Of all the things God could have had written in the Bible, He chose these things. Those without much affiliation with it consider the message of the “good book” to be little more than, “Do this” and “Don’t do this.” While there is some of that in it, there is so much more. God could have written a book that was just a moral code. All the “thou shalts” and the “thou shalt nots” lined up, categorized and ready for any cultural situation. However, He left in it the human element. All the good and bad that people have done over thousands of years of God’s interaction with man. Why? I assume partly because He knew how we would react to a list of 1s and 0s coded. We need to see the human element in the narrative—that part of the struggle to overcome that validates our own struggles and feelings. Knowing that people like us have gone through the same thing helps us to stand up to the life we face. It is encouraging, and we need that. We all need that motivational speaker. Maybe not the one that lives in a van down by the river eating a steady diet of government cheese. But, the One that has walked with man since his inception and told him, “I will be with you.”
There is a section of Law, the last half of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. This section provided explicit instruction about the Mosaic covenant, moral and dietary code, the construction of specific worship items, and the social division of the tribes.
More than this there is a large portion of historical narrative. This included Genesis, first half of Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Jonah and Acts. This provides man with an origin story, and also the beginning of God’s concern for our spiritual wellbeing.
Another common genre of literature in the Bible is prophecy. This includes Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. In the prophets we have God’s messengers communicating God’s word to His people, confirming both His justice and patience for His creation.
Some smaller sections include wisdom (Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) and Poetry (Psalms, Song of Solomon and Lamentations). These speak to the mind and heart of man. Apocalyptic (Daniel and Revelation) speak of future, to those who originally received the letters, destruction.
The New Testament in broken into two major sections. The Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and epistles which include the remaining books. Of all the ways He could have communicated He chose these. He knew this was the best way. What do you think about His “good book”?