How to Correctly Understand & Apply Bible Stories & Biblical Narratives

About this Lesson

What is the purpose of the stories in the Bible? If someone does something that seems a bit odd, like Gideon setting out a fleece to determine God’s will or the Children of Israel walking around the walls of Jericho to conquer it.

Though interesting reading, these books pose a major challenge. How do we properly apply them?

The laws are easy—God says, don’t lie; I know I’m not supposed to lie.

The stories are harder—because a Bible character acted in a certain way and seemed to turn out well, should I act in the same way?

For example, in the story of Gideon, he asked God for a sign that confirmed what he was supposed to do. He set out a fleece (an animal skin) and asked that the next morning the fleece be wet and the ground dry. God graciously, miraculously answered him and did that. He asked for the reverse and God again answered.

Does that mean that we should come up with tests to determine God’s will?

The short answer is “no.”

And exactly why it’s “no” and how to properly learn from and apply the lessons of the stories in the Bible is what I’ll explain in this lesson.

Included in this Lesson

• An 1080p video
• A PDF of Notes/Transcript of the lesson
• A PDF of Questions on the lesson for individual study or group discussion
• Two digital files of images you can use to promote the topic
• Unlimited reproduction rights of the video and handouts within your church, group, ministry, or business.

In the files below:

• The MP4 file has the video—the name may be a bit odd as the program I’m using automatically sometimes gives it a new name when I save it.
• The ZIP file has the PDFs of notes and question pages, plus the image files.