BibleProject - How to Read the Bible Intro: What is the story of the Bible?

Episode Date: May 20, 2017

The Bible can often seem like a weird ancient book that many people use to say different things. These things can even sometimes lead to using the Bible to oppress or hurt others or the world. And on top of the confusion, reading the Bible can also be tedious and confusing, so most of us just stick to the parts we know and understand. But what is the story of the Bible? Like the big, meta story? The ideas in this episode might surprise you. In this episode Tim and Jon discuss the big, narrative arcs of the Bible. What is the Bible really talking about? Sin? Salvation? Judgement? Tim and Jon first discuss the importance of the, oftentimes overlooked, Old Testament, which is essential in understanding the overall narrative of the Bible. They then discuss the centrality of the texts (the Bible) to second temple Jews, Jesus, and the early Christian church, and the uniqueness of such texts. The Bible is BIG and can be confusing. Tim and Jon cover the major movements of the Old Testament, and the over-arching point! What is this Kingdom of God Jesus is talking about, and how is this in contrast the default condition humanity finds itself in? This episode is designed to accompany our new video series and our new video called "The Story Of The Bible". You can view it on our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_CGP-12AE0 Book References: The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence by Dacher Keltner The Prince by Nicollo Machiavelli Show Music: Defender by Rosasharn Music Good Morning by Unwritten Stories All Night by Unwritten Stories Chilldrone by Unwritten Stories

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Welcome to the Bible Project Podcast. On today's episode, Tim and I are going to be asking the question, how would you summarize the entire story of the Bible? The Bible is big and complex and has way too many characters. How can possibly keep all this straight? Yeah, the Bible is one unified story, a story about humanity's role to rule the world on God's behalf. This vocational calling is what we refer to as the image of God.

And it's a high bar, it gives humans a lot of authority and a lot of power. A question that's on everybody's mind right now is what does it mean to use power responsibly? The story of the Bible is how that calling has been corrupted and how God's on a mission to fix it. How Jesus redefines power in his teaching and his life is scandalous, but it's also wise like it's, as he claimed, the only way forward. The entire story of the Bible will summarize. Thanks for listening in.

Here we go. So we're gonna talk about the Bible as a unified story and we're gonna try to walk through the whole story and make a video that tells that story in five minutes. Yeah. That's the plan. One video telling the whole story of the Bible. We've been asked to make this before. No pressure. Yeah, no pressure. We have been asked to make this video and I think we've both always wanted to make this before. No pressure. Yeah, no pressure. We have been asked to make this video. And I think we've both always wanted to make it at some point. It was just about the right timing and the right series. Yeah.

I'm excited that we're doing it as a part of the How to Read the Bible series, because I think that understanding how any section of the Bible contributes to and fits into the broader overall story. It's a really important skill to develop. And if you don't have it, it really makes reading the Bible hard. Or you just end up not knowing how to read anything in context. And I'm not really sure how we're going to do this because every time we do a theme video, what I notice is that the Bible is much more nuanced and sophisticated than I had realized.

And by just tracing that theme through the narrative of the Bible, you get this really beautiful story arc. So what we can't do is make a video that's like a summary of every biblical theme and how they all tie together. Yeah, that's right. Into this one epic narrative. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, for a long time, I used to kind of hang my hat on some of those real general outlines of the story of the Bible, like creation, fall, redemption, new creation, something like that. Yeah.

But inevitably, those schemes, just like even that one by nature, just leaves out so much. Creation fall. Redemption. Redemption, new creation. I mean, we kind of go through those movements in every theme video. It seems like we always are like, okay, let's remember this is what creation was about. And then this was the problem. And then this is what God was doing with Israel. Here's how it all has its climax in Jesus, redemption, and then realized fully in new creation. So we go through those beats.

Yeah, we do, but even just what you did right there, the Israel part, which in terms of page numbers, takes up the much vast majority of the story, kind of lives in this hazy in-between spot, in-between fall and in-between redemption. Maybe the story of redemption begins with Abraham, but really it's about Jesus. And yeah, I've just become dissatisfied

with versions of retelling the Bible story that skip the actual majority of the Bible. Yeah. Well, here's the thing though, with that majority. It's a ancient culture that's very different than anything we've experienced. So that's difficult. It's true. It's difficult stories oftentimes that aren't very clear cut like Why did David cut off the four skins of the All those buildings buildings and yeah is David and Goliath a story about how I'm supposed to tackle my own Giants in my life and so that's difficult to navigate There's just all these questionable stories and questionable characters

And I thought the Bible is about being a good person and but then on top of all that it seems like well If Jesus is really coming to fulfill all that and really my focus is on following Jesus Why do I need to care? About all of that history. Yeah, it just becomes this big prelude that yes I can skip and just go to the main event, and it's a lot easier to navigate the main event. And so, yeah.

It makes it much smaller, both, too. It makes for sure around the new testament, and it's a smaller punk. I've done this in a long time. You said totally. I've done this in large group settings before a classroom settings where I have people get out of Bible, and I use that four-part scheme.

I put it up, write it up for something. And then I'm like, so let's account for the pages of the Bible. Creation and fall. Yeah. Okay, that's like 11. Yeah, but actually, and for most people's minds, that's just the first three pages of the Bible. The Genesis, one, two, and three.

