Following the Story: God and His People (Part 1)

How to—and how not to—read the stories in the Old Testament

Dec 16, 2024

people having a bonfire — Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash

Every now and then, we hear someone challenging whether we should following the teachings of the Bible. They’ll say something like: “Yeah, well, King David not only committed adultery and got the woman pregnant, but he murdered her husband to cover it up! Lot did shameful things with his own daughters, a lot of people in the Bible had slaves, and men had more than one wife. Do you really want to live by the Bible?!” They make a classic mistake that sometimes Christians make as well. When we begin reading the stories in the Bible we need to remember some key principles, and the first is important:

1. Just because somebody in the Bible does something, doesn’t mean we’re supposed to do it, too.

Now this should just be common sense—especially when we’re talking about biblical characters who murder and sleep around. Of course we’re not supposed to follow their example! (Actually, the fact the Bible shows its “heroes” as they really were—the good, the bad, and the ugly—is strong testimony to its truthfulness. It would have been easy to whitewash the stories of the patriarchs; the biblical writers didn’t do that.) But when people in the Bible do things that aren’t blatantly wrong, we sometimes fall into using them as a model.

Have you ever heard someone say they were going to “put a fleece before the Lord”? Do you know what this means? (We looked at this previously.) It means asking God to give you a sign indicating what decision you should make: “Lord, if you want me to take this job, then make them call before 4:30 this afternoon.” Why is this called putting a “fleece” before the Lord? Because of the story of Gideon in the 6th chapter of Judges. But if you read carefully, Gideon’s “fleece-putting” wasn’t to determine God’s will; it was to ask God to prove to Gideon that God would really do what he had already said he was going to do! Gideon’s behavior wasn’t a sign of faith, but of unbelief. Clearly, this is an example we don’t want to follow! So just because Abraham does something (or Moses, David, Elijah, etc), doesn’t mean we’re supposed to do it, too!

2. The main thing biblical stories do is tell us a story.

In the letters to the churches, we found direct commands and instructions. Biblical stories don’t work this way. The story of David and Bathsheba never directly tells us that adultery and murder are sinful. But it very clearly illustrates how even a godly person can fall into sin, and it shows the horrible consequences of sinning this way and then trying to hide it from God. While the stories may illustrate important truths (and even, in a sense, teach us insights), we need to be careful not to base any specific teaching solely on a biblical story. The teachings we follow—and teach others to follow—should be clearly taught somewhere else in Scripture, such as the letters to the churches.

We should also avoid reading accounts in the Old Testament as if each one were some kind of fable with a moral at the end of the story. Now, it’s not that Old Testament stories don’t vividly illustrate important lessons for us—many do. But not all of them. And if we insist on finding a nice, neat lesson to every biblical story, we’ll end up over-simplifying what we’re reading in Scripture. In the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38, is the moral of the story that . . . before a man hires a prostitute he should make sure she isn’t his daughter-in-law? Is the story merely a lesson about honesty and fairness?

The genre of Scripture we’re exploring this week is Old Testament narrative. Narrative is exactly what it sounds like—stories. So when you’re reading stories in the Old Testament, remember what they are—stories. That doesn’t mean they aren’t true; they are. But the main thing biblical stories do is tell stories. That’s their purpose. As I just mentioned, they’ll often vividly illustrate truths we learn about in other passages. But the main purpose of the Old Testament stories isn’t to directly teach biblical principles, but to show God at work in the lives of his people, and how they responded (or didn’t respond).

