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Applying Exposition and Biblical Theology

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Outline
1. Mark 4:120
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
2. Isaiah 1
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
3. Exodus 5:16:13
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9

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Applying Exposition and Biblical Theology

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Overview
The objective of this module is to help you develop the skills you learned in
the module Introducing Exposition and Biblical Theology.
Over the nine weeks, you will look at three Bible passages from different
genres. We have not provided you with a commentary as such, but with
some resources and ideas which are designed to guide your reading and
deepen your appreciation of the texts and their genres. We have
endeavoured to choose resources which are accessible that is, they do not
require you to have technical theological knowledge, and they should not
require access to a large theological library.
If you are at a stage where you wish to purchase theological resources, you
may want to consider The Essential IVP Reference Collection, a CD-ROM with
thirteen reference titles (commentaries and Bible dictionaries and so on).
It is not required for this module, but you may also wish to consult relevant
commentaries. Some good, non-technical commentaries are listed in the
Further Reading section at the end of this module. Many paid pastors will
also have access to more technical works.
It is worth knowing, however, how you work with commentaries. Do they
cloud your vision so that you cannot hear the text yourself? Are they a useful
prompt to your own thinking or sounding board for your ideas? Answering
these questions will help you know when in the process of meditating on
Gods word you should pick up the commentary. As a general rule, let us
encourage you to engage with the passage prior to consulting commentaries.
Especially when you are first developing the art of exegesis, the opinion of
experts can tend to be too definitive.

Applying Exposition and Biblical Theology

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Assignment
The purpose of the assignments is to help you reflect on how the materials
can be applied in your own church context, as well as to help other
Porterbrook participants benefit from your thinking. They are designed to
help you with the materials, not to be a hurdle.
With this in mind, all assignments can be presented in either spoken or
written form you can choose what you prefer. If you are involved in
public speaking in your church context (whether it is preaching or teaching,
in a small-group Bible study, for example) we encourage you to do at least
some spoken assignments over the course. Spoken assignments will be
delivered in small groups at the residential. Participants give a presentation
lasting five to ten minutes, followed by group discussion. Written
assignments are to be brief (no more than 500 words), and can be e-mailed
prior to the residential. If you want to quote someone elses thoughts,
indicate where they come from, but your paper does not need to be
academically rigorous, with footnotes and bibliography.
Choose one of the three passages and prepare to teach it in a context that will
be useful for you in real life. This might be, say, an evangelistic talk at a youth
group, a small-group Bible study, or a chat had at the sink or in the pub.
You can then present your teaching for your assignment, either in full or in
outline. (If it is a 20-minute sermon, you will not be able to present it in full.)
If you are presenting an outline, you may want to walk through your thought
processes what you learnt from the passage, why you chose the particular
applications you did, and so on.

Applying Exposition and Biblical Theology

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Unit 1.
Mark 4:120
Week 1
1. Quickly review Unit 1 from the module Introducing Exposition and Biblical
Theology. Using the tools there, read Mark 4:120 and ask, What does it
say?
2. Read the article on parables in a Bible dictionary (e.g. K. R. Snodgrass in
Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels),1 or read The Current Debate (Chapter
2.1, pages 2947) in Craig Blombergs Interpreting the Parables, available
through Amazons Look Inside feature.2

Week 2
1. Quickly review Unit 2 from the module Introducing Exposition and Biblical
Theology. Using the tools there, read Mark 4:120 and ask, Why does it
say it?
2. Does Mark 4:120 help you to understand any other parables in this
Gospel?
Bridegrooms guests
Unshrunk cloth and new wine
Strong man bound
Lamp and measure

2:1920
2:2122
3:2227
4:2125

Green, Joel B., Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall (eds.), Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels
(Downers Grove: IVP, 1992)
2
Blomberg, Craig L., Interpreting the Parables (Leicester: Apollos, 1990). At 28/9/09, this is
available on Amazons Look Inside feature (http://tinyurl.com/y9qpv6u). To use Look
Inside, go to http://amazon.com and search for the book (e.g. blomberg interpreting the
parables). The Look Inside logo will be across the picture of the books cover if the feature
is available. Click on the book cover, and you will be able to see a preview of the book. You
can search inside the book for the relevant section (e.g. search for the current debate).
Please note that some books have the Look Inside feature at http://amazon.com or
http://amazon.co.uk, but not both, so it is worth checking both sites.

