The majority of the time I preach through books of the Bible. I have preached through the Gospel of John, 1 Peter, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Ruth, and Ephesians at Germanton Baptist. For the past year, we have spent the majority of our time in the book of Genesis. There are so many wonderful passages to preach in the opening book of our Bible. The story of Creation, Noah’s ark, the calling of Abram, God’s covenant with Abraham, the sacrifice of Isaac, and Jacob’s ladder have been remarkable passages to preach. Our church has grown week after week as we have encountered God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.
But Genesis has some passages that are tricky to preach. Who are the Nephilim of Genesis 6? What is going on with Noah and his sons after he gets drunk in Genesis 9? Why does Abraham lie twice about Sarah being his sister? What are we to think about Abraham going up to offer Isaac as a sacrifice in Genesis 22?
A couple of weeks ago, I preached from Genesis 34 on the rape of Dinah. I will be honest…I dreaded it. There is nothing easy about preaching Genesis 34. Much of Jacob’s story in Genesis is filled with sin, failures, and a lack of trust in God. But in this passage, his daughter is raped, his sons murder every man in a city, and his silence throughout the events is questionable; there is no true positive element in the entire chapter.
So why did I preach it? Why not skip over it and focus on an easier, more “acceptable” passage? Why not skip it and preach a passage with positive elements that clearly display the gospel? First, I am committed to preaching and teaching my congregation the whole counsel of God. I trust that all of God’s Word is inspired and “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). All of the Bible is useful for equipping God’s people and building them up into Christlikeness. Second, if I skip a passage like Genesis 34 because it is graphic, heartbreaking, and difficult, I am teaching my people that certain passages in Scripture are not as important as others, or because they are difficult, we should simply skip over them. If I skip over passages in my preaching, my congregation will do the same in their Bible reading.
Passages might be considered difficult for different reasons. Some passages like Genesis 34 are difficult because they graphically depict the sin of humanity. Other passages are difficult to preach because we struggle to determine their meaning. For example, many passages in Ezekiel are difficult to interpret and even more difficult to preach. Finally, sometimes the genre of a passage can make it difficult to preach. Trying to determine how to preach a chapter of Proverbs or apply the meaning is easier said than done.
God calls pastors to shepherd their people by feeding them the Word of God…all of it. Knowing that we will eventually encounter difficult books, chapters, or verses in Scripture, how should we approach preaching difficult passages? Here are three postures preachers should assume when explaining and applying difficult passages.
How Should We Preach Difficult Passages?
Humbly
Whether we have been preaching for one year or sixty, we need to approach difficult passages humbly. Coming humbly to difficult passages means that we admit we cannot adequately understand and faithfully explain and apply God’s Word from our own knowledge or experience. Knowledge and experience are a double-edged sword. They can be invaluable for the task of preaching, but they can also tempt us to pridefully assume that we are sufficient for the task. But when we take up a posture of humility, whether we are preaching a familiar passage or a difficult one, we admit our weakness and look to God and others to help us.
Relying on the Holy Spirit
The natural result of coming humbly to difficult passages is a reliance on the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that led the biblical authors to pen a passage can illumine even the most difficult of passages for us. The Holy Spirit helps us determine the meaning of a passage and how we might apply it best to our people. Maybe we are struggling to understand what a verse really means or how we can apply it to our congregation; we need the Holy Spirit’s help. Or maybe the difficulty of our passage lies in how controversial it is, and we are afraid to preach it the way it needs to be preached. Again, we need the Holy Spirit. From the time we first read our preaching passage until after the sermon when the Holy Spirit applies God’s Word to our hearers’ hearts, preachers should be desperately dependent on the Holy Spirit for help. When is the last time you took a few minutes during your sermon prep to plead for the Spirit’s help?
Trusting God
As I have preached through the book of Genesis, there have been weeks when I have struggled to see how God could possibly use my sermon to encourage and edify His people. I found myself doubting God with some of the more difficult passages. But the truth is, all of God’s Word is living and active (Heb. 4:12), even the difficult sections. Because the entirety of God’s Word is inspired, preachers can trust God to use His Word proclaimed to bring transformation, no matter how difficult or obscure a passage is. If we remain humble, rely on the Holy Spirit’s leading, and faithfully preach God’s Word, we can have full confidence in God to bring change through the preaching of His Word. We must fight the urge to “help God’s Word” in our sermons by twisting it or applying it in ways that we ought not to. Trusting God in the preaching of difficult passages means sticking with the text because we know that God’s Word is sufficient.
Difficult passages exist throughout the Bible. If we commit to preaching the whole counsel of God, it’s just a matter of time until we encounter a passage that stops us in our tracks. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is willing and able to help us navigate those passages. Furthermore, we can trust God to use our faithful preaching to change the hearts and minds of our hearers.
