Story Lessons
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11 NASB
Happened to them – Did you notice the implication? Paul writes that the events in the lives of the men and women in the Tanakh are also instructive. He uses the Greek synebainen ekeinois, literally “walked together.” If we really want Torah to be our guidebook for living, we will have to pay attention to the stories as well as the regulations. What happened to these men and women as they walked along the way teaches us.
Now you know why so many sermons use examples from the lives of the people of the Tanakh as springboards for application. That’s what we are supposed to do with these personal histories. Of course, that doesn’t mean we can ignore the regulations. They are also vitally important. But it’s much easier to just pretend everything is allegory. Not so. Events in the lives of these people are valuable insights into God’s way of living. I’m sure you will agree.
Of course, this means that you need to know the lives of these people. The Sunday School versions won’t cut it. Most Hebrew stories are chronicles of personal involvement. In other words, they are stories that are written in ways that require you, the reader, to insert yourself into the plot and feel what is happening as if you are playing a part. So Hebrew stories are like outlines where you are expected to fill in the emotional overtones, the subplots, the character development and the hyperlinks to other parts of the Tanakh. You’ll recall we recently notices that Solomon’s request for wisdom pushes us back to the Garden, with all of its subsequent issues. You should have also noticed that the result of Solomon’s request ends up in commentary in Ecclesiastes where knowing it all is itself problematic and pushes us toward apathetic resignation. You might remember that Abraham and Sarah relive some parts of the Adam and Havvah saga. And, of course, there are lots of connections with Yeshua. What you must do if you are going to read these stories as Hebraic is make the connections, add the emotion and act as if you are the storyteller, with all the animation and intonation necessary to make it all come alive. Then you will know what the Tanakh is trying to teach you.
It’s time to put the coloring book images of biblical heroes and heroines away. It’s time to reject the purified versions suitable for six-year-olds. It’s time to take a serious look at the truly human characters who struggle with God and men—and persevere. Start over. Ask yourself how you would feel, how you would react, to those scenes in Scripture. Maybe you’ll discover that the stories are still in process today.
Topical Index: story, happened to them, synebainen ekeinois, 1 Corinthians 10:11
In the years I was mad at God, one of my beefs (and there were many) was that my life seemed so ‘unfair’. Too inexplicable, too hard, too seemingly unrelated to my choices, and too vulnerable to the choices of others without my consent. I stayed in a low grade fury. “WHY?” I would yell, sometimes.
When I laid down my rebel arms, I still asked for an explanation, but at that point I had started to learn that I could use the examples that were “written for my instruction” as a template for my life, and I could see that some of the parts of their lives that would have looked inexplicable to them, helped me! The light slowly dawned on me that perhaps my life was about those around ME, too. It wasn’t all just about me! Imagine that!
We are “living epistles”. The first part of 2Cor. 3 tells us so. My life is an open book for others, and I can bet my bottom dollar that the hard parts of my life are most likely designed to make it easier for someone else, as the blessed parts of my life also may not be ‘about me’, either. I may have someone else to thank for them! Heaven and its 3 foot forks applies “on earth, as it is in heaven”(Matt. 6:10), too, but it is up to us to decide whether that makes it heaven or hell – for us, as well as for those to whom our epistle (witness) is being written.
“Three foot fork” analogy, for those who may not know it, is an allegory that has been around in many cultures. Look up the “allegory of the three foot spoons” on Wikipedia. The version we are familiar with, so says this source, probably comes by way of Rabbi Haim of Romshishok.
Heaven or hell are determined by us in how we apply our approach to life. Paul says that he had learned to “glory in tribulations” (Rom. 5:3). We should figure out how to do the same.
When I was little, I wanted to hear all the stories about when life was so hard for others. The harder, the better. My great grandmother would dramatize the moment that her mother would come to visit her seven children living in the family dugout every Sunday, and would bring ONE loaf of bread with her. She would cut it in seven pieces, and give each child one piece. For the week! They presumably made do off the land for the rest. My mama would tell how she was given charge of the family water supply. When her mama got tired of hauling the water up the hill from the creek for the family, my grandfather cleared out the spring up the hill and ran a makeshift series of troughs and piping from bored out bamboo and the like down the hill to the house. Running water! But it was mama’s job, as a little girl, to fix the problems that would come up when the joints would burst in freezes or the spring became clogged.
These were the stories I liked best. I would wonder how I could live my life so as to be a great story for others. I realized rather early on that the only stories that were any count at all were the ones in which love prevailed, no matter what. I was a little girl when I decided that the only way that my life would make a good story to tell my children was if I always chose for love to win, no matter what. I have learned that the battle is only shameful if you lose, and more gore only makes for a better tale. If love wins, that is! It will always be up to us to decide that.
good morning this reminds me of a song back in the day by Michael. Card called Poeima poem of life opening stanza. Life is a song we must sing with our days a poem with meaning more than words can say. Up painting with colors no rainbow can tell a lyric that rhymes either heaven or Hell. Pretty clear we must be looking at Grace in our lives the inward response shown by an outward action of repentance to put shorter. My life is not my own it should balance with the other believers in my life to show a story without strife.
