The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament

The Bible Exposition Commentary #1

by Warren W. Wiersbe

By Dr. Warren Wiersbe
Compiled from Dr. Wiersbe's best-selling"BE" series with over 3 million copies in print! Here at last is the exciting truth of the Old Testament Scriptures wrapped in the warm, personal style of one of America's best-loved Bible teachers, Warren Wiersbe. Dr. Wiersbe brings the people, places, history, and teachings of the Pentateuch to life in the pages of The Bible Exposition Commentary . This volume is compiled from the following"BE" series Be Basic Genesis 1–11
Be Obedient Genesis 12–25
Be Authentic Genesis 25–50
Be Delivered Exodus
Be Holy Leviticus
Be Counted Numbers
Be Equipped Deuteronomy There will be three subsequent volumes covering the Major and Minor Prophets, the Historical Books, and
the Wisdom Books and Poetry. Study the Pentateuch in digestible sections that emphasize personal application as well as biblical content. It's the commentary that doesn't read like a commentary but like letters from a good friend.

Genres: Reference, Theology, Christian

460 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Warren W. Wiersbe, former pastor of the Moody Church and general director of Back to the Bible, has traveled widely as a Bible teacher and conference speaker. Because of his encouragement to those in ministry, Dr. Wiersbe is often referred to as 'the pastor's pastor.' He has ministered in churches and conferences throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Central and South America, and Europe. Dr. Wiersbe has written over 150 books, including the popular BE series of commentaries on every book of the Bible, which has sold more than four million copies. At the 2002 Christian Booksellers Convention, he was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Dr. Wiersbe and his wife, Betty, live in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Reviews

[Austin Ayers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spent the last year in the Pentateuch doing a daily (or almost daily) bible study with this commentary. I enjoyed this and will continue into the next volume of Joshua-Esther.

Pros:

This book challenged me to ask deeper questions and gave me answers to things I was already wondering when reading the scriptures. Wiersbe doesn’t stray away from addressing difficult topics found in the first 5 books of the Bible and when reading a commentary I value that aspect. He made connections throughout the Bible that were relevant to each passage and some connections I had never known or even considered were brought up which of course made me want to dive even deeper into studying the Bible. Wiersbe is easy to understand and uses everyday common language that the average lay person could easily pick up and be blessed by. I admire Wiersbe’s dedication to these commentaries and the insight he provides to stay as true to the biblical text as possible. Wiersbe always brings it back to Jesus and the gospel. Almost every chapter in this volume of the commentary brought a reference to Jesus and a pointing forward to (at the time the Pentateuch was written) the coming Messiah. Wiersbe stresses faith, love, repentance, obedience and a correct zeal for seeking and knowing God. I loved reading this volume and look forward to reading the next one!

Cons:

There were some cons but they are few and far between and mostly personal preference I think. Wiersbe at times will say things that feel like assumptions with certainty. I don’t love this aspect because I don’t want to make light assumptions when it comes to scripture. I don’t like when pastors or authors pull from the text more than what is actually there and make assumptions about what the people said or thought. However I can see how at times this can be ok to wonder about and I know this is a commentary but to state it as true can be dangerous and lead people into incorrect assumptions about written scripture. This is something I feel strongly about and maybe others feel less convicted on. Also along the same note Wiersbe will use hyperbolic language to get a point across and at times it feels like stepping into a grey area on written truth. Again I know this is a commentary and he is adding it for point of emphasis and slight entertainment but when it comes to the Bible I just want to make sure what I am taking away from it is truth and not a miscalculation or misinterpretation that was conveyed inappropriately by exaggeration or to make the material less dry. If the scripture is dry, and “boring” that’s fine with me just give me the truth so I can better know who God is and His word and have an appropriate reverence and understanding with proper theology. I also wish at times he dove a little deeper into the text but then I know the volume would be twice as long and we’d be looking at a Matthew Henry commentary and this was written for lay people and meant to be easily digestible and it is. I will say even though I wrote an in depth review of the cons they are only minor and the majority of the time this commentary is throughly enriching.

Theological Stance:
Warren Wiersbe was once the pastor at Moody Church in Chicago. He holds to a conservative evangelical theology. He is a premillennial dispensationalist in his eschatological stance from what I read in this volume (So covenantal amillennials will disagree). He holds a high value of scripture and is earnest in commentating on the Bible literally with some hyperbolic language used for emphasis. I also know he also holds to a Baptistic view on Baptism and so those in the traditional reformed tradition would find this to be a point of disagreement.

All in all this is a great volume and I look forward to studying Joshua-Esther in volume 2! I have loved the commentary up to this point!

[Gad]

God bless you

[Troy McGahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

To sum it up; practical, Biblically sound. I love it

[Stanislava Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the light

[Trevor Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too bad. Practical, easy to read, but it definitely begins wonderfully and ends repetitively.