3. The stories in the Old Testament are part of a bigger story.

Hopefully, you’re still thinking about the importance of context. What is the context of the Old Testament stories? We’ve discussed this briefly before. Genesis begins with creation, quickly moves to Noah and the flood, and then narrows the story to Abraham and his family, particularly his grandson Jacob (renamed Israel) and Jacob’s sons. The books of Exodus through Joshua tell of God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt, establishing his covenant with them, and eventually bringing them into the land he had promised them. Judges through 2 Samuel take us from the early history of the tribes of Israel, when they were led by judges, to Samuel the last judge of Israel, then to Saul the first king of Israel, and finally to David the prototypical Israelite king. 1 Kings through 2 Chronicles tell of how the nation was divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, and how each nation fell into idolatry, eventually being conquered by an outside force and taken into captivity. Ezra and Nehemiah describe the people being allowed to go back to the land, and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Esther tells of events that occur among the Jewish community who didn’t return to the land.

A good study Bible will give you more background on each of the books. But the point is when you’re reading a story in the Old Testament, you need to be aware of where the story fits into the bigger story of what God is doing with his people. And, of course, the stories in the Old Testament ultimately lead to Jesus in the New Testament. When we look back at the Old Testament stories, we see them through the lens of Jesus. We recognize how Jesus puts these stories into proper perspective and this insight often makes seemingly inconsequential accounts jump out at us. So when you read stories in the Old Testament, try to be aware of where you are in the bigger story of the Old Testament, and where you are in the even bigger story of God’s grand plan as recorded in Scripture.

4. Don’t try to find secret or hidden meanings in the biblical stories.

You may have heard about the controversy in the 1970s and 80s over supposed Satanic backward messages on rock records. Eventually most Christians realized it was much more important to pay attention to what the songs were unambiguously saying when you played them forward! (The Christian rock band Petra recorded a backward message on one of their songs that said: “Why are you looking for the devil when you should be looking for the Lord?!”) In a similar way, the important things Scripture has to tell us are found in the clear biblical writings and stories, not in hidden codes or messages.

In the story of Abraham seeking a wife for his son, Isaac (Genesis 24), Abraham doesn’t represent God, Isaac’s not Jesus, and Rebekah’s not the church. The story is about precisely what it seems to be about—Abraham seeking a wife for his son Isaac. Don’t turn historical accounts into some kind of secret allegory. When we try to find hidden meaning in biblical stories, we invariably lose the real significance of the story, and we add to Scripture all kinds of erroneous ideas.

5. Don’t just see the story, observe how the story is told.

After you read a few stories in the Bible, you’ll notice they’re not much like novels. We aren’t given elaborate descriptions of people or scenery. This isn’t the way stories are told in Scripture. So when you do see details, pay attention. They’re included for a reason. Have you ever watched a movie, and a character lays an envelope on the desk, then the camera lingers on the envelope lying there? You know it’s going to be important later, don’t you? We see the same kind of thing going on with details in the biblical accounts. When Judges 3:15 notes that Ehud was left-handed, it’s going to be important to the story. When the birth of Jacob and Esau is described, along with the physical characteristics of each infant, we know this is significant.

Pay attention to how the dialogue in a story develops. Much of the stories in the Old Testament are told mostly through the dialogue. And be on the lookout for repeated themes. If you’re watching an old black and white movie, and two men wearing hats, boots and gun belts walk out into the middle of a dirt street with old wooden buildings on each side, people scrambling to get out the way, and a blinding sun glaring overhead—what’s about to happen? An Old Western gunfight, right?

Watch for these kinds of motifs in the biblical stories. For instance, notice how many stories in the Old Testament have to do with barren women who eventually have children. Watch how many older brothers are passed over while the younger is chosen. These patterns are incredibly meaningful in the cultural context of the day, and they give us insights into what God is doing with his people. And, as with the letters to the churches, be watchful for repeated words and phrases. These can often open deeper layers of meaning in the story.

We find amazing, captivating accounts in the Old Testament. It’s okay to get swept up in the story. They’re good stories! Just remember these stories aren’t there to provide entertaining reading. They communicate something important to us about how God interacts with his people, how they respond, and how the smaller stories fit into the much larger story of what God is doing with his creation.

And don’t forget the most important principle for reading Old Testament stories: