Reclaiming the Old Testament in the Church by John H. Walton

What would account for how few sermons are preached on the Old Testament? Its canonical status is no less than that of the New Testament, and it comprises two-thirds of our authoritative revelation from God. So why is it preached so infrequently? I am persuaded that much of the explanation is found in the fact that we simply don’t know what to do with it. Every person reading through the Bible has experienced at one point or another that uncomfortable feeling of wondering, “What is this doing in my Bible?” Maybe they are reading Leviticus or Song of Songs. Perhaps they experience it even in some of the narratives of Genesis.

The key to approaching the Old Testament is to remember that at every point it is God’s revelation of himself to us. Our first question, therefore, should always be, “What does this passage tell me about God?” It is interesting that what is preached most are the Old Testament stories. Unfortunately, when we read them, we are often drawn to the characters in the narratives as we seek to have the faith of Abraham, the courage of Esther, the loyalty of Ruth, the heart of David, etc. There is nothing wrong with challenges to have more of those qualities in our lives. But in the end, these are stories about God more than about Abraham, Esther, Ruth or David.

If we want to be like God, we need to know God. We come to know God (as we come to know anyone), by hearing his stories. God has created us to be in relationship with him and the Bible allows us to know him so that we can deepen that relationship.

I was raised being steeped in the Bible in my home and in my church. Early on I became expert in the names, dates and places, especially of the Old Testament. But we cannot think that knowing the Old Testament is achieved by knowledge of the trivia of the Old Testament. Knowing the Old Testament entails knowing the God of the Old Testament.

I have found that if I only teach students the hard data of the Old Testament, the basic content framework, both professor and student often walk away from the experience with a hollow feeling—there must be more. It is important to move beyond the basic content to communication of what the Old Testament is and how it works. I want students to walk away sharing my excitement about the Old Testament as an essential part of God’s revelation of himself. I want to give them a primer on how to understand the Old Testament and how to understand its role in contemporary society and in their life and church. This is what Old Testament sermons and lessons also need to accomplish.

Questions: Do you find it difficult to move from trivia to revelation? To what extent do think that the authors of the Old Testament intended the characters in the narratives to be role models? Are there genres where you find it more difficult to think in terms of the text revealing God?

If you want to learn more about how to approach the Old Testament in this way, you can find some guidance in J. Walton and A. Hill, Old Testament Today.

John H. Walton (PhD, Hebrew Union College) teaches Old Testament at Wheaton College Graduate School. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament and the forthcoming A Survey of the Old Testament (Third Edition).

Comments

[Alex]

John,

I completely disagree with you when you say, "Our first question, therefore, should always be, 'What does this passage tell me about God?'" This goes against everything I've ever heard regarding the proper way to exegete scripture. Rather, our first question should always be "What did this mean to the original audience?" Then there are numerous other primary questions that must be asked before we ever get to the question of application to our own lives. It seems to me dangerous to start with the reader-response approach.

Thanks,
Alex

[Richard]

Dr. Walton,

"We come to know God...by hearing his stories."

Amen!

[Daniel Doleys]

Dr. Walton, This is a very poignant critique. To answer your question, I find it hard to teach/preach on texts where the message about God is seen best in a bigger setting. For example, there is a tremendous amount of material in Job where his friends are making their accusations or pleading with Job to repent, without reading discussing ten chapters or more in one lesson I find it hard to draw out the meaning of the text. I find a downside when preaching such large sections of Scripture to be the inability to read the entire text the lesson comes from. Any suggestions?

[Pat]

Dr. Walton, like you I was steeped in the Bible growing up, so I have a different perspective from some. I have never seen the God of the Old Testament as mean and angry, yet that is how so many people describe Him (Christians included!). You asked if the writers of the Old Testament intended their characters to be role models, and I would have to say no. I believe they were writing down their history and chronicling the deeds of their God. While I'm sure they admired some of the characters, I think they wanted the goodness of God to shine through (recall Joseph's final words about his fate). It's interesting that if that is what the writers intended, then we've missed the boat when we read and focus on everything but God's goodness.

