Here are some lessons drawn by Hugh Oliphant Old and me from the ministry of Isaiah.
1. From Isaiah 5: “What a sermon outline! From the standpoint of the art of public speaking, what clever strategy! Isaiah knew how to awaken the conscience of his people. Here we see a preacher who knew how to use rhetoric with great mastery and power..” (p63)
2. From Isaiah 7: “While the prophet delivers a formal oracle, he delivers an interpretation of that oracle as well. Clearly the text implies that this interpretation of the original oracle has authority, too…” (p63) The faith of the prophet in the word he utters is an essential component of this ministry.” (p63)
3. From Isaiah 11: “It is filled with word pictures. Isaiah, like the Old Testament prophets generally, abhorred the use of idols, and yet his preaching is remarkably visual. His use of words was so skillful that he let his congregation see what is essentially invisible.” (p68)
Old here draws attention to two aspects of preaching that I have dwelt a lot on in recent times and am continually raising with my students.
i. The preacher as orator. I am not, of course, and neither, I believe is Old, looking for pretentious, dramatic and articifical preaching. But is it not true that the greatest preachers of the past have been orators; men whose carefully chosen and spoken words have captured and riveted people’s attention? In an earlier post today I linked to Guy Davies who comments on listening to ‘The Doctor’ on CD.
“Lloyd-Jones was an orator-preacher not a chatty conversational speaker. In places he raised his voice and quickened the pace in floods of gospel-inspired, passionate eloquence. Utterly, spine-tinglingly captivating.”
Guy also comments, “As the sound echoed round the house members of the family filed into the study one by one, strangely drawn by this fifty year old sermon.”
Preparing to preach is not only about preparing what you preach but also how you preach it; prayerfully choosing the precise word and crafting the precise phrase in order to emphasise the burden of the message and make it more memorable in the minds of our hearers. If politicians and lawyers realise how important the right words are, how much more ought we to, the stewards of the riches of the Gospel. It’s one of the reasons I teach my students to write out their message word for for, even several times, going over it again and again, so as to refine it and improve it. I know that some of what I am talking about here in terms of oratory or eloquence is connected with unction and annointing, but that’s no excuse for us not to do our part as well.
ii. The preacher as artist. Just a few days ago in class I was saying that that in recent years this aspect of exegesis and sermon preparation has become such a thrill and delight to me. Perhaps in some future posts I’ll share some of these and solicit examples from readers. The Hebrew and Greek texts are immensely rich in language and with all the resources available today you don’t even need to know them well to unearth some priceless treasures to share with your hearers. The Word of God comes alive, speaking to all our senses. Who needs PowerPoint and video clips when you have such resources in the text of Scripture itself. Preachers – get your exegetical easels out and get painting!
