wild style of parenting is, of course, God. Job learned about it while God spoke out of the whirlwind. And now Job loves with the abandon characteristic of God’s love - revolutionary in seeking our freedom, reveling in the untamed beauty of every child.”

Proverbs 8 chapter. Page 149. Point that Adam and Eve are in the garden communing with God and gaining the wisdom and fullness through the consistent community. Desire for the fruit was wanting to have everything now and on their own terms.
Pg 151 “When what I desire in all and above all else is the company of God, the coming of Christ, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, then I will be wise.”

Exodus 33. Moses and God talking. God reveals by walking past. Moses had asked for help and expressed anxiety on the trip. His request “show me your glory” is what did it. “It is only in the request for a private revelation that God feels the purity in Moses’ love... For as the Bible makes undeniably clear, God is a perfect fool for love- fool enough to become human, to live and love as we do, and to weep because he loves; fool enough to suffer and die on a cross.”

Psalms of lament - 102:16-17 talks of God and glory of Zion being built. Now the “psalmist is standing in its rubble. What can their hopelessly outdated words mean to him? Yet the very misfit between the creed and the present situation is what makes this recitation important. It shows us why we recite the creed at all: because ancient faith gives power of resistance against the tyranny of our own immediate experience.” P. 164

Numbers 11 chapter tied to the modern consumption and pollution. US has 6% of world population while using 36% of resources. Rather than being satisfied with manna, we are demanding quail at the expense of our future and the current state of many other countries. Their greed came from a lack of trust/faith in God's sufficiency. Pg 208 "The church has been too slow to name the healing of the earth as a central Christian responsibility...For Christian worship itself is basic training in the art of sufficiency. Here we learn to ask for what is enough for us: 'Give us this day our daily bread.' Here we receive the one thing that can truly satisfy us, the bread of heaven, that draws our memory back to manna in the wilderness- when, against all the odds, everyone had enough, riffraff included."

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know many people prefer the New Testament to the Old Testament. At first sight, the OT seems a world away ffrom our own world. We struggle with the genocide, the prophecies of doom and the God of the OT can seem very different to the God revealed in Jesus Christ. But within the Old Testament there is an invitation to be involved with God which complements the NT's invitation. In this boo, David, skilfully unpacks this invitation through the text of Scripture. The message that God wants to be involved with us is not a new one. What is diffeent is the approach Davis by helping us discover through the different books in the OT how pain and praise often go together, the price of love, the art of living well, healthy habits and the importance of valuing God's Creation. David writes beautifully and is able to say in a few words what we would long to think and say. It is a wonderful book and I have no hsitation in awarding it 5 stars. I shall return to it again and again because the God she reveals is a God I want to be involved with.

[Whitney Dziurawiec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished listening to this after starting in the early fall and then taking a long break. Davis helps the reader get some bearings to rediscover the dynamic, probing, and fascinating literature that is the Old Testament. I wish I'd read this years ago. In particular, her chapters on lament & imprecatory Psalms were very good and her chapter on Job was pure gold (I audibly said "Wow" as I listened to it). I found her discussion on the binding of Isaac to be severely lacking though, even in my limited study I've found a lot more compelling and intelligent readings of that story than she offered. Also her little chapters at the end that dealt with random topics felt haphazard and disjointed from the rest of the book, even if it still had good things to say.

This would be a great book to have on your shelf to revisit before delving into an OT book for personal or group Bible study, and would be a great read for anyone struggling to find the luster in the Old Testament. Probably a little too much for new believers or those with no Bible knowledge.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nourishing but not heavy. Running through the OT through the lens of intimate life with God was refreshing and faithful witnessing.

It is, however, not completely thorough- there are certainty missing OT books this book does not touch at all- and those were missed opportunities I felt could tell more on what it means to be in partnership/involvement with God through (and eventual resolvement of) Mosaic laws & sacrifices, in-depth look at certain points of Israel’s history beyond Moses (Ruth? Esther?), the lives of the prophets, and their literature (ex. Daniel’s apocalyptics).

The last section on Biblical ecology was profound for me. It offers a whole missing aspect of what the Bible has to say, that is totally relevant in the modern culture, however is rarely witnessed in the modern church. The study of relationship between humans, God, and the earth is something I look forward to digging deeper in.

4.5 rounded up.

[Rachel b00ksrmagic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated this author’s perspective on the Old Testament, and her scholarship. Her knowledge of the Hebrew language and history made for a great foundation from which to understand. I didn’t always agree with her interpretations, but I still learned some things and gained a new perspective on the Old Testament. I was turned off, though, by the last few chapters of the book which felt like they were sponsored by Big Organic. I agree with her premise of the human responsibility to protect the earth, but according to science, organic farming practices actually harm the environment, and being anti-GMO means being against innovation that can feed millions of people living in impoverished countries. The author needs to stay in her lane of Old Testament scholarship and stop listening to pseudoscience.

[Erin Popova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want SO SO badly to rate this five stars. Honestly, I think I will even despite my main qualm with it. This is an amazing read for anyone who wants to think about the Old Testament from a practical perspective. There is so much in the OT teaching us how to connect with God and we don’t just have to rely on the gospels and the epistles for that. I would recommend this book to just about anyone. It is so good and so helpful for understanding different sections of the OT.

My only qualm is the last two parts of the book are just not as good. There are some great gems in those sections but I guess the organization or flow of the book suffered a little bit. I zipped through the first 3/4 of the book and the last 1/4 was a bit of a drag. Also, there isn’t really a conclusion and I feel like it needed one.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, Davis does some really interesting/profound exegesis of parts of the Old Testament that I'd thought I'd been familiar enough with. To me, the highlight of the book is her interpretation of the Binding of Isaac, which unfortunately happens early in the book, leaving me wanting an analysis as equally provocative. That isn't to say her exegesis of other Old Testament texts aren't interesting though, they are definitely eye-opening. From comparison of God's intimacy with Moses and Mary to Job's God-inspired spontaneity, this book is sure to give you a newfound appreciation of the Old Testament.

[Cynthia Koopmans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second reading of Ellen Davis book. There’s just a few books that I’ve read more than once, mostly for pleasure. But this book is simply too full of richness to devour—it must be savored and savored over and over again. The chapter on Ecclesiastes is probably my favorite chapter, but the whole book was and is mind expanding. Any Christian who isn’t moved by Ellen Davis’ insightful and informative reflections on the Old Testament, well here I will not judge, rather I will humbly leave it for God to reveal to them the error of their ways.

[Tracy Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellen Davis encourages us to slow down as we read the Bible with her attention here on the Old Testament. She cultivates a spiritual approach to reading, processing, understanding, and living out the Psalms, Proverbs, and several prophet chapters of the Bible. There are a handful of chapters in the book that I marked up but most others went over my head. There is a real desire for the reader to see how intimately we are bound to God.