In the preaching series in our church we currently delving into the book of 2nd Samuel. It’s a fascinating story with lots of twists and turns. But the question often arises how best are we to read it? This ties in with an even broader question: how do we interpret Old Testament narratives generally?

Here are 10 quick suggestions – accompanied by examples from 2nd Samuel.

1) Try and grasp the overall point of the book. 

The overall point of 2nd Samuel is that God is establishing an eternal kingdom through David. Even David’s grotesque sin will not stop the promise and grace of God.

2) Read in big chunks – narrative often tells you ‘a little, in a lot.’

Chapters 2 to 5 of 2nd Samuel are basically about God raising David to power. Of course there’s lots of detail along the way, but the basic point is that David becomes the king of all Israel not through his own scheming and machinations. God engineers his rise.

3) Narratives tell you what happened, not what SHOULD have happened.

David shouldn’t have taken many concubines and wives to strengthen his political position. But he did it anyway (2 Sam 5:13-15). Likewise, the fact that Scripture reports Amnon’s abuse of Tamar doesn’t mean the Bible approves of it (2 Sam 13).

4) OT narrative is first and foremost about God: his holiness, grace, salvation and justice.

In 2nd Samuel we see that God puts David in power (2-5). God is holy and worthy of worship (6). God establishes an eternal kingdom (7). God gives his king and people the victory (8, 10). God is merciful to enemies (9). God is a disciplining Father, but forgiving (11-20). God is our rock, our fortress and our Saviour (21-24).

5) Moralise…but not too much. 

It’s not wrong to draw moral lessons from the good or bad behaviour of characters in the Old Testament. The New Testament sometimes does this. We definitely shouldn’t lie like the Amalekite (1). We should pray before big decisions (2:1). And we should hold one another accountable when we sin (11). Yet these probably aren’t the most important points in the passage!

6) Repetition is a clue to what the passage is about. 

The confrontation between King David and his wife Michal could be interpreted in various ways (6:20-23). But repetition in the passage helps us to properly understand it. Three times Michal is called the “daughter of Saul.” (6:16, 20, 23). This is likely implying that she is his daughter in character, not just biology. Michal has the same godless mindset as Saul – she is fixated on personal glory, rather than God’s glory.

7) Don’t get bogged down in what the narrative DOESN’T tell you.

Why did David not take stronger action against Joab after his general killed Abner in cold blood (2 Sam 3)? Was David’s reticence due to family ties with Joab? Did he feel the legal case against Joab was in some way “unclear”? (Abner had killed Joab’s brother in battle). Was this just down right hypocrisy? The text doesn’t tell us… What the author is more concerned about is that David is innocent of Abner’s death (3:28, 37).

8) Place names and people names are always important. 

David goes up to “Hebron” – a place associated with Abraham (2:1). Implication: God is going to move forward the promises made to Abraham now through David!

The name “Ishbosheth” (Ishbosheth was a rival to David for the throne) was probably not an original name. It means “man of shame.” This is more like a nickname he was given – it implies that this man was doing something shameful by seeking to usurp God’s plan of making David king.

9) When the writer’s “point of view” is revealed, you’ve just found gold. 

“But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Samuel 11:27). Now we know how to read the passage before.

10) The New Testament ultimately fulfils whatever narrative you are in and is the supreme ‘commentary’ on your passage.

Are there themes in the passage that find their fulfilment in Christ? (kingship, God’s presence, victory over God’s enemies, mercy to enemies, sin and forgiveness).

How does King David point us to Christ – positively and negatively?

How does the sin in this passage reveal our need of God’s future kingdom?

(This is a letter I happily put my name to a few days ago. It has been sent to MSPs, local councillors and newspapers)

4 February 2020

The cancellation by the SSE Hydro in Glasgow of the Franklin Graham event is a deeply disturbing decision that is antithetical to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and to true democratic values.  