And then redemption, to skip forward to the New Testament. Right. Maybe you touched down at one page of Isaiah. A child is born to us. Something of a son is given. And basically skip forward to Matthew. And then the New Testament. And then if you just hold a Bible, like get both your hands out, hold in your left hand,

Genesis 1 to 3. Those first few pages. And then hold the New Testament. And then just look at what's in front of you Yeah, it's it's bizarre To say this is a some what I'm this four-part scheme is a summary of this book Right and then to realize like it leaves out it leaves out. It's not even it's not even funny It's not even you could like maybe mistake it for being the whole thing. Yeah, it's like cool

It's four fifths of the Bible. Yeah. Isn't accounted for in that scheme. One, and two, even when we say that that scheme where Jesus is, you know, the fulfillment of redemption, but if you simply actually read the four accounts of his mission and life and preaching and resurrection, death and resurrection, he's constantly appealing to that part that he's skipped over. As the way of explaining who he was, what he was doing, why he says what he says.

So Jesus... And not only him, but the writers. The gospel writers are referring back to it. Yep, the gospel writers themselves. And then on into the writings of the apostles. The apostles do, yeah. So Jesus and the apostles firmly believe that knowing how to read this majority section

of your Bible that Christians call the Old Testament is a part of discipleship to Jesus. And it takes a lot of work and the cookies are not on the bottom shelf. But there's just nothing for it If we if a person wants to say they represent they're representing the Bible They need to be able to retell the story in a way that accounts for all of it Take a step back though and it's strange that as a community of

Christians but a group of people to say, hey, part of our identity is to really care about these ancient stories from another culture, and they're difficult to read, a difficult to understand, for many reasons. One, it's a different language, different culture, but also it's like literary genius, so literary genius is just

Hard to it's not always easy reading not always easy reading like moby dick. Yeah, and east of Eden It's intense. It shakes me, but it's rewarding, but it's intense. Right. Yeah. I have you just take a step back It just feels like yeah, how many of your friends have their identity around something that requires them to have a mastery of have their identity around something that requires them to have a mastery of ancient Hebrew texts. Or at least to, like, this is some part of my life. Sure. Is becoming a more wise reader of an ancient text. Yeah, it's unique. Yeah, there's nothing for it. If I didn't follow Jesus, there's no way I'd be compelled to read the Bible, especially

the Old Testament. And I say that as someone who's dedicated most of their adult life at this point. So learning how to read the Bible, but it's not simple. And when it's foreignness and it's otherness really begins to stand out to you. You can't unsee it. You know, you're just like, oh, this is odd. Whole community, with this practice of reading, a text from millennia ago on the other side of the planet. I don't have any friends who do this.

Right. Except people who are part of my community. Yeah. Maybe people who care about. Well, if someone came and said, hey, like, I, like a friend, you haven't seen since high school or something, and they come up and they, and they're like, man, my life's really been changed by this figure in history.

And so I'm mastering Egyptian hieroglyphics. And I'm reading all these stories of ancient Mesopotamia. It's bringing meeting to my life now and hope for the future and it's helping me understand myself and the world I live in. You just kind of be like, wow. Wow. Like, that's such a weird geeky niche thing

for you to get into. I didn't know you were like that. So you were normal. Yeah, it's unique and it's something that has marked the early Jesus movement from the beginning. Oh man, last fall I read one of my favorite New Testament scholars, a guy named Larry Hurtado wrote this excellent history of the early first century or two

Christianity called Destroyer of the Gods. It's the best book title ever. It looks like a heavy metal band name. But it's called Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman world. What made the early followers of Jesus odd and the object of mockery in Roman culture. And one of them was their obsessions with written texts. There was no connection between being religious or being a devout worshiper of the gods, and having personal habit of reading ancient texts connected to that God.

Apart from ancient Judaism, that was totally foreign. But the early Christians, because it was such a universal movement spreading across the world, the reproduction and reading and studying of these biblical texts became part and parcel of the movement itself. Which is a discipline they learned as Second Temple Jews. Correct. Yeah, so the first generations are all grew up reading the Hebrew scriptures and they're immersed in it. But then the movement goes viral through Jesus the Messiah, and that spreads throughout the Roman world, and then it's Hebrew texts and air-make translations, those go east,

and Latin translations, those go west, and you know, Egyptian translations those in Greek translations and all of a sudden You have a religious movement that the world's never quite seen before one of the things that marks it is its obsession with text with literature with literature and texts this was a brand new thing in human. I mean other other religions wrote down their stories Yes, but they weren't they weren't part of stories. Yes, but they weren't part of personal devotion or community devotion. You could go to the temple and the priest would bring out some tablets with the stories about the God worshiped in that temple, but the idea of mass production of texts so that every house church can have something of its own writing, so Isaiah and Genesis and Matthew. And before that, the devotion of the scribes who came together to form the texts

and just that literary culture that even created a Jewish history. Yeah, it was a minority. Well, and that's the thing, this is all Jewish history. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, early Christian history is Jewish history That's right. There were second-time old Jews who came out of this culture of obsession with their sacred text their sacred text. Yep. Yeah, which seems unparalleled that the amount of

