We have already thought about the Law.
The first five books of the Bible – the Pentateuch are categorised as being the Books of Law. Despite containing lots of fascinating stories, and outlining the history of God’s people from the very origins of the world up to the return of the Hebrews to the Promised Land, the Law stands at the heart of the narrative. It defines who the Hebrews are in relation to God. So the giving, and application, of the Law are fundamental to the story.
The Book of Joshua marks a distinct change of emphasis. From Joshua through to the Book of Esther – we have the books of history. These books outline the story of the Hebrew nation from its entry into the Promised Land, through the period of the Judges and the Kings, culminating with the Second Exile in Babylon and subsequent return. They root the Jewish faith in real time and place, and provide the framework in which we see how God is working His plans out. For us, as Christians, they provide the historical framework through which God is working towards the day when He will intervene in history in a new a significant way – they prepare, over many centuries, for the day when the Messiah will be born. If the Law, given to Moses, offers the background for the ‘priestly’ role of the Messiah, so the History Books, which pivot around the life of David, as king, remind us of the ‘kingly’ role of the Messiah.
These books of History cover a period of about 800 years. They describe in detail the conquering and possession of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, the reigns of the Judges, the establishment of the kingdom – the disastrous reign of Saul, followed by the glory days of David, and then the gradual decline of the kingdom beginning in the reign of Solomon, followed by the division of the kingdom into the northern land of Israel and the southern land of Judah, the fall of this northern kingdom to Assyria and the exile of the southern kingdom to Babylon, and finally the return to Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra.
The main objective of these historical books is to show how God’s hand is perpetually present in the history of the people of Israel. We have already been given the law of Moses, in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Later sections of the Bible will consist of praise, lament, and poetry, in the Books of Wisdom, and finally, we will reach the Books of Prophecy. Although these books of History do include some accounts of prophets, most notably the lives of Elijah and Elisha, as well as incidents of wise teaching, they are related within the context of the historical narrative. These are books that provide us with ‘the big picture’ of how God is at work in and through His chosen people.
Naturally, the story is told from a certain point of view – or more accurately, certain points of view. Just as it is impossible to look at a flower, rock, or tree from more than one angle at a time, it is inevitable that any historical account will reflect the perspective of the person or group of people who are writing it. This perspective will be derived from the author’s national or ethnic ties and the prevalent cultural norms and beliefs. Recognising this helps us to understand why the writers focused on certain details whilst omitting others. They made certain assumptions that later writers may have overlooked. And they came to conclusions based on those details and assumptions. So we can see different perspectives across the books of the Bible (and sometimes within the same book). The more we’re aware of these perspectives, the better we can understand these historical books.
One perspective common to all the Old Testament writers is that they belonged to the children of Israel, God’s covenant people. Their faith in the Lord helped them to see His hand in their lives and His intervention in the affairs of their nation. This spiritual perspective is part of what makes the Old Testament historical books so valuable to those who are seeking to build their own faith in God.
The historical books begin where the book of Deuteronomy leaves off, with the Israelites’ years of wandering in the wilderness about to end.
In the book of Joshua we meet the children of Israel at their point of entry into Canaan, the promised land, and learn how they took it over. Through three military campaigns involving more than thirty enemy armies, the nation learned a crucial lesson under Joshua’s leadership: victory comes through faith in God and obedience to His Word, rather than by military might or numerical superiority. The first half of Joshua describes the seven-year conquest of the land, whilst the second half of the book concerns the partitioning of the land amongst the twelve tribes. Joshua’s character is summed up in a great sermon that he delivers at the end of the book when he exhorts the nation to stay faithful to God. He summarises all that God has done for the people, culminating in a great challenge: ‘choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’ (Joshua 24:15).
The book of Judges stands in stark contrast to Joshua. In Joshua, an obedient people conquered the land through trust in the power of God. In Judges, a disobedient and idolatrous people are frequently defeated because of their failure to stay faithful to God. In seven distinct cycles of sin, Judges depicts how the nation has set aside God’s law and, in its place, ‘everyone did what was right in their own eyes’ (Judges 21:25). The consequence of this is corruption from within and oppression from without. From time to time, God raises up a military champion to throw off the yoke of bondage and restore the nation to pure worship. But all too quickly the “sin cycle” begins again as the nation’s spiritual temperature steadily grows colder.
Amidst this story of national strife and suffering, the Book of Ruth stands out as a lovely ‘cameo’ story of love, loyalty and faithfulness. It is set in the time of the Judges, but offers a lovely picture of a faithful daughter-in-law, Ruth, who is a foreigner – from the land of Moab, but who, in a time of crisis when both she and her mother-in-law have been widowed, stands by Naomi, her mother-in-law, and is rewarded by God who leads her to the field of Boaz – a near kinsman of Naomi – where, whilst gathering grain, she finds a husband. Ruth becomes a part of the royal genealogy, becoming the great-grandmother of David through whom would come the Christ. Ruth’s loyalty is summed up in her commitment to Naomi: ‘your people shall be my people and your God, my God (Ruth 1:16).
