God's Complete Story

By Ronald Robbins

Ronald L. Robbins, author, is a dedicated Christian, writer, teacher, deacon, and choir singer. He was married for forty-five years until his wife passed away with cancer (nearly fourteen years ago). They had two children, a girl and a boy, together, and now he has four grandchildren. He is close to his daughter and son (their spouses) and four grandchildren. Ronald is a graduate from Indiana University with a BS degree in quantitative business analysis and is an Air Force veteran (four years active duty and two years in Reserves). His passion is to witness for Jesus Christ, teach two weekly classes of the Bible, and sing praises to the Lord with the church choir. It seems two other passions have been appearing recently: to go back to learning to play the piano that was started during his Air Force days while a choir director in a Klamath Falls, Oregon, church and to write a second book that he has already outlined with a Jesus-like animal to help all those near the animal. The work on this current book has been ongoing for over three years and was completed to bring out God’s story from its initiation until the Glorious Future, as told by this book, God’s Complete Story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638445029

Book preview

God’s Complete Story

God Begins the Story for the

Glorious Future

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:22–26 NASB updated)

These verses provide a good beginning for the future glory to which this book leads and that is for all who truly believe and accept Christ as their Savior. These five verses were picked to begin this journey for at least two reasons: (1) the quotes from Jesus, as recorded by John the Apostle, set the beginning for the Glorious Future and (2) John has become my favorite writer.

God’s Story 1

The book begins with a look at God’s story to help us to understand how all the different parts of the Bible fit together. I am sure at some time in your life, as I have, you have wondered how all this stuff in the Old Testament is relevant for Christians. The next several sections of this book we are going on a journey, a pilgrimage to discover God’s story in the Bible. As I write, I will use the framework from many sources to attempt to fit all the pieces together. We will examine each part carefully to see how they all interlock with each other to provide the total picture of God’s story. After all, the Bible is God’s story. The biblical narratives relating God’s story are accurate and trustworthy accounts of actual historical events. This first section sets the stage to develop full confidence in the veracity of God’s Word, from this opening scene of God’s creation in Genesis to the final curtain in Revelation. We need to understand where we have been to know where we are going.

We begin where it all started in Genesis 1:2, 26–27, God’s Creation.

God’s story begins by summarizing the relationship between God and everyone and everything else. In this first verse of the entire Bible, we are told a vital, amazing, and critically important fact that the vast majority of people on earth fail completely to understand and believe. We could reduce this verse to its shortest form to read God created. The verb translated means to bring into existence; it didn’t just happen, only God creates. From the opening statement in the Bible, we learn that God is the main subject of the entire Bible, and He is uniquely set above all else including people, plants, animals, and things. The phrase the heavens and the earth encompasses everything and everyone that is not God Himself. This story does not begin once upon a time. It begins in the beginning and is not a fairy tale.

Time for a checkpoint question: What are some of the ways you have heard about how the earth was formed and how people came to be? (We have heard the story of evolution that says that over time, one species is changed to another type, and that makes time god of evolution or that everything just happened. We may have heard that we came from another galaxy. We also have many who believe that the earth is millions of years old and on and on.) It would take more faith to believe in one of these theories than to believe it was created by God.

Psalm 29:1 reminds us The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord. At the same time, we need to remember God is above creation, both eternal and awe-inspiring. Here is a comment that we may not have thought about: Creation is subordinate to the creator. Creation is finite, limited, and the object of God’s intentions. He did not need to create the universe; He chose to create it. God saved His best creation for last. Only people were created in the image and likeness of God, terms that speak to people’s capacity to relate to God in a personal way. Notice the plural in verse 26 let us make man… likely a reference to the Trinity. God created people for fellowship with Him. Additionally, only people were given the high responsibility and privilege of ruling over the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26, 28). Specifically, people were to rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, and the creatures of the earth. In this assignment, God declared people’s privileged status before Him, a status of superiority over the rest of creation but inferiority to God.