Genius that was all concentrated in one people group at one time in history. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we have lots of literary texts from Ancient Egypt or Ancient Assyria. And they survived on tablets and pot shards or some papyri. But there's the Hebrew Bible is an utterly unique phenomenon

in the ancient world in terms of its size. Yeah. And intentionality and interconnectedness. You know, there were prophets in Assyria, but there was no such thing as a book of Isaiah. In Assyrian version of the book of Isaiah. In Assyrian equivalent of the book of Isaiah, like nothing even close. So yeah, yeah, second temple Judaism was a textually immersed culture. Jesus was a part and grew up in that culture, and he made a radical claim that all of these texts,

the Christians called the Old Testament, were about him and what he was doing. When he started his mystery, he opened the scroll of Isaiah. Yeah, he read from it, and he said, yes, this is being fulfilled. This is being fulfilled. So Jesus made sense of everything He did by appealing to this greater story told in these sacred texts. I guess my experience with the Bible has been this. Let me give you a clear theological framework. You're put on earth to glorify God. You have screwed that up. You've missed the mark. Sin. Because of your sin, you deserve death, but Jesus came and he took that penalty for me,

and if I believe have faith and then one day I can go ahead. And so pay attention. That's a individualized version of creation, fall, redemption, heaven. Heaven, new creation. So that's new creation. Right, and it's all about me and my individual, and it skips Israel. Yeah.

So that's over and over, that's theological framework. And then it's like, cool, now go read the Bible with that in mind. Yes, yeah, exactly. And so I'm drawn to read the New Testament because everything else is just like, I don't know where this fits. Yeah, yeah.

And maybe just illustrations of bad people and good people, right? What else can you do with it? And then I'm reading the epistles and then I'm drawing to certain verses. And it seems like conversations are always about, how does this fit into that framework? A different framework is trying to put yourself

in the perspective of a first century Jew who has really, has grown up with these scriptures. Their identity is with the story of these scriptures. and they've seen and heard what Jesus is doing and saying, and now they're trying to make sense of it, for what it means for the Jesus movement. Yes, though in that equation, the Hebrew Bible has already existed in your life and your community for a long time. Yeah. And it already, it tells a story that you are living in. You see yourself as living the story. When you say Exodus, I mean so much to you.

That's right. And when you think of the Messiah, I mean so much to you. And Israel's unfaithfulness leading to exile and Babylon. And so then our ancestors came back to our land and rebuilt the temple and were waiting for the promises of the prophets to come true. Yeah. And yeah, there you are. That's the story. You see yourself as a part of if you're Matthew or John before you've met Jesus or Simon Peter or so. Yeah, there's a pre-existing story and then Jesus comes saying he's bringing that story forward But how he does so rocks your world. Yeah, it rocks the world for that you're living it. Yeah, and it rocks

Everything you thought you knew about that story, right? And it forces you to go back and say oh, I see now. I kind of understood what the story of the Old Testament was But actually it was pointing towards the strange things that happened with Jesus. And so you get the story of the road to Emmaus, where Jesus opens up the Hebrew scriptures with them. Yes. I guess they're walking, so I don't know. Yeah, they're just talking about it. And he's like, just pointing out everything.

He's like, hey, remember this part of the Hebrew scriptures? Right, right. Like, this is how it's about me. Yes. And we don't have the conversation. I know. He's like, hey, remember this part of the Hebrews? Right, right, right. This is how it's about me. Yes. And we don't have the conversation. I know it's bummer. A little drone. It was audio drone.

Flowing above them. So, you know, if I think about reading the Bible, my main concern is how do I do this in a way that doesn't thoroughly confuse me? So we got to get people over that. We've got to get them into this video. So a very simple way is just the hook is, the Bible's big and complex and has waited too many characters. Yeah, with some of them have names of people you are friends with,

but some of them have names that you can't pronounce. Yeah, there's Adam and Jacob and then there's Jezebel. Yeah. And Cain and Betelol. Betelol, yeah, exactly. I don't know, a Betelol. So the point is, is that cast of hundreds over millennia, how can possibly keep all this straight? So not only is it old as huge and complex, but despite that, if you look at the first page and if you look

at the last page, you'll notice something. The first words in the beginning, the second to last paragraph of the final page of the Bible is, and they reigned forever and ever. So the opening and closing movements, you don't have to be, you don't even have to be an intellectual or like reading books. Beginning and then forever. Yeah, yeah. In the beginning and the story goes on, and then the concluding of the narrative movement of the whole thing is, and they reigned forever and ever. What kinds of books begin like that? Obviously, narratives.

But what kind of narrative will a huge, thick narrative with a cast of hundreds? And so we have, it's an epic. The literary category for this is epic literary epics, which were more common in the ancient world, even in the medieval world. And even, yeah, something like Tolstoy's, the great epic novels, you know, of like Le Miserable, or War and Peace, or something. Those are epic novels, lots of characters.

So that's what we're talking about here. A large narrative that has interwoven main plots and subplots, but it all ties together and it finds its unity and coherence in the person of Jesus. And once you see what that main story is, the main movements of it, you can recognize where you are. No matter where you drop in, if you have the big picture in mind and the main movements of the story, you'll always be able to know your address, know your spot on the map. Yeah.

The coordinates. The coordinates. And then, here's how the story works. It's something about the Bible because it's so large. It's kind of a rarity to read through from beginning to end. You're usually jumping in somewhere in the middle. Yeah. Yep.

