The Bible and God’s Quest for the Heart of Humanity
God’s Quest for Humanity
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In the beginning, God created human children for himself and gave them a perfect, well-ordered home where they could grow and thrive in peace and safety. He loved them and delighted in communing with them and giving them wonderful gifts.
But one day, those children decided all of God’s gifts were not enough. He must be holding out on them. They did not trust his love, so they did the one thing he had forbidden them from doing. In this way, they declared their independence, their right to judge right and wrong for themselves. The relationship was splintered. But their betrayal had only begun.
On that day, God lost his beloved. But even as he watched his children grow further and further away from him, he vowed to one day win them back. He promised to raise up one of the humans’ own offspring to defeat the snake that led them into rebellion and reverse the curse of death that enslaved them.
So began the story of God’s quest to reclaim his lost love, a quest that would cost him all he had to give.
The Story of the Bible
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The story of the Bible is God’s quest to restore his broken family. God is the main character throughout, and God’s quest for the heart of humanity is the main message. Every story points to who he is and why he is worthy of our love and devotion.
The Bible is about God
The Bible isn’t a history of humanity, a scientific treatise, or a list of rules and regulations for proper living. It’s certainly not a guide on how to be happy and prosperous. Parts of the Bible address these and many other topics, but none of them is the point. The point is God’s love for humanity and why we should love him back. It is an intimate love letter designed to draw us back to him.
The Bible tells a story
Although the story of the Bible is true, it’s still a work of literature and uses all sorts of literary devices to convey a deeper truth. Any given passage from the Bible is true only in the context of the story.
The context of a Scripture verse includes the surrounding chapters and verses as well as the historical and cultural context of the original author and audience. It also includes the literary style being used. For example, the story Nathan tells David in 2 Samuel 12 is not literally true. It would be incorrect to quote this story by itself as biblical teaching just because “it’s in the Bible.” Rather, the truth the Bible teaches is that Nathan told David this story in order to convict him of his sin. The context of the true story of Bathsheba and Uriah makes it clear Nathan’s story was allegorical.
Understanding Scripture
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The process of understanding Scripture is called exegesis, a Greek word meaning “to reason out of.” Understanding the story of the Bible means drawing that meaning out of the text itself, taking into account the literary, historical, and cultural context of a given passage. Eisegesis (“to reason into”) is the opposite of exegesis. It involves reading preconceived biases into the text to make it support a given conclusion, whether or not it actually does.
It would be naïve to claim that reading the Bible without any biases at all is humanly possible. We all have our own biases we don’t realize are biases. But believers must always allow Scripture to challenge our preconceptions and realign them with God’s truth. If you approach Scripture expecting it to confirm all your current beliefs, you will find a way to make it do so.
Literary Devices in the Bible
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Allegory: a story, usually fictional, that uses symbolism to represent real-life people, events, and ideas
Analogy: a comparison of two different things in order to highlight some shared characteristic
Anthropomorphism: the portrayal of something that is not human as if it were human
Chiasm: a form of parallelism where two statements express the same or similar ideas but in reverse order
Double Entendre: a word or phrase that has two meanings, usually one literal and one ironic
Euphemism: an idiom that expresses something embarrassing or unpleasant in a polite manner
Foreshadowing: a reference to a later event that provides a clue about what is to come
Hendiadys: a single idea that is expressed by two separate components, usually connected by and
Hyperbole: an obvious exaggeration used for emphasis or dramatic effect
Idiom: a figure of speech whose meaning is not derived from the meaning of each individual word
Inclusio: a phrase or idea repeated at the beginning and end of a passage to identify the theme
Irony: a figure of speech that means the opposite of its literal meaning or an occurrence that is the opposite of what’s expected
Merism: a figure of speech where two opposites express totality
Metaphor: a figure of speech that equates two unrelated objects to express similarity
Parable: a fictional story that teaches a moral lesson or illustrates a religious concept
Parallelism: a poetic device where two statements express similar ideas, with the second statement repeating, contrasting with, or amplifying the first.
Personification: the attribution of human characteristics, feelings, or actions to something that is not human
Proverb: a short saying expressing a general truth, usually as a form of advice
Sarcasm: a form of irony intended as an insult or rebuke
Satire: a form of irony intended to expose wickedness and folly with the hope of inspiring change
Typology: a form of foreshadowing in which different people or events share common characteristics
Zoomorphism: the portrayal of something that is not an animal as if it were an animal
For a more thorough list of literary devices, see literarydevices.net.