Franklin Graham is being discriminated against for having on occasions expressed mainstream Judaeo-Christian views on sexuality. His views in this area are not religiously extreme, indeed they simply reflect the historic and orthodox teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and countless other denominational groups. Like all mainstream Christian leaders Franklin Graham believes that every human being is a precious soul made in the image of God, and thus should be loved and treated with respect accordingly.

The planned event is one in a rich tradition of such Christian activity going back centuries in both Glasgow and the country at large. As Rev. Graham has expressed himself his mission is not political but to make known the good news about Jesus Christ to every person regardless of their sexuality or any other characteristic.

As the leaders representing evangelical churches in the West of Scotland Gospel Partnership, we want to express our consternation and deep-seated fears at this discriminatory act against a faith group that has faithfully served the civic good of our city for generations.   

Christians disagree about many things, but Christians all agree that respect for religious freedom and freedom of speech is fundamental to a free society. Therefore, we ask that the SSE Hydro management, and those political leaders who have influence in such matters, reverse this decision.

A failure to do so would be an ominous move towards a less free society and one that will in time have serious repercussions for the civic liberties of all.

On behalf the West of Scotland Gospel Partnership,

Rev. Colin Adams (Greenview Church, Glasgow)

Rev. Dr William Philip (The Tron Church, Glasgow)

Rev. Alan McKnight (Harper Church, Glasgow)

Rev. John MacKinnon (Calderwood Baptist Church, East Kilbride)

Rev. Dr Andrew Gemmill (Cornhill Training Scotland)

Rev. Craig Dyer (Christianity Explored Ministries)

Rev. Andrew Hunter (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches).

Heavenly Father,

I pray for those who preach your Word regularly. Thank you for calling them to yourself and by your mercy giving them this ministry.

Enable them to live with Christ-like integrity, so that their conduct doesn’t make a mockery of the things they preach. Help them set an example in every respect: in the words they say, the actions they choose, the love the show, the purity they display.

Grant them the sure conviction that all of the Scriptures are God-breathed and useful. Guard them from pride on the one hand and complacency on the other. May they fan their gift into flame, diligently using it and not neglecting it.

In the study, inspire them to labour. Open their eyes to see those very wonderful things that are in your Word. Give them clarity of thought that will help them understand both the burden of the message and how to convey it.

When they come to preach, give them boldness. May they not cower before men but be as fearless as untamed lions. Help them not to rely on eloquence but to lean on your Word and Spirit as their true wisdom and power.

Would all their speech in the pulpit be seasoned with salt. May they be like Christ and his apostles that followed: feeding the flock, building up the church and doing the work of the evangelist.

May they preach the Word, nothing else! May they exalt Christ, not themselves!

I ask all these things for the glory of your name and the extension of your kingdom.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Eleven… because these are not divinely inspired, but I hope they point in the general direction of wisdom.

