A lot of people hate history when they’re kids in school but later grow to love it. History can be boring & seem irrelevant if it’s just stuff that happened long ago & far away with lists of names & dates. But once you understand how history offers lessons & warnings through positive & negative examples, it begins to shape your worldview. It provides perspective, insight & appreciation of what to pursue & avoid. As the philosopher Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Over & over in Scripture God is adamant that His people don’t forget what’s happened in the past. This is why He put all those annual feasts in place for the Israelites & had them construct memorials & markers—so they wouldn’t forget. That’s why it’s still important to know the Old Testament: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction…” (Rom. 15:4). The Apostle Paul adds that “these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did…” (1 Cor. 10:6). It’s better to learn from their mistakes instead of learning the hard way, right?!
History also becomes more relevant when it involves your own family. We keep photo albums & display pictures of parents & grandparents on the walls. But when somebody shows you their family photos—nice, but boring, right? Why? Because it’s not my family. Many years ago I had a great aunt who spent years doing research so she could compile our family genealogy & history. Many today pay genealogy research firms to find out their ancestry. But we need to see those names in the Bible as spiritual family. That’s our heritage! We’re connected by faith, so it makes it more interesting!
When we study biblical history, we understand better God’s character, faithfulness, love, justice, & mercy. This is a God who oversees, participates, & intervenes in real time & space. The Bible is not just a philosophical system with lists, rules & data. It’s a narrative of real events, not fictional stories or mythological morality tales. That’s why archaeology is so fascinating as real bits of historical evidence confirm what Scripture says took place.
Studying biblical history helps us to see that existence isn’t just cycles of random events but that it’s linear, heading toward a climactic conclusion. There’s a greater story purposed by a sovereign God who was & is & is to come–the eternal “I AM” who is outside of & over time, directing it with His invisible hand. We see God’s plan of redemption progressively being revealed & carried out.
Some speak of the Bible in terms of two stories happening simultaneously–an upper story & a lower story. God is carrying out the upper story–the grand narrative or overarching plot unfolding over the entire course of history through the lower story of human experiences. Once we understand that God’s “invisible” plan of redemption is being played out through temporal events, then visible happenings make more sense. The lower story may be filled with hardships & tragedies due to humans ignoring or resisting God, but God is still working to accomplish the big picture.
People today will often criticize those who are Bible-based, claiming we’re standing in the way of progress & enlightenment. They say we’re on the “wrong side of history” if we don’t go along with their anti-biblical positions & proposals. They’ll make claims about some novel ungodly achievement being “historic.” Just because something is “historic” doesn’t mean it’s good or should be celebrated. Instead, they should be mourned. Being on the “right side of history” is an impossible judgment to make apart from God’s plan. The “right side” doesn’t mean being in the majority. The majority are sometimes wrong or even downright evil. In Scripture, God often points to the “remnant” or the few as being in the right.
Bible believers are actually the ONLY ones who ARE on the right side of history because we’re on God’s side! Christians are the ONLY ones who know where we came from, where we’re going & how it’s all going to end! Because we “get it,” we’re not fearful or shocked by what’s going on here & now.