Book Review: 12 Unlikely Heroes

I was really excited about the concept of John MacArthur's book Twelve Unlikely Heroes.  I have been on a journey of faith in recent months that has been exciting- and feel God is using me (despite feeling under-qualified and not the best choice for His task) do do something great.  I thought it would be a great read of encouragement to see how God uses the unlikely to do the unexpected.

While there were highlights of the book and I enjoyed getting to know some of the unknown faces of scripture a little better, I came away feeling underwhelmed and disappointed   In many ways I felt MacArthur took too many liberties with analyzing a person's personality profile.  One example was how MacArthur portrayed Gideon as a man completely void of confidence, a weak person who in today's terms I would say would be someone you could just 'walk all over'.  While I'm not saying I know better than this great scholar, I don't think that it was necessarily that Gideon was that weak, but more that he felt unworthy and and under prepared to do the task God had laid before him.  I see Gideon not as a man who was unwilling to step up, but more unsure that He could fulfill the greatness God had laid out.  I feel in this instance there was an overreach of assumptions in order to make a point.

I felt as though the writing was lacking luster and life.  It was a rather boring read and lacked the vigor and excitement that these stories I feel naturally bring to the table.

I enjoyed reading about James, Jesus' brother and the amount of historical information provided as insight into his story.

Overall, I felt the book had great potential, but lacks what I was hoping to get out of it.  It does show how God chooses to use anyone to fulfill his will here on earth and to never underestimate what God may have for you.

I received this book as a reviewer on BookSneeze.com in return for my honest point of of view.