We close the week on this Friday looking forward to our next sermons Sunday morning.

This is because in just about every Bible text we face unanswerable questions, things

we simply don't know.

So what do preachers and teachers do with those uncertainties?

Do we take creative license?

Do we guess and make things up?

Do we speculate?

Or do we just tell people what we don't know?

It's a great practical question from Mark who lives in Montana.

Dear Pastor John, hello.

Jesus tells us in John 1249, quote, I have not spoken on my own authority, but the

father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.

And we trust that all scripture is breathed out by God.

That's second to the 316.

So I have long struggled with how much embellishment and speculation we should bring into the pulpit.

A scripture does not include every possible detail for us and the church throughout

the ages has in many cases tried to fill in those gaps.

Commentaries frequently say things like this may refer to or the use qualifiers like possibly

and probably to explain meanings that are uncertain.

So here's my question.

Is it okay for teachers and preachers to conjecture about what the Bible doesn't say?

How much speculation should we bring into our sermons?

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