It's not all about Jonah!!!



One thing I love about reading through the Old Testament each year is seeing the beauty of God at work on each page and in each story...and seeing how all of the Bible points to Him and to His Son, Jesus. His holiness, wrath, hatred of sin, compassion, mercy, and love for sinners is just amazing, beautiful, and fearful all at the same time!

But I have come to realize how often so many of the children's Bible story books that you and I pick up to read to our kids do not magnify God the same way His Word does. Sure, the stories may "come from the Bible" but they often make man the center of the story instead of God.

Here is an example. Bryan just finished reading the book of Jonah to us in our after-dinner family devos and we got talking about how, so often, we make Jonah the main character of the story (as we do in so many other Bible stories: Abraham and Isaac, Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph, David, and Goliath) but he was simply a messenger for the leading character...GOD! And the true theme of the story isn't about a big whale (and, for the record, the whole "whale" thing is a guess...the Bible just says Jonah was swallowed by a big fish), it's about God's AMAZING mercy and grace to a very pagan city! It's estimated that the city of Nineveh was possibly as large as 600,000 people when Jonah went and preached a message of repentance to them. God's Word says that "the people of Nineveh believed God" (Jonah 3:5). Can you imagine God saving the whole city of Boston?!!! That is what it would have been like! It's incredible...God's incredible!

So, as you read Bible stories to your kids or talk about the truths in Scripture, would you join me in making sure we make God big...that He would be the theme of each story! And, just in case you want some help, "The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name" is a great place to start!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Another book that the girls and I have enjoyed tremendously and it does just what you stated is:
http://www.monergismbooks.com/Mighty-Acts-of-God-A-Family-Bible-Story-Book-p-18940.html

In fact, the "story" of Jonah was done so well in pointing to Who God is that the girls and I wrote down what we learned. The author was saying that we could learn everything that we needed to about God if the book of Jonah was all the scripture that we had.

I really like how the book I linked to has great discussion questions and ideas for family prayer as well.

I LOVE learning and growing with my kids as we seek to know God through our Bible study.
Thanks for that! That is so true, and something Aaron and I will most definitely have to keep in mind. Linnea really likes her storybook Bible...she won't actually let us read it to her (unless we force her to sit still and hold her hand down, which she hates...haha), but she flips back and forth through the pages for lengthy amounts of times...good place to start, I guess! :) Love you!!
Paul said…
Amazing Bible for sure, thanks for posting this Kristin!