History 2 - The Framework ...

Tuesday, Oct 6, 2009. History can be seen as a collection of key stories. This approach is fantastic: at the same time we get access to the people when they come to life in the story we hear or tell and their life establishes a framework for our insight into history. The bible suggests central names and stories to us which have been milestones of God's history with mankind:

Abraham.

He is often called the “father of faith”. He had faith. God led him to move from the area of modern Iraq to Palestine. There, he was supposed to live in faith and to prosper. Abraham was without children for a long time. He was longing to get a son, but he had to wait until a very old age until his wish would become true. God used this point to teach him faith and to promise much more “sons in faith” than his physical son. Abraham lived more than 1600 years before Christ.

Moses.

He was the son of some Israelite, but he grew up at the royal court in Egypt, when the people of Israel were suppressed under the reign of the Pharaohs. His sense for justice made him fight one of the oppressors, then he had to flee and lived 40 years in the desert as shepherd. Finally, God called him to free his people from the Egyptian suppression. He made many experiences with God's supernatural help and became one of the key leaders of Israel. Moses lived around 1300 years before Christ.

David and Solomon. David was selected at an early age by one of the old prophets of Israel. He was anointed to be the new king of Israel, but he had to wait more than a decade until this became reality around 1000 before Christ, while he was chased by the previous king Saul. David is known to be the author of a large part of the songbook of the Old Testament, the psalms. His stories reflect his quest for a life full of faith. His son Solomon took over his reign in 970 BC and had the spiritual gift of wisdom. He built the first temple in Israel.

Jesus. Jesus is the key prophet at the interface between the “Old Testament” and the “New Testament” (testament = contract, covenant). He is, in fact, said to be God's own son, who became a true human to show God's heart, his character and his love to mankind. Jesus gave rise to our calendar, he lived approximately between the year 0 and 30. He is the centre of faith, the key person of the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, where his role is foretold in terms of many prophetic statements and stories.

It is a good point to also mention that we live in a world with very diverse opinions about the biblical stories. A hot debate is continuing in theological circles about the dating and the historicity of the events. Many scholars have doubted even the existence of Abraham or Moses. I believe that modern research still has very limited insight here and that classical positions come much closer to the truth. ... more texts