Preaching Difficult Texts of the Old Testament

By Bryan Murawski

Practical, homiletical advice for preachers on some of the most challenging genres of Scripture
What should a preacher do when facing a genealogy while preaching the book of Genesis? How should one handle the geographically rich chapters of Joshua? What about all those laborious architectural details on the tabernacle in Exodus? From the theologically complex to the well-worn narrative, from the long pericopes to the tiniest archaeological details, this book seeks to give honest, practical advice that will better equip preachers to tackle such topics.

Each chapter includes an introduction of the difficult passages, definition and examples of the difficult passages, function/purpose of the difficult passages, and how to preach the difficult passages.

Chapter topics include:

1. Preaching the Genealogies
2. Preaching the Law
3. Preaching the Lists and Construction Details
4. Preaching the Violent Texts and Imprecations
5. Preaching the Sexually Explicit Texts
6. Preaching the Geography
7. Preaching Intertextuality and Complex Language Issues
8. Preaching the Well-Worn Stories
9. Preaching Theologically Complex or Controversial Passages
10. Preaching Long Pericopes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781496465726

Book preview

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Preaching Difficult Texts of the Old Testament (ebook edition)

© 2021 Bryan Murawski

Published by Hendrickson Publishers

an imprint of Hendrickson Publishing Group

Hendrickson Publishers, LLC

P. O. Box 3473

Peabody, Massachusetts 01961-3473

www.hendricksonpublishinggroup.com

ISBN 978-1-68307-318-5

ebook ISBN 978-1-68307-394-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Due to technical issues, this eBook may not contain all of the images or diagrams in the original print edition of the work. In addition, adapting the print edition to the eBook format may require some other layout and feature changes to be made.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937581

First ebook edition — August 2021

Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Preaching Family Trees

2. Preaching Devilish Details

3. Preaching Geography

4. Preaching Law

5. Preaching Blood and Guts

6. Preaching PG-13 Texts

7. Preaching in Tongues

8. Preaching Theologically Loaded Texts

9. Preaching Parallel Texts

10. Preaching the Goliaths

Conclusion

Appendix

List of Difficult Texts

Suggested Readings

Bibliography

I dedicate this book to two Dons:

Don Meckley, who encouraged me to preach, and

Don Cheyney, who taught me how to do it

Acknowledgments

I owe a debt of gratitude to many individuals and churches who helped shape this book and make it better. I am honored to serve as senior pastor of Bethany Bible Church in Belleville, Michigan. They’ve put up with years of long sermons in Exodus and Leviticus, which helped form several of the examples in this book. I prayerfully hope God will allow me to continue preaching many difficult texts for decades to come at BBC. My previous church, Calvary Baptist Church of Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, also endured several sermons on Old Testament genealogies, confirming my belief in Paul’s assertion that all Scripture can and should be preached (2 Tim 3:16–4:5).

Thanks to Pastor Aaron Walters and Pastor Garrett Nimmo, who have been excellent partners in ministry, giving me insightful feedback, criticism, and encouragement as they listen to my preaching, week in and week out. Thanks also to Rebecca VanHouten, who helped me format and prepare some of the images used in the book, and Austin North, who helped track down some resources for me.

My heartfelt thanks to my colleague and friend Gary Schnittjer, who graciously offered a few homiletics courses for me to teach at Cairn University. Doing this helped develop in me a love of preaching and a better idea about how to do it.

The staff at Hendrickson has been especially kind and insightful, including the editorial feedback from editors Patricia Anders and Marco Antunes. Thanks to Phil Frank for his expert typesetting work and Sarah Welch for proofreading the book. I also appreciate fellow scholars Amy Paulsen-Reed and Jonathan Kline, and the Hendrickson publishing board, for seeing value in my proposal. Though the feedback and suggestions from all these individuals have indeed matured the final product, any mistakes or bad jokes that remain are my own.

Finally, I am always grateful for my parents, who have encouraged and supported me in ministry from my high school years. More than anyone, my wife Janice has provided constant support and love over many years of ministry and marriage. I am blessed indeed (Prov 12:4). Chelsey, Nathan, Micah, and Adam—thanks for putting up with your Pastor Dad and being patient with me as I squeeze in time to write.

I pray that God will be glorified through this work and that the pulpits of pastors will be strengthened and encouraged.

κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

Preach the word!

Introduction

Tough Nuts to Crack

Some time ago, my wife attended her cousin’s adoption party a few states away. Because she did not trust my parenting capabilities with all three kids at once—in her blessed wisdom—she took our youngest and oldest with her, leaving me with just our four-year-old boy.

