The Bible As History

We do ourselves and our children a disservice when we treat the Bible solely as a text book of history. It is the Word of God. However we also do ourselves and our children a disservice if we treat the Bible only as a "religious book" with little or no relevance to the so-called "real world".

Here are a few tips to help you and your children come to grips with the Bible as History.

Start At The Beginning

Begin reading through the Bible chronologically with your children. By doing this you lay a foundation for their accepting the Bible as "real" history, not just "Bible stories" or "fairy tales".

Read Genesis then Exodus. You may like to sample Leviticus in the early stages. Read the narrative portions of Numbers, Joshua, Judges and Ruth. Chronicles and Kings can be read simultaneously. David’s Psalms can be interspersed throughout the narrative of his life. Isaiah’s prophecies can be read in context as they were delivered to Hezekiah, for example. The Minor Prophets can also be read in context at the appropriate time in your journey through Kings, and Chronicles, and beyond.

Bite - Sized Bits

It helps to have some kind of skeleton in mind. We divide OT history into 10 sections. As we read through each section in chronological order, each section building on the last, we see how history is moving toward the ultimate goal of history: Christ.

The 10 Sections into which OT history can be divided are:

	The Primeval History (Before or around 4000 BC).
	The Patriachal History (around 2000 BC).
	The Mosaic Period (around 1500 BC including the Exodus at 1450 BC)
	The Conquest (around 1400 BC)
	The Period of the Judges (around 1400 BC).
	The United Monarchy (1000 BC).
	The Divided Kingdom (9 BC).
	The Exile (beginning 721 BC for Israel, and 605 BC Judah).
	The Return (around BC).
	The 400 year Silence to Christ (around "0" BC) (There is really no year 0).

These dates can be used to construct an approximate time line (to which you may add any other details you may like).

Tying It All Together

Once you have this basic framework in mind whenever you study "anything BC" ask your children (and yourself): "What was going on among God's people at this time. It won't be long before your children are quite comfortable with the idea that the Egypt the Children of Israel went into and out of is the very same Egypt in which the pyramids were built and where they still stand today.

A Word To The Wise

Don't get too bogged down in the details. There are a number of candidates for the Pharaoh of the Exodus, for example. There are a number of suggestions for "reconstructing" the chronology of ancient Egypt to obtain a better fit between the archeological and the Biblical records of the conquest.

Leave something for me to write about on other pages ....

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