08/01/2022
Former Today cohost Gifford and rabbi Sobel follow up 2018’s The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi with a moving volume on what God’s interventions in the lives of biblical figures can teach modern Christians. Pulling from the Torah and the New Testament, the authors analyze moments in the Bible when God calls on humans to fulfill a divine duty, and they unpack what these episodes reveal about how God works and what it means to lead a Christian life. For example, Sobel—who writes most of this outing—discusses God’s promise that Sarah would conceive a son despite being past childbearing age and notes that she exemplified a steadfast faith in refusing to “give up despite the improbability of the promise in human understanding.” Describing Moses’s skepticism that he could lead the Israelites out of Egypt, as God said he would, Sobel suggests that doubts are normal, but that one must subsume them to faith because God has a plan for everyone. Sobel excels at extracting from the ancient stories wisdom for the modern reader, though Gifford’s contributions—which are limited to brief notes at the beginnings and ends of chapters and reflections on some of the stories discussed—come across as trite asides by comparison. Still, Sobel’s exegesis makes for an enlightening guide. (Aug.)
