Day One Opening Up Commentaries Update (4 vols.)

by Andrew Thomson

Publisher:

Day One

, 2015–2019

Overview

The Opening Up Commentary series offers accessible and easy-to-read introductions to books of the bible. The commentaries tackle the key issues in each book by introducing the history and context and by giving an overview of important themes and events. The authors wrestle with the hard questions and navigate through the difficult issues with a keen eye toward application and relevance for today.

Each book in the Opening Up Commentary series is well-organized, clearly and concisely written, and includes discussion questions for further reflection and study. This collection is ideal for readers seeking in-depth study and for those encountering the bible for the first time. The study guides make these the perfect commentaries for church and bible study groups looking to take their bible reading to the next level. This commentary is a valuable addition to the libraries of pastors, scholars, and students of the bible.

Key Features

• Addresses the key themes and issues of each book
• Includes maps and timelines
• Provides section-by-section commentary with discussion and reflection questions

Product Details

• Title: Day One Opening Up Commentaries Update (4 vols.)
• Series: Opening Up Commentary
• Publisher: Day One
• Volumes: 4
• Pages: 528
• Resource Type: Commentary

Opening Up Deuteronomy

• Author: Andrew Thomson
• Series: Opening Up Commentary
• Publisher: Day One
• Publication Date: 2015
• Pages: 144

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

In some ways you could argue that the book of Deuteronomy is not a book for the 21st century. You would have to change the title for a start. ‘Second giving of the law’ isn’t likely to fill too many people with eagerness and excitement. After all, laws aren’t very popular, and, as we see with television, neither are repeats.

So getting people enthusiastic about a book that is all about laws and that covers some of the same ground as the book of Exodus looks like being a hard sell. Looked at from another point of view, though, it is a book whose time has come. Lawlessness and moral relativism don’t lead to happiness.

Understanding the law of Moses and its relevance for today really can! It’s a book that the 21st century needs—even if all too few realize it.

This commentary captures so well the message of Deuteronomy. It appreciates the significance of the book as a covenant renewal document, and is perceptive in its comments, lively in style and most helpful in relating the teaching of the book to the overall theology of the Bible. Bible students and preachers will find it stimulating, and it will help them grasp Deuteronomy’s overall structure and teaching. I will be recommending it warmly; I know that readers will find that it opens up a fresh understanding of Deuteronomy that can be fruitfully conveyed to others.

—Allan M. Harman, former Principal and Professor of Old Testament, Presbyterian Theological College, Melbourne, Australia

If you want a quick path into Old Testament thought, read Deuteronomy; if you want a quick path into Deuteronomy, read Opening Up Deuteronomy by Andrew Thomson. There you have in a nutshell the highest commendation and the best advice I can give. Dr Thomson (is he a Dr? If not, he should be!) is blessed with a straightforward and readable prose style. His meaning is never in doubt. He understands and is fair to the covenantal basis and structure of Deuteronomy; he has a rightly Mosaic approach and a covetable understanding of what is happening in each part and at each stage of Moses’ book. Deuteronomy is itself an application to the Lord’s people, for the purposes of their coming new life in Canaan, of the basic Mosaic revelation, and it has found in Thomson a writer skilled in ‘applicatory explanation’ whereby, so to speak, we discover in one move what Deuteronomy is about, what individual passages and verses mean, how difficulties are explained and what the whole means for our lives today. This is a book to read with pleasure and profit and to give away with confidence.

—Alec Motyer, review in Evangelicals Now

Opening Up Jeremiah & Lamentations

• Author: Andrew Thomson
• Series: Opening Up Commentary
• Publisher: Day One
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 160

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Jeremiah has had a bad rap. The prophet and the book. He’s generally seen as a miseryguts, and the book is dismissed as all doom and gloom. But Jeremiah is a book for those who have taken a wrong turning. Or those who don’t want to take a wrong turning. It warns us about the consequences of leaving the Lord, but at the same time gives us abundant reasons for sticking with Him. And if we do, Jeremiah assures us, the plans God has for us include a new covenant, and a new David, whose sufferings will far surpass Jeremiah’s. Seeing our unrighteousness will be painful, but necessary. Being pointed to ‘the Lord our righteousness’ will confirm that sinners like us can have ‘a future and a hope’.

Opening Up Obadiah

• Author: Andrew Thomson
• Series: Opening Up Commentary
• Publisher: Day One
• Publication Date: 2016
• Pages: 96

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Most people don’t know the book of Obadiah even exists, let alone what it contains. In fact, you would be hard pushed to find a Christian who could tell you anything about it. You could make a good case for Obadiah being the least among Bible books—it’s certainly the shortest. It isn’t quoted in the New Testament and, to be honest, it isn’t very quotable.

But, as Andrew Thomson demonstrates throughout this practically applied commentary, we can’t dismiss Obadiah as irrelevant. It warns about the approaching ‘day of the LORD’, a day that is relevant to us all. Obadiah wants us to live our lives now in light of that day: to be sobered by it, but also to be spurred on by it.

To Edom that was bad news, but to us it can be good news—the gospel!

Opening Up 1 Peter

• Author: Andrew Thomson
• Series: Opening Up Commentary
• Publisher: Day One
• Publication Date: 2016
• Pages: 128

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Most of us know what it’s like to struggle. And most of us would appreciate some help—especially from someone who can sympathize, someone who knows what it’s like. Peter is just the man for the job. He wants us to have the strength to go on, coupled with peace within. To that end he prescribes a healthy dose of hope. But his aim isn’t just to make us feel good; he wants us to think straight and to live right. One day the struggles will be over. By God’s grace we can and will outlast them. We just need to keep going ‘a little while’ longer, and, as Andrew Thomson demonstrates in this easy-to-read and practically applied commentary, Peter shows us how.

About Andrew Thomson

Andrew Thomson has been pastor of Kesgrave Baptist Church, Suffolk, since 2010. He became a Christian through a university mission while studying at Oxford and ran a Christian bookshop for some years before being called to the ministry. He is the author of the commentaries on 1 and 2 Chronicles and Isaiah in the Opening Up series. He and his wife, Helen, are blessed with three children.