Friday Night Message:  The Bible, Past Present and Future - Part II

MAY 3, 2024

Good evening brethren…

The title of this current series of Friday Night Messages is The Bible – PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE.

1. The PAST – The Bible as history

About 1/3 of the content of holy scripture is history.  But what does that mean?  Is the Bible intended to be a textbook on history, or archaeology, or anthropology, etc.?

No … the Bible is not a history textbook per se.  It was never intended to record the events of all nations for all epochs of time.  It does not chronicle everything that ever happened.  It is not nearly exhaustive enough to contain such scope and detail.

Rather, the Bible has a narrower scope and purpose.  Its focus is upon God working out His plan and purpose here on earth. The books of the OT in particular contain much of the history of the people of ancient Israel.  Yet even for Israel, there are gaps in history, periods of time for which little or nothing is recorded in the Bible … because the Bible was not intended to be a history textbook per se.

I Ki. 14:19, 29 – Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel… Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

The Chronicles of the kings of Israel and the Chronicles of the kings of Judah were secular works, not preserved to this day, as far as I know.  They were probably historically accurate, but not divinely inspired … not included as part of the OT canon, and not necessary for us as modern-day Christians to be overly concerned about.

We don’t need to know every last detail about the reigns of those kings.  God’s word records major events in the fulfillment of the divine plan, and focuses upon Israel – the people that God has primarily worked with throughout history.  The Bible records the history of other nations mainly as they come into contact with Israel.

Esther and Mordecai’s faith in God and their timely action helped to save the entire Jewish people from annihilation, as recorded for us in the book of Esther, which became part of the OT canon.  But the exploits of Esther and Mordecai are also recorded in a secular historic document.

Esther 10:2 – Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

Other details, not needful for our understanding, were written down elsewhere, in other ancient documents, many of which were not preserved like the Bible, but some of them at least partially survived the millennia, and are helpful in giving historians insight into the history, laws, customs and culture of these ancient civilizations.

So then, what is the value of history?  Who cares about some events that happened long, long ago?  Those people are all dead now anyway.  What affect does history have on me today?  Why should I even bother to study it?

I believe that there is a definite value in considering the past, and we will be evaluating that in some detail next Friday Night. through three principles of history.

Happy Sabbath,

Fred