The Story of the Story

I'm in the middle of teaching a 6-week Old Testament Survey study on Wednesday nights at our church. It's been a great time watching the Old Testament come alive in the eyes of some of the people in that class who have been believers for several decades.

When we're young we tend to do a pretty good job telling our kids Bible stories. We learn about Jonah, we learn about Joseph, and Moses, and David, and Adam, and Samson, and others.

The problem is, we inadvertently teach our kids that the Bible is just a collection of stories with little or no relationship to one another. We tell the stories without connecting them to the Story the Bible is telling of a perfect God's passionate pursuit of prodigal people through His Son Jesus Christ.

The stories of Scripture are all accountable to the Story of Scripture. If we just talk about Jonah but don't mention what it has to do with Jesus, we stop the story before it truly resolves and therefore miss the point.

As you're reading through your Bible, especially in the Old Testament, discipline yourself to think about how the Old Testament stories connect to the overall story of redemption. You will peel back a layer to the Old Testament you might not have ever seen, and you won't be sorry.