The story of redemption found in the Bible is literally one of the most fascinating and awe-inspiring tales of any literary work in history - and for some of us, we actually believe it’s a true story. Regardless of where you fall in the spectrum I think we can all agree that there is a lot we do not understand. In our culture of instant gratification and 140 characters or less, it’s hard to dig into the full story.
From my own past I recognized that I was an expert in all the stories - I could tell you about David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, Noah and the Ark, and…you get the point. But the problem was whenever anyone would ask me about WHOLE story. My knowledge of the stories were great, but how these stories connected to form THE story was quite underwhelming. It is with this in mind that I’m going to give a crash course in what I’ve learned over the years to try and help connect the dots.
To put this into a cultural context we understand I’ll use my own vice of binge watching series on Netflix. If you were to ask me to tell you about Suits, Breaking Bad, Parenthood, 24, Prison Break, Lost, or another series I’ve lost years of my life to, I’d likely tell you about the overarching narrative of the story. I wouldn’t focus on each episode individually, I’d give you the flow of the story from the perspective of the series as a whole. That’s what I’m hoping to do here.
For those of you who love the most intimate of details and want to dig into the Hebraic syntax or the most abstract of archaeological discoveries relating to the Bible - what follows is not for you. You’ll likely be annoyed that I’m treating the sacred and divine Scriptures with a seemingly inattentive gusto. For an academic writing you’d be correct. However, my prayer is that what I lay out below will be more helpful than hurtful in allowing readers to get some understanding of the larger picture and get excited to dig into the details of each individual episode. Personally, this overarching story changed the way I read Scripture and got me excited to dig in more fully. It was always something that was so intimidating and my hope is that this overly simplistic journey will make it more enjoyable for others as well.
So with that we begin…
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