During our weekend together, I took Nathan out to a local restaurant for a daddy-son outing. It was one of those restaurants that serve peanuts while you wait for your appetizer. Up until that time, Nathan had only encountered peanuts out of the shell, salted or sugared. He was immediately appalled at the sight of the crinkly, brown nuggets in the bowl in front of us.

He watched in fascination as I cracked open a shell and handed him the smooth peanut inside. That was all it took. Soon, he learned that if he took two at a time and smashed them together, usually one victor would emerge—the peanut that endured the battle without cracking. He then ate the loser, selected another opponent, and got to work on the next fight. In no time, a pile of shells accumulated on our table.

Our experience at the restaurant reminded me of my uncle’s house during the holidays. He always had a walnut dish on the coffee table during Thanksgiving and Christmas. One of the best parts about going over there was getting to crack open the walnuts and dig out the seed inside. My family had a rule about this: As long as we could open them, we could eat them. As a teenager, I learned to crush the walnuts in my hand, though I often encountered a stubborn nut that required an instrument to pry it open. Even with a nutcracker, every now and then I got one that just didn’t want to yield.

Why work so hard at cracking walnuts? Why bother giving a bowl full of unopened peanuts to restaurant guests?

Because breaking through the shells is worth the effort.

Inside the rough, creviced exterior, there awaits a tasty, healthy treat.

Tough Exterior, Healthy Interior

Some passages of Scripture look and act like a walnut. They are hard to crack. They have a tough exterior. Perhaps even an ugly exterior. They don’t yield their nutrition without a fight.

Yet once the interpreter moves beyond the hard outer shell, the passage offers great theological treasure and insight. But unlike walnuts, we can’t purchase these tough passages already removed from their shells. And even if we could, would we want to? Should we? Part of the fun is working the meat from the shell. Effort yields proportional rewards.

What are these tough texts that need cracking?

They are the genealogies of Scripture. They are the long lists of items found in Numbers and Ezra-Nehemiah. They are the violent or sexual texts that make parents want to cover the ears of their young children. Chapter after chapter of ancient law. Construction details on the tabernacle; geography in Joshua; theologically and linguistically complex texts peppered throughout Scripture.

Honest preachers will admit that some texts just simply preach easier than others. There is a reason why every Christian knows the story of David and Goliath but few have taken the time to read through Leviticus—biblical law is a tough nut to crack!

Yet the reward is worth the effort.

Why?

Here are three simple truths.

Truth #1: Every text of Scripture is relevant for personal sanctification and preaching.

The apostle Paul once wrote to Pastor Timothy, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17). Notice that first word: All. Every book, every chapter, every verse, every last word of Scripture. All leaves nothing out. All Scripture is God-breathed, profitable for sanctification.

That includes the genealogies.

That includes ten chapters of geography at the end of Joshua.

That includes the weird verse about not cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk.[1]

And so on.

Every passage of Scripture is a gift from God, given to believers for their sanctification and growth. All of it comes directly from God’s mouth. And because all Scripture is God-breathed, Paul says it is profitable.

But profitable for what? For teaching.

Paul uses the word teaching in the Pastoral Epistles to refer to teaching the truth of the gospel, which includes the doctrinal formulation of Scripture.[2] Scripture doesn’t exist to teach us about geometry or technology or how to survive in the wilderness (though it may do such things collaterally). Scripture profits us by teaching us about God, his character, his will, and his love for us.

Scripture is also profitable for reproof and correction, though the difference between reproof and correction is slight. Reproof adjusts our doctrine, whereas correction adjusts our character.[3] Reproof points out current wrongdoing, whereas correction restores to the right path.

Paul says Scripture is also profitable for training in righteousness. It disciplines us to live godlier lives. It drives us towards sanctification, towards Christlikeness.

All of Scripture does this.

This doesn’t mean it’s always easy for us to understand how the Bible is profitable. It doesn’t mean every book is equally as profitable for individual believers at any given point in their lives. Although not every book of the Bible offers as much practical wisdom as Proverbs or James, God promises us that all of it has some benefit.[4]

Second Timothy 3:17 provides us with the purpose of Scripture’s profit: that the man and woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Greek text plays with words here. The word translated complete and the word translated equipped come from the same root. Complete (ἄρτιος) is an adjective, and equipped (ἐξαρτίζω) is the cognate verb with a preposition attached.[5] To be complete means to be well-fitted for a certain function. You are proficient for a task.[6] To be equipped means to make ready for service or "to bring something to an end, finish, complete."[7]

English cannot perfectly replicate the wordplay. What makes it even more difficult is that the Greek text moves complete to the front of the sentence for emphasis and moves equipped to the end of the sentence for added emphasis. The following translation might bring out the sense (albeit in rough English): "in order that proficient may be the man of God, for every good work thoroughly proficient."

