Book Review: "A Glimpse into God's Heart"

I have wanted this book, written by Kirk Brothers, for some time now. It was published in 2006 by Gospel Advocate, and has for its subtitle, “Learning Forgiveness from the Father.”

A few weeks ago, Jeremiah and I had lunch with Dennis Loyd and Neil Anderson, who serve as the editors of the Gospel Advocate. We enjoyed the meal, and then were each given a GA book. I was pleased that this was the book given to me.

This book is a tremendous study of forgiveness. Brothers goes through both the Hebrew and Greek terms that are related to forgiveness in the Bible, laying the foundation for God’s plan to forgive man through Jesus on the cross. While these word studies could be a bit tedious for a Bible class, Brothers does a very good job of keeping them informative and easy to understand. Any student can follow along with these first few chapters.

After that groundwork is laid, the reader is moved through the Bible, noticing God’s redemptive plan at work in such areas as Passover and sacrifices. These ultimately lead to the cross, and (in my opinion) the book’s best chapter, “Watch the Lamb.” Comparisons are drawn in this chapter between Old Testament sacrifices and Jesus on the cross. Preachers, there is some rich material to use in pulpits from this chapter.

Each of the book’s 13 chapters concludes with questions for classroom or personal reflection, making this book quite useful for class use. The only drawback for using the book for that purpose is the material is so rich you might have trouble finishing in 13 weeks.

I highly recommend this short volume to a personal library or to a Bible school curriculum. Forgiveness is a word we often “throw around” without a real thought as to the meaning. Kirk has given us a tremendous resource as we seek to know God’s forgiving heart.