5.2 Is the Bible One Big Story?

Written over 1500 years by over 40 authors in three languages, this is the story of the Bible. Before anything was there was God and in love, he made life with his imprint stamped all over us, and being the kind of God he was, he got humankind involved to look after all of creation with him. But God's enemy Satan wanted to mess with this great plan. He tempted Adam and Eve with the desire to become like God. He told them that God was hiding better things from them and sadly Adam and Eve chose to believe him. This was kind of a big deal and for the first time sin entered the world. It was devastating and Adam and Eve were no longer tight with God. This was not the end of God's relationship with humanity, merely the beginning because God was not the type to give up on them. Sometime later Adam and Eve's Children's children had pretty much forgotten about God. They were killing each other. So God intervened, he started afresh and picked some faithful people who wouldn't destroy the world. One of those people was Abraham. God made a promise that a descendant of Abraham would rescue the world. God named these people, 'the Israelites'. Things worked for a bit but the Israelites forgot about living God's way and soon found themselves enslaved to the superpower at the time the Egyptians. It looked like it was all over. Enter Moses, tight with God and with an Egyptian CV to die for it. God helped him to free the Israelites reminding them that one day God would rescue the world and to help them not self-destruct again, he gave them the ten commandments with useful tips like don't kill and don't worship objects. But like grumpy toddlers, the Israelites said they'd prefer to go back to being slaves in Egypt because it was a bit tough in the desert. Thankfully, not all of the Israelites felt that way and God took the next generation out of the desert and into a promised land. Happily ever after right? Well, no, not quite. The same sort of pattern continued, the Israelites would forget God and chase the wrong things and end up in a mess but God kept patiently helping them. Eventually, the Israelites decided that what they needed was one of those kings. All the other nations had one and it looked fun so reluctantly God did as they asked, some kings were okay but overall the King's plan didn't go so well. They didn't listen to God and guess what, they got captured again and it looked like God had given up on them which they kind of deserved but of course, he didn't. He helped them in captivity to bless others, he reminded them that a good king AKA a descendant from Abraham would come and rescue the world. Finally, they were freed, they left captivity, and waited for the good King that God had promised, and here's where Jesus comes in. He was the good King, he was the promised one, plus FYI, he was God in the flesh like for real. Jesus shows them what God's Kingship looks like. Radical love for everyone, justice for the poor, freedom for the oppressed, and healing for the sick. For most people, this was the best news that they could have ever heard. Despite everything they'd done wrong, God loved every single one of them. And as always, there were some who didn't like the sound of all this love and forgiveness, and would you believe it, it was the religious people. They felt threatened and so they decided to kill him. And it's like what! All hope is lost right. There's no way for God to get back from this, the rescuer had died, God had been rejected and we're all toast, but not so fast, turns out there was a deeper battle happening. This had been God's plan all along, he knew that when Jesus died in this way he could take the whole of humanity's sin right from that piece of fruit in the garden to our future sin directly to the grave. Jesus did die but he took the world's sin with him and because Jesus was God, he came back resurrected, death and sin defeated, forever. And so a new age had dawned, things were different. Sin's grip was broken and humanity and God could be tight again. Plus God sent his spirit to be within anyone who asks. In fact, God is still with us now, inviting us to turn to him and to serve the world with him, and one day Jesus promises to return and make all things good as it was always meant to be.