Day 305

Joel 1:1-2:17, Hebrews 3:1-19, Psalm 119:137-144

Samuel loves stories, as you may expect for a 3 year old. He has a number of books that he would class as his favourites, and it seems rather clichéd but we are proud to say that the Bible is one of them. If he has to chose a story though he will go for the “Jesus died story” every time, and we always tag the “Jesus alive story” on the end. Recently though we have started to read more of the Old Testament, Noah, Joseph, Daniel and many more.

Tell it to your children,
   and let your children tell it to their children,
   and their children to the next generation.

I wonder though how often we miss out the Old Testament and the stories that are in their. How often do we fail to head this command and tell the story to our children. The story that Joel is talking about though is a story of destruction and woe, it is not a good story to tell. Sometimes we stick to the biblical heroes, the ones who pulled through. I mentioned above Noah, Daniel and Joseph – the success stories. There do not appear to be that many stories in Samuel’s Bible that relate to destruction and famine.

You may aske why on earth I would want to tell those stories. Because it is in the context of those stories that the messiah is promised and Christ the messiah comes. Why did God send his son, because these stories tell us that His people moved away from him and deserted him, so He loved them and gave them a most amazing gift even though they didn’t deserve it. That is Grace.

So why tell those stories, because when we hear those stories, we know why Christ came, and we know that he came for us for the same reason. Why tell those stories – because those stories set the scene for the greatest story ever. It would be like watching Toy Story 3 or Godfather III without watching the rest, the story would not be complete. The story of Grace would not be complete.

So read the stories of the prophets and see the Grace that brought Christ into our lives.