Samuel, marks the transition between the Judges, and the Monarchy. He is both Judge and Prophet, making his appearance at the beginning of 1 Samuel. He anoints the first king, Saul. Though Saul’s physical strength is impressive, his indifferent attitude towards God results in the kingdom being taken away from his family. In his place, Samuel anoints a young boy named David as king elect. David rapidly becomes a threat to the insanely jealous Saul, eventually forcing him to flee into the wilderness, for risk of his life. But God’s hand of protection is upon David, just as God’s hand of judgement is on Saul. Foolishly consulting a medium, Saul hears his own doom pronounced. He is killed the next day in combat.
2 Samuel follows directly from the earlier book. David becomes king and makes Jerusalem his capital city. His triumphs bring the nation to its zenith of power, but his dual sins of adultery and murder bring personal and national chastening from the Lord. Throughout his life, David seeks God zealously and confesses his sins promptly – earning the accolade ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (Acts 13:22).
The two Books of Kings continue the story of God’s people, from the reign of Solomon to the division of the kingdom into the northern state of Israel and the southern state of Judah. We meet good kings and bad kings, but the sorry tale is one of continuing apostacy. The towering figures of Elijah, and his disciple Elisha, dominate the narrative, but despite their faithfulness to God, the national decline continues. The story concludes with the destruction of the land of Israel by the Assyrians, followed 125 years later by the exile of Judah to Babylon. The kingdom divided becomes the kingdom dissolved. It would seem as if the story of God’s people is coming to an end.
Why then do we need the Books of Chronicles? Surely, they merely repeat the story that we have just read in Samuel and Kings? Although Chronicles broadly covers the same period of time, it approaches history from a different perspective. Whilst Samuel and Kings outline the political history of Israel and Judah, 1 and 2 Chronicles offer a religious history of the Davidic dynasty of Judah. They focus upon a priestly and spiritual perspective. 1 Chronicles begins with the royal line of David, tracing it right back to the time of Adam, then traces the spiritual significance of David’s righteous reign. 2 Chronicles parallels the books of Kings, but virtually ignores the northern kingdom of Israel, primarily because of its false worship and its refusal to acknowledge God in the temple at Jerusalem. The royal, Davidic line is traced through the kings of Judah. The narrative concentrates upon the kings who are deemed to have been ‘godly’. The temple and temple worship are central throughout the book. So the story begins with Solomon’s glorious temple, and concludes with Cyrus’ edict to rebuild the temple, after the exile in Babylon, more than 400 years later. The key to understanding Chronicles is summed up in 2 Chronicles 7:14: ‘If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will heal them from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land’.
Against all the odds, the story continues! Even exile (which would have caused most nations to cease to exist), does not thwart God’s plans. Following 70 years of exile, the Book of Ezra relates the story of two returns from Babylonia, the first led by Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple, the second by Ezra, a priest, whose task is to rebuild the spiritual condition of the people.
Nehemiah leads the third and final return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. His concern for the welfare of Jerusalem prompts him to act. Granted permission to return to his homeland, Nehemiah challenges his countrymen to rebuild the walls of the city. Despite opposition from without and abuse from within, the task is completed in just fifty-two days – a feat that even their enemies attribute to God’s enabling. By contrast, the task of reviving and reforming the people of God within the rebuilt walls demands years of Nehemiah’s godly life and leadership.
Rather like Ruth, the book of Esther is a ‘stand-alone’ story which can be dated to between chapters 6 and 7 of Ezra. It provides the only biblical story that we have of the Jews who chose to remain in Persia (which by this time had defeated the Babylonians). God’s hand of providence and protection is evident throughout this story, even though God Himself is never mentioned by name! The Persian Minister Haman, plots to eliminate all the Jews in a fierce act of genocide, but his plans are countered by the courage of beautiful Esther, a Jewish girl who has married the king, and the counsel of her wise cousin, Mordecai, resulting in a great deliverance. Mordecai encourages Esther by saying to her, ‘who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’ (Esther 4:14). The Feast of Purim has become an annual reminder of God’s faithfulness on behalf of His people.
After the book of Esther, we don’t get much information about the history of the Israelites, in fact, as far as the Bible is concerned, we have 400 years of silence, (normally referred to as the intertestamental period) when no Jewish history is recorded. The remaining books of the Old Testament - especially the books of the prophets—fit within the timeline of the historical books. The ministry of the prophet Jeremiah, for example, took place during the events recorded in 2 Kings 22-25 (and the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 34 – 36). Knowing this can influence the way we read both the historical narratives and the prophetic books. To understand the books of Prophecy, the first question to ask, is when and where the prophet was at work.
