Mr. David Deuel is an Associate Professor of Old Testament at the The Master's Seminary. In this article, his target audience is preachers, and his goal is to discuss the advantages of preaching the genre of Old Testament biblical narrative. While he does not articulate a specific level of interpretation, his idea of preaching from narrative is probably more concerned with literary analysis, which looks at extended passages, than with grammatical analysis, which only looks at a few words or a few verses. Also, preaching from Old Testament narrative probably overlaps into historical analysis because the preacher would have to understand the historical setting of the passage that he is trying to preach.

The author begins this article by talking about the large amount of narrative in the Bible and by stating that stories have a positive effect on Christians [1]. He mentions the patterned nature of the stories and the timeless truths that are usually illustrated in those stories. He discusses the importance of preaching the story-line form as well as the story-line text, and he says that the story is the best format for preaching the narrative's message [2]. In my opinion, though, this article has several weaknesses that will keep Mr. Deuel from ever convincing preachers to change their approach towards preaching Old Testament biblical narrative.

The first weakness in this article is that Mr. Deuel's appeal to preaching the story line minimizes the role of preachers. Preachers are supposed to preach the Word, not be storytellers. The author says that preachers might fear that preaching narrative will appear ridiculous or sound condescending [3], and actually, it probably would. Bible stories are told in Sunday School to both adults and children because they are less intimidating for the unsaved and because they are still educational for the whole class. But in the preaching service, the pastor's duty is to present the deeper truths of Scripture rather than to entertain. If the preacher tries too hard to create an environment where the unsaved do not sense the horror of dying lost, then he might be creating a very great negative.

Hebrews 5:13 says, "For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." The second weakness in Mr. Deuel's ideas, as he has expressed them in this article, is that Christian growth for the congregation as a whole would probably be minimized if the preaching is more story-line oriented. Stories are better suited for spiritual babes, and those babes probably would not show much spiritiual growth if they are always having to be entertained by the milk of the Word.

The third weakness, in my opinion, is the time factor that would be involved in preaching the story line. Most preachers have about half the time of a Sunday School teacher. They must pick their topic, get into it, preach their message, make the application, and get out. Sunday School teachers, by contrast, have the luxury of more time, plus Sunday School students have the advantage of being able to participate and interact with the teacher. The environmental differences and the time factor might make preaching the full story line impractical.

The fourth weakness in this article is Mr. Deuel's criticism about "Using OT narrative only to illustrate NT teaching" [4]. The author seems to suggest that the preacher should pay attention to all of the Old Testament teaching in a particular narrative in order to correctly use any of it. I disagree. I believe that the expositor should preach "the whole counsel of God," but not every time he preaches. As a preacher, one should be more concerned about being theologically correct in the message than with dragging out the service in order to tell the whole story.

The final weakness that I observed in this article pertains to the author's statement that preaching biblical narratives makes sermons "clear, relevant, and interesting" [5]. He makes this remark based on a reference to the success enjoyed by Evangelist Billy Sunday. However, Mr. Sunday's success with a particular preaching style does not make that style legitimate for all preachers. The Lord has made everyone different, and each preacher must pattern his own style according to how he has been made. What works for one may or may not work for all. If I were going to model my preaching style after anyone, I would first look to Christ and then to the early church Fathers.

My overall opinion of this article is that Mr. Deuel has not successfully sold his approach to preaching Old Testament narrative to his target audience. He did not use any clear examples, and his approach to preaching biblical narrative would probably result in fewer conversions among the unsaved and less growth among Christians.

1. David C. Deuel, Suggestions For Expositional Preaching Of Old Testament Narrative, The Master's Seminary Journal, Volume 2: Issue 1 (Spring 1991), page 45.

2. Ibid, page 48.

3. Ibid, page 46.

4. Ibid, page 58.

5. Ibid, page 46.

Deuel, David C. Suggestions For Expositional Preaching Of Old Testament Narrative. The Master's Seminary Journal, Volume 2. Issue 1. Spring 1991.

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Mr. David Deuel is an Associate Professor of Old Testament at the The Master's Seminary. In this article, his target audience is preachers, and his goal is to present Ezra's style of preaching and his example as a person to present-day preachers. He says that Ezra's example of expository preaching is an inspiration to expositors of all ages [1] and that Ezra displayed a noteworthy commitment to expository studying, practicing godliness, and teaching the Word [2].

Mr. Deuel does not tell the biblical stories of Ezra and Nehemiah in this essay, but he does present an interesting account about Ezra, himself. Was Ezra the first true expositor? From reading this work, I do not know. However, I still enjoyed reading what the author wrote about Ezra. I learned about the man, his commitment, and something about his calling into the ministry.

An obvious strength in the article is the author's ability to explain expository preaching as hearing, learning, fearing, and doing what is written [3]. This essay is very positive and presents truths about Ezra's character that one can try to emulate. From reading the article, my impressions were that Ezra was not lazy, that he was committed to the Lord, that he was committed to studying the Torah, that he was not concerned about popularity, that he was a leader, and that he was God's man. The life of Ezra is a success story that can encourage any young preacher. But its impact would probably be considerably less positive on under-committed Christians or on those who do not know Christ as Savior.

Mr. Deuel makes a comment about reading Scripture that is, in my opinion, questionable. He writes, "Well-intentioned expositors often read Scripture as if the reading were qualitatively inferior or at least secondary to the sermon" [4]. I would be very interested in seeing his evidence for making such a statement. I have been in services before where the congregation stood when the Bible was read, and I cannot recall any instances where I have ever felt like the reading of God's Word was being treated as minor or insignificant. To the contrary, my observation has been that Christians always hold the Bible in high esteem. I believe, by making such a comment, that Mr. Deuel is really just trying too hard to make Ezra look good and that he is doing so by trying to make present day church services look a little less good. If that is his motive, then I do not think that he is correct.

As I have read this essay, I have tried to decide if Mr. Deuel wrote this article as an example of preaching Old Testament narrative. In a previous issue of The Master's Seminary Journal [5], he wrote an article entitled Suggestions For Expositional Preaching Of Old Testament Narrative, and I considered the possiblility that he might have written this article as an example of the earlier article. If so, then I question whether he could convincingly preach this message in the time allowed for most sermons. I also question how much this message would convict the average hearer. My opinion is that Mr. Deuel is a good teacher, but I am not sure that the rules for the classroom lecturer really apply to the preacher in the pulpit.

I enjoyed reading this article because I like biographies and because I enjoyed reading about Ezra. The author taught me things about the man that I did not before know, and he helped me understand how a man like Ezra got called to the ministry to which he was called. I found the article to be inspiring but not necessarily instructive to preachers about their techniques for preaching. I do believe, however, that the author successfully showed that Ezra was a committed expositor and that, perhaps, he was even the first.

ENDNOTES

 

1. David C. Deuel, An Old Testament Pattern for Expositional Preaching, The Master's Seminary Journal, Volume 2: Issue 2 (Fall 1991), page 127.

2. Ibid, page 125.

3. Ibid, page 129.

4. Ibid, page 137.

5. David C. Deuel, Suggestions For Expositional Preaching Of Old Testament Narrative, The Master's Seminary Journal, Volume 2: Issue 1 (Spring 1991), pages 45-63.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Deuel, David C. An Old Testament Pattern for Expositional Preaching. The Master's Seminary Journal. Volume 2. Issue 2. Fall 1991.

Deuel, David C. Suggestions For Expositional Preaching Of Old Testament Narrative. The Master's Seminary Journal, Volume 2. Issue 1. Spring 1991.

 

				Tom of Bethany

"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)

 

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