Guest post from our good friend Bernard Muluuta, pioneering some grassroots work encouraging faithful Bible teaching in Uganda:
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Preaching is fundamental in the growth of the church and bears much fruit in the lives of Christians especially when done faithfully.
There are steps we go through when we get down to preaching or rather prepare to: we pray, study, pray some more, study more, write, pray and finally speak God’s Word to His people.
In our study and preparation, we are encouraged to handle the text right. “Context. Context. Context,” we are reminded, “is key” to understanding the big idea of the text. One other reason why we need to get our context right is because it affects how we apply the text to our hearers. A good understanding of the text and its context will greatly help us to apply the text to the people we are preaching to and show them why the text is relevant to them today and through that we hear God speak to us.
Spotting the context within a verse, chapter or book is good but it is also helpful to see it from the big picture perspective of the whole sweep of Scripture. All through the Bible we run into precedents – events that set patterns, they become a mould other events can fit into or are modelled on. (I don’t think I am the only one who runs into déjà vu moments in Scripture.)
We see patterns (set rolling by precedents) that are repeated in the Bible: the sacrificial system; prophets preaching God’s Word to a wayward people; God’s judgement against the people for their rebellion; the need for a king to lead God’s people; salvation for those who have faith in Jesus Christ.
The patterns have a lot to teach us about God, His character and plans, what He was teaching His people and how deviating from the pattern brought punishment against the people.
But it’s not just precedents and patterns we run into, we also find one-off phenomena – occurrences that happen only once and we are left with no other events to draw parallels to in an attempt to find a good explanation for the event. These are the exceptions.
In the Old Testament we find events like Enoch walking with God and being taken away (Gen. 5.24), Moses and the Burning Bush (Ex. 3), Joshua and the messenger of the LORD (Josh 5.13), Gideon and the woollen fleece (Jdg 6.36-38). In the New Testament we find Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), Paul’s shadow and handkerchief healing the sick (Acts 19.11-12).
I point out this distinction because it is easy for us to mistake an exception for a precedent. In preaching some dwell on some of these exceptions and make so much of them more than the text itself intends. This is reflected in the applications in the sermon as people are told they should walk with God that like Enoch they will be taken away (as mysteriously as he was). Or how like Moses they need a burning bush experience. In yesteryears I have heard (and unfortunately still hear) sermons where people are told that they like Paul should have the power to heal the sick with their shadows and handkerchiefs.
People experience frustration when they hear sermons that turn these exceptions into patterns that are supposed to be happening in their lives but never materialise. It has resulted in Christians who think their faith is weak simply because “these signs are not following them.” (Mk. 16.17-18) Others wonder what is wrong with them if they have not had a “face-to-face” chat with God like Moses did.
We need to be careful as preachers to study the Scriptures right and understand where events fit into God’s salvation story and revelation of Himself. Our understanding of their relevance then and God choosing to reveal Himself in a particular way will affect what we preach as well as how we apply the text to our hearers.
Let us not weigh down the church with expectations and challenges God did not intend for them or leave the church with the wrong impression of what God is communicating.
fidelnyikuri
iServe Africa Webmaster
Utumishi Blog 
Thanks very much for this Bernard. It is interesting how very often we draw ‘Kingdom Principles’ from the exceptions. I’m reminded of the old observation that signs and wonders are not spread evenly through Bible history but are clustered quite tightly in five groups – around the Exodus, the entry into the promised land, the ministry of Elijah and Elisha, the ministry of Jesus (2nd Elisha and 2nd Exodus), and the ministry of the apostles (sim. to the entry into the land). I also wonder whether the answer to dealing with both the Precedents and the Exceptions is to look to fulfilment in Christ.
I had not considered ‘Kingdom Principles’ but I concur with you Andy. They tend to be a distillation of one event that is made applicable elsewhere.
And indeed, dealing with Precedents and Exceptions should drive us to Christ. The exceptions in particular tend to bear little significance to us until they are considered through Jesus Christ while the precedents and patterns go on and on until Christ breaks the cycle.
“…until Christ breaks the cycle” – love that. Makes me think particularly of the Judges spiral and the constantly repeating sacrificial system.
Yesterday heard an example of exactly what you’re talking about of turning exceptions into expectations. On the basis of Gideon salutation from the Angel of the LORD (Mighty man of valour) and Mary’s by Gabriel (Blessed are you…) we were urged to listen for similar specific words and hold onto them by faith and repeat them to ourselves. It’s hard to think how you could get anything more exceptional than being called to be the mother of Christ… but sure enough it turns into a pattern and a principle. I was just longing for everyone to read your post. And to just read big chunks of the Bible. And forget about ourselves for a minute and look to Jesus.
Thanks mate for sharing this! The danger we always fall into is reading ourselves into the scripture too early- when reading scripture we are always looking for something it is saying to me and we thus lift it off directly- we actually replace ourselves with the character mentioned and assume these things must be ours.