Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Explore the Bible for Yourself, Part 26 of 52

IDEA: The narratives in the Bible are stories about God.

PURPOSE: To help listeners find God in the biblical stories.

When your children were growing up, did you ever read them a Bible story book? Do you think there would be any value in reading a Bible story book as an adult?

How much of the Bible material could we learn from reading a Bible story book? Over 40% of the Old Testament and about 50% of the New Testament is narrative.

I. We use the term narrative rather than story.

Story sounds as though it were something made up, and thus were fictional. For instance, a bedtime story. Or we say, "That's a likely story!"

Story sometimes sounds like a single story with a single set of characters and a single plot. You have a lot of stories in the Bible, but it is really one story.

The term narrative is preferred, since it tends to be more objective and less prejudicial.

II. God is the hero of this story.

The book of Genesis begins the narrative as an example of God at work—in Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Joseph.

You have repeated in the Joseph story, "The Lord was with Joseph." It was the practice of Abraham to believe God and it was counted righteousness to him.

Lesson of Genesis: God's will will be accomplished. Those who rebel against His will are punished or destroyed; those who cooperate with His will are blessed.

While many people are involved, we don't draw our lessons primarily from their behavior, but from what God does, sometimes in spite of them.

When you read these stories, the question is: What do you learn about GOD from the story.