The word every in verse 17 creates a nice link with the word all in verse 16, although they are the same word in Greek. All Scripture is God-breathed, in order to thoroughly equip the believer for all good works. The link may suggest that good works suffer as a result of ignoring Scripture.

Now, what does all this have to do with preaching?

Ignoring the artificial chapter break between 2 Timothy 3 and 4, we consider the very next thing Paul has to say: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom (4:1).

Do you feel that build-up? Paul uses some seriously intense language to introduce the imperatives right around the corner. This is courtroom language. "Pay attention, Timothy. What I’m about to say is very important."

Preach the word (4:2): three words that should be the heartbeat of every pastor. Preach is an imperative. It is a command, not an option. It is the word of a herald declaring the decree of a king: Proclaim![8]

It’s not a give-and-take. It’s not a time for question-and-answer. It’s not a conversation.

Preaching is a public declaration of the gospel, a public declaration of the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, a public declaration of the relevance of God’s inspired, sufficient, inerrant word.

What do preachers preach?

"Preach the word." The word just talked about in 2 Timothy 3:16–17. The God-breathed, sufficient, profitable-for-every-good-work word. That’s the word preachers are called to proclaim.

Since all of the Bible is inspired and useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness in order to help the believer become thoroughly proficient in every good work, this means that all of Scripture is also fair game for preachers. Nothing is irrelevant or unworthy of a sermon.

Second Timothy calls pastors to preach the word. The message from the pulpit is the message of the text. The message is God-breathed. It can pierce the marrow of the heart. It can divide what is indivisible. It can radically change the unchangeable (Heb 4:12).

Paul follows up this command with a series of four more imperatives in verse 2, and then another four in verse 5. In between, he warns of false teachers who preach only in accordance with their own desires, tickling the ears of congregants, turning aside from the truth of God’s word.

People like to have their ears tickled, so they will be drawn to false teachers. And Paul says that the time is coming when these people will not endure sound doctrine (4:3). Notice Paul’s choice of words: endure.

Light, fluffy sermons are not endured. They are enjoyed. They tickle ears.

The word endure implies that preaching isn’t always an easy ride, nor is listening to a sermon. The NLT translates the same word suffering in 2 Thessalonians 1:4 and put up with in Mark 9:19. Endure implies that sometimes you must work through a text, even trudge through it. It may cause discomfort. But the promise of 2 Timothy 3–4 is that even when the text proves difficult, it’s good for you in the end. It matures. It sanctifies. It equips, making a believer thoroughly proficient.

When preachers choose to handle only the easier or more relevant passages of the Bible, they set a bad theological foundation for a believer’s view of Scripture. In effect, they say, "All Scripture is God-breathed, yes . . . but not so much that one."

Even though all preachers verbally affirm the truthfulness of 2 Timothy 3–4, the pulpits of some betray the functional atheism of their claim. It’s one thing to believe God inspired genealogies just as much as he did narratives; it’s another thing entirely to believe it so much that you’re willing to preach it. But that’s what 2 Timothy calls preachers to do. All Scripture is inspired and useful for equipping to righteousness. Therefore, preach it!

Truth #2: Every text of Scripture highlights the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This truth applies to every passage of Scripture, but preachers must keep it in mind especially when encountering particularly difficult texts. Once a preacher develops proficiency with handling difficult texts, preaching them can even become a joy! You can easily get lost in the minutia of detail, however, and forget the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture is Jesus.

After his resurrection, Jesus met up with a pair of disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples reveal their disappointment to Jesus: they had hoped Jesus would redeem Israel, so his death thoroughly confused them. But then, a few women and other disciples were spreading rumors of an empty tomb, and now they didn’t know what to think. Jesus responds to them in a surprising manner:

O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25–27)[9]

What catches my attention here is that when these disciples look for proof of a resurrection, when they look for hope, Jesus doesn’t immediately reveal himself. Instead, he starts with the Scriptures, with prophecy and theology.[10]

This tells me that when I preach Exodus, if I preach it right, I preach Jesus. When I preach fifty verses of geographical detail from the latter half of Joshua, if I preach it right, I preach the hope of resurrection. When I preach meticulous architectural specs of a future temple in Ezekiel 40–48, I preach the glory of Christ.

