Most small church pastors spend the majority of their preaching time in the New Testament. The Old Testament feels harder to preach, harder to apply, and harder to connect to the lives of ordinary people in a small congregation. So it gets avoided, or preached only occasionally, or preached in ways that miss what it is actually saying.
This is a significant loss. The Old Testament is not a prelude to the real story. It is the foundation of the real story. A congregation that does not know the Old Testament does not fully understand the New Testament, because the New Testament assumes the Old Testament on almost every page.
The Foundational Principle: Christ Is the Goal
The key to preaching the Old Testament faithfully is understanding that every part of it points toward Jesus Christ. This is not a homiletical trick. It is what Jesus himself said: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). And: “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).
This does not mean every Old Testament sermon must end with a forced application to Jesus. It means that every Old Testament text must be understood in light of where the whole story is going. The preacher who understands the Old Testament’s trajectory toward Christ will preach it in a way that is both faithful to the text and connected to the gospel.
of the Bible is the Old Testament. A congregation that avoids it is missing most of the story.
of the Old Testament. Every text points toward him, directly or indirectly.
each genre requires a different approach but the same Christological lens.
Preaching the Different Genres
Narrative (Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles)
Old Testament narrative is story. The preacher’s job is to tell the story well, identify the main point the author is making, and connect it to the larger story of redemption. Avoid the moralistic trap: the story of David and Goliath is not primarily about facing your giants. It is about a king who fights on behalf of his people when they cannot fight for themselves. That is a story about Jesus.
Law (Leviticus, Deuteronomy)
The law is the most avoided section of the Old Testament and one of the most rewarding to preach. The law reveals the character of God, the nature of sin, and the need for a mediator. Preach it in light of Galatians 3: the law was a guardian until Christ came. Show your congregation what the law reveals about God’s holiness and their need for grace.
Psalms
The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible. They model honest engagement with God across the full range of human experience. Preach them as prayers, not as doctrinal statements. Help your congregation see that the Psalms give them permission to bring their full emotional life to God, including the parts they have been afraid to bring.
Wisdom Literature (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job)
Wisdom literature addresses the practical and philosophical dimensions of human life. Proverbs gives principles for living well. Ecclesiastes confronts the limits of human wisdom and the vanity of life apart from God. Job wrestles with suffering and the silence of God. Preach these books as honest engagement with the hardest questions of human experience.
Prophecy (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Minor Prophets)
The prophets are not primarily predictors of the future. They are preachers who called God’s people back to covenant faithfulness. Preach them as preachers. What was the prophet saying to his original audience? What does that say about God’s character and his relationship with his people? And how does it point toward the ultimate fulfillment in Christ?
Handling Difficult Passages
The Old Testament contains passages that are genuinely difficult: the conquest of Canaan, the imprecatory psalms, the laws about slavery, the violence of the judges. Do not avoid them. Preach them honestly.
- Acknowledge the difficulty. Do not pretend the passage is easy when it is not.
- Interpret the passage in its historical and canonical context. What was happening? What did this mean to the original audience? How does it fit in the larger story?
- Connect it to the character of God as revealed in the whole Bible. The God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the New Testament.
- Be honest about what you do not know. Some passages are genuinely hard, and intellectual honesty is more valuable than false certainty.
The Old Testament gives depth, texture, and context to everything the New Testament says. A congregation that knows the Psalms prays differently. A congregation that knows the prophets understands justice differently. A congregation that knows the law understands grace differently.
If you have never preached through an Old Testament book, start with a short one: Ruth, Jonah, or Habakkuk. These books are narratively accessible, theologically rich, and clearly connected to the gospel. Preach through one of them and see what happens to your congregation’s engagement with the whole Bible.
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