Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament

Walter Kaiser Jr. has long been one of my favorite authors. This book continues that trend. I have increased the number of books in my library on preaching greatly in the last couple of years. This one went to the top of my reading list as soon as I bought it. It presents a simple yet thorough look at preaching from Old Testament texts. It is also a book that those who are not fulfill time preachers will find valuable. If you are a Sunday School teacher or Ladies' Class teacher you will find benefit in this book as well.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is titled: The Need to Preach and Teach from the Old Testament. The second part is titled: How to Preach and Teach from the Old Testament. There are eleven chapters in the book followed by a conclusion and two appendices.

In the first section Kaiser deals with why we need to make sure that the Old Testament is heard regularly in the church and why we have discontinued its use. Kaiser makes some good arguments for using the Old Testament even though we are New Testament people. The two most powerful reasons are 1) it leads us to Jesus as the Messiah and 2) it was used by the early church authoritatively. We cannot tell the story of Jesus without the Old Testament and our congregations will not know the whole story if we preachers do not preach from it. I love preaching from the Old Testament so Kaiser's reasoning was like "preaching to the choir" for me. His discussion of why we still need the Old Testament is a valuable part of the book and will add to your own thinking.

The second section is where Kaiser offers some practical recommendations for the task of preaching and teaching. His chapters in this section deal with the different genres (narrative, wisdom, prophetic, laments, torah, praise, and apocalyptic) of the Old Testament. Each chapter is a discussion of how to identify the genre and how it functions as literature. Kaiser then takes some sample texts and shows how one might preach this particular genre.

His first appendix is a suggested worksheet for study and exegesis leading to the sermon. It could also be used for developing a class lesson for teachers. It is an excellent worksheet. His methodology is based on Haddon Robinson's work (the big idea), Charles Koller (Preaching without Notes - homiletical key word), and Lloyd Perry (similar to Koller). The worksheet is simple and will lead one through the process of preparing a sermon.

My only critique of the book involves two suggestions. One is that he didn't do a chapter on Hebrew poetry. This chapter would have aided in the chapters on prophets, laments, and praise. Poetry is quite pervasive in the prophets and obviously in the Psalms. It seems to me that you cannot do a book on preaching from the Old Testament without diving into this genre. The other critique is that he didn't spend quite enough time explaining the particulars of some of the genres. Just a little fuller explanation would have been helpful.

Once you read the book you will be blessed. If you haven't read Kaiser before, you will become a fan after reading this book. Not only does he do a good job of giving practical ideas for preaching from the Old Testament bu he also does a good job of theologizing about preaching in a postmodern and pluralistic society. He believes in the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures so his view of Scripture is solid and can be trusted. It is a good book to add to your library.