Hearing the Story
“Dynasties have fallen but the Bible still stands.” Since the Bible was written - empires, dynasties, powers of all kinds have all come and gone - yet the Bible is still the best-selling and most influential book of all time; no other even comes close.
That’s because this isn’t just a book, it is the word and message of God, and that gives it power. The Bible talks about the Word of God being alive, and active. It does something.
It’s not just mere words on a page, these words of God have the power to get to the deepest parts of ourselves, and can even judge the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts (Heb 4:12). That kind of deep.
Not only that, but these words give us a window through which we get to see God himself. And just like the purpose of a window isn’t to stare at or study it, but rather to not see it at all…so it is with the Bible. We should peer through the window of the Bible not to see it, but to see him. Listen to what Jesus told the Pharisees, who had entire books of the Bible memorized.
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”John 5:39-40
The Bible isn’t God and shouldn’t be treated as such, but the Bible is powerful and precious in that it is God’s words speaking to us and God’s revelation of himself.
It was written a long time ago though. Don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s irrelevant; remarkably, it’s just as relevant as ever! But it does mean that we have to peel back some layers to get to the message. First, we have the layer of the individual - these books were written by real people, each unique, and they were written to other real people or groups of people, who were also unique. Second, we have the layer of culture - these words were written in the context of completely different cultures than our own. And lastly, we have the layer of religion - remember Jesus hadn’t come yet for the entire Old Testament, so for much of the Bible their way of relating to God was vastly different than ours as he continued to reveal himself over time. As we read and study we must be aware of these layers and take them into account to find the real message of God. This can seem daunting but we live in a time with more resources than ever to help us!
Individual → Culture → Religion → God
Now a bit about its structure…
The Bible is more like a unified library than a single book. It’s a collection of 66 books actually, written by 40+ different authors over the course of more than 1500 years! Yet, it tells a collective story. Check out how it’s split up below.
The Library of the Bible
66 Books - 40 Authors
Old Testament
- Law — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
- History — Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samual, 2 Samual, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
- Poetry — Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
- Major Prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
- Minor Prophets — Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
New Testament
- Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
- History — Acts
- Paul’s Letters — Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
- General Letters — Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
- Prophecy — Revelation
The most known sections of the Bible are the Old and New Testaments. The whole Old Testament points to our need for God, our need for redemption, and sets us up to realize when he comes that Jesus is in fact the Son of God and Lord of all. Then the New Testament tells us the story of Jesus coming to earth, of God in the flesh, and brings more clarity on who we are, where this thing is headed, and what our role is in moving it forward until Jesus comes back and restores the whole earth fully and forever!
In this study we’ll try to get a better picture of this overarching story and look at what the Bible says about itself!
Keep in mind, this was written by Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples who spent everyday with him for years.
- What is Peter saying here and what does he seem most passionate about you understanding from this?
- How does he say scripture was written and what do you think that might have looked like?
- What does “God-breathed” mean?
- What does this say scripture is useful for?
- What do each of those things look like in practice?
- How is God’s word “alive and active”? What does that mean?
- How is it like a sword?
- Have you every experienced God’s word like that?
- How does seeing God’s word as alive and active change the way we interact with it?
- How do we “deceive” ourselves by listening to the word and not doing what it says? (What’s the lie we believe when we do that?)
- Why does he compare that to looking at yourself in a mirror and then forgetting what you look like?
- Why do you think we struggle to apply what we hear in God’s word to our lives?
- What does he say will happen when we listen to the word and obey it? Have you experienced this before?
- What does Jesus teach us the scriptures are for, and not for, in this verse?
- How should this effect how we use and read the bible?
- What did you learn about the Bible today or what was most helpful about this lesson?
- What questions do you still have?
Watch this video from the bible project: The Story of the Bible — What It’s About From Beginning to End
Journal:
- Recap the story in your own words.
- What was interesting or new to you about this story?
- Why is it important to have a vision of the whole story rather than bits and pieces?