What is the story so far?
This is the question. How did it begin? What has happened? Where are we now?
There’s a reason serial TV shows give you a recap at the beginning of new episodes. They want to jog your memory. So help yourself out.
What is the story so far?
I started this week’s video with this question. Try getting comfortable with this practice.
This week we’re moving into the biggest part of the story. The part that is impossible to do justice in so short a time. And one we can’t possibly address at the level of detail. We have to use broad strokes to paint this picture.
Remember that this approach helps us see what we otherwise would not. So give it a shot.
Week Two: Obedience
In the first part, we saw what happens when God makes a commitment to the people, liberates them, and stays with them. It is a story of not only making a promise, but fulfilling it.
Now it is the people’s turn. What do they do with it?
Prompt: Thinkers throughout history have suggested that we cannot know truly understand our relationship with God and one another without failing. What does a story of human failure reveal about a people obsessed with success?
Suggested Readings: We’re not reading it all, but here are some fascinating parts of the story: The Succession Narrative (2 Samuel 9-20 & 1 Kings 1-2), Ruth, Ezra, Psalms, Isaiah 40-55
Assignment: Don’t think too hard about what to read. This is the time to just pick something and read it. Carry with you the questions we’ve been asking; especially this week’s prompt. Keep putting the story you are reading into the bigger context of a bigger story.
Also take time to reflect on how genre effects the story. The books we refer to as history are pretty straight forward, and the psalms are obviously poetic. But wisdom literature like Proverbs and Song of Solomon are different, reflecting something more like aphorisms passed down by your parents or love letters you didn’t plan to read…
And prophetic books blend it all together. Historical narratives are mixed with interpretation and the judgement of God.
Take advantage of your journal as you read. Write out your questions, confusions, and frustrations next to your revelations and joys. Practice the story! Even as it may seem silly to do, begin each session asking yourself “What is the story so far?” and then answer–by writing in your journal or talking it out in the shower.
And when you’re done reading, ask yourself–how do I fit this into the story?
Another Note About Reading: Some parts of the Bible are frightening or deeply challenging. I don’t believe we should shy away from them necessarily, but we should read them alongside other people. One of the most serious examples of this is the book of Joshua, which highlights genocide in a way that seems like it is endorsed and encouraged by God.
This is a great opportunity to recognize why we’re trying to see the bigger story–not to erase the bad spots or ignore them–and not to harmonize them and make them seem palatable–and not to make them objectively OK for us–but to see that these aren’t the whole of the story, nor do they define it.
While many have read a book like Joshua and found it as an endorsement of genocide in the abstract or as a blueprint for blessing (as early settlers in North America did), this is clearly not the point of the story. Especially when considered in its context of God fulfilling a promise made centuries before. This doesn’t make the story any less difficult for the modern reader, but it does demonstrate the lie that this is an endorsement of the general use of genocide.
I hope that in taking a minute to reflect on this particular “tree” we can see precisely what happens to the forest! We start wondering if the forest is this tree! Is genocide one of the things God accepts? Is God genocidal? Does God want some people to be destroyed? While fascinating questions, this line of inquiry is utterly incomprehensible when our focus is on the forest. This is the kind of conundrum that can serve as excellent conversation over beers and hot wings when we’ve got time to explore and the willingness to entertain, but these have an outsized impact on our imagination when treated as equal to the more consistent and deeper themes rooted throughout the story.
Perhaps we can simply say that the nature of violence depicted in the Hebrew Scripture is more the vehicle for the narrative than its purpose. Much like reading comic book superheroes, in which the use of violence is not an endorsement of it, but a vehicle for speaking to matters of courage, generosity, and the greater good.
A faithful reading of Hebrew Scripture need not shy away from its more challenging parts. Nor must it treat them as something greater than they are.
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