Christotelic Preaching:

A Plea for Hermeneutical

Integrity and Missional
Passion1
Daniel I. Block

Daniel I. Block is Gunther H. Knoedler Professor Emeritus

of Old Testament at Wheaton College. He earned his DPhil
in the School of Archaeology and Oriental Studies at the Uni-
versity of Liverpool, United Kingdom. Dr. Block has written
numerous articles and books including The Book of Ezekiel,
vol. 1 and 2 in the New International Commentary of the Old
Testament Series (Eerdmans, 1997, 1998); Judges, Ruth (B&H,
1999); Deuteronomy in the NIV Application Commentary
series (Zondervan, 2012); and For the Glory of God: A Biblical
Theology of Worship (Baker Academic, 2014).

Introduction

Lest readers misunderstand me in the end, my fundamental concern in

conversations about preaching is that we proclaim the truth of God with
integrity and with the passion of God’s own heart. How to bring these two
elements together has been a personal challenge, and as I observe preaching
in this country I see this is a crucial issue within evangelicalism today. On
the one hand, we have preaching in which the content is true to the word
of God, but the divine passion is utterly missing. Sermons are crafted as
running commentaries on biblical texts or as lectures on theological
topics, and often presented without passion, except perhaps to display the
brilliance, wide reading, and rhetorical ingenuity of the preacher. On the

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other hand, we have firebrands, whose passion ignites the emotions of the
audience, but whose presentation is at best a trivial pursuit of biblical truth,
and at worst an exercise in empty demagoguery.
How do we resolve this issue, and in so doing end the famine for the word
of God in the land (Amos 8:11) and nourish our people with food that
transforms and yields life? In my view the answer is Christotelic reading of
Scripture and a Christocentric proclamation—or more accurately a Jesus-
centered proclamation. This may appear to some as mere semantics, but
to me there is a significant difference between Christocentric activity—
whether hermeneutical or homiletical—and Jesus-centered activity.
I have been trying to teach and preach the truth of the whole Bible for
more than five decades. But academically I have been primarily engaged
in teaching the First Testament (my preferred designation for the Hebrew
Bible—what you call something matters; ask the publishers). I grew up in
a humble place, Borden, Saskatchewan, the ninth of fifteen children in a
humble farm family. My parents were very godly people. I will forever hear
the words of my mother ringing in my ears. Knowing that I spent most
of my time in the First Testament, my mother would often ask, “But do
you love Jesus?” That is a great question, and it has served as a constant
reminder to me of what we should be passionate about. Notice, she did not
ask, “Do you love Christ?”
The more I have thought about it, the more grateful I am that she put
it the way she did, for three reasons. First, in the Scriptures Jesus is much
more common as a designation for the second person of the Trinity than
the title Christ. The former appears more than 900 times,2 in comparison
with the latter, which occurs only 531 times.3 Second, Jesus is a personal
name, in contrast to Christ (ὁ χριστός), which is a title. By definition, a
name invites a personal relationship, as opposed to an official epithet, which
acknowledges a formal relationship based on status. Third, in the New
Testament (NT), the epithet ὁ χριστός functions as a narrow technical
term for the eschatological messianic son of David.4 If we are honest, and if
this is what we mean by “messianic,” we could count all the relevant texts in
the First Testament on our two hands and two feet. “Christ” is the English
rendering of the Greek word that suggests a very narrow role: Jesus, the
literal “son of God” (as opposed to the metaphorical use of the phrase for
David and his other royal descendants, e.g., Ps 2:7; 89:27–28[26–27]) and

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 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

royal son of David. This is the anointed one who fulfills YHWH’s promise
to David of eternal title to the throne of Israel. David acknowledged the
scope of this promise, in that it concerned the distant future (‫)ְלֵמָרחֹוק‬
and represented divine “revelation for humanity” (‎‫ּתֹורת הָָאדָ ם‬
ַ ‫וְז ֹאת‬, 2 Sam
7:10). In Jesus the Christ the universalization of that promise is realized.
The connotations of the personal name “Jesus” are much more
comprehensive. Matthew laid the foundations for our understanding
of the name in the first chapter of his Gospel. In the opening lines to
the genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:1) and the formal opening to the birth
narrative of Jesus (1:18), the evangelist introduced the principal figure as
Jesus Messiah (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός). With the note in verse 16 that he was
the son of Mary, who was the wife of Joseph, and the name “Jesus,” the
evangelist had announced his identity. However, by adding, “who is called
Christ (Anointed One),” he declared Jesus’ status. Interestingly, except for
2:4, where Matthew notes that Herod inquired “where the Messiah was to
be born,” after this he never uses this epithet for Jesus, either in the birth
narrative or in the following ten chapters. The evangelist hereby recognized
that this represented a search by one official concerning the affairs of
another official, who potentially threatened his own status. By contrast,
Matthew forefronts “Jesus” by naming him 34 times in the narrative that
runs from 1:19–10:42.
More particularly, in the first scene of this long narrative the angel of
YHWH appeared and announced that Mary had conceived this child
supernaturally. In prescribing that she name him Jesus, he offered the
divine interpretation of the name, thereby declaring the significance of his
birth. In the birth of Jesus the prophetic promise that God would one day
dwell among his people again (“Immanuel”) will be fulfilled (vv. 20–23). I
find the explanation of the name the angel passed on to Mary particularly
intriguing: “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his
people from their sins.”
Because “Jesus” is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Joshua,” many
view Jesus as a second Joshua, or Joshua as a type of Christ. But this illustrates
precisely what is wrong with a Christocentric hermeneutic. When we look
at the First Testament background to the angel’s statement we find that this
approach is untenable, for several reasons. First, when Moses assigned the
name to the man previously known as Hoshea (Num 13:16), the name

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Jesus/Joshua said nothing about the man who bore it. Second, unlike the
tribal governors in the book of Judges, the book of Joshua, which is named
after him, never presents Joshua as a “savior” (ַ‫מֹוׁשִיע‬, Judg 3:9, 15; cf. 6:36;
12:3) figure. In the battles against the Canaanites Joshua was the antagonist,
the aggressor; if anything, the Canaanites needed salvation from him!
Third, as far as we know, Joshua played no role at all in Israel’s supreme
and paradigmatic moment of salvation—their rescue from the bondage of
slavery in Egypt (Exodus 14–15). To the contrary, as YHWH had declared
earlier, the point of the signs and wonders in Egypt and the Israelites’
escape from slavery, was that God’s people, the Egyptians, and the world
would know who he (not Moses, or Joshua, or anyone else) was (Exod 6:7;
7:5, 17; 8:22; 10:2; 14:4, 18; 16:12; cf. Deut 4:32–39). The formula that
appears dozens of times in the First Testament memorializes this fact: “I
am YHWH your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of slavery” (Exod 20:2). By renaming Hoshea, in a parenthetical
clause in Numbers 13:16 Moses testified that this goal had been fulfilled:

Why did Moses change Joshua’s name, Hoshea, which means “He [any
god] has saved,” to Yehoshua, which can only mean “YHWH has saved!”?
The name says nothing about Joshua, but it says everything about God. The
one who rescued Israel was YHWH himself. By defeating Pharaoh and his
armies, he had won a great victory over the gods of Egypt (Exod 12:12; Num
33:4), and in so doing declared that he alone is God—there is no other!
(Deut 4:32–40). Neither Moses nor Joshua would have been pleased to
hear us link Jesus to Joshua or Joshua to the exodus and then to forget that
the One who had rescued them from the Egyptians was YHWH.
Using the language of Israel’s rescue from Egypt, the angel announced a
salvation far greater than Israel’s rescue from slavery to Pharaoh: Jesus came
to rescue his people from their sins! But there is more. The One who had
been conceived in Mary’s womb was the very One who had introduced
himself by name to Moses in Exodus 3–4. Just as the events surrounding

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 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

