The Tongue of the Wise (Proverbs)

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21
1. The tongue of a wise person is attractive (10:20; 20:15).
2. The tongue of a wise person is controlled …
… in [...]

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Don’t be a Fool! Wisdom and Folly in Proverbs

In the process of doing some topical studies in the second section of Proverbs, here is a list I formed for contrasting the wise person and the fool.
1. Wisdom and folly are ethical qualities that reside in the heart. (14:33; 19:1) Thus, there is an obvious difference in the lifestyles [...]

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Train up a Child (Proverbs 22:6)

Train up a child in his path,
Even when he grows old, he will not depart from it.
“Train up”
The primary issue here is being diligent in raising our children appropriately. It focuses our mind upon the great (life-long) responsibility this entails, one of hard work and discipline.
“in his path”
Read within the context of the book, [...]

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The Fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7)

After introducing the benefits of reading the book in verses 1–6, Proverbs 1:7 provides the theological basis for reading the rest of the book: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” As opposed to the fool (or simply the naïve), the wise person bases his life upon [...]

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Toward an OT Hermeneutic

As I pointed out in my previous post, the way I see it, the problem with most preaching of the Old Testament (but particularly OT narrative) has less to do with homiletical techniques than with hermeneutics. Therefore, what follows is the first of perhaps a few posts on this topic.
Now, let me warn you from [...]

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Preaching OT Narrative (pt 3)

While reading yet another post about the difficulty of preaching OT narrative, I paused to think about the root cause of the whole issue. Here are some thoughts…
1. Preaching OT narrative (at least as an expositor) should be done in the same manner that any text should be preached, regardless of its genre. In my [...]

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Preaching OT Narrative (Pt 2)

Sorry about the long break in this series . . . I have been busy preparing for four classes in the Fall. What brings me back to the topic is a series of sermons I have heard about the attributes of God. Given the topic, many of the sermons were based upon OT texts. I [...]

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Dated…but Good

Recently in preparation for an introduction to the Psalter, I ran across this quote from Brevard Childs (IOTS, 523). Though this is not a recent work, I found it interesting and worth sharing:
With all due respect to Gunkel, the truly great expositors for probing to the theological heart of the Psalter remain Augustine, Kimchi, Luther, [...]

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Preaching OT Narrative

Although my intent is to make posts primarily concerning exegesis, I recently read a post lamenting the difficulty faced in preaching narrative portions of the Bible, specifically those of the Old Testament. I share the lament. Therefore, I would like to make a few observations—which fall short of a methodology but set a foundation for [...]

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Some Thoughts on Habakkuk

The righteous shall live by faith.

For most Bible students, that sentence may be the only thing that comes to mind about the book of Habakkuk. This is understandable given its multiple uses in the New Testament (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38). We who hold to the doctrine of sola fide cherish this great truth, [...]

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