To understand God’s story, we must grasp this privileged status of humankind. Here is another question to answer or ponder: What does the phrase the image of God say to us? (It refers to people’s wisdom, logic, intelligence, and even people having souls. However, the pronounced aspect of the image of God is the people’s capacity to relate to God in a special way not available to any other creature.) God’s Word is described as the instrument of His creative activity. The creation and development of the universe were the result of the personal will of God. This record of creation reflects the marvel of inspiration. Then in the sixth day came an entirely new dimension of creation. It is as though all that had gone before was in preparation for the crowning act—human life. God’s stated objective was to make a creative like Himself, one superior enough to have a place of authority and control over other creatures God had made.

Now moving to Genesis 2:15–17, 3:6–7. We see that humanity rebels.

Besides main characters and a theme, every story includes a conflict. Conflict emerged fairly quickly in God’s story (how soon is not said). This could be considered a second account of creation. Beginning in Genesis 2:4 through 2:25, the focus is on the creation of the first man and woman. God took special care in forming man out of dust from the ground. Then God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). So, this says, apart from God, people have no life. God also took great care in providing the first man a suitable home, the Garden of Eden, and a suitable vocation, to work and to watch over the garden. Let’s think about all this. We are told that Jesus is preparing more than a suitable home for us. Then in Isaiah and Revelations, we are told we will share in the Lord’s glory after He returns again and will help Him in cleansing the earth. So, what God did for Adam and eventually for Eve, He has promised for all of us who become true believers. God then provided Adam with a helper as his complement (verse 18). With the creation of Eve, the human race had begun in earnest. Recently, it has been indicated that a nuclear DNA has been found that links all humans all the way back to Adam and Eve. You may ask why it has taken so long to find this link. A significant part of that answer is in the fact that science has only found a method to obtain any DNA in the past few years.

God gave Adam and Eve full access to everything but the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Time to consider yet another good question: Why do you think God gave the couple this one prohibition? (God sought to spare people from the bitterness of knowing evil. Secondly, without the will of choice, people cannot express love—to God or to others.) People would still learn about good things through their relationship with God. All loving parents want to shelter their children from evil, which is what God wanted to do. Every time Adam and Eve passed by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they had to make a conscious choice of whether to obey God and not eat or to disobey God and eat. The advantage of not eating was a close relationship with God. People could express their love and respect for God by freely choosing to obey His command. Jesus expressed a similar connection between love and obedience in John 14:15. If you love Me, you will keep My commands. Then in 1 John 5:3, For this is what love for God is; to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden. Remember, Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law (commandments), not to replace them.

Though surrounded by His abundance, the woman and then the man freely chose to disobey God. The serpent who deceived Eve is later identified as the devil and Satan in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2. The temptation had three characteristics: good for food (appeal to the appetite), delightful to look (appeal to the eyes), and desirable for obtaining wisdom (appeal to the intellect). The close affinity of these three characteristics to the devil’s temptation of Jesus (Luke 4:1–13) and John’s observation that these three things belong to the world (1 John 2:16) show the overarching unity of God’s story. We are told that Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to sin, which is necessary for all of us. In the case of Adam’s sin, God already had a plan in motion to overcome the effects of the rebellion. The entire Bible is the story of how that plan unfolds, ultimately leading to God’s own visit to earth through His Son and then to the new heaven and the new earth when the Father comes back to earth. Another mystery is asked by the next question: Among the unanswered questions from this part of the story is why didn’t Adam intervene between Eve and the serpent? (Maybe Adam wanted to see if what the serpent had said was true. Maybe it was because God again was giving Adam the freedom of choice, or maybe this was God letting Adam say nothing because Eve’s sin had already set in motion the curse of sin.)

Moving on to another subject found in Genesis 3:14–19, 23–24 is that sin has consequences.

The immediate effects of sin became readily apparent. The death process introduced by sin included alienation from God. Adam and Eve had themselves to blame, but they blamed someone or something else. God began His judgment of sin by confronting the serpent. Then 3:15 has been called the first gospel, the first promise in the scripture of the coming Redeemer. The verse predicts the clash between the seed of the woman, Jesus, and the serpent or devil. This scripture also promised the serpent’s defeat. Thus, from the beginning of God’s story, He had the end of the story in view. Jesus would defeat the serpent (devil) (Rev. 20:2, 10). So, this tells us that any sin has consequences. We understand that when Moses is given the ten commandments, we as humans learn what sins are.