Israel’s exodus from Egypt had revealed YHWH as God in all his grace and
glory, so the birth of Jesus and his saving work would reveal him as God in
all his grace and glory ( John 1:14).
The other title that Matthew 1:23 gives to Jesus confirms this identification
of Jesus with God: he is Immanuel, which means, “God is with us!” Jesus was
not merely a symbol of God’s presence (like prophets and priests); no, he
embodied divine presence. This was what the angel of YHWH announced,
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah,
the Lord (read YHWH)” (Luke 2:11, NIV modified). I read the last epithet
as a reference to YHWH, the Savior and covenant God of Israel, whose name
is preserved in “Jesus” (Hebrew, “Yehoshua”), which means “YHWH saves.”
Among many other profound Christological themes, the NT makes two
fundamental points about Jesus: Yes, he is the Davidic Messiah (“Christ”);
but yes, he is also God. The statement by the angel to the shepherds on
the hills of Bethlehem reinforces both points (Luke 2:11). Unless we are
thoroughly steeped in the First Testament we will not connect these dots
( John 1:23; Rom 10:13; etc.).5 But having connected the dots means that
when I preach YHWH, I preach Jesus, for in him the word became flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father full of grace and truth ( John 1:14, πολυέλεος καὶ ἀληθινὸς; =
Hebrew ‎‫;רב־ ֶחסֶד ֶו ֱאמֶת‬
ַ cf. Exod 34:6; Num 14:18; Ps 85:15 Greek πλήρης
χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας). There is no need to resort to cheap and trivializing
typologizing and Christologizing, which often actually reflects a low view
of Scripture and a low Christology.

Christocentric and Christotelic Preaching

Having summarized how I find Jesus in the First Testament, I need to explain
how I understand Christocentric vs. Christotelic interpretation. Unless we
get this right, we will not get Christocentric and Christotelic preaching
right. Diagrams #1 and #2 in Figure 1 illustrate the difference between a
Christocentric and Christotelic interpretation of Scripture.

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Figure 1
A Comparison of Christo-centric and Christo-telic Readings

Based on a particular reading of Jesus’ comments to the Emmaus disciples

in Luke 24:27 and 44, the Christocentric hermeneutic assumes that all the
Scriptures (i.e., every text) speak of him:

Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said about
himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:27)

Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything that was
written about me in the Torah of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
(Luke 24:44)

These statements undergird the popular statement often attributed to Charles

Haddon Spurgeon: when preaching from the First Testament, “I take my
text and make a bee-line to the cross.”6 However, we need to stop attributing
this to Spurgeon, since there no evidence that he ever said this.7 Further-
more, the metaphor itself is absurd, because bees rarely fly in straight lines.
Nevertheless, because the metaphor matches Spurgeon’s hermeneutical
style, it has encouraged all sorts of illegitimate and foolish typologizing and
allegorizing, drowning out the voice of God and obscuring the true message
of First Testament texts.9
The use of Jesus’ statements to defend Christocentric interpretation of
all First Testament texts violates the grammar of the Greek. In Luke 24:27
(ἐν πάσαις ταῖς γραφαῖς τὰ περὶ ἑαυτοῦ) the evangelist did not say that all
the Scriptures speak of Christ, but that he explained those texts that spoke
of him from all the Scriptures. If we recognize Jesus as the embodiment of
YHWH, his comments make perfect sense. However, if we interpret this

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 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

statement with a disciplined Christocentric hermeneutic, the explicitly

or implicitly royal messianic texts that Jesus might have had in mind are
limited—excluding entire books like Leviticus, Judges, Proverbs, Song of
Songs, Esther and Jonah. One wonders what First Testament authors would
say about the way we force their writings anachronistically to say all sorts of
things that they would not and could not have imagined. And we do this in
the name of the divine author of all Scripture.
Applying what we have learned from speech act theory, in terms of locu-
tion, I agree that what the human author said the divine author said. However,
to many there was no connection between the illocutions (intended mean-
ings) of these two authors. This has led to all sorts of bizarre perlocutions,
which typically say more about the interpreters’ ingenuity than the text
itself. Through Ezekiel, who received his pronouncements directly from
God, YHWH had a word for modern-day charlatans:

“Declare to the self-inspired prophets (‫יאי ִמ ִל ָבם‬

ֵ ‫)וְ ָא ַמ ְר ָת ִלנְ ִב‬:Hear the message of YHWH!
Thus has Adonay YHWH declared: Oy vey10 to the foolish prophets, who follow their own
imagination/impulse (‫רּוחם‬
ָ ‫)ה ְֹל ִכים ַא ַחר‬, and have seen nothing at all!” (Ezek 13:2–3).

It is no wonder that our Jewish friends are upset with us; we have hijacked
their Scriptures, and made every text about Christ, often paying no attention
to what the divine and human authors originally intended.11
What then is the solution? Certainly not a repudiation of the messianic
witness of the First Testament, nor the rejection of Christ as the one who
both fulfills specific messianic prophecies and embodies the fulfillment of
the whole promise of the Hebrew Bible. Nor is it found in an exclusively
grammatical historical interpretation of each text of Scripture in isolation
from other Scriptures. No, the Bible (First and New Testaments) tells a
single story of God’s gracious plan of redeeming the cosmos from sin and the
effects of the rebellion of those created as his images and commissioned to
govern the world on his behalf. That story climaxes in Jesus, whose work is
accomplished in two identifiable phases: first, in the incarnation 2000 years
ago, when through his death he dealt sin and all the forces of evil a mortal
blow, and through the power of his resurrection was exalted as the Son of
God. And now we wait for phase two, when he will return and recreate the
heavens and the earth in all their original and this time irrevocable perfection

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and glory. This is the story.

Not every text of Scripture points to Jesus Christ as Messiah, but
every text presents a vital part of that story of Jesus, “who is also called
the Christ.” We may often grasp the Christological significance of a First
Testament text only with hindsight. Some texts introduce the vocabulary
that will be necessary for interpreting later events. I have already alluded
to the exodus language of Matthew 1:21: “He shall save his people from
their sins.” This statement introduces a new notion: salvation from sin.
Whereas the First Testament frequently speaks of deliverance (‫)י ָׁשַ ע‬
from the fury of YHWH, Psalm 130:8 is the only text that associates the
root ‫ּפָדָ ה‬, “to redeem” with sin, as if sin is an enslaving force. Psalm 103:3
speaks of “pardoning” (‫ ) ָסלַח‬with reference to (ְ‫ )ל‬all your iniquities,
which Charles A. Briggs associated with “forgiveness” (‫ ) ְסלִיחָה‬in vv. 3–4.12
Psalm 3:9[8] comes close to using exodus language for YHWH’s solution
of humans’ sin problem:

Deliver me (‫ ) ִהּצִי ֵלנִי‬from all my transgressions (‫ׁשעַי‬

ָ ‫) ְּפ‬.
Do not make me the scorn of the fool!