Jesus rebukes these two men for not recognizing it. He puts no blame on the Bible. Jesus doesn’t say, "I get it, guys—the Old Testament is really complicated and obscure and difficult to understand. You totally get a pass for missing this one."

This isn’t the fault of Scripture. The Bible clearly points to Jesus, and it’s we who are at fault for not seeing it—which means the preacher would be at fault for not preaching it, in any passage.

Consider Jesus’ words to the Jews: For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me (John 5:46). Moses wrote about Jesus. Some passages are more obvious than others. Genesis 3:15 is low-hanging fruit (pardon the pun) when it comes to messianic passages in the Old Testament. Include in that list Genesis 49:10, Numbers 21:8–9, Deuteronomy 18:15, 18, Isaiah 11:10, and a host of other texts the New Testament picks up and connects to Christ.

Yet, all Scripture points in some way to the gospel of Jesus Christ.[11] Some texts illustrate humanity’s sinfulness and need for a savior. Some passages leave readers yearning for a better savior. Others illustrate the grace of God or anticipate the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, or picture a system that will ultimately be found wanting.[12] However it happens, whatever it looks like, preachers must never leave a text without considering the bigger picture of the canon—and that bigger picture includes Jesus and the gospel.[13]

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). Nothing but the gospel, yet Paul spent hours reasoning from the Scriptures to those who would listen (Acts 17:2–3).

Preacher: Know nothing but Christ and the gospel. This doesn’t, though, give you license to ignore the original Old Testament context. It means we recognize the original context’s meaning in light of the bigger context of the completed canon, which includes, points to, and finds its purpose in Jesus and the gospel.

Truth #3: Proper homiletics teaches proper hermeneutics.

Members of a church rarely rise above their pastor’s biblical expertise and theological knowledge. There are exceptions, but for the most part, the preacher’s ability to handle God’s word advances far beyond the vast majority of those who sit in the pews.

This means that what a preacher does with a text homiletically has a great impact on the congregation hermeneutically. Most church members take their spiritual cues from the person in the pulpit, for better or worse. How the preacher handles the Bible influences how the church handles the Bible.

If preachers routinely avoid difficult texts, then they ill-equip their church members to handle similar texts when they reach such passages in their own study or devotions. And equipping, after all, is the work of ministry (Eph 4:12).

The problem is exacerbated if a preacher tends to preach expositional sermons through a biblical book, but chooses to gloss over (or worse, ignore) entire sections, chapters, or verses. This communicates to the church—albeit subconsciously and probably unwittingly—that these verses aren’t quite as necessary as the rest. No preacher would dare say the Exodus architecture chapters are uninspired, yet few are as willing to address them as they do the rest of the inspired text of the same book. For some preachers, Exodus stops at chapter 20.

Other believers—following the cues of their pastor—then receive unspoken permission to do the same as they read their Bibles. They won’t dare attempt to understand or apply those nasty imprecations, because after all, their pastor avoids those verses. Don’t even think about the book of Leviticus for devotional material; at best, it’s a good source of New Testament quotations, but its relevance to twenty-first-century Christians is questionable.

On the other hand, the preachers who rightly handle the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15), who don’t shy away from the tough stuff, but instead carefully study it, explain it, and help their congregation see its inherent relevance and inspired authority—those preachers demonstrate to the church through their actions the continuing authority of all Scripture.

Consider the book of Deuteronomy. Some Christians might have a vague idea of the purpose of the law in the Old Testament, but most have little understanding on how to properly apply it to New Testament living. Preaching through Deuteronomy—or perhaps Leviticus, or even just finishing Exodus—gives preachers plenty of opportunity to instill good biblical hermeneutics for their people that will hopefully carry over into all other books that deal with Old Testament law.

Or think about those ugly imprecations. Instead of avoiding them, by carefully preaching them and helping the church understand their abiding authority and relevance for a new covenant saint, the preacher equips believers with the ability to handle similar troubling passages in the future.

Proper homiletics teaches proper hermeneutics.

I suspect there are many reasons why preachers shy away from difficult passages. There are easier passages to preach, and a pastor only has so many sermons to preach in a lifetime. And it’s a lot more obvious to see how Romans 14 applies to a believer’s life than Leviticus 14.

This supports the point,