The Intent of History

“Now these things took place as examples for us . . .” 1 Corinthians 10: 6

History has meaning. This is because it has intent: “these things took place as examples . . . ” So we study history with an eye to learning what happened, why it happened, and to what end it happened. That last component would not seem to be part of the secular historians task, but biblically, it is the whole of it: “For of him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36).

History as captured by the Bible carries a particular burden: it is rarely, if ever, a sterile, objective, dispassionate, recounting of events. Each account saved for us is intended to illustrate what is called the history of redemption: the unfolding fulfillment of the promise made to fallen man in the Garden of Eden, namely, that at the end of history what is meant to be accomplished, will be accomplished, and it will be for good. This biblical recounting of history, which ultimately involves the entire world, is focused on father Abraham and his descendants, for it was decreed that through him a particular man would come who will be shown to be both the catalyst of the story and the culmination of the story -- the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

In the mercy of God, we who have been born of God are drawn into this particular story. We are not bystanders, looking from the outside, but participants in God’s redemptive history (Ephesians 2:19), both as beneficiaries and as those who proclaim that history (2 Corinthians 5:20). Additionally, such stories are meant to provoke us to be faithful followers of the Lord of history (Cf. Hebrews 12:1-2).

But even though the story preserved for us in the Bible has particular intent, what is before us remains real history. These are events, while part of the greater work of redemption, that are nevertheless particular to the context and personages involved. We must resist, therefore, making it formulaic. By that I mean, that because something happened in a certain way at one point in biblical history, or because a certain person undertook a particular action, a faithful follower of Jesus should expect to see and do likewise. I am not suggesting any kind of relativism in our extracting meaning from the biblical account, but rather a respectful approach to what is before us that honors the context of what transpired, and looks to understand from that God-directed history what might be understood about our own God-directed history. The God, who ruled with sovereignty over history then, still rules over history today.