Kingdom’s Hope. The Kindom Series Book Two. Chuck Black. New York: Multnomah Books, 2006: Book Review by L. J. Anderson

Kingdom’s Hope by Chuck Black is a fast-paced action and adventure book based on many Old Testament stories. It is an easy read designed primarily for kids; however, adults can find value in it, especially when reading with kids, as it includes discussion questions and presents biblical stories in a new way. As this is part of a series where the story builds directly off of the last book, this review will be more truncated than the last one. I will link to the previous review so you can go back and look at it if you so like.

Brief Overview

Kingdom’s Hope takes us from Moses through Nehemiah and Leinad plays all the parts. Leinad deals with all kinds of challenges as he tries to lead the King’s people to the land promised to them. Can he successfully lead a people bent on going their own way?

Things I Liked

One of the things that Chuck Black did a really good job of in this book was demonstrating how fickle the Israelites were in the Old Testament. Often one small setback would arise and they turned against God. Of course, this tendency is common for us today as well. When things get hard, Christians can be just as fickle. Instead of turning to God and trusting in him, we turn to something else. There is a great lesson to be learned in this. When things get rough, turn to God. He has been faithful in the past and he will be faithful now.

Things I Didn’t Like

In counterpoint to the above section, it can be hard to believe all the events of the book happened in one lifetime. It doesn’t actually give us a timeline, but it had to be less than 20 years or so. This kind of pulled me out of the story somewhat, however, I am not sure if that would be the case if I didn’t know the biblical narrative. Since I know that there were almost a thousand years between Moses and Nehemiah, it is hard to believe that it could have been condensed into one short lifetime.

On a similar note, this book brought up a fairly big pet peeve of mine. Many Christians, and even pastors/teachers, have a tendency to focus way too much on the New Testament. Black, for example, wrote a 6 book series and made it through the entire Old Testament in the first 2 books. That means 2/3 of his series is New Testament. In contrast, roughly 3/4 of the Bible is Old Testament and, far from being obsolete, the Old Testament is an integral part of our lives as Christians. We would do well to engage much more with it.

Theological Engagement

I have the same issues with this book as I did with Kingdom’s Dawn. There is no magic and that is problematic for a book that has God in it. That said, I will not rehash my argument here. Instead, if you would like to read more about this, please check out my post on Kingdom’s Dawn.

Would I Recommend This, and to Whom?

While the theological issues above are indeed problematic, I believe that this book is really a good book for youths and, if you are okay with a very easy read, adults. The book is clean, does a solid job of following the biblical narrative (albeit sans magic), and is entertaining. I actually recommend reading it to your kids as it can be a good way to bond and have some interesting biblical/theological discussions.

I want to hear your thoughts! Have you read Kingdom’s Hope? Did you enjoy it and/or find it valuable? If you haven’t read it, does this sound like a book you are likely to read? Let me know in the comments!

If you would like to read Kingdom’s Hope for yourself, you can buy it here.

Also, please consider liking this post and subscribing to this blog to stay up-to-date on future posts. You can also see these reviews on YouTube in a less formal setting. Here is the link to this specific review. Additionally, you can follow me on Facebook, BookBub, and Goodreads! Thanks for reading!