Ezekiel also comes close in two statements that employ the root ‫יָׁשַע‬, “to save”:

“I will save (ַ‫ )הֹוׁשִיע‬you from all your defilements (‫) ֻטמְאֹותֶ יכֶם‬.” (Ezek 36:29)
“I will save (ַ‫ׁשיע‬
ִ ‫ )הֹו‬them from all their apostasies (‫ׁשב ֹתֶ יהֶם‬
ְ ‫ )מֹו‬by which they sinned.”
(Ezek 37:23)

Remarkably, although references to “being saved from slavery in Egypt”

pervade the First Testament, it never talks about “being saved from
sin.” As H. Wheeler Robinson noted long ago, “It [redemption] always
marks deliverance from some tangible and visible menace, which
may or may not be regarded as a consequence of the suppliant’s sin.”13
Does Matthew’s application of the exodus verb of salvation (‫ׁשע‬ ַ ָ ‫ )י‬for sin
mean that the original exodus looked forward to the work of Christ? No, but
in the wise and all-knowing providence of God, it provided the vocabulary
with which Jesus and the apostles could later interpret the work of Christ.
We could make similar comments about Israel’s sacrificial system. The
Pentateuch leaves few if any hints that when Moses or the original Israelites

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 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

brought their sin offerings they were looking forward to a coming sacrificial
Messiah. Isaiah 53 links the revelatory traditions of Messiah and sacrificial
offerings for the first time. If anything, the tabernacle and its rituals pointed
up, to a heavenly reality (Exod 25:1–9, 40), which we know from the NT
to involve the eternal sacrifice of Jesus, slain before the foundation of the
world. The author of Hebrews certainly understood the sacrificial system
this way. Despite the lack of First Testament evidence for ancient Israelites
seeing their sacrifices as pointing to a future earthly event, trusting in the
word of YHWH, the faithful knew that if their lives were in order and if
they brought their sacrifices with contrite hearts and according to God’s
revealed way of forgiveness, they were forgiven (Leviticus 4–6). That is what
mattered. Few will have grasped that when the High Priest presented replica
sacrifices in a replica sanctuary real forgiveness was theirs because of work
of the true sacrificial Savior, who would appear on the scene a millennium
later. However, Psalm 32:1 reminds us that real sinners celebrated the grace
of real forgiveness.
Before I apply my hermeneutic to Genesis 15:1–6, I must address one
additional issue. Sermons have many functions. When we preach evange-
listically, we need to follow the paradigm and kerygma of the apostles and
preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen again. However, not all sermons serve
primarily evangelistic purposes. Preachers proclaim the truths of Scripture
to bring about repentance, to reveal God, to encourage and guide believers
in a life of godliness, to console those who grieve, and to present hope for
the future by effecting transformation in the present. Sometimes the goal of
a sermon may be simply to help people read the Scriptures better. Failure to
mention Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins and whose resurrection gives us
hope in life eternal in a sermon does not mean we have not preached a Chris-
tian sermon. When I preach YHWH, I preach the God who was incarnate in
Jesus Christ, whether I name him by his NT name or not. What is important
for me and for my congregation is that they grasp that every text of Scripture
has significance in the light of the climax of the story. This means that rather
than reading the Scriptures backwards I read them forwards, interpreting
Isaiah in the light of Moses, and Luke and Paul in the light of Moses and
Isaiah. If tensions between earlier and later pronouncements arise, I may
not force the former to mean what later authors used them for rhetorically,
but I must inquire regarding the context of their work how later biblical

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authors can do with earlier texts what they appear to be doing. Moses does
not need to account to Paul, but Paul needs to account to Moses, and if he
contradicts Moses, he is the one under the anathema of Deuteronomy 13
(cf. Gal 1:8–9). Later revelation cannot correct, annul, or contradict earlier
revelation. God does not speak out of two sides of his mouth. He never needs
to say, “Oops! I was wrong. That plan did not work, so I will replace it with a
new one.” To resolve the tension, we need to understand the circumstances
underlying the NT text and grasp the rhetorical intentions of the author.
We make a generic mistake if we imagine Paul and the apostles as seminary
students writing exegesis papers on First Testament texts or seminary pro-
fessors writing theological papers to read at conferences sponsored by the
Evangelical Theological Society or the Society of Biblical Literature. They
were preachers and pastors eager for transformation in the minds and lives
of their hearers through the proclamation of the gospel in all its dimensions
and as graciously revealed over time and in history.

Preaching Genesis 15:1–6 Christotelically

There is much more to say on the theory of Christotelic, as opposed to

Christocentric reading of Scripture, but part of our assignment for this essay
is to show how this might be done with a specific text, Genesis 15:1–6. How
might a Christotelic reading of this passage determine the goals of and shape
a sermon on this text? Of course, that depends on the function of the sermon.
I am sure I could find a way to base an evangelistic sermon on this passage,
but for this moment I shall assume the sermon is part of a regular worship
service. As I have argued in my book on worship, For the Glory of God:
Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship, I view the regular gathering
of God’s people to worship as their response to a gracious invitation to an
audience with God. This means that the primary participants are the divine
King and believers. In an audience with a superior, by definition, what the
superior has to say is always more important that what the subordinates say.
This means above all that when I preach, people need to hear me only to the
extent that I speak as the mouthpiece of God. Preaching is not about cleverly
crafted presentations displaying my rhetorical skills, but about getting out
of the way and letting the Scriptures speak, for in the Scriptures we have the
only reliable and normative divine word for the people of God.

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 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

This means that my goal in preaching Genesis 15:1–6 is not to “make

a bee-line for the cross,” unless of course the text sends me there—which
it does not—but to stand before this passage with reverence and awe and
listen to what God is telling us all about himself, the world, the condition of
humanity, and if possible, the world to come. But this calls for clarity in our
minds whether we preach a passage, or we preach the message of a passage.
Strictly speaking, the former would require we preach the Hebrew text, since
of necessity all translation involves interpretation, hence a significant step
removed from the original inspired text. However, as I understand it, the
latter actually involves expository preaching.
Many Christocentric sermons I have heard are anything but expository.
The problem with a Christocentric hermeneutic surfaces early in the history
of the church. Here is an excerpt from a sermon on our passage by the fourth
century CE preacher Ambrose:

And how did Abraham’s progeny spread? Only through the inheritance he transmitted
in virtue of faith. On this basis the faithful are assimilated to heaven, made comparable
to the angels, equal to the stars. That is why he said, so will your descendants be. And
“Abraham,” the text says, “believed in God.” What exactly did he believe? Prefiguratively
that Christ through the incarnation would become his heir. In order that you may know
that this was what he believed, the Lord says, “Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.” For
this reason, “he reckoned it to him as righteousness,” because he did not seek the rational
explanation but believed with great promptness of spirit.14

Really? The text offers no hint whatsoever that this was either
what Abram was thinking or what the author of this text (human
or divine) had in mind. But this hijacking of the Scriptures was
of a piece, not only with Ambrose’s virulent anti-Semitism, 15
but later also of Luther’s repugnant disposition toward and treatment of the
Jews of his day.16 On the subject of Christocentric preaching from the First
Testament, Luther commented disparagingly:

“Here [in the OT] you will find the swaddling clothes and the manger in which
Christ lies, and to which the angel points the shepherds [Luke 2:12]. Simple and
lowly are these swaddling clothes, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them”
(Word and Sacrament I, 236).

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Next to allegorical exegesis this has been the greatest cause for the veiling
of the message of First Testament narratives. Jesus is indeed the telos of
the Torah, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, but as F. W. Farrar
declared 150 years ago,

It is an exegetical fraud to read developed Christian dogmas between the lines of Jewish
narratives. It may be morally edifying, but it is historically false to give to Genesis the
meaning of the Apocalypse, and to the Song of Songs that of the first epistle of John.17

This hermeneutic continues to undermine evangelicals’ credibility in our

time: we are dishonest, fraudulent interpreters. We read into a text something
it never intended to say. For this reason, the real First Testament has become
a dead book and our preaching lacks authority. We have veiled the message
of the inspired authors with four or five layers of trivia and speculation. From
the perspective of the divine author of Scripture, Jesus Christ is the heart and
goal of all revelation (cf. Luke 24:25–35). This is an underlying assumption
of Christian exegesis, but it is not the starting point of biblical analysis. How
Jesus fits into the message of Genesis 15:1–6 is an important question, but
I cannot answer it until I have dealt with the other issues.
In preparing to preach this or any other narrative passage, first I need to
attend carefully to how a passage speaks (see Table 1) and then ask what it
says about ultimate realities.
Here the narrator paints his portrait of God and Abram with a several differ-
ent kinds of brush strokes. To grasp his point concerning these characters in the
drama I need to pay close attention several features: (1) how the narrator refers
to the characters; (2) explicit assessments of the disposition of the characters;
(3) his description of the characters’ actions; (3) his recollection of the char-
acters’ speeches; (4) his recollection of what others say about the characters.18
With reference to God, of these, only (2) is missing in Gen 15:1–6, but it
is there with reference to Abram.

