The Story Recap

The Story

So we started out this study talking about what the Bible is actually about. And now looking back after 31 weeks I want to look at that question again and see what we can piece together.

In our broad overview, we have by no means covered every single thing the Bible discusses, but we can use our 1,000 ft view of Scripture to draw some conclusions about what the Bible’s purpose is, and why God created it for us!

Recap

Building a Nation

Way back in week 1 we read about how God created the world, and how He created man and woman to be His image bearers in the new creation and to rule over it on His behalf. The we saw how humans quickly disrupted God’s intended design, introducing sin into the world and ruining the perfection of the garden. Soon after the good creation God had made was so corrupted by the sins of men that God deconstructed what He had created through a flood, using the family of Noah to do a reset on humanity.

After that, God chose for Himself from all of the people on earth, the family of Abraham and Sarah. God promised Abraham that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars and that God would make him a great nation of God’s own people.

Then, we read about how God’s set apart people, the descendants of Abraham and Jacob, now called Israelites, were led to the land of Egypt to escape a famine, but after some time became captives in Egypt, held as slaves and laborers and treated brutally by Pharoah.

God chose an Israelite man, Moses, who had been raised in Pharoah’s household to lead His people out of bondage. By God’s power Moses performed many signs that we call the ten plagues to convince Pharoah to let the Israelites go to worship God in the desert. Eventually, these plagues culminated in the Passover, where the firstborn of every Egyptian household was killed by the angel of death, but the Israelite homes marked with the blood of the passover lamb were spared. After this, Pharoah let the Israelites go.

After leaving Egypt, at Mount Sinai, Moses received from God a generous offer. God promised to dwell with the Israelites, to be their God, to protect them and bless them if they would just keep his commands. The Israelites eagerly accepted this covenant, but while Moses was back on the mountain receiving the instructions for the people to follow, they grew impatient and created their own god out of gold that they worshipped instead of Yahweh who had led them out of Egypt.

This was the first of many rebellions against God by the Israelites, eventually leading to them wandering in the desert for 40 years instead of entering the promised land that God was leading them to. As they wandered, the people still struggled to be faithful to God, and would incur judgement in the form of plagues or snakes. All the while, God led His people through the desert as a pillar of clouds in the day or a pillar of fire at night, and dwelt among His people in the tent of meeting. He sustained them with manna from heaven and with quail for meat.

Finally, after 40 years in the desert, Joshua led the new generation of Israelites into the promised land and they began to take the land God had set apart for His people. Whenever God fought for His people, they won great victories, but when they chose to disobey God, He would not fight for them and they would lose.

As the Israelites settled in their new land, they followed God as their leader, unlike the kingdoms of the world. However, God would also raise up judges who would lead Israel for a season on His behalf, especially during times of struggle. The book of Judges, we saw, is an almost endless cycle of Israelite rebellion, being conquered by a neighboring nation, crying out to God for deliverance, God raises a judge, and Israel being delivered from their oppressors.

And during this time, we saw how the law that God had handed down to His people required them to care for the least among them in the story of Ruth, and how He offers redemption for those who need it.

Unfortunately, Israel was not content very long following God alone as their king, and they asked for a king like the other nations had. Samuel, who was God’s prophet, anointed Saul as king of Israel as God instructed him to do. Saul was everything a king like the nations should be, tall, strong, powerful, and decisive. However, he was often disobedient to God and led Israel away from following the Lord.

God decided it was time to have a new king for His people, and he chose a young shepard boy named David, the youngest son of Jesse, to be the new king. Before that could happen, David found himself face to face with a Philistine giant named Goliath on the battlefield, but God was with David, and he killed the giant with just his slingshot. Saul became very jealous of David, and tried several times to kill him. Eventually, however, Saul died, and David became the king of Israel.

David was a king unlike Saul, he was described as a man “after God’s own heart”, and for the most part he was a good king. However, David was just a sinful person, just like the rest of us. As he grew comfortable in his kingship, he started taking some royal privileges, like, for example, the wife of one of his officers. She got pregnant, however, and after trying to cover it up David eventually had his loyal officer Uriah killed, and married his wife. When a prophet named Nathan called David out for what he had done David cried out in repentance, and God forgave him, but his child with Bathsheba died.

David’s son, Solomon, was king after him. Solomon was the wisest king in the whole world, and among the wealthiest. The Lord blessed Solomon with a peaceful reign so that he could build the first temple, the “house of the name of the Lord”, a permanent place for God to dwell among His people and where sacrifices could be offered. But Solomon got a little too into his own wealth and power, and he took many wives. Scripture tells us that Solomon eventually began to worship the gods that his foreign wives worshipped in addition to Yahweh, and God decided that the prosperous nation of Israel with a wealthy and powerful king was not fulfilling the purpose of his set apart people who were to be DIFFERENT from the nations.

So when Solomon’s son took the throne, others rose up in different parts of Israel to oppose him, and the kingdom was torn between Israel and Judah, and suddenly God’s chosen people were fighting amongst themselves!

God sent prophets to His people to warn them that judgement would come if they did not repent and turn back to God, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea brought warning and prophesies of what was to come, but they were largely ignored.

And so God used the nations around Israel to bring judgement on the unfaithful people, and as the kings of Israel continued to worship foreign gods and ignore the will of Yahweh, that nation was conquered by Assyria.

Judah, however, faired a little better. Every so often they would have a good king who would do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but eventually God judged Judah as well, and they were conquered by Babylon.

