When we aren't getting a clear enough picture

One of the main things I desire to teach my children is that the accounts that we have in the Bible are not just good stories.  They are not even just good stories meant to simply teach us a moral lesson.  We learn about our great and awesome God through these accounts!  I want them to understand that the people that we read about were just like us.  They struggled with sin.  They struggled to trust God and love him with their whole heart.  Agreed, they didn't have the internet and video games but they had things that distracted them from thinking about God, spending time with him and getting to know him better.  We may think we have more challenges these days to living a godly life but the fact is, sin and it's desires are nothing new.

I have often been concerned about the tendency that people can have of misunderstanding what God was doing through his people in the Old Testament.  I'm sure Daniel knew that God was able to save him from the lions but that does not mean that he didn't feel any fear.  Remember, he didn't know exactly how things were going to turn out.  And just imagine if you were lowered into a den of lions.  Wouldn't you be scared? Wouldn't your heart be pounding?  Daniel was resolved to trust God through it but he didn't know that God would prevent the lions from tearing him to shreds.  We don't know what God is going to do.  We just know he is able to do all things.  That is where our trust is.

We have to be careful that we don't make a caricature of these people.  Sometimes children's Bible Story books do this.  I believe that it is possible for us to be somewhat blind to certain things that are right under our noses.  Sometimes our heart can be in the right place concerning teaching our children what is right yet the images around them convey a different message.

Have you ever sat down and really studied the pictures in children's Bible Story books?  If you haven't lately, take some time to look at them and ask if that is how you want your children to see those people. Sometimes, the pictures can say even more than the words.  But even the words are sometimes not accurate.  Watch out for the subtle twists that authors superimpose into the story.  Watch out for the subtle influence of their opinion that is not Bible truth.  It happens a lot in Bible movies but it also happens in Bible Story books.

I can't tell you how many I have rejected because of the strange and unrealistic artwork they are illustrated with.  For example, either Noah is depicted as some wild man with his long gray hair in disarray or he looks goofy and childish as though he's lost his mind.  Sometimes, the characters are depicted in such a way that they look scary or on the opposite side of the spectrum, they look cartoonish (or they look like vegetables! Does anyone else think this may not be a good idea?). I don't think all this helps with our children developing the understanding that these were real people.  These were people who laughed, cried and lived.  These were people who feared, failed to trust and got distracted. These were people who had a strong faith in God, though sometimes it wavered.  People just like you and me.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.  Romans 15:4

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did...

1 Cor. 10:6

Be careful, our children are not the only ones in danger of having a poor understanding of the Old Testament.  Many who have grown up hearing these stories either every day of their lives or at least once a week in Sunday School, have a tendency to think that they know all there is to know.  They "know" all of the stories about Abraham, Noah and King David like the back of their hand.  The question is do they know God better because of the way in which God worked in the lives of those people?  Have the things that the people in the Bible experienced in their walk with God been brought to bear on the way they live today?  Have they been "instructed" by it as it says in Romans 15:4?

In contrast, there are those who came to know the Lord later in life.  This is my category.  I pretty much avoided the Old Testament for years.  I thought it would be too hard to understand and would be way over my head.  The New Testament seemed so much easier to grasp and, well...NEWER!  I felt as though the Old Testament was a mountain I shouldn't dare to climb.  I later discovered how much I was missing.  Things like reading the very words of God spoken through the prophets.  I was also missing out on knowing God better through the way that he worked in others lives.  It is a book full of testimonies!  We also learn more about ourselves as we see how people responded in different circumstances.  And we find that we often respond in similar ways.  Please don't skip out on reading the Old Testament.  The gospel and God's plan to redeem us are displayed from cover to cover.  

Read and be encouraged.  God is working in your life as intimately and carefully as he worked in theirs.  He is not overlooking any of the details.  Even through hardships and difficulty his desire is for you to know him more and to grow in your faith.  Just like the people we read about in his Word.  May God bless you as you seek to know him through its pages and to teach your children about his awesome deeds.