Have you ever met a Christian who set out to read the Bible cover-to-cover and got stuck in Leviticus!? It’s a familiar story isn’t it? I’ve often heard people say, “I find Leviticus so hard.” Now, whilst I confess that I do find the fine detail of all the sacrificial offerings and priesthood ceremonies a little difficult to follow at times I don’t usually cite Leviticus as my most difficult Bible book to read. Yes, I confess that reading the prophets – especially the ‘big ones’ – is probably my most difficult times of Bible reading…
Is this part literal? Is it spiritual or pictorial? Is it talking about Israel the physical nation? Or is it really foreshadowing the church? Was this bit past in Isaiah’s time? Was it future – future then but past now – or just future future!? Help, I’m lost! And so, after watching David Pawson’s excellent series entitled Unlocking The Bible (currently viewable on YouTube) I decided to read his Come With Me Through Isaiah.
David Pawson walks us through the entire book of Isaiah and certainly helped me to put it all into some kind of order – although lesson number one is – it is not in any easily definable order! I would guess that the overall flow of the exposition is probably what would be served up at any decent Bible College (but don’t quote me on that). Invariably it is also sprinkled with his own views, insights and interpretations. Given how far I was from unraveling Isaiah before reading this book I am not in any position to make meaningful judgments on the latter. However, this kind of book comes into my category of, “Even if you don’t agree with every last interpretive detail it will still inform you and give you a structure to, as it were, hang things on.” Good job I don’t have a book category with such a contorted name on this website! I did decide though that this book belongs in two of my site categories – Doctrine & Exposition + Prophecy.
In short, Come With Me Through Isaiah is a walk through guide presented cleanly and simply by David Pawson in digestible portions. Even if you’re the kind of person that gets stuck in Leviticus (or the ‘Big Prophets’!) you will find this book simple to read and follow and I am quite sure you will come out the other end with some broad understanding – not only of Isaiah but to some extent with the ‘keys’ at hand for unlocking other of the prophets’ writings.