Transformed by the Messiah: How Old and New Testament Jesus Connections Reveal God’s Intentional Story for Your Life

Messianic rabbi Sobel (Mysteries of the Messiah) argues in this mixed-bag work that viewing Jesus as the messiah can shed valuable light on believers’ lives. He points to Old Testament prophecies that are, in his view, fulfilled by Jesus’s coming, from Deuteronomy’s prediction that “The lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from yourselves, from your own kinsmen” to God’s vow in Genesis to “put animosity between” the serpent “and the woman—between your seed and her seed” (which foreshadowed a battle between Satan—the serpent’s descendant—and Jesus, who descended from the “seed of the woman,” or the virgin Mary). Jesus’s life fulfilled those prophecies, proving “God is faithful to every single promise He makes, even when it may seem impossible,” according to Sobel, and showing how connections between Old and New Testament can enrich readers’ understanding of faith and God. While the author’s biblical analyses are often thorough and detailed, he’s less successful in applying them to believers’ lives; a discussion of Jesus’s occupation as a carpenter, for example, is used to remind readers that Jesus is “the Master Craftsman” who “wants to craft your life into something beautiful and meaningful.” The result is an intermittently intriguing analysis of the symbolism of Jesus’s birth, life, and death. (Nov.)