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 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

The Portrayal of YHWH in Genesis 15:1–6

Table 1: A Discourse/Syntactical Diagram of Genesis 15:1–6

The Narrator’s Designations for God

The patriarchal narratives of Genesis 11:26–35:29 refer to God by several
different epithets, each with its own significance: ‫“( אֱֹלהִים‬God,” 100+), ‫אֵל‬
(El, 15x), ‫“( ֶעלְיֹון‬Most High,” Gen 14:18, 19, 20, 22), ‫“( ׁשַּדַ י‬Shadday,” 17:1;
28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; 49:25), ‎ ‫ָָארץ‬
ֶ ‫ׁש ַמי ִם ו‬
ָ ‫“( קֹנֵה‬Creator/Possessor of
Heaven and Earth,” 14:19, 22), ‫ָָארץ‬ֶ ‫“( ׁשֹפֵט ּכָל־ה‬the Judge of the whole earth,”
Gen 18:25), and of course, ‫“( יהוה‬YHWH,” 100+). Remarkably, although
characters in the narrative will address YHWH as ‫“( אֲדֹנָי‬Lord, Sovereign”)
seven times (15:2, 8; 18:3, 27, 31; 19:18; 20:4), the narrator never does.
Here the narrator identifies God only by his personal and covenant name,
YHWH, which he does three times (vv. 1, 4, 6). Apparently the patriarchs
were not aware of the significance of the name (Exod 6:3). However, through
the events associated with the exodus (Exod 6:7; 7:5, 17; 8:22; 10:2; 14:4,
18; 16:12; 29:46; Deut 4:35, 39) and Israel’s experience of divine mercy in
the wake of the golden calf affair (Exod 34:6–7), whatever the etymology of
the name, their descendants would learn that the name signified “YHWH as
Savior” (Exod 2:17; 14:30; Deut 33:29; cf. Exod 20:2; Deut 5:6).19 And with
hindsight, this provides the first clue to this text’s Christotelic significance.

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 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

The angel’s commentary on the name Jesus in Matthew 1:21 invites Mary
and Matthew’s hearers to interpret “Jesus” (ַ‫ׁשע‬
ֻ ‫ )י ְהֹו‬as the NT equivalent of
the First Testament YHWH, an interpretation that repeated explicit iden-
tifications of Jesus with YHWH confirms ( John 1:23; Rom 10:13; 1 Cor
8:6; Phil 2:11). This means that the person who encounters Abram in this
text is none other than Jesus, who later in time and space embodied divine
glory, grace, and fidelity ( John 1:14, 17).

The Narrator’s Description of Divine Actions

YHWH’s most notable actions here involve communication. Four times the
narrator notes that YHWH spoke (‫ָאמַר‬, vv. 1e, 4b, 5b, 5d). He adds drama to
the image by (1) twice using what we refer to as the prophetic “word event
formula, “The word of YHWH came to Abram” (‫ ֵאלָיו דְ בַר־י ְהוָה‬/‫ ֶאל־ַאב ְָרם‬,
vv. 1b–c, 4a–b), as if Abram encountered some tangible object; (2) noting
that the speech act transpired in
visionary form (‫ ;) ַמ ֲחזֶה‬and (3)
using the optic deictic particle,
‫ ִהּנֵה‬, “See, look!” (4a). If we con-
sider the entire chapter, which
this episode introduces, this
visionary event was extremely
complex: Abram was both inside
and outside the vision, and God
appeared within another reve-
lation of himself (Fig. 2). That
YHWH appeared to Abram at all, and that he spoke with him “face to face”
is remarkable. But YHWH did more than merely appear or speak. He also
took him outside, and given his comment in verse 5, he drew his attention
to the heavens.
The conceptual and lexical linkage between the prophetic word event
formula and the incarnation, as described by John is striking, though we
may debate its precise significance. In the Latter Prophets and elsewhere
where Hebrew ‫ּדָ בָר‬, “word, declaration, matter, thing, event” occurs, LXX
usually rendered the expression as logos. However, the frequency with
which the present ῥῆμα appears in the Greek rendering of this formula
suggests the alternation is stylistic, depending on the preference of the

20
 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

translator. Conceptually John 1:14 and 17 clearly echo and adapt the
formula for new purposes:

The Word (λόγος = ‫ )ּדָ בָר‬became flesh and dwelt (ἐγένετο = ‫ ) ָהי ָה‬among us, and we
have seen his glory (v. 14)

For the Torah was given through (διὰ) Moses; grace and truth happened (ἐγένετο=
‫ ) ָהי ָה‬through Jesus Christ (v. 17).

Going beyond the revelation that Abram received, Jesus Christ represented
not merely divine verbal communication, but the embodiment of God,
bringing the light of God’s grace to the world ( John 1:1–6).
The narrator concretizes YHWH’s action in relation to Abram by
specifying the context: “after these events” (‎‫ַאחַר הַּדְ ב ִָרים ָה ֵא ֶּלה‬, v. 1), that is,
after the patriarch’s gallant rescue of Lot from an alliance of Mesopotamian
invaders (13:1–16), and his refusal to capitalize on the gratitude of the
Canaanite beneficiaries (vv. 21–24). The narrator strengthens the linkage
between chapters 14 and 15 with a series of lexical and conceptual allusions:
the verb ‫יצא‬, “to go out,” “to bring out” in hiphil (14:8, 17, 18; 15:4, 5, 7,
14); “possessions” (‫רכּוׁש‬,ְ 14:11–12, 14, 21; 15:14); the root ‫“( ׁשלם‬king
of Salem,” 14:8; ‫ם‬ ‎ ‫ש ֵל‬
ָ , “complete” (15:16); the root ‫צדק‬, “righteousness”
(Melchizedek, “king of righteousness,” 14:18; ‫צְדָ קָה‬, “righteousness,”
15:6); the root ‫ ִמּגֵן( מגן‬, “to hand over,” 14:20; ‫ ָמגֵן‬, “shield,” 15:1g); the
notion of recompense for effort (14:22–24; 15:1h).20
YHWH’s final action was mental and judicial: he recognized Abram’s
faith, and credited his response as “righteousness” (1:6c). I leave a
discussion of the meaning of ‫ צְדָ קָה‬for later, but for now we observe that
YHWH not only observes human actions and is aware of their mental acts,
but that he also assesses them properly.

The Narrator’s Recollections of Divine Speech.

As is typical of biblical Hebrew narrative,21 speeches dominate this
text—four by YHWH and two by Abram. The first address is thoroughly
ambiguous (v. 1): “Do not be afraid, Abram: I am your shield; your reward
will be exceedingly great.” Of what was Abram afraid, that YHWH needed
to assure him of his protection? Did he fear the enemies whom he has just

