Before we can preach in terms of our immediate audience, we must answer, "What does this text tell me about God and His relationship with His creation? What does this text tell me that is true in all times, in all cultures, for all people?" (Ross, 1988, 44).

I've been preaching through Joshua recently. I looked forward to preaching the promised victory of God's people at Jericho. But preaching the utter destruction of every man, woman, child, and animal held little appeal. I would have preferred to skip that part of the story. Passages like that cause many in our day to reject the "small and mean" God of the Scriptures (Allen, 1997, 67, 117-22). But failing to address the doubts of my listeners, would have sold God short.

Advertisement

I needed to do more than merely explain what happened, back then, so strangely and apply it, somehow, to today. I needed to identify, so as to preach, the theological meta-narrative of Joshua 6. I couldn't preach this text in terms of a contemporary holy war against our terrorist enemies be they political or religious. I had to preach it in terms of transcendent and universal truth about God and His relationship with both unrepentant sinners and obedient children.

I found the answer only by viewing the entire perspective of Joshua and by referring to the entire Revelation of God, especially up to that time in history. God is holy. He will, therefore, judge sin as He did in the flood and at Sodom. If God did not judge sin, its contaminating effects would seduce His children away. So, Joshua 6 is teaching us about more than the "nuking" of our enemies. It is teaching us how seriously our holy God takes sin, and how He used His people as His instruments of execution so that we might grasp its seriousness.

Now, I wouldn't expect to resolve all the issues this passage raises in three minutes' time. I do trust, however, that you will see how we must provide a theological interpretation of our preaching text. Our postmodern, missionary age needs preaching that is theologically grounded. Preaching is Theological.

Sixth, Preaching is Personal.

One classic definition of preaching calls it "Truth through personality," (Brooks, 1989, 26). We esteem that expression of our calling because we know it to be true. We simply cannot be "one kind of person and another kind of preacher" (McDill, 1999, 36-7). The preacher, who falls short of progressive transformation, possesses little hope that his or her listeners will be transformed.

The founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, Lewis Sperry Chafer, counseled his students, "You can be as clear as ice, and just as cold." And my preaching mentor, Haddon W. Robinson, advised, "The first changed life should be the preacher's."

God must be at work in our lives. We are sinners. But God regenerates us, transforms us from darkness to light, from death to life, from shame to glory. In the overflow we become transparent, earthen vessels filled with God's glory.