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I find Dale Ralph Davis to be consistently refreshing. An exchange from his recent TGC interview:

Is there a process you suggest for pastors when they sit down with an Old Testament narrative and begin to search for how they will teach Jesus and the gospel from it? If so, what is it?

As far as a process goes for approaching an OT narrative, yes, I have one, but it’s not worth writing about.

I think the best process is for a guy to have a fascination with OT texts and a determination to preach them.

If you assume that the living God has given us this Scripture, and if you assume that he had a purpose and didactic intent in giving it—even OT narratives, some of which strike us as strange—then I think you’ll find your way in preaching them.

The fascination and determination will carry you along. I recall going through some of this in my first pastorate with the temptation to play with texts like 2 Kings 6:1-7 (the axe-head story). It seems to border on the ridiculous, but what if I come to it assuming that God, in its given context, had a particular intention in this scripture? Just thinking that way makes me ask the question Why? and tempts me to keep working and thinking until it begins to come clear.

I sometimes weary of all the “technique” we put into interpretation, as if working with OT narrative, for example, is some sort of high-priestly craft which only those who know the best buzz-words can carry off. Rather, I think simply a desire to get at the message of the text and an assumption that all OT texts are “preaching” texts will carry one a long way.

If you want to see Dr. Davis model this kind of teaching and preaching, I’ve collected his Old Testament studies here.

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