Review: A Heart Like His – Beth Moore

A Heart Like His is a very in depth study of the life of David by Beth Moore. It works through all of David’s life (and in fact starts with several chapters of background on Samuel and Saul and what happened in Israel before David was anointed as God’s chosen King). The book is split into short, easily readable chapters that work very well as a chapter a day devotional or that can be read as a regular book. Each chapter starts with a reference to the relevant Bible passage and while the main points are summarised in the text of the book Beth advises you to read the whole passage for added content.
As you work through A Heart Like His the central themes are: what led to David being recorded as a man after God’s own heart, how can we be like him in having a heart like God, and how can we learn from David’s mistakes. Additionally there are also many parallels drawn between the life of David and that of Jesus. This is a very practical book and each chapter relates the lessons learnt to the reader’s life – there is lots of personal application in this book. It is also a very in-depth book, with no stone left unturned and every aspect of David’s life is examined in detail, with the occasional bit of Hebrew or reference to a commentary explanation thrown in. This is not a light read and has a lot of meat to feast on slowly. Personally I found it slightly too long and I have to admit that towards the end I just wanted to rush through to get it finished. But if read in the “chapter a day” devotion style along with the extended Bible passage readings this would be a very good devotional book.
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