Why Nehemiah 8 does not support expository preaching

My good friends—many of them evangelical pastors—when asked for a biblical defense of expository preaching (aka exegetical preaching or verse-by-verse preaching), point to the example of Ezra’s public reading of the Law of Moses in Nehemiah 8:1–18. But they fail to acknowledge is:

• The uniqueness of the occasion — It was a time of celebration! The exiles had returned to Jerusalem after 70 years in captivity and most of them had never heard the Law of Moses read in any venue, much less an openly Jewish festival. The walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt and Ezra gathered the people to celebrate with a word-for-word reading of Moses for the first time in nearly a generation. The public reading by Ezra carried on daily for seven consecutive days.
• The role of the translators — In spite of how much the modern expository preaching would like to paint Ezra as the man who reclaimed and modeled biblical exposition for all generations, the text declares that he simply read the text out loud for five or six hours. The Levites translated as Ezra read from the Hebrew (Neh. 8:7-8), so that the massive crowd (possibly as many as 42,000 people, see Neh. 7:66) could understand it. Obviously, they would have been sprinkled throughout the crowd and could translate the Hebrew for those who might not be fluent in the language.
• The real purpose of the wooden platform — Again, many King James fans ascribe great importance of the physical pulpit from which Ezra read the Law of Moses, as if to justify the use of pulpits today. It’s another example of straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. Nowhere else in the KJV can the word “pulpit” be found; and most modern translations give a more accurate rendering of “high wooden platform” to the Hebrew text. Why did Ezra stand on the platform? For purely pragmatic reasons: he wanted to be heard by tens of thousands of people.

Steve Sensenig gave an eloquent and persuasive argument two years ago, entitled “Preaching in the Church — Is Nehemiah 8 the Model?” (Part 1 and Part 2). Interestingly, he critiques a sermon delivered by Steve Lawson at the 2006 Shepherd’s Conference in California, entitled “Bring the Book!” (this link features the same sermon given at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, MA; you can also hear the same message here at the Monergism MP3 site). Sadly, Steve Lawson, senior pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church (Mobile, AL) makes much of Ezra’s posture and his pulpit for that once-in-a-lifetime occasion. Sensenig summarizes the issues well in last two paragraphs of his article (Part 1):

Nehemiah 8 recounts a very moving and powerful story in Israel’s history. It shows the need for the Word of God. It shows the hunger that was deep within the Israelites after seventy years of exile from their land and religious practices. It shows the wonderful way in which their hunger and thirst (spiritually speaking) was quenched by the Word of God. There is a lot to be learned from this passage.

Unfortunately, Dr. Lawson’s applications are not the lessons to be learned. This passage cannot, and should not, be used to justify any particular model of our gatherings together. If anything, the use of this passage to defend the modern practice of preaching in church shows how closely tied the institutional church is to Old Testament models. This represents a severe danger, in my opinion, of underestimating the change that the life of Jesus brought to our relationship with God and with each other. If we believe in the “priesthood of all believers” as something that was brought in by the New Covenant, then we should be very careful to eschew any model which places one person above the rest as the voice of God and His Word to that people.

There simply is no biblical precedent for the homiletical form known as the “expository sermon” or “verse-by-verse exposition.” Jesus didn’t model it, although his life and ministry was a virtual 24/7 outpouring of truth and grace to those who got close enough to hear him. He also did not instruct the Twelve in the finer points of speech-writing for a religious audience; nor did the Apostle Paul, although he did tell Timothy to “Preach the Word!”—a simple exhortation to declare the truth about Jesus—something every follower of Jesus should take seriously. But it doesn’t carry the technical connotations that our clergical friends would like their passive audiences to believe.

So don’t look at the word “preach” in the Bible and assume that it has anything to do with a particular style or form of delivery, or that it can only be done by someone with a seminary degree from a pulpit or platform in front of a large group of people. It just means to “tell it” or “to declare” or “to communicate.” This requires no robes, no vestments, no pulpit, no training, no ordination credentials, and no particular gender!