At least I know something...

The Drama Of Scripture: Finding Our Place In The Biblical Story
by Craig G. Bartholomew, Michael W. Goheen | ISBN 0801027462


MWS 501 – Post 1

It may be rather ironic that I am going to comment on a minute detail I picked up on in a book that’s largely about seeing the big picture, but I can’t help myself. In the words of Justin Clemente, I hope this isn’t too much of a bunny trail. B&G make the following statement in the Prologue: “First you need to know something of the beginning, middle, and the end of a story. Only then can you understand any one episode in it” (16). When I read this, the following engines of thought began departing from the station:

1. What does the Bible provide us? Something. It does not provide the complete story in that it does not provide every detail of every thing God has done; it is not 100% comprehensive. Just as we don’t have every parable or teaching that Jesus spoke on earth, the Bible does not contain everything there is to know about God or many lesser subjects. Again, what does the Bible provide us? It provides us with something of the beginning, middle and end—not with everything.
   
2. We often operate under the assumption that we need to know everything in order to know anything, and that the Bible offers us everything. If it seems like there are some loose ends or gaps, we fill them in by imposing systematic theologies that help us account for and decipher the bits of information that aren’t immediately evident in Scripture itself.
   
3. We expend so much time and effort trying to fill in the gaps of the story that we never let what we do have of the story impact us. We don’t engage in the story, we stand outside of it and critique and dissect it.
   
4. God didn’t have to chose the medium of story. We can assume that God intentionally chose story because it would communicate in the way He desired better than other methods of communication. He could have deviated from the completetion that is story: He could have provided us with information of the beginning and end, and left us clueless as to what to do in the middle. He could have given us a clear beginning and middle, but left us without the hope, perseverance and purpose that comes with knowing something of the end. Instead, He created and chose to reveal Himself through story.
   
5. 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” We don’t have everything nor do we need everything, but what we have is what we need to appropriate. We have something of the beginning, middle and end.
   

I am challenged to stop striving after knowing everything and settling down to really digest the something He has provided. To begin to live out of that something really IS everything.