The whole Bible, and all of human history, in 1000 words. Or less.
There are many excellent ways to look at the Bible narrative. Through the lens of the covenants that God makes, and keeps, with his people. Or, as Vaughn Roberts does in God’s Big Picture, through the lens of Kingdoms.
But there is a third way, that appeals to me as a writer and a storyteller. The Bible as a story.
Because fundamentally, the Bible is a story. History is a story. God made this world with a beginning, and it is progressing to a glorious end.
Myths and True Myths
Have you ever wondered why so many cultures have the same stories? Stories about a brave hero slaying a monster and saving a damsel in distress?
St George and the Dragon
Beowulf and Grendel
Perseus and Andromeda
Sleeping Beauty
The Swan Princess
Those are just a few that you probably know.
And I think that the reason these stories are so common and so cross-cultural is that they point to a deeper truth. The true story. The story of how Jesus Christ, the serpent crusher, came to free us from Satan and bring us back to God. Because as Doug Wilson says it, you can sum up Jesus’ story, and why he came, in six words: “Kill the Dragon. Get the girl.”
That is why Jesus came, and because he is the hero of the story, that is the plot of the whole Bible, and all of world history. Jesus came to crush Satan, and save his bride, the church.
Tracing the storyline
Our story started in the garden. A perfect world, with perfect people in a perfect relationship with God. God made the covenant of works with Adam and offered the blessing of God’s presence and everlasting life in exchange for perfect obedience. Adam broke the covenant, unleashing the curse of death, and the world was plunged into darkness. But God promised to send a serpent crusher, the seed of the woman.
Move on, and we see the covenant of grace with Abraham. God makes a new covenant with his people, through Abraham. And this time, he promises that he will take the punishment if the covenant is broken. That if it is not kept, he will die like the animals that he passed between.
We see Moses, and how God delivered his people out of the land of slavery and death. Pharaoh tried to kill Moses, but instead God delivered him to eventually bring down judgement on Pharaoh. Then God developed his covenant further, showing his people in the Law how they should live as covenant people.
We see David, the type of Christ. A king, who you’ll remember from Sunday school, crushed the head of Goliath with a sling and delivered his people. A man after God’s own heart, but one who eventually died and left the kingdom to lesser men who squandered it.
We see the prophets calling people back to God and promising the saviour’s coming. Israel went into exile, Judah went into exile, they came back. And all the while they waited. Trapped by the dragon, waiting for the saviour.
Jesus came. And as a little baby gave its first, wailing cry in Bethlehem, all the powers of hell and all the angels in glory collectively paused and said: “Huh… Didn’t see that one coming”. Because even though that was the moment the tide started to turn, it didn’t look like much. Jesus had come. God the almighty, in the form of a baby. God, who spoke planets into being with a word, had to learn to speak. God, who was so glorious that to see him was to be destroyed, became a baby that people looked at and said “aww, how cute”. And all the heavens sang hallelujah.
He grew, in wisdom and in strength. He sought his Father and lived the life that we could not. He bound up the strong man, defeating Satan’s power by resisting his temptations. The knight in white, unblemished and unstained. And all the hints, all the promises and all the foreshadowing were finally fulfilled in the cross. Every great story has a moment when you don’t know if it’s a tragedy, or if victory is around the corner. It was the darkest moment in human history, literally and figuratively. The devil has bruised the son’s heel, God has kept his promise to pay the price of a broken covenant. Is this the end?
The creator of the world, the God who upholds the planets in their orbits cannot even lift His own cross. The King of kings is mocked and beaten. Our saviour, our champion. He can’t even save himself. He promises life, and yet he hangs there dying.
The light of the world is extinguished. Darkness wins. The shadows gather, covering the earth. Night falls when the sun is at its highest. The God who breathed life into Adam’s lungs struggles to breathe. Nails pierce hands that flung stars into space. Death wins and Satan laughs. Surely even the angels must tremble before the sight of that tomb. Is God not strong enough? Are the promises in vain? Does the Dragon win?
Our story doesn’t end there.
And because of that resurrection, our story doesn’t end in the grave either.
How does it end? It ends in Revelation 19. The world’s story ends in the song of the saints singing:
Hallelujah!
Revelation 19:6-8
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure
It ends with the heavens opening, and Christ on a white horse. The one called Faithful and True, who in righteousness judges and makes war.
And it ends with the beast and the kings of the earth cast into the lake of fire forever.
A story that signifies
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Macbeth
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Well tomorrow does creep, and death does come. Our lives are but brief candles, and we are bit players with a short turn on the world’s stage. But ours is a tale told by the master storyteller. A tale of Jesus, and of redemption. A tale of a dragon slain, and a bride won.
And it signifies everything.
Editor’s note: this is a lightly updated version of a talk I gave at Trinity Aberdeen’s student ministry, to help wrap up a semester of studies on the covenants God makes with his people throughout the Bible.