Have you ever wondered why God didn’t just make the Bible a list of rules? It would probably be a lot shorter and one might argue, easier to understand. Or would it? If you’ve ever tried to assemble a piece of furniture from IKEA, you know what I mean. Someone at corporate clearly though that just having pictures gave everyone ample information to assemble their products and saved them tons of money in translations and printing. Unfortunately for assemblers, a few extra words would be helpful at times!
God put stories in the Bible because they are great tools for teaching and remembering. You probably can’t remember your grocery list from several weeks ago, but if something interesting happened while in the store, you can tell everyone what happened in great detail. That’s how our minds are wired. Stories create pictures and organize memories. It’s like having a closet with hangers to hang memories on versus just throwing clothes in a pile on the floor and hoping for the best. It’s easier to remember and find things when we need them if they are organized and stored properly.
Stories also give us real life examples of people doing things well and poorly. We can learn how to put commands and principles from God into action in real life by reading stories in the Bible about how people did or didn’t do it well. Stories also help explain complex spiritual ideas in ways that are easier to understand.
The problem is that we often tell children and teens Bible stories as if they were fairy tales or Aesop’s fables. We think we are teaching them what God wants them to learn from and do with the information in the story, but it’s often getting lost in translation. There are a few questions you can regularly ask students of all ages after a Bible story, however, that can help them discover how to use Bible stories and the information contained within them.
The next time you teach a Bible story ask your students these questions.
- What is the point of the story? Some stories have more than one point within them. Some are obvious and others are more subtle. Having to verbalize a point often illuminates the command or principle God wants us to learn.
- Why did God put this particular story in the Bible? There are probably thousands of other stories of real life events or parables God/Jesus could have put in the Bible in place of the ones currently there. Obviously, God chose these for a particular reason. We can’t know for sure most of the time, but asking your students to think about why God wants them to know this story is asking them to think more deeply about the content.
- What does God want me to learn from the story and do because of it? Bible stories are useless if they don’t help us become more godly. Does God want them to stop lying, act in more loving ways, have more faith in God or whatever? Do they need to change something in their lives based on what they learned in the story? Maybe they need to stop doing something or focus on an attitude or doing something positive God asks of them.
Ask these questions regularly in your class. If students give answers that are totally wrong, gently correct them. Challenge them to dig deeper and live what they learn when reading scripture. It will enhance their personal Bible study as well.