History Important or Just Extra

Most of the Church starts the history of the Church with Christ. Sure during the season of Advent we may talk about John the Baptist. But for the most part History seems to start with Jesus. The only time we use the Old Testament prophets is to relate them to St Paul or Jesus. They just help to prove our point. But shouldn't we talk about the History.

You look at those bookshelf pictures of the bible, and how much is History. Most of us think of Acts, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and maybe some more. You have Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Ezra, and Nehemiah. But what about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are they Historical? Are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy Historical? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel have some History in them as well, don't they? Jonah is all Narrative with the possible exception of Jonah's Psalm. Job also has a Historical account of the life of Job or at least a great deal of it. The Epistles have some history in them but they are mainly rhetoric.

If all these books could be classified as History, doesn't that mean most of the Bible is Just History? Isn't the Bible just recounting for us the History of God? Somebody once told me that greatest History Book ever written was the Bible. Do we treat it that way?

I would urge you to think about the importance of History to God. How important is it to know how far we have come? How important is it to know what other people have done wrong? Most of us have been taught in our own life to learn from History. Don't make the same mistakes other people have already made. But Solomon still reminds us there is nothing new under heaven. Israel never learned from its History, but can the Church learn from Israel? Thank you.

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