Preaching an Old Testament Narrative

Prepare the whole episode before choosing points

Use this tool for a sermon based on a biblical story. The worked example uses 1 Samuel 24, but the preparation map can be adapted to another narrative. Read the complete episode several times, then read enough of the surrounding chapters to understand the conflict. Keep a sheet for observations and another for proposed applications.

Interpretation should attend to what the writer communicates through the text’s setting, form, features, and context. A narrative should not be turned into a collection of hidden symbols detached from that communication.²

Pray for understanding and the Spirit’s help, then identify the story’s beginning, changes, and ending. Mark what the narrator states, what a character says, and what you are inferring. These distinctions matter. A character’s confident claim is part of the story, but it is not automatically the narrator’s endorsement or a command for the congregation.

Complete a narrative preparation map

Fill the map before writing a sermon outline. Short notes are sufficient, but each claim should have a verse attached. If the text does not answer a question, leave the space marked uncertain rather than supplying an invented thought, speech, or event.

1. Complete passage boundaries: ____________________
2. Earlier event that explains the conflict: ____________________
3. Place and circumstance explicitly named: ____________________
4. Main people and their roles: ____________________
5. The problem or tension at the beginning: ____________________
6. The decisions that change the story: ____________________
7. Important repeated words or contrasts: ____________________
8. What the narrator states about God: ____________________
9. A character’s claim that needs to be distinguished from endorsement: ____________________
10. The ending and any unresolved issue: ____________________
11. The main message supported by these observations: ____________________

A completed observation map for 1 Samuel 24

The conflict is Saul’s pursuit of David. Saul enters the cave where David and his men are concealed. David’s men interpret the opportunity as permission to act against the enemy, but David cuts the robe and then refuses to permit an attack. His subsequent words appeal to the Lord’s judgment and deny that he seeks Saul’s harm.¹

The story then moves into public speech. David shows evidence of his restraint. Saul acknowledges that David has dealt well with him and recognizes his future kingship. Yet the ending does not place David safely in Saul’s household. Saul goes home, while David and his men return to the stronghold. Restraint and immediate security are not identical outcomes.¹

The adjoining chapters deserve attention. The Nabal episode places David near retaliatory bloodshed and shows Abigail’s intervention. The later encounter with Saul again tests restraint. Reading these episodes together reveals a developing concern about how David will approach enemies on his way to kingship.³

That context keeps the preacher from presenting David as a person who never needs correction. In chapter 25 he acknowledges the Lord’s help through Abigail’s advice. A faithful sermon can commend his restraint in chapter 24 while recognizing the complexity displayed in the wider narrative. The story itself supplies that balance.¹

A proposed sermon structure

Proposed message: David refuses to secure his future through a violent act against Saul and appeals to the Lord’s judgment. This sentence describes this episode. It does not promise that every modern believer who shows restraint will become a ruler or immediately gain public vindication.

1. First movement, verses 1 to 7: An opportunity creates pressure to harm the enemy. Explain Saul’s entry, the men’s claim, David’s action, and his refusal to permit an attack.
2. Second movement, verses 8 to 15: David makes his restraint visible and entrusts judgment to the Lord. Explain the evidence and the words of his appeal.
3. Third movement, verses 16 to 22: Saul acknowledges the good done to him, but the danger is not simply erased. Read the ending carefully and preserve its unresolved quality.

Make the Christian connection openly

Romans 12:17 to 21 directly instructs Christians to resist personal revenge and overcome evil with good. This supplies a clear Christian ethical connection. State that you are now turning to Paul’s instruction rather than pretending those words occur in the Samuel story. Let each passage retain its setting while explaining the shared concern.¹

First Peter 2:21 to 25 points to Jesus, who does not retaliate when reviled and entrusts himself to the One who judges rightly. It also names his bearing of sins. Jesus is more than another illustration of admirable restraint. The Christian message rests on his saving work as well as his example.¹

Avoid assigning a secret Christian meaning to every object in the cave. The robe, cave, and sword do not require invented symbolic definitions. A connection supported by the wider biblical witness is stronger than a clever set of similarities that the passages never establish.

Prepare the application with care

A proposed application is to examine a response that seeks to humiliate someone who has caused harm. Ask whether the response tells the truth and seeks a responsible remedy, or merely repays injury with injury. This application follows the concern about revenge; it does not require ignoring serious wrongdoing or abandoning protection for vulnerable people.

David’s reference to Saul as the Lord’s anointed concerns the king within this particular history. Do not turn it into a rule that a present church leader may never be questioned or held accountable. The episode includes a direct public appeal about Saul’s wrongdoing. Respectful conduct and truthful accountability can belong together.¹

Before delivery, check every claim against your observation map. Remove imagined private thoughts, guarantee statements, and historical details you have not verified. Ask a reviewer to identify the story’s movement and the Christian connection. The finished message should help listeners hear the narrative’s theological concern, rather than only admire a preacher’s imaginative retelling.