That's right. Which means you kind of need to know where you're at. Yeah. Where am I right now? So basically, let's just create that grid so that any moment you're jumping in the scriptures, you plug in the coordinates and you're like, okay, I'm in this part of the story. So here, if I were trying to do it,

and I've done this in a few different classrooms in terms of context, the movements are something, something like this. So obviously pages one and two are like really, really important. Jesus, on the number of occasions, refers back to pages one and two are like really, really important. Jesus, on the number of occasions, refers back to pages one and two. We've probably spent more time at anywhere in the Bible. Yeah, yeah.

And there's a reason for that. Like, they set the narrative world, they set what the purpose of all of this is, what the purpose of humans are in the story, what the problem is. Yeah, there's a reason. By the way, how did you get in the habit of saying are in the story, what the problem is. Yeah, there's a reason. By the way, how did you get in the habit of saying pages one and two? I just started because it just feels more... I just like it more. I know, but what'd you get it?

I think I just started it. I just made it up one day. Because we don't think of it that way. I don't know why. For some reason, it makes me think about it The Bible in a different way to say pages one and two, right? I don't know Somewhere in the last couple years So yeah, so God makes a good world full of potential

He wants to share it because that's apparently the nature of this God and he points humans This is divine image to rule it and take care of it on his behalf. His page is wanting to. Yeah, but it's all about the job, the job given to humans. God wants to share the world and rule it through humans. And their job is to rule the world and harness its potential towards positive ends. And so this whole story isn't just going to be about some sort of paradise where humans live in relationship with God.

And then the problem of a plot conflict is relationship is broken. That's a very common way, a Christian way of doing it. It's all about the perfect relationship, the relationship is broken. The plot resolution is going to be the restoration of relationship. And that's true, but it's not quite how the story actually goes. And what kind of relationship? It's a working relationship.

It's about a business partnership gone wrong. That's the nature of the plot conflict. Humans have a job and God's committed to humans doing this job. So it opens with a job, rule the world. The introduction of the plot conflict then on a cosmic level is that humans forfeit their opportunity to do the job in a way creates life and instead they rebel and fall prey to death and moral corruption and so on. The nature of the plot conflict is, oh no, now humans can't do their job.

That's the plot conflict. Well, not at all, that's not true. They can't do their job rightly. And when they do their job, calling the shots on their own and redefining good evil, it creates death instead of life. That's the plot conflict. Not just that they aren't doing their job, it's that they're doing it in the wrong way, and introducing all of these horrible results.

It's like giving a two-year-old a dark gun. Like, it's not going to end well. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I got hit in the eye. Paxen got this new, like, nerf gun thing for Christmas. Yeah. And it shoots really fast. Wow. I mean, it's powerful.

Huh. It's just tiny little thing. Just typical little nerf dart. Well, it's like this nerf dart, and on the front is hard plastic. Oh. And actually, if you hit it, if it gets you a point blank on your skin, it stinks. I mean, this thing flies. And it's like this little revolver.

She's three of them, it's Sayer had it. And I thought, and I cocked it for him because I was like, I don't even think his little finger can pull this trigger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I stopped paying attention. He's just aiming at me. And he pulls the trigger successfully

and that thing flies right into my eye. No. And I just barely had time to close my eye. Wow. And for the next two days, my eye was like, throbbing. Oh. Oh.

Like I was like, after half an hour, I was like, I think I'm gonna go blind. Like this might be it. It really, I have to, from now on, when people ask me how I lost my eyesight, I have to say, from a Nerf gun. That's all like going through my mind. It's how bad it hurt.

I'm okay now, but that's humanity. It's a three-year-old with a Nerf gun. Yeah, the story is that's humanity, thinking that it can define good and evil by the standards of what will survive and protect me and my group. As long as that's the only goal that we have in mind defining good and evil is a destructive weapon in our hands. That's the fall.

So whether that's one movement or two movements, you have creation and humanity. I don't not pleased with that title, but we could find a different way. Creation and the human calling are something. And then rebellion and the fallout. No story can be told without introduction and introduction of pop. It's the premise. Beginning. Premise and then plot conflict.

and introduction of pop. It's the premise. It's the beginning. Premise and then plot conflict. Yeah. So, you know, you've seen me do that drawing, you were doing it earlier, of the multi-tiered plot. Mm-hmm. So, this is the cosmic background, so to speak,

of the story of the Bible, where it's God and all humanity. So, the story goes off the rails on page three, and it culminates, it goes to Cain and the flood and all this, all leading up to Babylon, which is all a diagnosis of the problem. And it's the very cosmic, all nations, many generations, long periods of time. And then all of a sudden in chapter 12,

the story takes a very clear turn to focus it just in on a few generations of one man in his family. And that it becomes the calling of Abraham as a way that God is going to restore his divine blessing to the nations becomes the branch of a subplot. And when you say divine blessing, you do mean that that initial vocational call to be interesting. Yeah, it's interesting. Partners with them. Yeah, right. So yeah, the the the job given to humans on page one is a blessing. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over the fish and sea birds there. that kind of thing. So the job is a gift to blessing. I want to do

this with you. This is our responsibility, our privilege now. And so yeah, when God says to Abraham, after all the nations have run things into the ground to say, I'm going to bless you, make you into a people group, and you'll be a blessing, and I'm going to bless those who bless you,, I'm going to bless you, make you into a people group, and you'll be a blessing, and I'm going to bless those who bless you, and I'm going to protect you from those who would curse you, and in you, all the families of the earth will be blessing, or will discover blessing. This is five times the word blessing. Yeah, it's a lot of blessing. It's a lot of blessing, and it's a literary device that all points back to that blessing on page one.

