Book: Dig Even Deeper

Chris Graves | February 2019 - Highfields Book Review

By Andrew Sach & Richard Alldritt - (2011) Inter Varsity Press: Nottingham

What does an Old Testament book have to say to us in the twenty-first century? Dig even deeper has been written to help readers discover for themselves the message of the book of Exodus, by using tools which help us 'dig deeper'.

The authors' put it this way:

"We want to share with you why we think it means what it does, how we came to our understanding of the verses, what discoveries we made. Rather than a Hollywood movie, this is going to be more like the how-they-made-the-movie footage."

"I have never seen a burning bush, have never suffered a plague of boils (even as a seventeen-year-old the acne wasn't that bad), have never parted my bathwater and walked through the middle, have never been to Mount Sinai, let alone heard God speaking from thunder on the top of it,"

'What possible relevance does the book of Exodus have to me?'

The authors set about discovering the message of the book for us today using various tools such as:

• The Repetition tool which helps us to see that God's name is a big deal.
• The Context tool which shows us why it was important to beat the Amalekites.
• The Quotation/Allusion tool which uncovers a miniature garden of Eden where we least expect one. 
  
  

As well as showing the treasure, the authors want their readers to grow in their ability to unearth such treasure for themselves in other Bible books.

At Highfields Church the series "Behold our God" on Sunday mornings and in Life Groups is looking at the book of Exodus. Andrew Sach's and Richard Alldritt's book will be a valuable tool for those getting to grips with reading and studying the book of Exodus. It will help the reader make sense of how the ten plagues might have something to say to us today as well as making sense of the laws set out from chapter 21 onwards.