The conquering nations moved many of the people of God, now called Jews, out of the promised land and scattered them throughout Babylon. One such exile was named Daniel, who along with his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego served the Babylonian king while still worshipping only Yahweh. This brought them unwanted attention and eventually led to Daniel being tossed into a den of hungry lions and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being pushed into a fiery furnace. However, God protected His loyal servants and this brought great recognition to Yahweh by the Babylonian king.

Later, when the Persians ruled the area, the king of Persia allowed the Jews to return home, just as God had revealed through the prophets that he would. They begin to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, but are sabotaged by the surrounding people who remember well how formidable the nation of Israel was when they fought under the protection of Yahweh. However, these plans to stop construction failed, and the temple was completed in about 515 BC.

Meanwhile, not all of the Jews had returned to Jerusalem, and the story of Esther showed us how one young Jewish woman was placed by God in the exact position that she needed to be, queen of Persia. This way, when a man named Haman conspired to wipe out the Jews across the Persian empire, she was in the exact right spot to stop him and save her people.

Back in Jerusalem, the threat was growing from the surrounding people and Nehemiah, who had been appointed to rule in Jerusalem by the Persian empire, realizes they had to be able to defend Jerusalem. So all of the men of Jerusalem work and stand guard to 52 days straight and the walls are rebuilt before the nearby cities have a chance to attack.

Shortly after, the last prophet of the OT, Malachi, warns the people to be faithful to God, and tells of a messenger who will come to change everything. After Malachi, God was silent to His people for over 400 years. In that time, Persia fell to Greece and Greece to Rome, and the city of Jerusalem, along with its temple, became a part of the Roman province of Palestine. There was also a cultural renaissance in Jerusalem and across the Jewish world during these 400 years, where Torah, or God’s law, became a treasured part of Jewish culture, and teachers of the law held high status in Jewish society. Meanwhile, burdensome Roman taxes and strict military occupation left the chosen people of God once again looking to Yahweh for deliverance. The stage was set, the tension was mounting...

And Jesus was born. Jesus is God the Son, who was born as a human child from a virgin mother. Though he started very humbly, lain in a manger as a baby, he would soon change everything. He started his ministry by being baptized by John the Baptist, who had been preaching a baptism of repentance to prepare the way of the savior who was to come. As Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him and God the Father declared “This is my son, with whom I am pleased”.

Jesus began to teach that it wasn’t the letter of the law that was so critical to God, but the heart of the person. Instead of simply refraining from committing murder, Jesus taught that God’s people should not even hold anger in their heart. He also performed many miracles, casting out demons, calling the lame to walk and the blind to see, healing lepers, even bringing the dead back to life! But Jesus told his disciples that he would have to die in order to fulfill his purpose on earth, but another would come after him who would empower them to do great things as well!

Just as he predicted, Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples, and executed by the Roman authorities at the urging of the Jewish leaders. However, he didn’t stay in the grave long, Jesus rose from the dead after three days and appeared to three women who had come to prepare his body, then to his disciples, and then to many more who had followed him. Jesus explained that it was time for something new, the very kingdom of God here on earth, and that he would send a helper who would allow his disciples to build that kingdom. And then Jesus ascended into heaven, and his disciples huddled in Jerusalem to await the helper.

The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples like fire on the day of pentecost, and immediately they were empowered with the ability to speak other languages and heal and cast out demons. Peter preached before a huge crowd in Jerusalem and thousands came to believe in the good news that they shared about Jesus and entered into the new kingdom of God by professing that faith, repenting of their sins, and submitting to baptism.

The new movement spread quickly, but faced opposition from the Jewish authorities. One Jewish official, Saul of Tarsus, tried to root out and arrest or kill followers of Jesus wherever he could, before He was confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus. Saul, or Paul, was soon baptized and became a leading missionary of the gospel, which means good news.

As the gospel spread it became clear that this was not just for the jews, but gnetiles as well, and that any would would have faith in Jesus could join the kingdom of God. Paul brought htis message all around the mediterranean and even all the way to Rome! Eventually Paul and almost all of the other disciples were killed for spreading their faith, but the Gospel could not be stopped.

John, perhaps the only disciple not to be killed, was exiled to the Island of Patmos, where he has a vision of the beauty of heaven, the final home of the kingdom of God. The place that John sees is lit by the glory of God on His throne, and there is no illness or death there. However, John also sees that the road ahead on earth will be difficult for the kingdom of God, and that many of them will suffer persecution or death at the hands of the kingdoms of the world. However, it is clear that what started through Abraham and continued through Jesus cannot be stopped, the kingdom of God has come and will be made complete, and all of those who put faith in Jesus and suffered on earth will be cared for eternally in heaven with their father.

Thrust

So that’s the story, what does it mean? What’s its purpose?

The Bible is not:

a science textbook

a list of laws

a handbook for being a good Christian

The Bible does contain:

the origin of the universe/order of creation

commands from God to His chosen people that reveal his priorities, values, and nature

encouragement and examples of what total submission to Christ looks like lived out

The Bible is, first and foremost, a narrative of the most compelling love story of all time. Of God who was so complete and overflowing with love that He created a whole world and us to join in fellowship with Him. Of God who loved us so much that even when we rejected His plan for His creation, chose a set apart people through whom He would one day invite us BACK into that fellowship once again, and allow us to live with Him forever.