The blessing that was for all humanity was forfeited, and so God's going to take one family and give them that divine blessing and invite them to experience them themselves and somehow through them it will spread again to all humanity, that blessing. And so that's the storyline of the Bible. How God is on a mission to bless his enemies through the family of Abraham somehow. And even then, many people would then just hop to Jesus at that point.

But in my mind, great, great, great grandson of Abraham. Yeah, totally. In my mind, there's still some more things that are crucial to who Jesus is that need to account for. So this is a fairly quick, right? So you have creation and the human calling, you have human rebellion and the fallout of that.

And then you have the Israel part of the story. God chooses the family of Abraham through whom he's going to bless the nations. The problem is the family keeps failing. It happens in Abraham's lifetime, he fails. Most of his children fail. His great-grandchildren all try to kill each other or sell each other into slavery. God rescues the whole family out of slavery

and invites them to be faithful to him and follow the 10 commandments and 603 more. And they build a golden calf. And they build a golden calf. They build a golden calf and it's just every part of Israel's story is a failure that mimics the failure of the humanity on pages one and two. So the story of Israel, it's not just that it's an illustration of what all humanity undergoes or underwent in the garden. It's actually the story of Israel intensifies the problem. Like an analogy would be like a high school teacher, the Bible Project Studio is in the lower floor of an old refurbished high school. This was the

wood shop, right? We're in the wood, we're in what was the wood shop of an old high school? That's what I've been told. Yeah, so... So, smell the... So honest. So yeah, it would be something like, you know, high school shop teacher puts out an assignment for all the students and they all fail. And that's a bummer, because he's been trying to teach them how to use the wood lay if

there's something like that. And so that's disappointing, because he's like, man, I showed them how to do it. So that's like Genesis 1 through 11. But then the story of Israel is like the shop teacher takes one student. And for months. Just the pernicism. Yeah, they're like, you know, the student comes after school gets out and they work till dinner time and he's teaching and all this investment months

and they become really close, you know. And then the second, the final, semester final project comes and this student not only fails again, but like intentionally fails and like make some lame object that's misshapen and it's like clear that and it's even more tragic. Like you better. Yeah, he knew better and so that's not just, oh that's just another illustration of lazy high school students. No, it's more. It's that bent that we still find ways to twist God's words and to doubt God's goodness and to think God's holding out on us and to act in really destructive, disrespectful ways. That's how the story of Israel works. And so you finish the Old Testament story and you go, man, I thought we were in a bad situation on page three on page three, but then you get to page 500,

maybe three. They're at the end of the Old Testament and you're just like, really depressed. Oh, man, we need, we really need help. And that's only the story. Then you come to the prophets of the Old Testament and they're like, yeah, that's right. And God promises that He will send help. It's so thoroughly clear that humanity needs help, even more clear from the story of Israel. The solution is going to have to be something remarkable. Some close joining of God and humanity, a king, a leader, this ideal human who's so close to God that like King David He would call God his father or he's so close to God that this leader is infused with God's spirit and personal presence

That if humans are ever gonna get it right they have to have gods Transform them and in different kinds of humans. This is also the Old Testament. This is all, yeah, what the Old Testament prophets are talking about. You need a recreation of the human heart and mind, total renewal and transformation. And so the story of the Old Testament ends and you're waiting for this leader, you're hoping that God will do something to just change humans on a fundamental level, and you think that's the only hope for humanity. And it seems to me that that's all very important

for understanding who Jesus is. And that if you didn't have that, it just half of what Jesus and the apostles are saying just doesn't land with any word of power. Yeah. So that was my not so short summary of the Old Testament. But the movement, so here we go, here's the movements. So you have God and all creation and the human calling, human rebellion and the fallout. Then God and Israel. God chooses Israel to spread his blessing to the nations. Israel fails at every step of the way.

Israel's sitting in a mess of its own making, and the prophets come in and announce that there's still hope for a coming leader, a transformation of the human heart, and in a brand new world that God's gonna bring about. And that's where you sit then, at the end of the Old Testament. And then the movements flow right into Jesus, where Jesus, everything Jesus said and did

connects right on to the Israel part of the story. And it makes sense of why Jesus came not announcing that you can go to heaven, but announcing that heaven, the God's reign and rule that humans rejected and the Israel rejected is now on an invasion mission to invade Earth. And to similar themes that we've explored before,

but you have the Jesus and the Kingdom mission, the death and resurrection fulfills that, then the spreading of Jesus' kingdom people into all of the nations that accounts for most of the New Testament, and then the return of the King and the new creation. the nations that accounts for most of the New Testament and then the return of the King and All this king and kingdom language comes from a very specific part of visual story. Yes, that's right. Where they get a king.

