Preaching can be Exhausting

Wrestling ourselves clear with an author’s thought, and then wrestling ourselves clear with our own, is not for the mentally lazy. It often involves long hours of struggle in order to understand and capture fully and accurately what an author is saying; then equally long hours struggling to produce a message that will communicate that message, and its implications, faithfully and creatively to our own audience. It can be an exhausting task.

-- Duane Lifton in The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, Willhite & Gibson, eds., p.57

Are you a Hack?

"Without guidance, the most earnest preacher of the gospel hacks away with a blunt knife at the most delicate of operations, his labour vastly increased, his effectiveness sadly decreased, by his lack of a method."

-- R.E.O. White, quoted by H. Wayne House and Daniel Garland, God's Message, Your Sermon, p.4

On Commentaries

I trust none of them unrservedly, and I expect nowhere to find perfection. All must be read with caution. They are good helps but they are not infallible. They are useful assistants, but they are not the pillar and cloud of fire. I advise my younger readers to remember that. Use your judgment prayerfully and diligently. Use commentaries, but be slave to none. Call no man master.

-- J. C. Ryle

Drive-Through Sermons

Quick drive-by exegesis results in shallow drive-through sermons that leave people spiritually malnourished and hungry.

-- Greg Heisler, Spirit-Led Preaching, p.50

A Model Prayer by Isaac

Gen 32:9-12 = A prayer for a time of crisis

1. He identifies God as his god & refers to his relationship with the Lord (v.9a)
2. He refers to the circumstances that led to this current crisis (v.9b)
3. He speaks to God with humility (v.10a)
4. He speaks to God with gratitude for other blessings already received (v.10b)
5. He makes his request very clearly known (v.11)
6. He refers to God’s promise (v.12)

-- from a class with Dr. Duane Garrett, Professor of Old Testament, SBTS

Luke 20:21-25

21 And they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. 22 “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 23 But He detected their trickery and said to them, 24 “Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” And they said, “Caesar’s.” 25 And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Caesar is to be given the coins that bear his images. "And to God, the things that are God's." Who/what bears the likeness & image of God? Man. He is the one who is to be rendered to God...

-- remembering a concept in discussion with Dr. T.J. Betts, Professor of Old Testament, SBTS

English Grammar

English grammar is not like the rules of Euclidean geometry, fixed and immutable. Rather the purpose of grammar is to facilitate communication. Consistency of spelling, punctuation and grammar can generally facilitate this (and make it easier on proofreaders to catch errors). But if one can communicate more effectively, powerfully and artistically by breaking the rules, the good writer will do it.

-- Andy Le Peau, IVP editorial director, Andy Unedited blog, 06/18/2007

Embrace the Distance!

Paradoxically, however, the first step that we must take to a healthy appropriation of the Old Testament is to fully embrace its distance from us. We will surely distort God's message to us if we read the Old Testament as if it had been written yesterday.

-- Tremper Longman III, Making Sense of the Old Testament, p.22

Seeing Details in Light of the Larger Context

This ability - the ability to state what each section of a book is about and how the paragraphs in each section contribute to that argument - is one of the most critical steps. If the exegete falters here, much of what follows will be wasted time and effort.

-- Walter Kaiser, Towards an Exegetical Theology, p.69

Luther on Allegories

"It was very difficult for me to break away from my habitual zeal for allegory. And yet I was aware that allegories were empty speculations and the froth, as it were, of the Holy Scriptures. It is the historical sense alone which supplies the true and sound doctrine."

-- Martin Luther, quoted by Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, p.113

What is a "Proverb"?

A proverb is usually a short, salty, concrete, fixed, paradigmatic, poetically-crafted saying.

-- Sandy & Giese, Cracking Old Testament Codes, p.234

Genre is Reader-Defined

...genres are convenient, reader-designed constructs that are helpful in understanding literary texts, but they are not rigid final forms into which a writer must fit his ideas.

-- Sandy & Giese, Cracking Old Testament Codes, p.42

The Need for a Plot

Readers struggle to find a plot in a genre that is really not meant to be a story; they often struggle to find an immediate blessing in what is really not meant to be a praise psalm. Even more perplexing than prophecy is the narrower genre of apocalyptic. How many Christian report being baffled by the books of Daniel and Revelation! Rather than wait to discover how forms like prophecy, apocalyptic, and proverbs work, many Christians move right on to interpretation and application. Since such a move gives priority to the readers' opinions over a contextual meaning of Scripture, unhealthy results can usually be expected.

-- Sandy & Giese, Cracking Old Testament Codes, p.14