Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come: A Commentary on the First Gospel

I clearly remember buying this commentary while in high school. I loved to study the Bible and had often asked my pastor to give me commentaries to help me understand it. The ones he gave me, however, were often too technical for me. I remember being full of joy at seeing this commentary in our Christian bookstore. It looked like a short very easy to understand commentary on a book of the Bible by an author who was very respected in my church. I brought it home and eagerly dug into Matthew using this commentary to help me understand. I cannot remember all the details, but remember being frustrated page after page thinking that what I am reading in Matthew of Jesus' vision of the kingdom does not really match with the commentary. I felt like none of the interpretations were explaining what Matthew was presenting Jesus as saying and doing. I distinctly remember giving up a little over half-way through thinking that I must need to go to seminary to understand the Bible because this author is seeing things I do not. It was not that I did not understand the author, I just could not figure out how what he said related to what Jesus was saying and doing in Matthew. I figured he must just know more. It would be much later I began to hear words like dispensational and understand that part of my early struggle was with this whole framework. But I still look back with sadness at this commentary. At a young age it did not lead me further into the text to love it more, but rather drove me away in discouragement.