Why do we have these 400 years of silence? There is certainly plenty of graphic history going on in Israel before we reach the birth of Jesus, the Christ, but for whatever reason, the Bible chooses to remain silent. The Bible does not seek to be a comprehensive history of the people of Israel. It is selective in what it gives us, primarily because it the story of God at work in the world, not just a human, historical record.
The Importance of Story
The books of History are the most obvious examples of narrative writing in the Bible, but let’s remember that the entire Bible, even the passages that are most obviously legal definition or prophetic musings, are also written within the context of story. This is the story of how God is at work in the world. As we read the story of the Bible, we should think of it as operating on three different levels:
· The Bible is the story of God’s universal plan, worked out through His creation. Here we see the story of creation, the fall, the reality of sin, the need for redemption and God’s solution to the problem of sin, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
· The Bible is the story of how God accomplishes His purposes, beginning with the call of Abraham, moving on to the foundation of a nation to be His chosen people, God’s patience and pleading with the people of Israel, through to the exile and ultimate restoration of the nation. We see God working His purposes out, which is leading up to the coming of a new relationship between God and the world.
· The Bible is the story of hundreds of individual people, from all walks of life, some good, some bad, which together offer personal insights into what it means to be the people of God. As we read these individual stories, we must always be asking ourselves how these individual stories fit together into the ‘big picture’ of the higher levels of the story.
The stories we have in the Bible are primarily about what God did to and through the people in them. Hence, they are divine narratives. God is the hero of the story. These stories do not always teach us directly, but they allow us to live through the events and to learn the underlying messages that are implicit within them. There are many stories that quite clearly, we are not supposed to emulate, but which contain important lessons for us to learn and apply to our lives.
What about the difficult bits?
When reading the Old Testament, as with any history, you’re likely to read about people doing or saying things that, to modern eyes, seem strange or even troubling. We should expect this - Old Testament writers saw the world from a cultural perspective that was totally different from ours. Violence, ethnic relations, and the roles of women are just some of the issues that ancient writers might have seen very differently than we do today. Consequently, many of the stories will not sit comfortably with our 21st century sensitivities.
So what should we do when we come across passages in the scriptures that trouble us? It might help to consider each passage in a broader context. How does it fit in God’s plan of salvation? How does it fit with what you know about the nature of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? How does it fit with revealed truths in other scriptures or with the teachings of living prophets? And how does it fit with the promptings of the Spirit to your own heart and mind?
In some cases, the passage may not seem to fit well with any of these. Sometimes the passage may be like a puzzle piece that doesn’t look as if it has a place amongst the other pieces that you’ve already assembled. Trying to force the piece to fit isn’t the best approach. But neither is giving up on the entire puzzle. You may need to set the piece aside for now. As you learn more and put together more of the puzzle, you may be able to better see how the pieces fit together.
We must remember that when we proclaim that the Bible is the ‘Word of the Lord’, that does not necessary mean that every word in the Bible is the ‘Command of the Lord’. As we read the story, not only do we read the ‘bad bits’, but we can see that there is a progression in the way that people thought. This is most obvious when we reach the New Testament, and receive a whole new covenant, or way of approaching God, but even within the Old Testament story, we can discern a developing understanding of who God is, how we should approach Him, and His demands upon us.
What about the long lists of names?
The Bible is full of genealogies. They crop up in many places, right up to the Gospels, but the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles are perhaps the most obvious example. To us, they seem to be totally irrelevant, and we may well question why they are included in the Scriptures, but in ancient Israel, when these lists of names were included in the Scriptures, they were of vital importance. For the original readers, the genealogies offer authentication. They ‘ground’ the narrative in real people and provide a sense of belonging. In Matthew 1, there is a clear intention of verifying the legitimacy of Jesus as the Messiah, born of the royal line of David. In the Old Testament, they served a similar role for the whole nation.
In today’s society, tracing one’s ancestry has become a major preoccupation for many people. The Hebrews, likewise, wanted to know who they were and where they came from. In addition, we are often asked to provide proof of identity. In ancient Israel, they didn’t have passports, driving licences, National Insurance Numbers, or even the title deeds to their property. Their only proof of identity was their birth-right. So, it was vitally important to know which tribe, which clan, which family you belonged to. Your genealogy was vitally important to you. The genealogies in the Bible were important documents.
In Conclusion
These books of history make interesting reading. They contain some of the best-known stories in the Bible; they also offer us some of the most challenging passages to understand and accept. So as we read, it is essential to keep in mind the ‘big picture’ of God’s activity, to be aware of the culture, time and circumstances of the passage we are reading, and to be open to learn from the individual stories that we are reading.
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