Applying Exposition and Biblical Theology

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Seed growing secretly

Mustard seed
Wicked tenants
Budding fig tree
Watchman

4:2629
4:3032
12:112
13:2832
13:3436

3. Can you think of contemporary examples of people using stories as

persuasive rhetorical devices? There are many examples in TV, film, and
advertising.
For example, consider Apples long-running Im a Mac campaign
(http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/). The adverts communicate a range
of supposed benefits of the Mac operating system, but also manage over time
to give the impression that Mac users are hip and magnanimous, while PC
enthusiasts are neurotic, desperate, incompetent, and just uncool. Clearly, if
these values were stated boldly, they would be rejected. But the story allows
the values to sneak into our subconscious. The effectiveness of the strategy
is evidenced by Apples decision to stick with this campaign for such a long
time (it began in 2006), along with the increase in their sales, and Microsofts
feeling that it was necessary to mount a counter-campaign, Im a PC.
Can you see attitudes in yourself or others which have been absorbed from
stories, but which would be rejected outright if presented as bald
propositions? Think of attitudes to sex, money, family, people of different
ethnic backgrounds, violence, resolving conflict, and so on.
If you are interested in this, you may like to listen to a documentary called
Corporate Fiction (www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2398057.htm).
It investigates a current trend where corporations are using fiction to foster
change among their employees. Some organizations have commissioned
novels set in their company, with characters and plot that make company
policies come alive. These novels are, of course, far more accessible and
effective than distributing to employees policy documents that will simply go
unread.

Week 3
1. Quickly review Units 3 and 4 from the module Introducing Exposition and
Biblical Theology. Using the tools there, Read Mark 4:1-20 and ask, What
response did Mark want in his readers? and, So what does it mean for
us?
2. Make some notes of how you might teach this parable to:
people who do not follow Jesus;
a small group of Christians in your church;
people who are not used to reading.

Applying Exposition and Biblical Theology

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Unit 2.
Isaiah 1
The notes in a study Bible or the introduction to a non-technical commentary
(e.g. Derek Kidners in The New Bible Commentary)3 can give you a very useful
orientation to the book of Isaiah, and so will be helpful for the next three
weeks. In particular, they will help you understand the historical context
(with useful cross-references to 2 Kings) and point out major themes.
Having said this, it would be a revealing exercise to come to the text without
any additional materials and see what you extract. Take some notes of your
first impressions, and then compare them with what you think of the
passage at the end of the three weeks.

Week 4
1. Read Isaiah 1, and take notes:
Who are the speakers?
Who are they speaking to?
Where are the logical turning points?
2. In his unusual commentary, John Watts imagines the Book of Isaiah as a
play.4 Here is how our passage fits into his structure:
Act I (chapters 16)
Title (1:1)
Scene 1 (1:22:4, In the Hall of the King of Heaven and Earth)
Episode A (1:223, A Disappointed Father)
Episode B (1:2431, Let me Smelt Your Dross Like Lye)
Episode C (2:14, The Mountain of Yahwehs House)5
3

Kidner, D., Isaiah in D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, G. J. Wenham (eds.), New

Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (Leicester: IVP, 1994)
4
Watts, John D. W., Isaiah (Word Biblical Commentary 24 and 25, Nashville: Thomas
Nelson, 2005)

Applying Exposition and Biblical Theology

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Chapter 1, then, is broken down with these speakers:

Verses

Speaker

Words addressed to

2a

Herald

Heavens and Earth

2b3

YHWH

Heavens and Earth

Heavens and Earth

57b

Heavens and Earth

People of Israel

7c8

Herald

Heavens and Earth

People of Jerusalem

Heavens and Earth

10

Herald

People of Israel

1120

Yahweh (interspersed with the Herald saying says Yahweh

and so on)

21

Heavens and Earth

YHWH

2223

Heavens and Earth

Zion

24a

Herald

24b26

YHWH

2728

Heavens

2931

Earth

Zion

People of Jerusalem

Does this breakdown help to understand the passage? Does it have any
limitations?