21
 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

defeated will return? Or was he fearful of his own future in an alien land,
having been severed from all the bases of security in ancient times: his
homeland (‫)ַארצְָך‬, his relatives (‫)מֹולַדְ ּתְ ָך‬, and his domestic economic unit
(‫ּבֵית ָאבִיָך‬, 12:1).
What sort of reward (‫ׂשכָר‬ ָ ) had YHWH promised Abram? Compensation
for the booty that he had just been offered but had rejected (14:21–24)?
The opening “after these things” might suggest this. However, Abram’s
objection in verse 2 points in a different direction. Abram had stepped out
in faith and given up his past because YHWH had promised him a new
future, making a great nation of his descendants, and giving him a cosmic
mission of blessing (12:2–3), and had later specified that his descendants
would possess the entire land of Canaan (12:2; 13:14–17). Presumably the
compensation of which YHWH spoke represented the reward for his faith
previously demonstrated: land and progeny—nothing more, nothing less.
The questions that YHWH’s ambiguous promise in the first speech had
raised the following three speeches answered with crystal clarity (vv. 4c–d,
5c–e, 5g). Rejecting Abram’s proposed solution to his childlessness, with
graphic concreteness he answered Abram’s charge that YHWH had failed to
give him seed. Although usually translated as “offspring” or “descendants,”
we should interpret the word ‫ ז ֶַרע‬more crassly. Ancient Hebrews considered
offspring and descendants as the fruit of the womb (‎‫)ּפ ְִרי־ ָב ֶטן‬.22 In their
prescientific world, conception involved implanting male seed (‫ )ז ֶַרע‬in the
fertile soil of a female’s womb.23 YHWH’s answer to Abram is graphic and
earthy: “one who comes out of your organ” (‫ ) ִמ ֵּמעֶיָך ֲאׁשֶר יֵצֵא‬a euphemism
for the penis.24 However, not only will Abram have a seed (in form ‫ יֵצֵא‬in
v. 4d is a collective singular), his progeny will be innumerable like the stars
of the sky (v. 5). YHWH’s concluding declaration is colophonic: “This is
how your descendants will be” (‎‫ז ְַרעֶָך ּכ ֹה י ִ ְהיֶה‬, v. 5g). This heavenly analogy,
which will be echoed later (22:17; 26:4; Exod 32:13; Deut 1:10; 10:22;
28:62; 1 Chr 27:23), finds earthly counterparts in “like the dust of the
earth” (‫ָָארץ ֲעפַר‬ ֶ ‫ה‬, 13:16; 28:14), and “like the sand of the sea[shore]”
(‫ חֹול ַהּי ָם‬/‎‫ׂשפַת ַהּיָם‬
ְ ‫חֹול ֲאׁשֶר עַל־‬, 33:13 and 22:17 respectively).

The Narrator’s Recollection of Another’s Speech.

This issue need not detain us long, for Abram’s comments in verses 2–3
say more about him than about God. On the one hand, he acknowledged

22
 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

YHWH as his [divine] Suzerain (‫)אֲדֹנָי יהוה‬.25 On the other hand, he

accused him of not having carried out his previous promises. This
accusation functions as a thesis statement to the conversation, to which
YHWH responded in dramatic form with a counter-thesis, though it is cast
as a promise whose fulfillment Abram must await. But what does all this
say about YHWH?
First and foremost, YHWH’s comment reminded Abram and reminds
us that YHWH is responsive to the anxieties of his people, and as a divine
Shepherd, he tries to calm his sheep. He will keep his word. The plan of
making Abram a blessing to the entire world depended upon progeny
who could scatter to the ends of the earth and thereby serve as agents
of blessing. YHWH’s use of the collective “seed” in vv. 4d and 5g suggests
the involvement of his descendants as a whole—the fulfillment of which
we can see in the incredible contribution Israelites and their successors
the Jews have made to the advance of civilization and culture. However,
this contrasts with the use of the singular verb and suffix in 22:17c
ַ ‫)אֹיְבָיו ְוי ִַרׁש ז ְַרעֲָך אֵת‬, which points to a single person in the future
(‫ׁשעַר‬
who will fulfill the mandate originally given to Adam and Eve to subdue
and rule over the earth, and David’s later recognition of the irrevocable
covenant that YHWH made with him and his descendants with “Now
this is the Torah of humanity” (‎‫ּתֹורת הָָאדָ ם אֲדֹנָי י ְה ִוה‬
ַ ‫וְז ֹאת‬, 2 Sam 7:19).
David’s concluding double divine address, “Adonay YHWH!” reinforces
this association. Thus, while we may legitimately treat Genesis 22:17
as a Christological text, for this would indeed involve a royal figure, the
opposite is true in Genesis 15:1–6. Whereas Abram’s response to his
frustration over his childlessness was to name an individual as his heir,
the aim of YHWH’s response was to get him to think in terms of an
innumerable host of descendants.

The Portrayal of Abram in Genesis 15:1–6

To determine the narrator’s disposition toward Abram we need to ask the

same questions we had asked of YHWH.

The Narrator’s Designations for Abram

As the narrator wrote this account, he understood that YHWH would

23
 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

eventually change the name Abram, which means “exalted father,” to

Abraham, “father of a multitude” (17:5). Indeed, later tradition would know
him only as Abraham.26 The use of Abram here is obviously significant, for
it identifies a man whose faith was immature—he still doubted YHWH’s
fidelity to his promise of innumerable progeny—and whose status with
YHWH and the world had not yet been formalized through the covenant
ritual that followed in verses 7–21, and would be completed thirteen years
later in chapter 17.
As was the custom in the ancient world, people of superior rank had
the right to change the names of their administrative and social inferiors,27
and in so doing in effect change their identities. In the Abram-Abraham
account, Abram’s change of status would transpire in two stages: YHWH’s
official reception of Abram as his covenant partner in 15:7–21, and Abram’s
formal acceptance of the role of covenant partner in 17:22–27 and the role
of representative of the heavenly court in 17:1 (v. 1, “Walk before me”).
To this point YHWH had never spoken of a covenant; Abram had only
the verbal promise of divine blessing, which may explain his accusation in
15:3.
The name Abram appears three times here, but only in the first half
(vv. 1c, 2a, 3a). The duplication in verses 2a and 3a is odd. Why could the
narrator not have cast verses 2b–e and 3b–c as a single speech? Presumably
he intended to highlight the intensity of the patriarch’s frustration,
a disposition expressed by the deictic particle (‫ ְו ִהּנֵה‬/‫הֵן‬, “Look!/Now
look!”) that introduces the two lines of the second speech (v. 3b–c).28 As
further evidence of the narrator’s strategy, instead of referring to Abram by
his name, after verse 3 he only uses the personal pronoun “him” (vv. 4a, 5a,
5f, 6c). This move focuses hearers’ attention away from Abram and onto
YHWH.

The Narrator’s Description of Abram’s Actions

The narrator’s portrayal of Abram’s actions in verses 1–6 is extra-ordinary
in that the only actions he attributes to the man are speech acts (vv. 2a,
3a), and a mental/dispositional act (v. 6). We will consider the former
in a moment, but for now I shall focus on the latter: Abram trusted in
YHWH. Although this was obviously not the first time Abram exhibited
faith (cf. 12:4), this is the first occurrence of the verb ‫אמן‬, which in the

24
 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

hiphil stem means “to demonstrate confidence in,” with the object of that
confidence (here YHWH) being introduced by ‫ ְּב‬+ personal name. The
present comment is striking, because it marks a rare example in biblical
narrative of the narrator explicitly declaring the disposition of a character. In
this account we might have expected YHWH to offer his own assessment.29

The Narrator’s Recollection of Abram’s Speech

Having noted that Abram’s principal actions were speech acts, it remains to
examine what Abram’s words say about the man. On the surface, Abram’s
opening invocation, “O Sovereign YHWH,” appropriately reflectshis
recognition of his status as the vassal vis-à-vis YHWH. However, in his
statements that follow his frustrations with his superior were on transparent
display. First, with his rhetorical question, “What can you give me?” he
expressed doubt regarding YHWH’s ability to solve the problem of his
persistent childlessness.30 As noted earlier, the question is ambiguous, but
the following statement clarifies his issue. The Hebrew ‫ירי‬ ִ ‫וְָאנֹכִי הֹולְֵך ע ֲִר‬,
translates literally, “Now I walk/go childless,” and connotes life as a journey,31
perhaps even a pilgrimage. However, here the sense is, “By the way, my
childlessness persists!” Because Abram had already designated Eliezar, his
household steward, as his legal heir, he had obviously assumed the answer to
the question, “What can you give me?” that is, “What can you do for me?”
to be “Nothing!”

