Reading the Bible as Story Part 3

Like any great story, Scripture's meaning emerges as we dwell within it, learning to see the world through its eyes. The truth of a story is rarely found in a single sentence isolated from everything around it. It emerges through characters, conflicts, settings, promises, failures, victories, and countless moments that accumulate over time.

Like any story, Scripture contains antagonists.

At the most fundamental level, the biblical story presents an adversary who opposes the purposes of God. Scripture describes Satan as the accuser, the deceiver, and the adversary. Yet that opposition often appears through human faces and earthly kingdoms.

Pharaoh.

Babylon.

Rome.

Different names.

Different eras.

Different faces.

Yet throughout the story they embody the same reality: resistance to God's reign and opposition to His purposes.

Sometimes the immediate conflict shows up in a person or a nation, but Scripture helps us see that the deeper struggle is often larger than the visible opponent.  Perhaps this is behind what Paul is speaking to in Ephesians when he stated, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12, NIV)

Now, recognizing the protagonist is sometimes far more complicated, especially when reading the scriptures.

When most people think about the great characters of Scripture, certain names immediately come to mind.

Abraham.

Moses.

David.

Peter.

Paul.

We remember their stories because they are remarkable. We admire their courage, learn from their mistakes, and draw encouragement from their faith.

And rightly so. Yet if we slow down and pay careful attention, something unexpected begins to emerge.

Abraham lies.

Moses loses his temper.

David abuses his power.

Peter denies Jesus.

Paul boasts of weakness.

And the longer we look, the more cracks we discover.

Again and again, Scripture refuses to present its central figures as flawless heroes, and what’s more, while they are central to the moment, there seems to be something or someone else’s presence overshadowing them, standing in the middle of the story.

What if Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, and Paul are not the center of the story but participants? Sure, important, essential participants. But not the central character.

What if they are responding to, resisting, cooperating with, misunderstanding, and ultimately being transformed by the actions of Someone greater? 

Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, Peter- they all matter. Their stories matter deeply. But they are participants in something larger. Their actions, decisions, and even their agency are important. After all, God moves from within his creative work. Each one of their lives serves to communicate how God is working His purposes in the world.

Take, for instance, the story of David.

Most of us enter the story in the valley against a giant.

We see a giant.

We see a shepherd.

We see a battle.

And because of the way many of us read Scripture, we almost instinctively place ourselves in David's sandals.

The giant becomes whatever obstacle stands before us.

Fear.

Anxiety.

Failure.

Addiction.

The lesson becomes simple.

Be courageous like David.

Have faith like David.

Defeat your giant like David.

What are your 5 stones?

There is certainly something admirable about David's faith. But if we pay careful attention, David repeatedly refuses to place himself at the center of the story. "The battle is the Lord's" (more about how to see this later). David understands something we often miss.

The story is not ultimately about David's strength.

It is about God's faithfulness, which we see long before David ever steps onto the battlefield.

David's story does not begin in the valley.

It begins in a pasture.

Before there was a giant, there was an anointing. Before there was a victory, there was a God who saw something no one else could see. And it is in God’s actions through someone named Samual that we see the point of this chapter in the story. People look at outward appearances. God looks at the heart.

That is where David's story begins.

And that is why context matters.

When we skip the pasture and move directly to the battlefield, we miss what the story is trying to communicate.

The giant is not the beginning of the story.

The giant is the conflict that reveals what God had already been doing.

David walks onto the battlefield already convinced that God is faithful because his confidence is never rooted in his own strength. The battle simply reveals what the pasture had already taught him.

The more carefully we read, the more we discover that the Bible is not primarily the story of extraordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things for God.

It is the story of an extraordinary God accomplishing extraordinary things through ordinary people.

The true hero of Scripture is not Abraham's faith but God's faithfulness.

Not Moses' leadership but God's deliverance.

Not David's courage but God's victory.

Not Peter's devotion but Christ's grace.

Not Paul's brilliance but God's power.

The Bible is ultimately God's story.

And once we begin to place God back at the center of the narrative, passages that once seemed disconnected begin to come together.

The story starts to make sense.

The characters make sense.

The conflicts make sense.

The victories make sense.

The failures make sense.

Because the story was never moving toward Abraham.

Or Moses.

Or David.

Or Peter.

The story has always been moving toward God's purposes for His creation, culminating in the moment when the author writes Himself into the story in the person of Jesus.

Learning to recognize that may be one of the most important tools we can develop as readers of Scripture.

Until next time…