The Big Picture

This is the third and final article in our "How to Read the Bible" series. We began by exploring the right way to read the Bible, focusing on four motivations for reading and the importance of guarding our hearts as we approach Scripture relationally. In our second article, we considered reading with the right perspective, examining the importance of literary and historical contexts, and understanding different biblical genres.

In our previous article, we zoomed in to examine specifics, but now we're zooming out to look at the big picture of the Bible and discover how we find our place in it. Understanding both the details and the whole story is crucial for effective Bible reading.

We Are Story Creatures

Have you ever picked up a book and been so gripped that you couldn't put it down? Or started reading something that just dragged on with a disappointing ending? Great stories are brilliant—they can teach, inspire, and delight us. They give us hope, take us to new places, entertain us, challenge us, and shape our thinking.

Research has shown that stories affect our brains in ways that other forms of communication don't. When we read, not only do the language processing parts of our brains activate, but all the other areas we would use if we were actually experiencing the story's events! Our sensory cortex lights up when we read descriptions of smells or textures, our motor cortex is stimulated when we read about a character running, and the same happens with our emotions.

Research points to us being made as "story creatures," and since stories have the power to reach us and shape our thinking, it's almost like God planned it. Just under half of the Old Testament and around 60% of the New Testament comes to us in story form. These stories fit together to create a narrative "backbone" for the whole Bible—God's complete story of how He is working out His relationship with people, giving the Scriptures profound cohesion.

The World's Greatest Story

The Bible is the world's greatest story because no other story addresses our purpose and deep need as human beings to know God and live in relationship with Him. The Bible contains an astounding 63,779 cross-references that capture its remarkable unity and beauty. Written over 1,500 years by more than 40 authors using various genres, all the parts fit together to form one coherent narrative.

To understand this big picture, let's break it down into three great acts, like a play with Acts 1, 2, and 3.

Act One: God's Plan for All People

The story begins in Genesis with God creating the heavens and the earth. Everything owes its existence to God and should be understood in light of God. Human beings were created in God's image, blessed with responsibilities, work, and established as part of a family.

Scene 1: The Bible starts with Adam and Eve walking with God in the garden, knowing His presence and enjoying perfect relationship.

Scene 2: Everything goes wrong when Adam and Eve rebel against God, choosing their own wisdom instead of trusting God's. This is known as "the fall." Because they turned their backs on their face-to-face relationship with God, as humanity multiplied, so did evil.

Scene 3: God brought judgment on the earth, destroying almost all life with the flood and scattering people across the earth.

This first act establishes that God created us as human beings as part of His good creation, but we now face the devastating effects of sin. Still, God desires to be present in our lives through relationship with us.

Act Two: God's Covenant People

Throughout the story, we see God repeatedly reaching out to humanity, working out a plan of redemption to bring people back into relationship with Him.

Scene 1: The redemption plan starts with God creating a covenant people through Abram (later Abraham), who was old, and his wife Sarai (later Sarah), who was barren. Abraham trusted God's promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and that God would give them a land. Abraham and Sarah had Isaac, who had Jacob and Esau. Jacob (renamed Israel) had twelve sons who became fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, including Joseph.

Scene 2: The Israelites became slaves in Egypt, but through Moses, God delivered them after sending ten plagues. The Passover celebration was established to help them remember God's miraculous deliverance. The sacrifice of the Passover lamb, along with the near-sacrifice of Isaac, points toward the coming of Jesus, our ultimate deliverer.

Scene 3: God led His people through the wilderness, providing for them and teaching them His ways, preparing them for the Promised Land. The tabernacle was built and priests were ordained, but because the people repeatedly rebelled, they stayed in the wilderness for forty years.

Scene 4: Despite their rebellion, God kept His promise and brought His people into the Promised Land under Joshua's leadership, dividing it among the twelve tribes.

Scene 5: The people were led by spiritual and military leaders called Judges. A clear pattern emerges: the people rebel against God, experience judgment, then are delivered by a Judge. This cycle repeats until the people demand a king to rule over them.

