Have been thinking about the issue of preaching narratives (stories) from the Old Testament. Actually, much of this would also apply to preaching from the gospels or Acts as well. It is tempting to take the short-cuts of allegorizing, spiritualizing, exhortation to imitate characters, moralizing or, with OT texts, jumping to Jesus. Maybe each of these terms need to be considered on their own. But here’s a thought that is helpful to me. It is easy when studying a passage to focus entirely on the text itself (the characters, plot, tension, problem, resolution, etc.)

Tip one, study three contexts. To understand the author’s intention in a specific story, it is important to understand it in the context of the section and the context of the whole book. Biblical writers wove stories (and other forms of writing) together for a larger purpose, there is no random collection of narratives. So be sure to think about the writer’s purpose by considering the story itself, the section it’s in, and the whole book.

This leads to tip two, the one I was thinking of when I started this post! When thinking about how your audience relates to the text, don’t compare them primarily with the characters in the story (although that can be fruitful), but rather compare them with the original audience for the text. How much is your audience this Sunday like the original recipients of the biblical text and in need of the same message?