Abram’s second speech was downright accusatory; in exasperation he

declared, “Look! You have given not give me seed!” We may assume that
in his mind he added “as you promised!” He reiterated emphatically that he
had taken matters into his own hands. These are not the words of faith or of
righteousness, but the declarations of a doubting and frustrated man.

The Narrator’s Recollection of Another’s Speech

In his verbal responses, YHWH never addressed Abram by name. Instead
he immediately addressed his complaint. The first address (v. 4c–d) creates
the impression that the patriarch would indeed have progeny to inherit his
estate. He rejected Abram’s solution to his childlessness (naming Eliezer as
his heir), which reflected a lack of faith, though in that cultural context was
perfectly legal. YHWH promised him an heir who would be his physical

25
 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

progeny. Abram probably concluded that YHWH was speaking of a single

son, which explains why God later added an object lesson to his rhetoric.
After inviting the Patriarch to look up at the heavens and count the stars—
which of course is impossible—he declared in three simple words,
‎‫ זַ ְר ֶעָך ּכֹה יִ ְהיֶ ה‬, “This is how your seed will be.”
What do these conversations say about Abram? If Abram’s statements
reflect a man with a very deficient faith, YHWH’s reactions function both as
a rebuke for his faithlessness and as an answer to his doubts. But YHWH’s
speeches offer no hint of how Abram responded. For that we must hear the
narrator, who remarkably has the last word on Abram in this short episode.

The Narrator’s Assessment of Abram

The narrator’s assessment of Abram in verse 6 became the foundation for
Paul’s watchword in his debates with the Judaizers, and the watchword of
the Reformation, particularly in Martin Luther’s debates with the Roman
Catholic authorities: “The righteous shall live by faith [as opposed to
works]” (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; cf. Heb 10:38). However, this statement
was not original with Paul, but adapted from the LXX translation of Hab
2:4 (see Table 2).

Habakkuk 2:4 (MT) Habakkuk 2:4 Romans 1:17 Galatians 3:11

(LXX)
ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ὁ δίκαιος
ἐκ πίστεώς μου ζήσεται ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται. ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται
But the righteous But the righteous But the righteous The righteous
shall live by their faithfulness. shall live by my faith. shall live by faith. shall live by faith.

Table 2: A Synopsis of “The just shall live by faith” Texts

In addition to recognizing Habakkuk’s modifications of the statement,

in assessing later use of earlier texts we must be cautious about imposing
alien elements upon the original. While we interpret later texts in the light
of earlier texts, we may not force onto earlier texts meanings that were
irrelevant to the original situation. Often earlier locutions provided later
prophets and apostles convenient verbal instruments for communicating
a new and quite different message. However, if we would preach Genesis
15:6, we must preach Genesis 15:6, and not some message that later biblical

26
 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

authors adopted and adapted for quite different polemical purposes. What
then does this statement mean?
I begin with the context. The issue in Genesis 15:1–6 is not personal
salvation from sin, but the sustainability of YHWH’s plan of redemption
and Abram’s role in it. In the end the narrator recognized Abram’s faith in
YHWH to fulfill his promise to give him progeny. Because ancient Israelites
thought little of “an eternal afterlife,” but perceived themselves as living on
in their children,32 we might think of this as the key to Abram’s eternal life.
However, YHWH would not give Abram progeny for Abram’s sake; the
point of the divine agenda for the chosen ancestor and his descendants
was the removal of the curse from the world and its replacement with the
blessing. YHWH’s primary goal here was missional, not personal.
Second, we must assess carefully what “righteousness” (‫ )ְצָדָקה‬means
in this context. In principle, the word and its cognate form ‫ ֶצֶדק‬refer not
simply to a status or state, but to behavior in accord with an established
standard.33 Correspondingly, a ‫“( ַצ ִדיק‬righteous person”) lives according
to the established standard (Gen 6:9; 7:1; Deut 32:4 [of YHWH]; Ezek
18:5, 9, 24, 26), as opposed to the ‫“( ָרָשע‬wicked person,” Gen 18:23,
25; Ezek 18:20, 21, 23, 24, 27), who does.34 In the First Testament, the
standard is typically the covenant that governs YHWH’s relationship with
his vassal Israel, and finds expression in the watchword of Deuteronomy’s
covenantal ethic (16:20):

‫ֹלהיָך נ ֵֹתן ָלְך‬

ֶ ‫ת־ה ָא ֶרץ ֲא ֶׁשר־יְ הוָ ה ֱא‬
ָ ‫ ֶצ ֶדק ֶצ ֶדק ִּת ְרּד ֹף ְל ַמ ַען ִּת ְחיֶ ה וְ יָ ַר ְׁש ָּת ֶא‬‎

“Righteousness, only righteousness

you shall pursue that you may live
and possess the land that YHWH
your god is giving you.”35

Here “righteousness” functions

as a comprehensive expression
for demonstrated adherence to
the covenant in all its dimensions

27
 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

(see Fig. 3)
Deuteronomy 6:25 provides the closest analogue to Gen 15:6 in the
First Testament:

‫ל־ה ִּמ ְצוָ ה ַהּזֹאת‬

ַ ‫ת־ּכ‬
ָ ‫ה־ּלנּו ִּכי־נִ ְׁשמֹר ַל ֲעׂשֹות ֶא‬
ָ ֶ‫ּוצ ָד ָקה ִּת ְהי‬
ְ ‎
‫ֹלהינּו ַּכ ֲא ֶׁשר ִצּוָ נּו׃‬
ֵ ‫ִל ְפנֵ י יְ הוָ ה ֱא‬

And righteousness will be credited to us [lit. “It will be righteousness for us”] if we keep
[the covenant] by doing this entire command before YHWH our God, just as he has
charged us.

Moses could have recast the first clause in Hebrew by using the verb
found in Genesis 15:6:. ‫ׁשבָּה יהוה לָנּו צְדָ קָה‬
ָ ‫ ְו ֲח‬, “and YHWH will attribute
righteousness to us.” Unlike the assessment of Noah in 6:9 (‫ ;אִיׁש צַּדִ יק‬cf.
2 Sam 4:11), in Genesis 15:6 the narrator has not declared that Abram
was righteous or blameless in toto, but that the present act of faith was a
righteous act, in the same category as that of the hypothetical creditor who
returns the garment that a poor man has given him as security for a loan
(Deut 24:13):

‫ׂש ְלמָתֹו ּוב ֲֵר ֶכ ָּך ּולְָך ּתִ ְהי ֶה צְדָ קָה‬
ַ ‫ׁשכַב ְּב‬
ָ ‫ּשׁמֶׁש ְו‬
ֶ ‫ ָהׁשֵב ּתָ ׁשִיב לֹו אֶת־ ַהעֲבֹוט ּכְב ֹא ַה‬‎
‫ִל ְפנֵי י ְהוָה אֱֹלהֶיָך׃‬

You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, so he may sleep in his cloak and bless
you. And it shall be righteousness for you before YHWH your God.

