I opened the whimsically illustrated children’s Bible and began to read to my grandson. Immediately we were enthralled as the story of God’s love and provision unfurled in prose. Marking our place, I turned the book over and read the title once again: The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name.
Every story whispers His name.
To be honest, sometimes the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is hard to understand. Why do those who don’t know God seem to triumph over God’s own? How can God permit such cruelty when we know that His character is pure and that His purposes are for our good?
After His resurrection, Jesus met two followers on the road to Emmaus who didn’t recognize Him and were struggling with disappointment over the death of their hoped-for Messiah (Luke 24:19–24). They had “hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (v. 21). Luke then records how Jesus reassured them: “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (v. 27).
Every story whispers His name, even the hard stories, because they reveal the comprehensive brokenness of our world and our need for a Rescuer. Every act, every event, every intervention points to the redemption God designed for His wayward loved ones: to bring us back to Himself.
How is God’s rescue at work in your life? What stories trouble you today? In what ways (however small) can you see God at work in them?
INSIGHT
Christ’s teaching in Luke 24 gives us insight as to how we should read the Old Testament—with Him at the center. In verse 27 Jesus referred to the Old Testament using the terms “Moses and all the Prophets.” Speaking of the same sacred writings in verse 44, He used the threefold division “the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” and stated that these writings spoke of Him. John 5:39 essentially says the same thing, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.”