When we read and interpret the familiar stories in light of what’s going on in the Pentateuch as a whole, our appreciation for the familiar increases. Those familiar stories are understood at an even greater depth. And sometimes we might find that we don’t know those “familiar” stories as well as we think we do.

Yesterday—March 30, 2025—I finished preaching the book of Deuteronomy at the church where I serve as the Preaching Pastor. Bringing that series to a close was part of a multi-year project of preaching through the Pentateuch.

I became the Preaching Pastor at Kosmosdale Baptist Church (in Louisville) in 2012, and later that same year I started preaching from Genesis. Over the years, I took breaks within the books and between books, so my exposition of the Torah was not a get-started-and-don’t-stop project. I’ve had the joy of being all over the two Testaments, but eventually I would return to the Pentateuch to resume wherever I’d let off, in order to take the next steps forward.

From 2012 to 2025, I preached 259 sermons through the Torah. The breakdown looked like this:

• Genesis was 68 sermons, during the years 2012–2017
• Exodus was 60 sermons, during the years 2017–2019
• Leviticus was 27 sermons, during the years 2019–2020
• Numbers was 51 sermons, during the years 2022–2023
• Deuteronomy was 53 sermons, during the years 2023–2025

Our church has both morning and evening services, and I prepare two different expositions for those services. That rhythm has allowed me to get through a lot of Bible—especially the Torah—with our people.

In no particular order, here are 10 lessons I learned during my journey of expositing the Pentateuch.

1. Pay attention to literary arrangements. In one sense, that point is true for wherever in the Bible the preacher finds himself. Regarding the Pentateuch, though, the literary structures of the books and sub-units helped me to grasp not only what was going on, it also helped me divide the book into sections for preaching. The books in the Torah have such different literary arrangements! Noticing these particular arrangements increased my appreciation for the beautiful and deliberate design of each work. An interest in literary arrangement was very helpful, for instance, during my Deuteronomy series, since I became convinced by arguments that the Ten Commandments (in Deut. 5) shaped the order and content of the laws and instructions in Deuteronomy 6–26.
2. Remember that Christians aren’t under the Old Covenant (the Sinai Covenant). When the Sinai Covenant was formed in Exodus 24, that covenant remained throughout the rest of the Old Testament. Therefore, the majority of the Torah unfolds as Old Covenant revelation. As New Covenant believers, we must approach the Torah ready to notice continuities and discontinuities. For instance, there are ceremonies we don’t practice and dietary regulations we don’t implement. But there are also moral laws that transcend covenants and which are used in the New Testament. So you have to preach the Pentateuch with an eye on the covenantal structure of things.
3. Don’t be afraid to take breaks. In my case, I never had any of our people ask me when I was going to be done with whichever part of the Pentateuch I was in. But I took breaks within books and between books so that I never risked congregational fatigue with a book. Our people are very supportive and love biblical exposition, so this was a self-imposed caution. Nevertheless, I don’t regret it. When I worked through Genesis, I didn’t preach the whole book in one big marathon. You certainly can, though. Nothing wrong with doing so! But I took multiple years to preach 68 Genesis sermons. Other books in the Torah, however, I preached more quickly, using fewer years to work through them.
4. Don’t avoid the weird parts. There are some eyebrow-raising laws, and there are some strange ceremonies. But the weird stuff is also fascinating stuff! An exposition of the Torah will confront you with odd things. Sermons on those things, however, were some of the most fun to study for and to preach. People would know ahead of time what passage was coming up, and when they’d read a strange text, they’d come to that sermon wondering, “What is he going to do with this text?” I also found that some of strange stuff in the Torah was among the most interesting stuff to the young people who attended!

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