This is an excellent little book which opened my eyes. It is lucid and accurate. I used it as a text for Old Testament survey and is worthy of broad circulation. Give it to a minister or Bible student as a gift. Worth tracking down!

Around the predominant theme of kingdom of God, Goldsworthy does an admirable job of guiding the reader through the OT.

This seminal theme is portrayed in nontechnical, understandable language for laypeople, yet has the depth of theology to take the reader deeper into the holy scriptures and point them to the crucified Christ.

Useful in this study is his principles of interpretation section which provides at the least a charming intro to the topic, and a most applicable suggested list.

I bought this book to help me with preaching on the Psalms and have found it very useful. I was also intrigued by the problem of relating the book of Esther, especially the last few chapters, to our Christian lives today.

While I was disappointed to find there was not a single reference to Esther in the book, I have appreciated the way it makes you think through such issues as:
What is the relationship between the Old and New Testaments?
What is the central message of the bible?
How does each passage relate to the central message about? Christ? What does this mean to us as we seek to preach it?

The book has stimulated my thinking. It is one that would be worth reading a couple of times, and then consulting as you preach on particular biblical passages.

Goldsworthy has some interesting things to say about expository preaching, even sometimes using humour to get his message across.

A couple of the interesting things he says:
It is easy to preach about the exhortations to holy living in such a way that you ignore grace and bind yourself and your congregation with law again!

Preaching from the gospels must be done realising that the message Jesus preached to his first disciples needs to be nuanced in the light of his death, resurrection and ascension.

Goldsworthy explains these things much better than me!
Highly recommended.

While many good books exist on preaching, many of which I have read, this one goes the extra mile. Goldsworthy's main premise is that the Christian Bible is the One Word Written of the One God about salvation in Jesus Christ. While indeed, we do need to be careful in how we approach the Old Testament within its own historical and literary context (in agreement with OT Theologians), Goldsworthy makes the important point that the apostolic testimony about Christ, from the Hebrew Scriptures, is the model that we have from the New Testament. There is a lengthy treatment of his understanding of Biblical Theology (similar to According to Plan). His Biblical Theology attempts to clearly see the continuity and discontinuity between the Covenants, while affirming the central subject matter of both: Jesus Christ. The second part of the book then puts a biblical theological approach to the Scriptures into practice. There are sections on HOW to preach the Law, the Psalms, the Prophets, Historical Narrative, etc. Interstingly, he even shows how Biblical Theology applied to preaching the New Testament must result in some changes in our use of the texts. There is something for everyone here: for the interested Bible study leader, some clear tips on how to understand the Bible; for the seminarian or pastor, a great theological resource as well as hands on help from an outstanding evangelical theologian.

In seminary a professor warned fledgling preachers, "Never, ever preach the Old Testament through Christian eyes." Such nonsense can take the wind right out of a baby preacher's sails in a hurry. Goldsworthy provides a much needed correction to a liberal hermeneutic that trivializes Scripture. He unravels the fruitlessness of deconstructive (and often destructive) historical and redaction criticism and eloquently, seamlessly, draws together all Scripture into a coherent whole testifying to Jesus Christ -- typologically, prophetically, and as ultimate fulfillment. This is one of the best and most relevant books I have ever read as a pastor and preacher.