The structure of the final clause differs from Genesis 15:6 but exhibits
significant links with the statement in Deuteronomy 6:25:

Deut 24:13 ‫ֹלהיָך‬

ֶ ‫ּולָך ִּת ְהיֶ ה ְצ ָד ָקה ִל ְפנֵ י יְ הוָ ה ֱא‬
ְ
Deut 6:25 ‫ֹלהינּו‬
ֵ ‫ ִל ְפנֵ י יְ הוָ ה ֱא‬. . . ‫ה־ּלנּו‬
ָ ֶ‫ּוצ ָד ָקה ִּת ְהי‬
ְ
Gen 15:6 ‫וְ ֶה ֱא ִמן ַּביהוָ ה וַ ּיַ ְח ְׁש ֶב ָה ּלֹו ְצ ָד ָקה׃‬

Some argue that Abram, who lived ante legem (before the law), and Moses,

28
 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

who lived sub lege (under the law), represented two dramatically different
approaches to faith and godliness. According to John Sailhamer, Abraham
embodied the divinely approved pattern of a life of faith, while Moses
demonstrated the inevitable failure of a life driven by law.36 However, based
upon an analysis of the conceptual and lexical links between the patriarchal
narratives and Deuteronomy, in a recent essay I have argued that the author
of the former intentionally casts Abraham as the paragon of faith and
righteousness as defined by YHWH’s covenant with Israel generally and
laid out in detail in Moses’ preaching in Deuteronomy (cf. Gen 26:4–5).37
This was not the first and would not be the last time that Abram/
Abraham proved his righteousness by faith. Although the word ‫ ֶה ֱאמִין‬is
absent elsewhere in Genesis 12–14, obviously his abandonment of his
homeland (12:4–7), at the command of YHWH but without any idea what
YHWH meant by “the land that I will show you,” was an act of faith. So was
his courage in rescuing Lot and the Canaanites from the Mesopotamian
menace, and his refusal to capitalize on another person’s gratitude in
chapter 14.
However, the most dramatic moment of faith would come in chapter
22. To Abraham, YHWH’s demand that he sacrifice Isaac must have been
preposterous, especially since this episode happened immediately after
YHWH had reaffirmed Isaac as the key to Abraham’s future and to the
promise (21:12). The narrator casts the event as a test (‫)נִּסָה‬, but what
was YHWH testing? In the event, YHWH declared his verdict on the
patriarch’s performance as follows: “Now I know that you fear God, seeing
you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” (Gen 22:12).
As is often the case elsewhere, here “fear” (Hebrew ‫ )י ֵָרא‬does not mean
fright, but “trusting awe” or “awed trust,” or even “trusting allegiance.”38
Returning to Genesis 15:1–6, having observed Abram demonstrate faith
and in so doing also his righteousness, YHWH could get on with the
agenda of covenant ratification, which is what happens in the remainder
of the chapter.

Conclusion

How then shall we preach Genesis 15:1–6? I have two responses: First,

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 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

interpreting this passage

within the context of the
broader Patriarchal Narratives,
we preach the faithfulness
of God who is determined
to rescue his world from
the ravages of sin, and is
determined to use human
b e i n g s — re p re s e n t at i v e s
of the Adamic race that is
responsible for the problem—
to accomplish that agenda.
However, the candidates for the privilege all have feet of clay, and when
God calls human beings to serve him, he does not transform them into
robots (Fig. 5). Instead, he works patiently in them and with them to
accomplish his purposes. He neither glosses over human frailties, nor
discards in the trash heap of history those whose faith and performance are
less than perfect. In his mercy, he calls flawed people, and installs them as
agents of the heavenly court.
Second, we preach both the privilege and the burden of being called to
serve as agents of the heavenly court. On the one hand, there is no higher
honor than to serve in the Creator of heaven and earth’s grand scheme of
rescuing the cosmos, and with it the human population, from the effects of
sin and the fury of God. But God does not call us according to our gifts;
rather he grants us the gifts—even the gift of faith—in accordance with
the calling. On the other hand, it is Adonay YHWH, the Sovereign Lord
who graciously and sovereignly calls us. We are called to be his vassals,
which, as we learn from 17:1, requires us to represent him well, with
blameless character and responsible performance of duty. While faith may
be discussed as a disposition, it is never perceived in scripture as a mystical
quality nor primarily as an interior state. It is a jack-in-the-box that must
be demonstrated in action observable to a watching world, and certainly
to God.
Where is Christ in all this? I see no hand here pointing to a future
eschatological Messiah. On the contrary, this passage obscures the
individualized messianic tradition, as it will be played out. YHWH’s earthy

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 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

description of Abram’s progeny, as “that which issues from your organ,”

stands in sharpest contrast to the angel’s announcement to Joseph: “That
which has been conceived in her [Mary] is of the Holy Spirit.” To be sure,
via the lengthy line of descendants listed in Matthew’s genealogy, Jesus is
the climactic seed of Abram, but in the end, amazingly, the last link in this
chain does not “issue from” a man’s loins.
And where do we find ourselves in all this? The answer to this question
is what excites me about this text. At this moment all Abram had on his
mind was physical progeny. But with hindsight we link this text to YHWH’s
promise to make Abram and his descendants a blessing on a global scale,
and we recognize that we are part of the fulfillment of this promise. Through
the seed of Abram the curse has been lifted from us gathered here, and God
has lavished on us his blessings not only in heavenly places, but here on
earth. But there is more. Paul tells us in Romans 9–11 that I, a Gentile, have
been grafted into the tree that represents Abram’s heritage (Rom 9:4–5),
which gives me enough reason to exclaim “God blessed forever! Amen?” (v.
5). But I am not only a beneficiary of this heritage. As a child of Abraham
by faith I have also been grafted into the Abrahamic and ultimately the
Israelite commission—to be an agent of blessing to the world.
In the kind providence of God, four days after I presented an abbreviated
version of this paper to the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence,
Rhode Island, it pleased God to send me to Hong Kong for a week of
ministry, and three days after my return on November 30, I was off to
Moscow for a week of ministry in the land of my father’s birth. I was not a
tourist on personal self-indulgent vacations (December is not the time to
go to Moscow!), but went as a seed of Abraham. In his mercy YHWH had
chosen me, not only to be his treasured possession (‫) ְסגֻּלָה‬, but also that
just as he had commissioned Israel to do (Exod 19:4–6; Deut 16:19), I
might proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9–10). Hallelujah! What a salvation! And
what a Savior!

_________________
1
This is an expanded version of a paper presented on November 16, 2017, to the Expository Preaching and
Hermeneutics section, chaired by Forrest Weiland, at the annual convention of the Evangelical Theological

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 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

Society in Providence, RI. The general theme for the session was “Preaching Christ, the Text, or
Something Else?”
2
917, according to Bibleworks. Remarkably, in 268 of 566 occurrences of the name in the Gospels, the
personal name occurs with the article, ὁ Ἰησοῦς. This occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Acts
1:1, 11; 17:3. The significance of the name—to distinguish Jesus, the Christ, from others who bore the
name ( Joshua, Acts 7:45; Jesus, son of Eliezer, Luke 3:29; Jesus also called Justus, Col 4:11) is evident in
the Acts references (though the article in the last one is textually uncertain): (1) “Men of Galilee, why do
you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus (οὗτος ὁ Ἰησοῦς), who was taken up from you into heaven, will
come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11, ESV); (2) “[Paul explained and proved]
that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and declared, ‘This Jesus ([ὁ]
Ἰησοῦς), whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’” (Acts 17:3, ESV modified). Unless otherwise identified,
all translations of biblical texts in this essay are my own.
3
In the Gospels, Christ (χριστός) appears only 54 times, compared to 566 occurrences of Jesus.
4
See Daniel I. Block, “My Servant David: Ancient Israel’s Vision of the Messiah,” in Israel’s Messiah in the Bible
and the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed., R. S. Hess and M. D. Carroll R.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 17–56; idem,
“The Spiritual and Ethical Foundations of Messianic Kingship: Deuteronomy 17:14–20,” in The Triumph of
Grace: Literary and Theological Studies in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Themes (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017),
335–48.
5
On Jesus as YHWH in Rom 10:13, see Daniel I. Block, “Who do Commentators say ‘the Lord’ is? The
Scandalous Rock of Romans 10:13,” in On the Writing of New Testament Commentaries: Festschrift for Grant R.
Osborne on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday (S. E. Porter and E. J. Schnabel, ed.; Texts and Editions of New
Testament Study 8; Leiden: Brill, 2012), 173–92.
6
Lewis A. Drummond (Spurgeon: The Prince of Preachers [Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1992], 223) popularized the
attribution of this statement to Spurgeon.
7
This is acknowledged by Christian George, the curator of the Spurgeon Library at Midwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Kansas City. See http://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/6-
quotes-spurgeon-didnt-say.
8
Notwithstanding the support for the statement found in a supposedly astute institution, the Gospel
Coalition. See Jeramie Rinne @ https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/learning-the-art-of-sermon-
application ( July 23, 2013). Similarly, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World
(Chicago: Moody, 2008), 20–21: “The preaching of the apostles always presented the kerygma—the
heart of the gospel. The clear presentation of the gospel must be part of the sermon, no matter the text.
As Charles Spurgeon expressed this so eloquently, preach the Word, place it in its canonical context, and
“make a bee-line to the cross.”
9
Sidney Greidanus’ mere two-page critique of Spurgeon’s method (Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999], 160–162) fails to call
out the flaws in his hermeneutic strongly enough.
10
Yiddish for ‎‫אֹוי אֲבֹוי‬, which occurs only in Prov 23:29: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife?
Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? (NIV).
11
For a helpful survey of the effect of this popular but contemptuous Christian hermeneutic on Jewish
people and the anti-Semitism it has spawned, see Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abram: Jewish Roots of the
Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 96–100.
12
Charles A. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms (International Critical
Commentary, 2 vols.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1907), 2.45.
13
H. Wheeler Robinson, Redemption and Revelation in the Actuality of History (New York: Harper, 1942), 223),
14
On Abraham 1.3.21, as cited by Mark Sheridan, ed., in Genesis 12–50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on
Scripture, Old Testament 2; Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2002), 32.
15
Responding to Emperor Theodosius the Great’s gracious order that at the bishop’s expense Christians
rebuild the synagogue that they had destroyed in Callinicum on the Euphrates, Ambrose responded,
“There is, then, no adequate cause for such a commotion, that the people should be so severely punished
for the burning of a building, and much less since it is the burning of a synagogue, a home of unbelief, a
house of impiety, a receptacle of folly, which God Himself has condemned. For thus we read, where the
Lord our God speaks by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah: “And I will do to this house, which is called
by My Name, wherein ye trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to
Shiloh, and I will cast you forth from My sight, as I cast forth your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.
And do not thou pray for that people, and do not thou ask mercy for them, and do not come near Me on

