Reading

What does God want of us anyway? Mark Dever

I was semi-disappointed when I received this book in the mail. Or rather, when I opened and read the index. Why?

The book is divided into three parts, The Message on the Whole Bible, The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made and The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept.
The aim of Dever is to give us a complete and structured overview of the biblical message .
In the first part, Dever shows the character of divine promises, they were made and kept, tells the story of the people of Israel and the promise of a Saviour, fulfilled in Christ. He ends this first part talking about the New Covenant and the promise of a new creation.
The second part of the book focuses on the narrative of the old testament and answers the question "Is really worth reading the old testament?". Here Dever develops the story of the people of Israel, the Holiness of God and the promise of hope for a Savior.
The motto for reading the Old Testament is that promises are made, the motto for the New Testament is that those promises are and will be fulfilled. So, in the third chapter, about the New Testament, Dever speaks about Christ, the people of the new Covenant and the new creation.

Why is it that I was disappointed? It is not that I distrust or disagree with the author, none of it! The problem is that I already had two of these texts (first and second chapters) in another book of Dever, The Message of the Old Testament. When I bought this one I didn't realise that it was a collection of texts already published, that I owned in part.