Saving Eutychus: How to preach God's word and keep people awake

by Gary Millar

Another option is to focus not on a particular attribute of God but rather on what God does. Although not substantially different from highlighting an aspect of God’s character, it is a distinct approach. So, for example, in the story of the plagues in Exodus 7-11, rather than simply explaining the fact that God is all-powerful, we could focus on how God defeats the powers of evil. Similarly, in the David and Goliath incident in 1 Samuel 17, I think the most natural way to deal with the text is to concentrate on the way in which God chooses to take on his enemies, which he then does in an even more obvious and decisive way on the cross (e.g. Col 2:15). It is also perfectly legitimate and sometimes helpful to begin by focusing on what one or more of the human actors does in the narrative and then show how Jesus does the same thing