BIBLE STORIES CAN IMPACT GREAT THINGS FOR TEACHING CHILDREN. AND THEY ALSO HAVE
MEANING FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO UNDERSTAND GOD AND HOW HE WANTS US TO ACT.
Bible
stories are helpful for teaching children, and they also have vital lessons for
people of all ages.The Bible are full of stories,
from Genesis clear to Revelation. Entire books of the Bible are dedicated to
telling a specific story. Some of these are stories of good triumphing over
evil, while others are heartrending stories that tell of death and destruction.
Some stories are funny; some are poignant; and some just make you shake your head.
What is the purpose behind all of these stories? Are they simply fairy tales?
Did God supply the stories to break the monotony between genealogies and laws?
There is a purpose for the wide variety of stories. Every Bible story has a
purpose—as would be expected of a book inspired by the great and purposeful
Almighty God. The apostle Paul listed some of the purposes for the Bible in 2
Timothy 3:16: “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness.” Bible stories can make these purposes and lessons come to life
for all of us. God also recorded these stories to help parents in the vital job
of teaching their children. God wants us to “remember His marvelous works which
He has done” and to diligently teach our children His good ways (1 Chronicles
16:12; Deuteronomy 6:7)we hope the Bible stories in this section (see the
links in the right column) will help people of all ages, and especially parents
reading them to their children. Whether for our education or to encourage us,
there is always a reason God placed each story in the Bible. Though some of the
stories of the Bible, such as the parables, are illustrations used to teach a
lesson, all the examples in this article refer to real-life, historically
accurate accounts that God also recorded for our learning.
LEARNING FROM THE BAD EXAMPLE
One purpose of Bible stories is so we can learn from the bad
examples (1 CORINTHIAN 10 6-11). The Bible has many stories that reveal to us
examples of humans trying to live life without God or succumbing to one of many
human weaknesses. For example, in 2 Chronicles 26 we read the story of Uzziah,
who was actually one of Judah’s better kings. Uzziah became king when he was
only 16 years old, and he had a long reign that was full of military victories.
He was one of the few kings who had a personal relationship with God and was successful.
Yet he started to grow proud and went against God’s law. Proud because of his
power and the strength that God had given him, he decided that he would offer
incense up to God, something God had commanded that only the priests should do.
When the priests resisted Uzziah and tried to tell him that it was not his
place, he grew angry with them. While he was arguing with the priests who had
dared to go against him, God cursed him with leprosy. He was forced to live by
himself for the rest of his life. What’s the purpose behind this story, set
long ago in ancient Judah? Its purpose is so we can learn from King Uzziah’s
example. His success caused him to grow prideful, and he came to disregard
God’s law. We have to be on guard so that pride doesn’t strike us when God
blesses us with success. We have to learn from the bad examples if we don’t
want to follow in their footsteps.
LEARNING
FROM THE GOOD EXAMPLE
Of course, the Bible doesn’t just record the bad examples that
people have left behind. There are many good examples in the Bible as well. One
of these is the example of Hezekiah, another king of Judah. When threatened
with imminent destruction at the hands of the mighty Assyrians, Hezekiah asked
God for assistance. Instead of being arrogant like Uzziah had been, Hezekiah
tore his clothes and knelt before God. When he received a letter from the
enemy, he laid it before God and humbly asked God for His help (2 Kings 19).If
Hezekiah had relied on his own feeble strength to pull him through, he would
have almost certainly been annihilated. However, since he relied on God, his
enemy was destroyed and his kingdom was safe for many more years. Another
excellent example in the Bible is that of the heroine of the book of Ruth.
After losing her husband and father-in-law, Ruth stayed loyal to Naomi, her
grieving mother-in-law, and went with her to the land of Israel. After arriving
in Israel, she worked diligently to provide for both herself and Naomi. Her
loyalty and hard work were noticed by several, including a wealthy farmer named Boas. He made sure that Ruth and Naomi were taken care of, and he eventually
married Ruth. Ruth’s decision to worship the God of Israel and loyally
serve her mother-in-law provides us an excellent example. She was rewarded, and
God greatly blessed her and the woman to whom she was so loyal. (Read the
article about RUTH in the “Women of Faith” section of this website.)
LEARNING ABOUT GOD
Because God is a great, infinite and invisible
Being, how do we come to comprehend who He really is? How can we learn about
God? How do we know who God is and what He is like? We can learn about Him
through what others say in the Bible. For example, Paul tells us that God
“cannot lies” (TITUS 1:2), but that simple statement generally doesn’t fully
sink in until we read through an account like the story of the Exodus. There we
see the extreme measures to which God will go in order to keep His word. He
even took on Egypt, the world’s mightiest empire, by sending 10 devastating
plagues. He did this in order to free the enslaved Israelite due to a promise
He had made to Abraham hundreds of years before. God demonstrated clearly to
the descendants of Abraham—and to us—that He is completely truthful and
fulfills all His promises. The Gospels also help us learn more about God. In
the Gospels we see the Son of God—JESUS CHRIST—as a very