Yes. It's a highlight in their story because because it's when they were the most unified, right, under King David, and successful, and awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Powerhouse. Yeah. No one ruled over them. Yeah. They're united. Yeah. In Israel's whole history, there was only one king who successfully unified all of the tribes of Israel and brought abundance to the world. And he loved the law of God. Yeah, he loved, yeah, he was faithful to God of Israel. He had some serious failures. From which he never fully recovered. Right. But although he did turn. But he gives us the poetry of how I love the words of God and all the stuff that we sing in worship songs,

at least in my tradition, he was referring to the scriptures and the form that they existed in his day. And so, but yeah, so as you're saying king and kingdom, it's just, we have to talk specifically about that for that to have any meaning because what Jesus isn't talking about is an actual kingdom that like we know it, like a kingdom of Israel. Yeah, that's right. Going into all the, when you say kingdom people, it becomes like a metaphor in a way. Well, yeah, when Jesus uses kingdom language,

he's tapping into the Pope of the prophets that God himself would come and appoint a new leader for Israel to reconstitute them. But what Jesus doesn't seem to have in mind is that that takes the form of a new nation state. But he does have in mind that it forms a actual body of people who live by a code of conduct and who follow him as their leader. He does have that in mind.

So that starts to look like a kingdom. But then- Like a kingdom. Exactly. Yeah. All of a sudden it becomes like a kingdom which is metaphoric language, right? When something is like something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you write? No, you're describing a metaphor now. certain becomes like a kind of which is metaphoric language, right?

When something is like something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you write? No, you're describing a metaphor now. You're right. Yeah. He said following him was entering God's kingdom and experiencing it. Yeah.

But it didn't have the structure of what was recognizable as a state in the eyes of Rome, although Rome still did see the Jesus movement as a threat. Yeah, so like Mipol is in Tessalonica, this is the Acts chapter 17, and he's accused of defying Caesar's decrees and spreading trouble all over the world by announcing that there is another king. Yeah. One called Jesus. Yeah. So the early Christians were heard and viewed as...

Had very real world implications. Yes. Yeah. As having political, what we would call political implications. Yeah. So in that sense... In that sense, it's not a metaphor. It's not a metaphor.

Like Jesus came talking about a kingdom. He acted like a royal figure and he called people to give their allegiance to him and to know other God or king or actually to express their devotion to Jesus by honoring every other God and king. Actually, that was the motive that they made. Paul will tell people to pray for Nero and pay taxes. And Peter will say, yeah, honor the king. He might be sending soldiers to kill you, but honor the king.

But that's all about the paradox of power in Jesus' kingdom. The kind of king that gets at what you're talking about. It's like a kingdom. It doesn't behave like a kingdom as we know it. Well, yeah, because a kingdom as we know it the king would be here. I suppose Not invisible Right, let's be honest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, not some life giving spirit Yeah, whose presence is this people and people and songs? Whose people? Yeah.

That's, yeah, that's not a normal kingdom. Yep. And then the values of the kingdom are completely wonky and the perspective of a normal kingdom, as you say, upside down. So in a way, is that why you're saying like a kingdom? Because it's different than kingdoms, but it is. Yeah, I guess it's its own category of a kingdom, the people of Jesus spreading throughout

history and through the nations, but it is, it ought to be recognizable as a distinct group of people who live with a different set of allegiances and by a different ethic. But that aren't a threat to the rulers, aren't a military threat to the rulers of whatever kingdom they happen to live in. That's what I mean by people of the kingdom. Jesus comes announcing the kingdom, then the people of the kingdom spread throughout the nations, awaiting the return of the world's true king. If that's a phrase that becomes important,

it seems like really unpacking this idea of kingdom. I understand. Well, okay, that's a good point. Which is slightly different than anchoring in on vocation. Well, that's true, but what is the vocation? To rule. To rule. Yeah. That's Kingdom language.

What the humans are called to do is a royal task of being royal rulers over a creation. Okay. So we could choose ruling kingdom stuff as a... As an anchor. As an anchor. I mean, there's a strong argument to be made that that is one of the main theme. The red threads.

The very full story together. Who's gonna rule the world? Who's gonna rule the world and how will it be ruled? And how will it be ruled? And how will it be ruled? So, is it kind of then, am I going too far to say, Adam and Eve eating the tree of the knowledge is good and evil, corrupts their power? Because now when they use their power and they're deciding what's good and bad at these, do a bad job. And inevitably it's because of self-protection and self-preservation.

That's just the natural way for humans to define good and evil. But we need God to define it for us. So Jesus comes and says, here's what's good. It's self-giving love. And this is how this kind of goodness exerts its power. Even now, as I think about it, it's absurd, right? So, because I'm still a human who's trying to define good and evil on my own, and to some extent, and Jesus said, here's what's good.

It's laying down your life for an enemy. And I'm thinking, really? That's stupid. It's actually kind of stupid. Yeah, but this is a part of our third part of our mission statement. Is that the Bible's unified story, at least Jesus, that has wisdom to offer the modern world.

You were just telling me about a book you're reading called the Power Paradox. Yeah. It was talking about how real influence is very different than our main cultural conceptions Paradox. Yeah. It was talking about how real influence is very different than our main cultural conceptions of influence. Yeah. I've said, this is what came to my mind.

And that's why I've actually really been interested in that book because it's not from a Christian perspective, it's just this, I don't know, I can't remember where he's from, he's Danford or somewhere, but he's a psychologist for 20 years, he's been studying power. And he would say that the way we think about power

really comes from this famous book written by Mockavellian, I think is his name. It's basically the premise is to really have power, you need to lie, cheat and kill, basically. That's what true power is. And that's really seeped into our subconscious that like in our epic stories of powerful people, like think of house of cards, I don't know if you probably haven't

watched that, but like it's all about this politician who gains power through corruption. We have we have plenty of stories, but his point is those are our stories, but if you look at how the world really changes and who really gets influenced in the long run People that we actually still really celebrate and have moved the human story forward Had a different kind of power So Martin Luther King or mother Teresa or Gandhi or and that kind of power comes from seeking the greater good and And so you just makes really good case for that which is just it's just it's kingdom bling. Yeah, it sounds like Jesus.