Scenes 6-8: The kingdom period includes the united kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon, then the divided kingdom. David was the best king until Jesus, and God promised David that one of his descendants would reign forever—another anticipation of the Messiah. Solomon built the temple but eventually turned away from God. The kingdom divided, with the Northern Kingdom (Israel) destroyed by Assyrians in 722 BC and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) eventually exiled to Babylon in 587 BC.

God delivered His people again when King Cyrus of Persia allowed them to return and rebuild the temple. After the exile, under Ezra and Nehemiah's leadership, the people focused on the Law and abandoned idolatry.

Act Three: New Covenant People

Scene 1: Four hundred years later, God sent Jesus, the Messiah, born in Bethlehem, David's town. Jesus lived a perfect life and began His public ministry around age thirty. He reconstituted the twelve tribes by calling twelve disciples and brought the Kingdom of God to earth, spiritually returning God's people to His rule.

Scene 2: Jesus taught people how to live in His Kingdom and performed miracles proving that a new era of God's power and rule had come.

Scene 3: Jesus dealt with the problem of sin and death that had plagued humanity since the fall. He offered people the possibility of entering a new covenant with God, bringing complete forgiveness and renewed relationship. Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to sit at God's right hand as Lord of all.

Scene 4: Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live in people's hearts, write God's laws on their hearts, and help them live for God. His people became the new temple—the place where God dwells. Together, we are His church, sent on mission to reach the world with the good news that Jesus is Lord. This covers the book of Acts and the letters written to early churches.

Scene 5: Revelation gives hope to persecuted Christians and anticipates Jesus' promised return at the end of the age.

Finding Our Place in the Story

At the center of the entire story is God, who has always longed for a people who would walk with Him and know Him. This thread runs from Creation to Revelation. He is a holy God with particular ways our relationship with Him must follow, but His ways ultimately lead to life.

As we respond to God and become part of His people, the church, we join this great story. Yes, your individual story might be important—whether you're a solicitor, nurse, or mechanic—but if you're a follower of Jesus, you belong in an even greater story that gives meaning to all other aspects of your life.

As 2 Corinthians 5:15 tells us: "And [Christ] died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised."

George H. Guthrie writes: "As we live deeply engaged with the grand story of Scripture, that greater story really does become the framework by which we understand all the other aspects of our lives."

How Do We Live This Story?

1. Immerse Ourselves in the Story

The best way to know the story better is to read it ourselves. As we keep reading over time, we gradually see the story take shape. Use reading plans or good guides that provide background context. Many free options are available through apps like YouVersion or websites like Bible Gateway.

2. Ask 'Story' Questions as We Read

To gain greater understanding, ask good questions:

• When and where did this take place, and why?
• Who are the main characters?
• How are their lives similar or different from ours?
• Are there obvious tensions or conflicts?
• What does this passage tell me about God, people, or our relationship with God?
• How might I work out these truths in my life?

Take time reading, invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you. When you hit questions you can't answer, use study guides or trusted websites. Journal what you read and what you sense God saying.

3. Keep Jesus as the Focus

All of the Old Testament builds to its climax in Jesus—His life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. All of the New Testament flows from His identity and mission to bring us into new covenant relationship with God the Father.

Hebrews 1:1-2 captures this beautifully: "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son."

Jesus is the key that brings all parts of the Bible together and makes sense of the whole story.

Our Part in the Greatest Story

Will Herberg wrote: "Redemptive history is not merely a recital that we hear and understand. It is also a demand upon us, for out of it comes the voice of God. Faith is responding to the call of God…[when we read the Bible] it is though we are sat witnessing some tremendous epic drama being performed on a vast stage, when suddenly the chief character, who is also its director, steps forward to the front of the stage, fixes his eyes upon us, points his finger at us and calls out: 'You, you're wanted. Come up here. Take your part!'"

As we understand the story better, we understand our part better and recognize the amazing privilege of playing our role in the greatest story ever told. Let us be people who allow this grand narrative to shape our individual stories and our corporate story as the body of Christ, keeping our calling central and seeing every moment as an opportunity to obey and share the story, making Jesus known.

This concludes our three-part series on "How to Read the Bible." We hope these articles have equipped you to approach Scripture with the right heart, the right perspective, and an understanding of your place in God's magnificent story.