1. Thou shalt not be uncertain about the burden of your message. Sermons run over when the preacher doesn’t know what the sermon is about. What is the thrust of the message? Can you summarise the message in 15 words or less? If not, then you’ve probably got a commentary not a sermon.
2. Thou shalt not be overly long in your introductions. This is a frequent flaw in many preachers: we take too long to really get started. I agree with the wisdom that suggests most intros should be a paragraph or two, tops. So cut down the details of that opening illustration. Don’t spend too long in recapping the book. If you’re taking 15 minutes on sermon-intros, don’t wonder where all your time is going!
3. Thou shalt not be overly repetitive. Since preaching is oral communication, it demands a degree of repetition. The congregation aren’t reading a book. They cannot return to that previous paragraph and revisit what was just said. Clear, compelling preaching will often re-iterate key ideas and phrases. The danger is in overdoing it. At some point repetition becomes tedious and starts to insult the intelligence of the congregation.
4. Thou shalt not go off piste (and if you do… factor that in). Some preacher’s manuscripts hardly resemble the sermon they preach. The glasses come off, the pulpit is departed and off they go. If this is part of our preaching DNA, then fair enough; but it is not conducive to timeliness. So if you are ‘prone to wander’ factor that extra 20 percent into your word count.
5. Thou shalt not ignore the clock. This can be all too easy, especially if (as in my church) the clock is on the side wall! If time is of the essence, consider putting your watch on the pulpit. Recently when I was under particular time-pressure I actually had a stop watch running in front of me. It helped.
6. Thou shalt not become besotted with one particular idea. This is a slightly controversial one, but a Bible teachers’ excitement about a textual discovery can cause them to camp on a particular idea. We especially need to be wary that it isn’t just a hobby horse we’re riding. Ten minutes of a sermon gallops away when we’re on the back of one of those!
7. Thou shalt not give all the detail (but a few “deep dives” are actually helpful). Some preachers love to say everything about everything. Worse, they feel they are not properly teaching the text unless they discuss, quite exhaustively, every phrase and word. But let’s be clear about this. Even if we preached for an hour, we would only scratch the surface of any text. That being said, I would personally recommend a few “deep dives” here and there in every sermon. Why not pick two or three things in the sermon that you’ll go into more detail about? Detail makes a sermon engaging.
8. Thou shalt not do subpoints.
9. Thou shalt not neglect the practice of summarising. This is the key to preaching more briefly. Learn the art of summing up and speaking in broader strokes.
10. Thou shalt not be overly wordy. This is similar to the previous point but here I am emphasising the discipline of reducing the number of words we use in sentences. I’m reminded of the counsel of JC Ryle who said “preach as though you have asthma.” Ie. keep the sentences short.
11. Thou shalt not fail to land the sermon on the first attempt. This is not an encouragement to rush the ending. Not a few sermons suffer from the jolt of an unexpected landing. When we ‘bring the sermon in’, there should be a moderately paced descent, followed by a definitive landing. If knowing how we’ll begin is vital, perhaps as important is knowing how we’ll conclude. Be it with a poigniant question, a powerful story, or a penetrating last line, know where you’re setting things down.

Devising a church’s yearly preaching schedule is deceptively tricky and invariably daunting. I have learned, by painful experience I’ll add, that I must start cogitating by the start of September at least. The process of pondering continues, on and off, till early December; at which point the hard thinking, long-praying and mutual conversing will hopefully have given birth to like a plan.

Most of this creative process happens somewhat intuitively. But if I sit down to think about it, the procedure isn’t nearly as random as it first may seem. A handful of important factors carry great weight in the ‘calls’ that are made.

History. I start with the obvious question: ‘what has been preached recently’? In fact, we are even more forensic than this in our church. Thanks to the record keeping of an assiduous elder, we have kept accurate sermon records for the last twenty years. There is also another spreadsheet that is constantly updated: where we tick off, systematically, all 66 books of Holy writ. Quite recently we finished a ’round’ of the New Testament, and are down to a handful of books in the Old. We then simply restart the cycle over again. What has ‘yet to be preached’ doesn’t always dictate our choices, but we take seriously a commitment to teaching Scripture from cover to cover.

Genre. Something I nabbed from Mark Dever (about a decade ago) was the idea of ‘rotating’ through biblical genres. Though we don’t adhere to a strict order, we are cognisant of the need to balance the literature types we are covering. In 2020, for example, we are covering the genres of narrative, gospel, wisdom and apocalyptic.

Old and New. By conviction and experience I am committed to the joyful task of preaching the Old Testament. We have one Bible, not two. The Old is as full of Christ as the New, even if there is a certain subtlety at times to the pre-incarnate revelation. We will almost always try to balance our diet of Old and New throughout the year.

Desire. Needless to say, this is subjective… but there is the matter of what I want to preach. In the face of competing options I will often just opt for the book that most interests me. It might be a book I’ve never preached on before, a book I feel I don’t much understand, or it may be something that has piqued my interest in the regular round of Bible readings.

