Journal: Emmaus Journal
Volume: EMJ 10:2 (Summer 2001)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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EMJ 10:2 (Winter 2001) p. 269

Book Reviews

Editor
Mark R. Stevenson

Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope. By Philip Graham Ryken. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2001. $34.99.

From time to time a friend or student will ask me to recommend a commentary on a book of the Bible. Usually they are looking for the kind of commentary that will give them help in outlining and developing an expository sermon. I generally remind them first to look at one or two (or more!) of the more exegetical commentaries to make sure they have a good idea of the meaning of the text. Having done that they are ready to look at more homiletical works.

A number of able men in recent decades have written this kind of homiletical fare, and if they have published their work on a book of the Bible that I am expounding, I like to carefully consider their handling of the various passages. Over the years I have received a lot of help from expositors such as Campbell Morgan, Harry Ironside, Donald Barnhouse, James Boice, John Stott, Ray Stedman, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Haddon Robinson, and others. In recent years I have been recommending the “Preaching the Word” series of commentaries by R. Kent Hughes, pastor of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. The sermons of Kent Hughes have been published as commentaries on Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, the Pastoral Epistles, Hebrews, and James. They give evidence that Hughes is a studious preacher of the Word, and his treatment of the text is marked by care, conviction, and clarity (and good illustrations!).

Hughes evidently hopes to publish volumes on the whole Bible, but he does not seem to think that he can accomplish the task on his own. He has now enlisted the help of a number of able expositors to contribute to his project. The first of these contributors was Bryan Chapell, president of Covenant Theological Seminary, who assisted in writing part of the volume on the Pastoral Epistles. The second of the additional contributors is Philip Graham Ryken, the successor of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice as senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.

EMJ 10:2 (Winter 2001) p. 270

Ryken has produced a book that Bible teachers and preachers as well as general Christian readers will enjoy. It is divided into sixty-six chapters, which follow the plan of Ryken as he expounded the book to his congregation in successive Sunday messages. The text is followed by endnotes, a Scripture index, a general index, and as is helpfully true of other books in the series, an illustration index. The author says that he wrote his commentary to help Christian believers read, understand, and teach the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. In doing so he has produced a volume with a nu...

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