Yeah, it sounds like Jesus. He's basically like, hey, I've discovered after 20 years of research that real power looks like Jesus was talking about. You described before me it was empathy. Yeah, well like some of the characteristics of kind of maintaining this kind of power. I see, yes, yes. Is empathy, generosity, celebrating other people's stories. And what was the other one? Fourth one is escaping me.

Anyway, nonetheless. But the paradox though, it's called the power paradox because that's how you gain power, but when you have power, what it does is it makes you more insular, it makes you feel important, it makes you feel self-sufficient, and naturally you become less empathetic of other people.

You begin to now think, how do I protect what I've gained, become something you worry about more? It makes you tell grand stories about yourself and your success, which really minimizes kind of other people. So the natural implications of power is to then become the kind of person

who wouldn't ever be given that power. And that's the paradox. That's the paradox. Is that once you have power, we don't know what to do with it. Like it destroys us. It distorts our ability to think straight. Yeah.

And I've thought about this before, like I couldn't be present in the United States. It would destroy me. Like I would just, I mean, when I was helping run a company that was doing really well, it just messes with you a little bit because all of a sudden, you're making these more important decisions

that affect people, you're spending amounts of money that most people don't even make in a year on business decisions. Different things that just like makes you feel just a kind of other and more important and a kind of outside of the rules. Right? And it just ends up distorting your view of things and inevitably make decisions that will oppress people.

That's the human condition. Yeah. And that's precisely the Bible's diagnosis of the human condition. And that's that you get on pages three to 11 in miniature and that you get explored in depth with amazing literary portraits in the story of Israel. That's exactly it.

But what we really truly want, right, if you think about what do you really want as a human? It's not power. I think I want power,. I think I want power, but I think I want power because that's gonna bring me happiness and freedom. And you usually secure it. And security.

Like stability. Stability. Those are the things I want. But the power, if you knew the grossiveness of it, like you don't know what you really want, what you want is the friendship you want, that brings stability.

Think about the stability of community that cares about each other. Yeah. And you want to make a meaningful contribution to the people that you care about or the people that you think need help. And you want to know these other people in Smily, and you want to be known by them.

And you want to think that what you're doing is meaningful. Those are the things you want. And those are things that bring happiness, not power. But the people who do that well and are building those communities, they're the ones that the communities then give, give the person power. Yeah. And then what do you do with it? Yeah.

And Jesus is saying, Yes. This is what you do with that power. And so it does start to make sense. Yeah. But still, if you came to me and said, John, you're gonna have to die for these guys who you don't like.

Yeah. I'd be like, I would rather hang out with my kids for another couple decades. Right. Right. Yes. I'd rather fight out with my kids for another couple decades. Right? Yes, yes. I'd rather fight that guy. Yeah. And then kill him if I had to, if it came down to it, and be with my family, my kids need

me. Like, that makes way more sense intuitively than lay down your life for your enemy. I hope I'm never in a position like that. Yeah But that's what Jesus' message is. That's right. And in the long run that makes sense If you think in terms of big history and generation after generation and the systemic problem But when it comes down to me and just this moment. Yeah, right? Yeah, that's right I guess a lot of things are that way. I mean if you think about it like With the environment if everyone just decided to make a couple small changes

We could like really clean things up But am I gonna am I gonna do that in my life? Yeah, no, I'd rather that's right. It's the nature of systemic A broken system. Yeah, so as you're talking. I think that's the heartbeat of the thing. I think we want to create a video that makes clear the's capability in task, royal task, powerful task, it's corruption. We're giving God's breath. Yeah, and we're given to, you know, divine authority. And divine authority. That no other species has. What our species has the capability of doing here in our world and how that's corrupted

according to the story, which is very true to human experience. And then the unique role of the family of Israel within it has an even deeper diagnosis of the problem. And then how Jesus becomes the one who shows us true power by totally reinventing it almost and taking that reinvention or upside down as to the full extent by embodying it in his death. And then that's the cliff notes version of the body. Yeah, and then it's about the launch of that new kingdom, a new different kind of humans who have called who rule.

Yeah, if humans come together to rule in that way, in a organized fashion, what would that look like? That's right. And that's supposed to be. It's at least the ideal of what the church is called to in the New Testament as they anticipate the return of that king. And what does it look like when you're destroyed doing that, like martyred, persecuted?

Yeah, yeah, according to the book of Revelation, that's how you win. Yeah. I think there's a really cool opportunity. That's a very natural question that the Revelation addresses through this lens, which is, okay, great. I'm going to be a part of that kind of movement, but what happens when the big bad guy comes and decides to just be evil?

Yeah. Like, I'm over. And it's like, yeah, but that's how you're gonna conquer. Yeah. Yeah, you stand up and you bear witness, you call it out, you name the beast. And it will anger the beast. The beast might kill you because you won't give the beast your Allegiance, but you'll have died bearing witness to the real king of the world. Yeah, and he'll vindicate you when you're raised from the debt.

I think there's something here. What I mean what I brought up the wisdom for the modern world is To me like I looked up that book, Machaville's book is called The Prince. Oh, yeah. The Prince. The Prince. But it's... Is it Machaville, not Machaville?