Yahweh (or YHWH) is the covenant name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It
is usually rendered the LORD in English translations.

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Week 5
1. Read Isaiah 1. What does this passage teach us about:6
Yahweh, the God of Israel; cf. Exodus 34:110
the people of God; cf. Isaiah 10:2022
sin; cf. Ezekiel 16:4852
repentance; cf. Daniel 4:27
judgment and salvation; cf. Deuteronomy 30:1520
sacrifices and religious rites? cf. Jeremiah 7:2123; Amos 5:2124
Is there one major idea holding this chapter together?
2. Now read Isaiah 16. How are the themes from Chapter 1 reflected and
developed in this section?

Week 6
1. Read Isaiah 1 alongside Romans 13. How does what God says here
about Jesus expand or transform what we have learnt so far about:
Yahweh, the God of Israel
the people of God
sin
repentance; cf. Luke 3:814; 19:8; Revelation 3:19
judgment and salvation
sacrifices and religious rites? cf. Hebrews 10:19

For some of these cross-references, I am indebted to Kidner, op. cit.

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Unit 3.
Exodus 5:16:13
In week 9, you will be asked to read a short section of Gordon Wenhams
Story as Torah.7 If you can borrow a copy of the book, it might be profitable
to read the whole of chapter 5, Ethical Ideals and Legal Requirements. This
neatly summarizes Wenhams thesis that Old Testament narratives can teach
us how to live righteously.

Week 7
1. Read Exodus 3:14:23. What are the main questions these two chapters
raise?
2. What do we learn about Yahweh (the LORD), Moses, Pharaoh, and the
Israelites? What are the relationships between these characters?
3. Now read 5:16:12. The story can be broken up into three movements
Moses and Aarons first confrontation with Pharaoh in 5:114; Israels
complaint
in
5:156:1;
Yahwehs
response
in
6:213.8
What answers are given to the questions posed in chapters 34?
How are the relationships between the various characters fleshed out
here?

7
8

Story as Torah: Reading Old Testament Narrative Ethically (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000)
Durham, John I., Exodus (Word Biblical Commentary 3, Waco: Word, 1987)

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Week 8
1. Read Exodus 5:16:13. What reasons does Yahweh give for his actions?
2. How does this section reflect or develop the books important (and
interrelated) themes of:
knowing Yahweh; cf. Exodus 9:1416, 29; 10:2; 14:4, 18; 15:11; and
especially 33:1834:8
the holiness of Yahweh; cf. Exodus 3:5; 15:11; 19:1213
obedience to Yahweh; cf. Exodus 24:18
the identity of Yahwehs people? cf. Exodus 19:6; 12:2327; though
notice how this changes in Jeremiah 23:78
3. How does Jesus fulfil or transform these themes? John 17 might be a
helpful starting point. (You may also like to review quickly Unit 6 from
the module Introducing Exposition and Biblical Theology.)

Week 9
In Gordon Wenhams Story as Torah, read the section entitled The inadequacy
of law as a definition of Old Testament ethics, pages 7987, in chapter 5,
Ethical Ideals and Legal Requirements. You can find this at Google Book
Search.9
What are some ethical and pastoral implications of Exodus 5:16:13:
for an Israelite? Do these change before the Exile and afterwards?
for us?

To find it (or any other book) manually, go to http://books.google.co.uk and enter book
title and author (e.g. Wenham story as torah). You will then be able to read parts of the
book online. We will only reference Google Book Search if you can access the material in full
that we have suggested reading. At 28/9/09, you can go directly to the right page by visiting
http://tinyurl.com/8byds3

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Further reading
Cole, R. Alan

Exodus: an introduction and commentary (Tyndale Old

Testament Commentary, London: Tyndale Press, 1973)

Enns, Peter

Exodus (NIV Application Commentary, Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2000)

Rhoads, David M.

Mark as Story: an introduction to the narrative of a gospel

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982)

Webb, Barry G.

The Message of Isaiah: on eagles wings (Bible Speaks Today,

Leicester: IVP, 1996)

Last updated 8th October 2010

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