Got to try this approach
Use my imagination
Shalom Dennis the Lord tells us to be careful regarding our imagination and taking every thought captive and bringing it into the obedience of Messiah. The mind is the battlefield.
Knowing it all…pushes us toward apathetic resignation.
That is where I find myself most of the time, believing I know more and therefore take everything somebody says with a table spoon of salt…
Laurita what a refllection, I cannot think how that must have been…
I believe Skip is reminding us that we must be careful of who we lend our ears to as they never come back the same. We need to use the tools available to assess and guide us through our tribulations…
Problem is that previous experience using biblical references failed. But using living examples makes it so much easier to understand the effect our choices have… Is this way I we are reminded the God of the living not the dead…
Skip thank you for Walked Together… Something like a NT parable…
The complete Jewish Bible uses the term “who are living in the acharit-hayamim” to end verse 11 without any translation whatsoever. Can someone tell me what this means in the nearest equivant English (if it is possible)? And why would it not be translated?
There is a glossary at the back of the Complete Jewish Bible. According to that, Acharit-hayamim means literally “the end of days”, when the olam hazeh (this world/age) is coming to a close and the olam haba (the world/age to come) is about to begin. According to the introduction, “Semitic (Hebrew, Arameic, and Yiddish terms and names appear in italic.”
Thanks Ingela for noting the explanation in the Complete Jewish Bible. However, I think it’s a bit more than this. acharit-hayamim contains the unusual Hebrew expression acharit, which, although it is about an extended length of time, can be used of both past and future. The imagery is the “row boat man” who backs into the future since it is “behind” his head. So, we are those living by backing into the future, a time which is unknown to us but not to be feared since we can clearly see where we have been and what God has already done. It is not so much a world to come as it is a world that is coming, slowly, one drop at a time, as we proceed. The end of days is not a FIXED date but rather an incursion into our world, a process that will one day replace all that we experience as this age with something we have yet to imagine.
Skip, could this also be taken to mean that, as the “age to come” is not only being shaped, but also the date-in-time of its auspicious ushering is likewise being determined by choices (both on God’s part as well as on our part) that God Himself both ‘knows’ and doesn’t ‘know’ when it will be? When I download something, I get a green time bar as well as a time guesstimate to let me know, essentially, the RATE of progress as weighed against the present. That rate shifts according to that present, and will sometimes speed up in its guess of how long it could be, as well as slow down that guess, given present variables. Hence, Yeshua could say “My Father ‘knows’ (holds all variables in His foresight), but I don’t CURRENTLY have access to that data”.
yes, indeed. An open future determined by the choices of free will agents. BTW, just as it was in the past, if we py attention to all those biblical stories.
As a monotheist my response would have to be “no” Laurita but maybe Skip can add some of his wisdom to expound. In my mind it contains an oxymoron of Hebrew and Greek thinking that I am trying to shake but I hope Skip comments. Your question deserves a “like” based on “not a FIXED date” but I can see your dilemma based on what you Dan and I are discussing.
George, I seem to keep getting hung up on function. As I would currently describe myself as neither a monotheist or a trinitarian, based on my reticence to sign on to systems of thought that require the same empirical statements underlying both positions (like I mentioned to you and Dan), my jury is still out. Skip opened Pandora’s Box for me with his book God, Time and the Limits of Omniscience that I think you loaned to me (thank you!). If you start from the supposition that God is limited (lol) by His supposed ideal state of perfect foreknowledge (omniscience) – which is NOT a function, by the way, but a very Greek ideal form, then you could have some trouble understanding an open future in which even God Himself (as Skip I think makes the case for in his book) does not foreknow what His own choices will be about that future. If you start from a presupposition (paradigm), however, that defines God in terms of His function (free will agent), then there would be no problem understanding that God would have left Himself room in that future for His own free choices. If you think about it, all those ideal states that Skip listed in the book are, essentially, LIMITS to that free function, including the ability to make divine choices based upon the free will choices of His creation.
Looks like at least one person was able to follow the rather complex argument. You got it. No limits on God means He is free to choose as the universe itself changes due to choices not of His making.
Skip, these answers, amongst many others, are the reasons why I enjoy this web site so much. As a relative newcomer to bible study it is a goldmine of measured comments, opinions and information as well as a means of maintaining “relationships”, as ephemeral as they mostly are. Thanks for all you do to expand both our knowledge and wisdom. And thanks to I.M. for your input.