Ep. 47 - Why Your Preaching Needs Historical-Cultural Context
In this episode JC Schroeder talks about how looking at the historical-cultural context of Scripture can help open up the Bible for us and our sermons. It helps us to see the connections and distinctions between the world of the Bible and the Bible itself. Having this material in our sermons can help to clarify the text and lead to greater love and transformation.
📚 Resources:
John Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament
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Why Your Preaching Needs Historical-Cultural Context
Hey friends, in this short video I just want to talk to you a little bit about the importance of looking at and utilizing the historical cultural context, especially in our devotional time and in our preaching. So to give you an illustration, I'm doing some reading today on a sermon that I'm preparing to speak on Sunday. I was looking at some of my previous reading in this book, ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament by John Walton. I really like this book. It's a great entry into the thought world of the Old Testament and I came across two passages, kind of on back-to-back pages, that help describe, I think, a really helpful vision for the unique perspective of the God of Israel and the God of the Bible. So, for instance, here on page 69, john Walton says this about divine attributes. He's speaking about divine attributes and he describes the attribute of goodness and he says this quote it is very rare for the gods of the ancient Near East to be described as good, though the hope is commonly expressed that the God will do good to the worshiper, that is, act favorably or for their benefit. This is an expression of favor rather than a sense of intrinsic goodness. End quote. And so here he's describing something about that, all the other gods that surrounded Israel, that lived in the ancient Near East, that they weren't described as like an innate goodness. They weren't good, but the God of the Bible is. Then we have this other interesting quote here on the opposite page, on page 70, when he describes now the attribute of faithfulness. Here he says again quote faithfulness is one of the most frequently affirmed attributes of Yahweh because of his covenant relationship with Israel. In contrast, it is difficult to find any such affirmation for the gods of the ancient Near East. Words that convey loyalty are never used of the gods in that way. The gods have no agreements or promises to be faithful to and no obligations or commitments to fulfill. Now a couple of things here that I want to note. The first one is, if we're not looking at the comparative literature, the comparative culture, the historical, cultural context of the Old Testament, we may be at risk foreseeing the God of the Bible in an isolated way to see, to not see how unique and beautiful and special that he is. Because in these two divine attributes, in comparison with the other gods, yahweh, the one true God of Israel, the one true God of the Bible and of Christians, he is unique. He is so unlike these other gods. So having a resource like this and doing this sort of research, I think, greatly benefits and aids us in helping us to see the effect and the character the effect of Scripture and the character of God. The second thing I just want to note and I just got so excited about this as I was reading this is that this is who our God is. Our God, the God of the Bible, is a God of goodness. He is good, he's not trying to trick me, he's not trying to do something wrong against me. He is totally. His quality is goodness and he is faithful. He is a God who is faithful to me. Even when I am faithless, he remains faithful. That is the God of the Bible how he was, how he acted towards his children, israel, and how he acts toward me, his child. That is who our God is and that's something. Just thinking back, thinking of speaking and preaching on Sunday, that's something that will preach because that will benefit my own heart, my own relationship with the Lord, and can benefit others as well. So my encouragement to you look at something like a resource like this, look at the historical, cultural context of the Bible so that we can hear God's voice and how he speaks to his people and how he speaks to us, and that we may share that with others. I hope this is a blessing. Thanks for joining me on this kind of lo-fi episode, but I hope that blesses you and encourages you and I'll see you next time.