Book summary:
The Christian Path is perplexing by design. It is completely contrary to our nature. When we think we should turn left, the path turns right. Upon it, the humble are exalted, the last are first, and to lose our life is to save it. Christianity's most revered saints have been bewildered while walking on the Way, so it is likely that every Christian will one day feel lost even while they are making their greatest progress on the Path. God, however, provided us with a map of the Path to help us understand His Way, where it is headed and what its purposes are. It is found in the seven feasts that were detailed in the books of Moses.
The Christian life, for example, begins with the first feast: Passover. Jesus became our Passover Lamb and it is through His shed blood that our debt of sin was paid and our justification was gained. After salvation, we are then led through a wilderness that empties us. This is symbolized by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a feast offering a diet of the "bread of affliction." Once emptied of self, we may then be filled with the Spirit (the fourth feast, Pentecost).
We then serve in God's power until we encounter the only feast that involved fasting: The Day of Atonement. This is the Wilderness of the Righteous and its aim is to give us a deeper understanding of the cross, or of God’s love. It is the most bewildering part of the Path, because of the acuteness of our suffering during this stage. It led C. S. Lewis to wonder if God was a "Cosmic Sadist," and an "Eternal Vivisector," in his book A Grief Observed. Though difficult, this stage prepares us to receive the rich blessings of a loving God. The Path culminates in the final feast, the fruit harvest of Ingathering/Tabernacles. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and we glorify God by bearing spiritual fruit.
The book is illustrated by the lives of saints who are both well-known and scarcely known. CH Spurgeon, DL Moody, CS Lewis, Watchman Nee, Hudson Taylor, Jeremiah Lanphier, Joon Gon Kim, Charles Colson, Peter Waldo, and others help to illustrate the contours of God's perplexing Path. It shows how prayer is a privilege, how love is irresistibly powerful, and how God uses the cross in our lives to deepen our understanding of His love.
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