The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the Old Testament: Israel's In-Your-Face, Holy God

by Rolf A. Jacobson, Tripp Fuller (Editor)

The Old Testament bears witness to an in-your-face, holy God--a God who gets down and dirty with creation and history; a God who gets in people's face with love and law, with power and purpose. Yet Israel's in-your-face God is also "holy"--too other, too raw, too intense to be handled without oven mitts. Rolf Jacobson wrestles with this in-your-face God. The Old Testament starts at the beginning, where God digs in the dirt to create humanity and then gets in the dustlings' faces when they sin. God smiles on Abraham and Sarah, electing their descendants as the chosen people, but has to get in Pharaoh's face when he tries to enslave the people. Mostly, God gets in Israel's with laws about what it looks like to be God's people and through the prophets, who have to get in the faces of those who turn away from the Holy One. Jacobson also explores the psalms, poetry in which God often hides his face. He closes by exploring how the Old Testament points us ahead to Jesus, when God took on a human face and offered us the most intimate picture of God we'll ever get.

176 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

About the author

Rolf A. Jacobson is associate professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is an ordained pastor. His teaching interests include the Psalms, the Old Testament prophets, biblical poetry, biblical theology, and biblical narrative. He collaborated with Karl Jacobson on Crazy Book: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms.

Reviews

[Dana S.G. Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a word: Excellent! (And I don't say this just because the author is my future professor, really. Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Teachers.) Really enjoyed this pocket guide to the OT. It was, of a sort, a "Cliff's Notes" (with commentary and MUCH more character), to literally the oldest stories in Christendom. I enjoyed very much following the familiar story arc from Creation through the Flood Narratives, to the touches on covenants and communions, the familial stories of the patriarchs, the not-so-boring prophets and bad-news-bearers... it was a fantastic overview and done with insight, color and enough entertainment to keep one reading but not so much that it felt disrespectful or silly.

A wonderful read to introduce the OT narratives and bring back some familiar Sunday School characters. Compared to RHE's "Inspired," Jacobson approaches the text in a more linear fashion but retains much of the story-telling narrative that RHE used in her final work. A couple of editorial errors in this edition should easily be caught and remedied for the next printing but don't prove distracting at all to the readability of the text (and are the reason for the loss of that one star which really should be only 1/2 star!).

When I received all 14 texts for my first semester of Seminary, I chose where to start reading based on an equation of two variables - the likeability of the cover and the availability of the text to be quickly shipped through Amazon. Jacobson's book found a coveted #2 spot on my reading list but now also occupies the #1 spot for "book I'd most like to re-read." Readable, insightful, and full of character - reading the HB Guide to the OT definitely makes me look forward to more good things to come!

Spoiler alert: Israel's In Your Face, Holy God turns out to also be an In Your Face, Holy God for all of us. (But I guess that's the NT... which I will anxiously watch for!)

[Rob Brock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little book is a very brief overview of the old testament, written with a lighthearted voice which I often enjoyed, except when it leaned slightly more crass. The author spends time establishing the concept of our struggles to follow God and God's faithfulness to fulfill his promises despite the failures of his people. He then carries this narrative arc across a greatest-hits survey of the old testamnet story, occassionally playing a few deep cuts as oddities or for shock value. I'm not sure I agree with the author's assessment of several of the stories he pulls from the Biblical accounts, but I can appreciate his intent: to illustrate that God is faithful, even when we are not, and that God's love and mercy provide hope for us, even in times when we are far from him. (Note: I read this for a book club for my church, and while I pulled a few nuggets from the book, I'm not sure I'd recommend this as light reading for anyone else...)