And that's Machaville in the book. Machaville, and then his names become adjective. Yeah, Machaville. So I said it wrong. But the Bible is on par with these great contributions to human thought and its diagnosis of the human condition. Essentially, it's one of power. It's about power. I just think that's really profound. Yeah. I don't know if you've heard yourself summarize that book, but it's really, really interesting. And compelling and relevant.

Yes. I think this could be a cool opportunity with this video. Both to serve people and seeing the Bible as a unified story, but to see that it's about something that's as relevant as. Yeah, very relevant. Yeah, like the political climate that we, that, you know, as Americans are living in right now, that the whole world didn't right now. And it has been in this far back as we can possibly tell. Yeah. Anyway. Well, you could see how upside down it is in that what seems to make the most

sense for a nation state, like when things get tough, you go, we just need to protect ourselves. like when things get tough you go we just need to protect ourselves. And that makes a lot of intuitive sense. And it's really hard to argue against in a lot of ways. A question that's on everybody's mind right now is what does it mean to use power responsibly? Yeah, what does it mean to use the power of an organized group of people to gain power and then to weld it? Use it. Yeah, the Bible speaks to it so closely, and Jesus talks about it so much. Yeah. The whole story of Israel is about that. Yeah. It's so much wisdom, which is scandalous.

It's kind of absurd. In a way, but that's why I brought up that book. It's also wise. But it's also wise. We're speaking about Lamas Rob earlier. Right. But you know, that's the hinge of the whole plot. Sure.

Is Jean Valgaard. It's shown the scandalous act of totally irresponsible generosity and grace and forgiveness. I love that irresponsible generosity. And he doesn't experience it as an act of kindness in the classic paragraph that describes Jean-Veljand's response. He's scandalized, he's angered, because he knows if he continues being on the same horrible human, that he'll be even more damned after having been shown this act of loving grace. And so he's, it's amazing paratrooper.

It was like it confronted every part of his being and he knew this was the moment to, you know, overcome or be conquered forever. And so he chooses to let it transform him in his view and what he does with the rest of his life, which was, yeah, it is. It's amazing. But it's that. It's, yeah, how Jesus redefines power and his teachings and his life is scandalous, but it's also wise.

Like it's, as he claimed, the only way forward. Yeah. For any of us. And he offers it as wisdom. And then along come to Stanford professor. He says, but you know, writes a book and says, you know, the most powerful people in our world. Let's see where he's. Are people who end up behaving like Jesus? The power paradox, how we gain and lose influence.

Who's it by? Dr. Keltner. DA, CHER. Professor of Psychology at, oh, University of California Berkeley.. Keltner. Huh. DA, CHER. Professor of Psychology at, oh, University of California Berkeley. Oh, UC Berkeley. Yeah. And he's the director of Greater Good Science Center.

So that's kind of where he puts his money where this mouth is. I think, it's cool. That's a part of UC Berkeley. How did you hear about it? Gosh, I was just, I was just browsing Barnes and Noble and I just saw the title and I was like, that sounds like a really interesting title. I love it. And then I started sk the title and I was like, that sounds like a really interesting title.

And then I started skimming it and I was like, well, this is awesome. That's an argument for your local bookstore. Yeah. Just go walk around and you'll never know what you find. It could change your mind. And I think we've put our thumb on it. I think this is what we've got to do. Tell, like, break the biblical story into main movements,

but under the whole unifying thread about... Using powers and energy. Rule and power. Yep. It takes away from... I mean, isn't the Bible about salvation? Yeah, I was just thinking that. It makes it feel less religious.

Totally. And more like a work of like moral philosophy. Right. Refreshing in one way, but in another way that's potentially problematic, because the Bible is more than just a book of philosophy. That's true. Yeah. It's making a claim about how the world actually is. You're right. Yeah, it's not a moral philosophy in terms of just, and then here's how you ought to be. It's almost like here's how basically

you're incapable of being. And here's one who was that for you and wants to be the source of power. And then it becomes mystical for you to become that yourself. Yeah, that's a good point. So then it becomes religious for you to become that yourself. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. So then it becomes religious again. Then it becomes religious.

Yes. Yeah. Well, it's just, there you go. Like have a new state of mind. It's like having encounter with the God of the universe. That's right. This happened. This happened.

This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened. Jesus and understand that, you need to know this story. Yeah. And once you know the story and that it's leading you to Jesus, you have a decision to make of whether or not

you're gonna... Yeah. Do you want to live your life? Disconnect yourself to this Jesus. Connected the source of this power. Yeah. It's resurrection power. Yeah.

So you're right, there's always a choice that's put before you that you can't avoid. But at the same time, it's in, as it diagnoses this problem, this crisis of power. Yeah. It's very much a contribution to the questions of our day. The anxieties of our day. Yeah. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project podcast.

The Bible Project is a crowd-funded studio in Portland, Oregon. We make videos and resources that show how the Bible's one unified story that leads to Jesus and has profound wisdom for the modern world. You can see our videos they're free on YouTube, YouTube.com slash the Bible Project, and all of our resources are free on our website, thebibelproject.com Everything's free because of the generosity of people like you who have been supporting this project. Thanks for being a part of this with us. 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1 %, 1, 1%, 1, 1, 1%, 1 %, 1, 1%, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, you you