Learning the Story of God and His People

by Hugh DeLong

As a preacher, I have converted many people, most of whom knew very little about the actual bible story. Then it took time to ground them in this story of God and His work.

This was particularly true of our preaching efforts in China. How were they to learn this story? In China, they did not have access to the many Bible help books that we have. Some had never held a Bible, let alone been able to read it. I made a list for them of places within the Bible that recapped this story. They could get an inspired summary and an inspired overview. While each of these sections of the Bible was designed to teach something in particular, each adds to the knowledge of the Bible's story.

Acts 7

Stephen recaps much of this history. He is leading to the conclusion that in many of these events, people were NOT faithful to God, rejecting the men God chose to instruct them. This led to the people stoning Stephen! It has been said that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. We see here that sometimes even those who know history refuse to learn from it and repeat the same mistakes!

Acts 13

Paul does a similar telling but with the underlying purpose of tying together the promises of the Messiah through the lineage of David. This provides evidence that Jesus really is the promised seed of David – the king not only of Israel but also of kings.

Joshua 24

This chapter recounts Joshua’s telling of Israel's story from leaving the wilderness to the conquest of the promised land. He has reached the end of his life, but wants to leave this telling of the story so that the people of this ‘new generation’ would know that it was only with God’s help and intervention that they now live in the land. He ends with the famous challenge that faces all of us: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”

Hebrews 11

Hebrews 11 gives us an almost orderly list of the great heroes of faith who served God. People who trust God even in difficult times. Being faithful to God has often been very difficult!

Nehemiah 8 and 9

Nehemiah 8 and 9 tell of the time in the Old Testament when the people returned from 70 years of captivity in Babylon. This was a generation of people who did not have the temple, the priesthood, or the festivals of worship. They needed to be taught their history to avoid repeating the mistakes of their forefathers.

Psalms 105 and 106

Psalms 105 and 106 retell the Bible story. This section tells of God’s great faithfulness and patience. Such is contrasted with the often unfaithfulness and rebellion of those who, at least outwardly, were ‘God’s people.’

If you are new to the Bible, read these and learn the story behind Jesus and His work. If you are not new, read these repeatedly and learn what it is like to serve God in difficult situations. Such reading will ground us in our faith.