32
 Christotelic Preaching: A Plea for Hermeneutical Integrity and Missional Passion

their behalf, for I will not hear thee. Or seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah?” ( Jer 7:14).
God forbids intercession to be made for those.” Philip Schaff, ed., Ambrose: Select Works and Letters,
Letter XL, accessed November 3, 2017 from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210.html.
16
For an exposure of Luther’s shameful anti-Semitism, see David Nirenberg, Anti-Judaism: The Western
Tradition (New York: Norton, 2013), 246–68.
17
F. W. Farrar, History of Interpretation (London: Macmillan, 1886), 334.
18
On characterization in biblical narrative, see Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic
Books, 2011), 143–63.
19
For thorough and convincing study of the significance of the tetragrammaton, YHWH, see Austin Surls,
Making Sense of the Divine Name in the Book of Exodus: From Etymology to Literary Onomastics, BBRSup 17
(Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2017).
20
Cf. Abraham Kuruvilla, A Theological Commentary for Preachers (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2014),
188.
21
On the significance of dialogue in biblical narrative, see Alter, Art of Biblical Narrative, 79–110.
22
Gen 30:2; Deut 7:13; 28:4, 11, 18, 53; 30:9; Ps 127:3; Isa 13:18; Hos 9:16; Mic 6:7.
23
Note the references to semen as ‎‫ש ְכבַת־ז ַָרע‬ ׁ ִ , “discharge of seed,” in Lev 15:16, 32; 19:20; 22:4; etc., and to a
son as ‫שׁים‬ ִ ָ‫ז ֶַרע ֲאנ‬, “the seed of men,” in 1 Sam 1:11. Genesis 3:15, a poetic text, contains the only reference
to the ‫שּׁה‬
ָ ‫ז ֶַרע ִא‬, “seed of a woman.”
24
HALOT, 609, rightly explains: “that part of the body through which people come into existence.”
25
This form of the double address of YHWH occurs elsewhere in the Pentateuch only in v. 8; Deut 3:24; and
9:26, always within an impassioned conversation with YHWH.
26
Outside of Gen 11:26–17:5, the name Abram appears only twice in the First Testament, but in both cases
the authors note that this was the original name of a man everyone knew as Abraham. The genealogy of
1 Chr 1 names Abraham after Nahor and Terah, but the author adds, “that is Abram” (‫ַאב ְָרם הּוא ַאב ְָרהָם‬, v.
27). In the poetic ode to YHWH’s faithfulness in Israel’s history in Neh 9:7, the Levites declared, “You are
YHWH, the God who chose Abram, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name
Abraham.”
27
Cf. Pharaoh’s renaming of Joseph as Zaphenath-paneah in Gen 41:44, the renaming of Daniel and his
fellow Jews in Babylon in Dan 1:7, and the reference to Esther, as the alternate name for Hadassah, in Esth
2:7.
28
This interpretation is preferable to Kuruvilla’s (Genesis, 189), that YHWH reflected his disapproval “of
Abraham’s rather uncomprehending faithlessness.”
29
As in 22:12. Similarly, Walter Moberly, “Abraham’s Righteousness (Genesis XV 6),” in Studies in the
Pentateuch (VTSup 41; ed., J. A. Emerton; Leiden: Brill, 1990), 103–4.
30
Hebrew ‫הֹולְך ֲע ִר ִירי‬ ֵ ‫( וְ ָאנ ִֹכי‬2d) . Compare the Australian question, “How are you going?” which functions as
the equivalent for North American, “How are you doing?”
31
Thus Bruce K. Waltke, with Cathi J. Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001),
241.
32
Cf. Daniel I. Block, “Marriage and Family in Ancient Israel,” in Marriage and Family in the Biblical World (ed.,
K. M. Campbell; Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 81–82.
33
It is also used in this sense in Imperial Aramaic, as in the eighth century BCE Samalian Aramaic inscription
of Panamuwa II (KAI 215), where ‫ צדק‬/‫ צדקה‬occurs three times (ll. 1, 11, 19) with this meaning. Note
especially line 19: “Because of the loyalty [‫ ]צדק‬of my father and because of my loyalty [‫]צדק‬, my lord
[Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria] has caused me to reign [on the throne] of my father.” For the translation,
see COS, 2:159–60.
34
For full development of this behavioral contrast between a righteous man (‫)איׁש ַצ ִדיק‬ ִ and a wicked man
(‫)איׁש ָר ָשע‬,
ִ see Ezek 18:3–20. For discussion of this text, see Daniel I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters
1–24 (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 561–80.
35
English translations persistently mistranslate ‫ ֶצ ֶדק‬here as “justice.” Although ‫צ ָד ָקה‬/‫ק‬ ְ ‫ ֶצ ֶד‬includes “social
justice,” the root ‫ צדק‬is much more comprehensive.
36
John Sailhamer, “Appendix B: Compositional Strategies in the Pentateuch,” in Introduction to Old Testament
Theology: A Canonical Approach (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), 272–89.
37
Daniel I. Block, “In the Tradition of Moses: The Conceptual and Stylistic Imprint of Deuteronomy on the
Patriarchal Narratives,” in The Triumph of Grace: Literary and Theological Studies in Deuteronomy and
Deuteronomic Themes (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017), 120–22.
38
For full discussion of the notion of fear in Deuteronomy and its relation to fear elsewhere, see Daniel I.

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 The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22.3 (2018)

Block, “The Fear of YHWH: The Theological Tie that Binds Deuteronomy and Proverbs,” in The Triumph
of Grace, 283–311; idem, “The Fear of YHWH as Allegiance to YHWH Alone: “The First Principle
of Wisdom in Deuteronomy,” in Interpreting the Old Testament Theologically: Essays in Honor of Willem A.
VanGemeren (ed., Andrew T. Abernethy; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018), 150–64.

34