The Bible is One Book, One Story

The Bible is one book, one story.  While Aesop’s Fables is a collection of individual stories, each with a different moral lesson, the Bible is one book, one story with two themes that run throughout the entire book like train tracks.  The first 11 chapters of Genesis introduce the story, and conclude with God giving every nation a different language, then scattering them over the face of the earth.  The story then identifies these two key themes in Genesis 12:1-3.  God tells Abram that He will bless him and that through Abram all nations will be blessed.  The story fulfills the two themes near the end of the book in Revelation 7 when people from every nation, tribe, people and language worship the Lamb joyfully together before his throne with God.  The Bible is the story of God scattering the nations and then bringing them back together in unified worship of Himself so that He receives maximum glory. 

One theme that runs throughout the entire Bible is that God intends to bless us.  Take these well-known stories:

• David & Goliath

  
  

• Solomon’s Wisdom

  
  

• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

  
  

• Daniel in the Lion’s Den

  
  

• Esther

This first theme is easy to identify in each story:

• In the story of David and Goliath: Trust God and He will help you slay giants.

  
  

• In the story of Solomon’s Wisdom: Choose wisely and gain it all.

  
  

• In the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: If you are faithful, God will protect you in your time of need.

  
  

• In the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den: If you are faithful, God will protect you in your time of need.

  
  

• In the story of Esther: Maybe God is raising you up for such a time as this.

But there is also a second theme that we so easily miss – God is taking His blessing to the nations and wants us to join Him in the task:

• David declares to Goliath, “so that the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.’  1 Samuel 17:46

  
  

• Queen of Sheba and others come to see King Solomon’s wisdom.  King Solomon summarizes at the end of his prayer of dedication of the temple, 1 Kings 8:59-60 “that all peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.”

  
  

• After Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are saved from the fiery furnace King Nebuchadnezzar says, “Therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces”  Daniel 3:29

  
  

• After Daniel is saved from the lions, King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth: “May you prosper greatly!  I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.  For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end.  He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.  He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”  Daniel 6:25

  
  

• In the story of Esther, we read: “a copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality” Esther 8:13

We are all familiar with the Priestly Prayer in Numbers 6:24-26:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”

We love that prayer because it is about us.  It is about God blessing us.  But we rarely, if ever, talk about God’s purpose in blessing us:

May God be gracious to us and bless us 

and make his face shine on us -

so that your ways may be known on earth,

your salvation among all nations.  Psalm 67:1-2

This central theme of God taking His blessing to the nations, of bringing ethnic diversity back together in unified worship of Himself, is also constantly present in the New Testament.  While we may be aware of the Great Commission, we may not as quickly notice how this theme is a common thread that runs through Jesus’ life and ministry.

A devout man named Simeon took baby Jesus in his arms and declared, “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32).  The Gospel of Matthew foreshadows the inclusive nature of the message of Jesus by narrating the story of Magi from Asia who came to Bethlehem to honor the infant Jesus, symbolizing Gentile inclusion in God’s salvation story.

When detailing the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Matthew quoted Isaiah to present him as the fulfillment of prophecy, “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles - the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned” (Matthew 4:15-16).  Capernaum, Jesus’ home for most of his ministry, served as a crossroads for a diverse population of Gentiles and Jews, facilitating rich multicultural interaction.  Luke recounts Jesus starting his ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30), where he announced a ministry that included the poor and oppressed of Israel.  Jesus then referenced the Hebrew Scriptures to suggest that just as God sent prophets Elijah and Elisha to minister to widows and lepers outside of Israel, His ministry would also extend beyond these boundaries.  This implication led to His rejection in the synagogue. 

Indeed, Jesus’ ministry transcended the boundaries of Israel.  He performed miracles for Gentiles, healing a man known as Legion (Mark 5:1-20), casting out a demon from the daughter of a Greek woman from Syrian Phoenicia (Mark 7:24-30), and restoring hearing to a man living in the Gentile region of Decapolis (Mark 7:34).  When the author of Mark narrates the feeding of the four thousand in Mark 8:1-9, he makes a point to note that this happens in the predominantly Gentile region of Decapolis.  He then further emphasizes his point of inclusion by describing how Jesus took seven loaves, gave thanks, broke them, and distributed them, symbolizing the inclusion of Gentiles at God’s communion table while feeding the multitude.

In our essay on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we examine how Jesus uses the parable to confront the ethnocentrism of His audience.  Jesus also employs direct language to affirm the inclusiveness of the kingdom.  When a Roman centurion sought help for his paralyzed servant, Jesus is amazed by the centurion’s unmatched faith and told His disciples, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith.  I tell you that many will come from east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:10-12).

When Jesus overturns the table of the money changers he quotes from Isaiah 56:7, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’”  It was this inclusiveness that ultimately led to the chief priest and teachers of the law to seek a way to kill him.

God is on mission to bring the nations back together in unified worship of Himself, the loving Creator and sustainer of all peoples.  Once we become aware of this central theme it changes how we read and understand every Bible passage.

Embracing Unity Academy explores the implications of God’s mission on our discipleship regarding his call to unity with brothers and sisters in Christ from “every nation, tribe, people, and language.”