Relevance. Though I don’t put a great amount of stock in this, there is at least some thought given to the timeliness of a book. I won’t go overboard with this consideration, since I’m convinced that all Scripture is relevant all the time. Sometimes the things we think are relevant cause us to neglect other truths that we need just as much. I’ve also discovered that God by his Spirit is quite able to create a certain “timeliness” as to when a certain passage “happens” to be preached.

Space. There is sometimes the sheer practical issue of how many sermon slots are available in the calendar. If I’m sitting with 8 slots, I can’t preach that 20 week series that I’m desperate to unfold. It will need to wait till another year.

One of my admittedly few goals for 2020 (I’m not a big resolutions guy, but that’s another story) is to blog a fair bit more. Over the past three months, in a number of unsolicited conversations with pastors, I have been reminded of the blog and urged strongly to get myself writing more frequently.

Feeling suitably chastised, here I am.

A quirky problem I have is that I prefer to produce more substantial posts. But in the busyness of life and ministry, this can lead, unsurprisingly, to an inevitable outcome: not much blogging. So my thought this year is to produce briefer, less well crafted pieces, that will nonetheless seek to get the point across.

Some topics of interest to me just now include :

• the practicalities of preaching Christ in every sermon
• improving my interpretation and application of narratives
• how to address controversial matters in sermons
• the place of passion and how to cultivate it authentically
• moving our sermons from Sunday only events to pervading the church week
• dealing with distractions in the moment of preaching.

I’d love to hear (either in the comments or by personal dm) what topics you’d like to see me blog about in 2020?

What are we all wrestling with in our preaching at the moment?

I once preached a sermon on the Magi where I dazzled the congregation. I walked them through the Magi’s gifts and explained their deeper meaning. Gold, of course, represented Jesus’ royalty. Incense his deity; and myrrh the looming spectre of his death.

It ‘preached’ pretty well but I remember feeling uneasy. Was this really what I should have been preaching from that text?

Many Christmas puddings later I now have an inkling why I felt that way. The message was exegetically unstable. Or put another way: I am now far less certain that Matthew or the Holy Spirit intended us to see these deeper meanings.

In his writings on Matthew, Don Carson expressed the same view with more dogmatism:

Commentators old and modern have found symbolic value in the three gifts… This interpretation demands too much insight from the Magi. The three gifts were simply expensive and not uncommon presents and may have helped finance the trip to Egypt.

Oh well, then.

(cue sound of sermon notes being scrumpled)

I strongly suspect that Carson is right, but what I’m really interested in is a wider problem. In our desire to make Scripture ‘preachable’ we import uncertain meanings into the text, while ignoring glorious truths that are actually there.

Take the Magi and Matthew 2 for instance. In this famous Christmas passage there are least six emphases nearer to the forefront of Matthew’s mind.

1.Promises of the coming Davidic King are now being fulfilled. Note the significance of Jesus’ birthplace and the allusion to a messianic prophecy (Numbers 24).

2. The contrast between Jewish and pagan responses to Christ’s birth. There is hostility and apathy on the one hand; fascination and worship on the other.

3. Gentile inclusion in the promises of God. This is also suggested in the genealogy of chapter 1 and is a concluding emphasis in Matthew’s gospel (go make disciples of all nations).

4. The Messiah is worshiped. The pagans were unlikely to have viewed Jesus as divine, but they “worshiped better than they knew.” (Carson)

5. There is an echo of Pharaoh’s attempt in Exodus to destroy Hebrew male children and the line of promise. There is, like that occasion, divine preservation. But the Bethlehem persecution anticipates the later plot to kill Jesus as a man.

6. A new exodus is underway. The star goes before the Magi like the cloud went before the Israelites. Jesus will be taken to Egypt like Joseph was in the book of Genesis. He will come out of Egypt, go through water, endure a wilderness before coming to a mountain (Matthew 5).

We’ve only scratched the surface of the Magi and Matthew 2. But the point I wanted to make has hopefully been demonstrated. In stressing ideas that are tenuous at best, we are in danger of missing out on meanings that are there.

We must preach the Word, not conjecture. And there’s no holiday from that, even at Christmas.