aBeLOG
Welcome to the aBeLOG, a series of (hopefully!) fortnightly posts on all matters homiletical. I intend to touch on whatever grabs my attention regarding preaching—issues contemporary and ancient, ideas hermeneutical and rhetorical, personalities conservative and liberal, publications antiquarian and avant-garde. Essentially, I’m going to follow my own homiletical olfactory instincts up rabbit trails and after red herrings. Comments are always invited and appreciated.
Judges 5:1–31
Participation in the endeavors of God, as he fights for his people and empowers them, keeps one blessed.
The prose account of Barak’s victory in Judges 4 is completed only by the addition of 5:31b: the statement of the land’s rest. In that sense, the Song of Deborah in 5:1–31a is an interpolation of sorts, with a theological thrust of its own.
Right from the get-go, Yahweh is praised for Israel’s “leaders” and “people” enrolling to fight (5:2). Soon that
Bookstore
The other day, I was interviewed at Southern Seminary’s Bookstore, by its manager, Jacob Percy, about writing, preaching, and whatever else he wanted to ask about.
Here’s the video …
Down Under!
Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Australia, primarily for a Preaching Conference and a Preaching Intensive organized by my friend, Dr. Tim MacBride, at Morling College, in Sydney. He is the Dean of the faculty of Bible and Theology and a preacher and a homiletics scholar (and a musician, and a coffee-connoisseur). We had a lot of good times together, both formal and informal (the latter included visiting the Three Sisters).
More about Tim here.
He recently contributed
Installation!
Quick note: For those interested in watching a livestream of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Convocation Chapel tomorrow, Tuesday, August 23, at 10:00 am US Eastern Time, make your way to this site.
Your faithful blogger is going to be invited up on stage to sign (with a quill pen, no less!) the Seminary’s 150-year-old doctrinal statement, The Abstract of Principles, as well as to be installed as the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching.
Loud
Judges 4:1–24
Fearless faith in God results in blessing.
The Israelites have not learnt a whole lot—they are “continuing” to do evil in Yahweh’s sight (Jdg 4:1). And so Yahweh sells them into the hand of Jabin, the Canaanite king (4:2), and the Israelites cry in desperation (4:3). Same old story.
But the next few elements of the standard paradigm are missing in the Barak narrative. Instead, we have a relentless echo of feminine nouns and suffixes: “Deborah [a feminine
Judges 3:12–31
Integrity, driven by reverence for God and reliance upon him, receives divine approbation.
We are told twice that Israel “did evil in the sight of Yahweh” (Jdg 3:12). So, what’s new? And Yahweh, therefore, empowered Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel (3:12). Yet God has mercy and he raises up an Israelite deliverer, Ehud (3:15). But quite surprisingly, for the rest of the passage, Yahweh does not seem at all involved with the goings on. And the final victory
Judges 2:6–3:11
Personal experience of God produces unwavering commitment to him and gives him glory.
Judges 2:6–10 is almost identical to Josh 24:28–31, but it weaves the story in its own way for a different theological purpose. Unfortunately, as was seen in Jdg 1:1–2:5, the post-Joshua generation went but did not possess the land for, as 2:10 declares, they did not “know Yahweh, or the deeds which he had done.” And what they did in their abysmal ignorance—and