With Calvin in the Theater of God

This past weekend Em and I attended Desiring God's National Conference at the Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis. We had a wonderful time. It was singularly refreshing and renewing. It stoked the furnace of zeal for God's glory in all things. All of the speakers were on their game, if I may put it that way. The messages by Wilson, Storms, and Piper are particularly worthy of a hearing—more than once, each. The panel discussion was, as usual, rather stimulating. I've attended all but one of these national conferences since they started, and this one was, I think, the best. The title above gives the link to the messages.

Father of Mercies

Doug Wilson's sermon four Sundays ago (8-23-9) on Col. 3:12-14, entitled Father of Mercies, was outstanding. The Word is applied with good biblical sense and wisdom. Very helpful stuff indeed, including to help one think through stewardship and economics. This one is worth listening to multiple times. Click on the title of this post for the link (N.B. Christ Church sermons are not available for free for very long; as new sermons get added, old ones get taken off.)

By Sword, By Famine, By Pestilence

It is recorded in Ezek. 6 that idolatrous Israel would "fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence" (v. 11). Thus, says YHWH, "I will spend my fury upon them" (v.12). The upshot of the fury: "And you shall know that I am YHWH, when their slain lie among their idols" (v. 13). Question. Do our naturalistic tendancies blind us from seeing and knowing YHWH when he works his sovereign will among us, especially when he sends his fury? Another related question. Are we functional deists?

Exegesis Paper

The following outline is the basic method for doing an exegesis paper as taught by Prof. G. K. Beale in his Principles of Interpretation course at Wheaton College:

1. Dependent prayer.
2. Survey the historical context generally and particularly.
3. Confirm the limits of the passage.
4. Provide a provisional translation. Also compare 5 or 6 major translations and note differences.
5. Note textual problems.
6. Note grammatical problems.
7. Note syntactical problems. Do a sentence flow.
8. Note lexical problems.
9. Note exegetical relation (logical) problems. Do a discourse analysis.
10. Note parallel relation problems.
11. Note OT/NT problems.
12. Note historical-cultural background problems.
13. Note figurative problems.
14. Note genre problems.
15. Note theological problems
16. Produce a rough draft.
17. Consult secondary literature.
18. Provide a finished translation.
19. Produce the final form of the paper.

Canonical Context is the King's Servant

It is generally acknowledged that "context is king" in the interpretative enterprise. That is to say, extracting meaning from a text is accomplished well really only when the context is duly heeded. But I wonder if the canonical context is considered as it ought to be, not least given the theological awareness of divine intentionality in inspiring a canon of 66 books, 39 of which were penned before the coming of Christ, 27 after.

What I mean is this. As God's revelation unfolds and plays out (including inscripturated revelation and incarnate revelation), there is more context for understanding texts. So "thicker" or "fuller" meanings are possible and even probable and intended (though not necessarily intended by the human author). The wider and fuller context provided by the whole canon, and particularly by Christ's coming, makes plainer, clearer, brighter, and fuller where texts were heading according to divine intentionality, that is, as they were given by God to address not only the immediate context but also to speak beyond it in fuller and brighter ways. So increased and fuller and brighter understanding is precisely due to the enlarged and brighter context of the whole canon. Giving a proper place to the canonical context and divine intentionality of texts may help with some of the muddles in hermeneutical debates about use of texts and authorial intent.

Blood on the Hands

YHWH's word to the man called to speak in his name: "Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand" (Ezek. 3:17-18).

Methods and Industry

It ought to be said repeatedly that for all our methods and industry, it is God who must bestow light. For in his light alone do we see light. And lest this be misunderstood, it ought also to be said that God's ordinary means for bestowing light is through sound methodology and assiduous labor. Yet, God is not bound by them. He is free to bestow light on whom he will. Our methods and labor are futile without God's free favor. And so we are utterly dependent even as we break our brains and beat our bodies.

Sentence Flowing

For those who want to see the "syntactical bone structure" (as Prof. G. K. Beale calls it) of a text, a sentence flow is a method to do this. The following summary steps to take is taken from Gordon Fee's New Testament Exegesis (3rd ed., pp. 41-58):

1. Begin with the subject, predicate, and object to the extreme left.
2. Subordinate by indenting all adverbial modifiers and adjectival and noun clauses under the word or word group being modified.
3. Coordinate by lining up corresponding elements directly under one another.
4. Isolate structural signals (i.e., conjunctions, particles, relative pronouns, and sometimes demonstrative pronouns), either above or to the left, and highlight in order to draw lines from the structural signal to the the element(s) to which it is related.
5. Color-code recurring words or motifs in order to trace themes or ideas crucial to the flow of the argument.
6. Trace the argument by annotation.

Greatness, Humility, Servanthood

Piper's sermon two Sunday's ago on greatness, humility, and servanthood is helpful and searching. Helpful, I say, because humility is so often misunderstood (and we all easily slip into this) in our man-centered day and culture. Searching, I say, because pride lurks within and, at every turn, there the old man is puffing himself up before God. To listen or watch, see Greatness, Humility, Servanthood.