I recently (and finally) finished
"Twelve Ordinary Men" by John MacArthur
.
I'll start by stating that for me, this book was a bit of a slow read. Perhaps it was something I did subconsciously so I could absorb more of the details he packs into this book. While it's positive that there's much information here, I usually pick up and put down a book in much less time than this one required and it kind of annoyed me. It's probably just a personal thing, but if you notice something similar, you at least have been warned and won't be surprised.
That said, it's certainly a most interesting book; lowering these men from the pedestals we usually put them on to a level we can approach and study them reveals facets of these men that we either didn't know, ignore, gloss over, or forget.
As such, I truly feel that I know these men more intimately than I have before. Not only can I identify with all of them to some degree (which is both good and bad), MacArthur gave me a sense of not just their characteristics, but their personality. I put the book down imagining which disciples I would have personally gotten along with. On the other hand, it seems at times like MacArthur "makes up" or at least infers and deduces a lot of the personalities and characteristics of many of the disciples. I don't disagree with his observations - they just seemed to be pulled out of thin air which, is not very "MacArthur".
I say it's not very "MacArthur" because MacArthur is a master of Scripture references and certainly uses Scripture in this book every opportunity he has. He not only references familiar verses, but has a command of leveraging more obscure references, making them familiar to us, and then drawing his conclusion from it. In this book, like most of his works, he references countless verses, Bible stories, and principles in his work. Very solid.
On the other hand, I'd appreciate better cross-references with the extra-Biblical references that MacArthur uses. I realize his writing style is to the general every-man and most may not want to get bogged down in such details, but I think a citations page with references is hardly asking too much. He does have a small citations page, but it's quite a small listing of the formal quotes rather than sources that he draws from or refers.
Overall, I appreciated the technique of analysis of the person followed by an "application" section very effective. It served to draw out what we might learn from a particular disciple or how he grew and changed over time from what he was (when Christ called him) to late in his ministry when the disciple was matured in his faith (well, everyone but one).
One odd thing, I sensed a bit of repetitiveness from MacArthur in some of his storytelling. Part of it may have been that the same stories involved multiple disciples. Another part of it may have been to use "repetition" to reinforce some concepts. Perhaps it was his "for the every-man" approach that assumed a lower level of reading ability or memory. In any case, I always remembered a story he'd just referenced a few pages ago. Yet he fully explained the same story, verse, or situation multiple times. Minor annoyance.
I found "Twelve Ordinary Men" to be a great read, even if a bit slow. It's rewarding to see these...well, quite ordinary men be chosen, refined, fail, be forgiven, doubt, be restored, boast, be humbled, be prideful, yet be blessed and ultimately, become the men that our Lord God Jesus Christ wanted them to become. It's a path that we can all follow, if we begin as they did - receive His calling. Accept His Lordship. Follow His Word. These men were not perfect, but they were Christ's. Christ protected them, provided for them, taught them, and guided them. Christ loved them when many were daft and at times nearly unlovable.
These disciples are not untouchable demigods - they are VERY identifiable. Perhaps a bit too much at times. All 12 of them, unfortunately. I'll probably post some thoughts after reading this book that didn't really fit into the context of a review (a little too personal) soon.