The
Derision of Heaven by Michael Whitworth
Unaccustomed to Michael Whitworth’s writing, I
was glad to receive this book for review in the mail on the Book of
Daniel. The Book, Derision of Heaven, is a guide to the book of Daniel as Michael
looks at the hostile world that Daniel is up against in Babylon and the world
we live in also. With a combination of
scholarly acumen and theological wisdom, Michael steadily brings us through the
situation that Daniel faced and the situation we face today. With an eye towards God’s sovereign work over
all nations, the obedience that he calls believers to, and the way believers
are to live in ungodly cultural circumstances, The Derision of Heaven makes for
an excellent read.
One of the significant aspects of the book was
the way Michael opened up key points in Daniel’s life that helped us frame the
entire message of the book. In the first
chapter Michael writes, “The word “resolved” (Hebrew sim) in 1:8 is among the
most important in the entire book. It
marks Daniel as a man of great integrity and conviction, one absolutely
committed to doing God’s will and bringing God glory” (32). Daniel paid careful attention to serving God
in his heart and in his actions regardless of what those people around him were
asking him to do. The importance of
Daniel’s resolve was in part due to his resolve “to buck the trends of so many
generations before him” (33) and follow after God and his Law. Israel prior to Daniel looked more like the
nations that squashed them than a holy people devoted to a jealous God.
Not a point easily seen, Michael’s careful use
of good scholarly material on Daniel is to be commended. In Daniel 7, he references the four different
empires alluded to in ch. 7-12 as having various interpretations, whether they
be from conservative or liberal scholars (134).
He goes on to make the telling comment that, “..obtaining a scholarly
consensus on most anything in Dan 7-12 is as likely as getting a bus full of
adolescents to agree on where to eat lunch on a long road trip” (134). Yet, he takes the position that the fourth
empire in Daniel is Rome. Michael is
careful to outline the various views of the kingdoms and still cogently argue
for his position.
Overall, this book was a blessing in
disguise. I was not expecting to find
such God-glorifying writing that used such great background research. You will certainly find much to learn from
and grow from in this book.
Thanks to Book Crash and Start2Finish Books for the copy of this book in exchange
for an honest review.
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