Dr. Drew Thompson

I just love to explain things. There is something satisfying about seeing a furrowed brow smooth out, a head tilt back and eyes light up in that sudden rush of clarity. Explanation is in my blood: as a preacher, a professor, an evangelical, and (let’s be honest), as a man, I love to explain.

However, the Old Testament prophets did not always share my passion for clarity. In fact, it looks as if sometimes they intentionally confused their hearers. Joel describes locusts that look like soldiers and armies that crawl like bugs. Isaiah shows us pagan gods bowing down, which makes no sense. It is not until he zooms out that we see the idols loaded on the backs of oxen headed for Babylonian exile. Amos slings out denunciations on seven other nations—the number of completion! —before dropping a surprise eighth oracle against his own people Israel. Ezekiel reports a vision of the LORD on a throne complete with omnidirectional wheels and eyes all over, and neglects to tell us why God’s seat needs these features.

Time and again, the prophets demonstrate that confusion is a gift. It is a valuable teaching tool. As we have experienced, clarity can sometimes be . . . boring. Hearers who know exactly what we’re saying lean back, arms crossed, and nod sagely. They deftly apply our words to the sinners on the right and left. But confused hearers lean in. They tilt their heads; they strain to put the pieces together. Confused people are much more active learners. In fact, I would go so far as to say that confusion is one of the essential postures of a disciple of Jesus. If you don’t believe me, read the Gospel of Mark. If you still don’t believe me, read Revelation.

Preachers and teachers of God’s Word can take a hint on confusion from the prophets. We can (carefully, occasionally) use confusion in our sermons, especially in sermons from prophetic texts. Here are two suggestions: First, we can play the role of the reader: we wander around in our minds with our congregation or students, sharing their perplexity, looking for daylight. What is going on here? Are those locusts or legions? Why does God need an all-seeing wheelchair?

Second, we can play the role of the prophet. We set up the surprise and then we spring it. We can preach seven oracles from Amos, say a prayer, get down from the pulpit, and interrupt the final song with “just one more thought”—oracle number eight.

Ironically, preachers and teachers who want to re-create an oracle’s confusion must work extra hard for their own clarity. We should understand why a passage obscures or misleads, and how it does so, and then what role is served by the prophet’s rhetorical skills. How might we re-create that effect? How much confusion is too much? It takes deep understanding to steer our  learners through the fog and safely to the other side.

But the rewards of confusion are significant. The tension-and-release of consternation-to-clarity can make for a powerful teaching moment. As teachers, if we can confuse enough to arouse interest, but not so much that we lose our hearers, we can lead them to that “Aha!” moment where they make the connection. They realize:

• The natural disaster of the locust swarm was a foreshadowing of God’s final justice (Joel 1-2). Is that what God is saying to us through our own natural disasters?
• Idols must be carried, but the LORD is the One who carries us (Isaiah 46:1-4). Do I want to be someone who hauls his own religious ideas around and tries to animate them? Or do I want to be carried by a powerful Savior?
• God’s requirements fall on his people just as they do on everyone (Amos 1-2). I do not get a “pass” on holiness just because I profess faith in Christ.
• The LORD is not tied to a temple or a place. He sees all things, and dwells with his faithful ones, wherever they are (Ezekiel 1, 10, 48). Is our church a place where the Spirit dwells because he loves what he sees?

I love explanations, and clarity, and diagrams, and readable fonts, and crisp, memorable phrases that shed light on dark places. And I will keep on trying to preach clear sermons and give clear lectures. Yet I will also be on the lookout for texts and times where confusion could sharpen someone’s appetite and draw them in with a need to make sense of something for themselves. I will keep that gift at the ready.

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Dr. Drew Thompson is adjunct professor of practical theology at Gordon-Conwell. He is the author of How to Preach the Prophets (Fontes Press, 2023), and teaches the digital/live class, “Preaching Difficult Texts and Topics.”