[John Walton]

When I say that "What does it tells us about God?" should be our first question, I was referring primarily to the application or teaching of the message. Of course Alex is right that we have to start with the interpretational questions when we are doing our exegesis. And that involves a heavy dose of "What did this mean to the original audience?". Thank you for the clarification Alex.

And Daniel--you have hit the nail on the head! There are many times when we may have to preach larger units of text to get to the point. I have preached single sermons on the entire book of Job. Sometimes it may even be helpful in a series to preach a sermon on the entire book first, then go back week by week and pick up the details in smaller sections showing how they contribute to the whole.

John H. Walton

[Daniel Radke]

Dr. Walton,

Yes, many Christians are so confused about the OT as to its significance/meaning for them and its applicability. I want to thank you for your insights on this all-too-common problem within the Church today!

[John]

Dr. Walton,

I agree with your assessment of OT preaching and teaching and what needs to be done. I think it needs to go one step further and stress the Christocentric nature of the OT, as identified in Luke 24:27, 44.

John

[John Walton]

Personally I prefer Christotelic (everything heading toward Christ) rather than Christocentric (everything about Christ) lest we miss the power of the theocentric message in the OT and jeopardize the meaning and authority that God's revelation had to that audience before Christ came. It is revealing God, and as time goes on it reveals more and more about God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

John H. Walton

[Maer]

Dr. Walton,

Would you say that a Christotelic sermon must always draw a line between the immediate context and message of the OT passage to the NT? The reason why I ask this is that many times I feel that connections that are made between the OT and Christ or His work are at best forced (this, I realize, may say more about the preacher than the legitimacy of the method for that passage). I guess my main question is this: can an OT text stand on its own? Is an OT sermon still Christian even when a NT connection is not “explicitly” invoked?

Thank you so much for this post and willingness to interact with us.

Maer

[John H. Walton]

I am not sure what a "Christotelic sermon" would look like. "Christotelic" refers to the direction of the canon as a whole. God has a plan for relationship with his people and Christ is the mechanism by which that happens. All of Scripture has been developing the relationship (often through covenant ideas) and moving toward the ultimate provision of relationship. But each passage may or may not show anything of that eventual plan.

I think it is always important to deal with the OT passage on its own first because it has authority in and of itself (in its context). As long as an OT sermon communicates the authority of God's revelation of himself, it is a Christian sermon. In our commitment to preach Christ, we need not neglect preaching God.

John H. Walton

[Maer]

Dr. Walton,

Thank you for answering my question. I asked this question because I have read that it is not enough for a Christian sermon to be God-centered, but it must be Christ-centered. So when you said that, in your opinion, an approach to the OT preaching should be Christotelic (my words), I was not sure if that implied that the “direction of the canon as a whole” should always be made explicit and perhaps the main point of the passage (usually at the conclusion). It is refreshing to hear that when “an OT sermon communicates the authority of God's revelation of himself, it is a Christian sermon”.

[Pete Enns]

Hi John,

A friendly question here :-)

As you can guess, I very much appreciate your use of the term "Christotelic." I think we both share this way of thinking for many of the same reasons.

The issue I wrestle with is how to address the tension between the Christotelic use of the OT, which the NT authors never seem to tire of employing, and the notion that the theological message of the OT is so important that it must heard by the church on its own terms.

In my view this is a real tension, and I am wondering how you might address it.

[John H. Walton]

My answer, Peter, is that we make those decisions based on what it is that we are trying to preach or teach. One does not have to draw every OT sermon to its Christotelic conclusions in order to give it legitimacy, just as every OT sermon does not need to mention the covenant even though that is foundational to so many passages. There are times to bring out the Christotelic, and people should keep that perspective in mind, but there are many other things to teach from the OT that should be taught and are unfortuantely too often ignored.