Significantly, the word curse does not occur in God’s comments to Eve (Gen. 3:16). However, Adam is told the ground is cursed because he listened to the woman. The ground will produce thorns and thistle for Adam, and he will have to work until he returns to dust. Adam was banned from his paradise (Eden), and God used the cherubim to guard the garden. God also gave a new affirmation of the worth of life by a twofold gift of grace. First, God provided animal skins and helped them overcome the reasons for their shame. God took the initiative to begin the redemptive work for those who had sinned against Him. This redemptive love of God came to fullest measure when Jesus died for sinners.

We now next begin to look at God chooses a people.

God Chooses a People

As we continue, let’s examine God’s good creation and Adam and Eve’s sin! God’s story turns our attention to God’s plan to address human sin and the death and devastation it brought. Genesis 4–11 contains several stories demonstrating how sin continued to worsen and spread in the generations following Adam and Eve. The Lord reached a moment of regret for making humans when He observed their corrupted thoughts and unbridled sin (Gen 6:5–6). The pinnacle of human depravity surfaced again in the tower of Babel (11:1–9). People thought they could obtain community, security, and identity by their own initiatives without God. People tried to build a tower to the heavens to reach God on their own. God confounded their language and scattered them across the face of the earth. This tells why there are so many different languages and where it started. At this point, prior to going on with God’s plan of blessing, we need to introduce a man that God used to spare His creation despite of the peoples’ wicked ways—Noah.

God had to deal with the sinful people that lead to the flood and then again later with those who built the tower. Not to confuse the timing in the Bible, Noah and the devastating flood occurred prior to God dealing with the Tower of Babel instance (by two chapters). At the time leading up to part the flood played in God’s story, God found a man of great faith and obedience. The Bible says that the time of Noah was a wicked time. God saw the evil thoughts of man’s heart were steering him away from God. The times were so evil that God said He would destroy man from the earth. But then God thought about Noah. Because Noah loved God and sought to obey Him, God knew that Noah could be used to preach repentance to the people and to build an ark (a large ship) to save those who would trust God. In Genesis 6:8, the Bible says that Noah found grace in the sight of God. Here we are told of Noah’s family. Noah had three sons with three daughters-in-law. Along with his wife, they were a family of eight people. In the end of the story, we find that these eight people are all that were saved and were called upon to replenish the earth. Noah’s three sons were named Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It is important to know the names of these three sons as we are told in the Bible chronology that they are from where all future generations come.

God instructed Noah to build a large boat which He would use to preserve life on the earth. God brought the animals to Noah. The clean animals would come into the ark in groups of seven (Gen. 7:2) and the unclean animals would come two at a time (Gen. 6:20). The structure of the boat was explained by God. He told Noah what type of wood to use and how large the ark would be. This was given in a measurement called a cubit. Though there are various lengths called a cubit, it is about eighteen inches (about forty-five centimeters) in length. That meant the ark was about 450 feet long (135 meters) and 45 feet wide (22.5 meters). The height of the ark was forty-five feet (13.5 meters), and it was divided into three levels. We don’t know exactly how many years it took Noah to build the ark, but piecing together some of the ages and dates given between Genesis 5 and Genesis 11, it seems that Noah built the ark and preached for at least fifty-five years to as many as 120 years before the flood started. The popular number of 120 years comes from Genesis 6:3, when God said that man’s days would be 120 years. He was six hundred years old when he entered the ark.

Noah and his family entered the ark alone as there was no one else who joined them. They waited in the ark seven days before the flood began. The Bible says in Genesis 7:12 and 17 that it rained actively for forty days. The earth was flooded 150 days or almost six months. The flood stopped, and the waters began to recede. After 150 days at sea, the ark settled onto Mount Ararat. Noah released a couple of different birds to help him know if it was possible to leave the ark. The first was a raven that left and returned continuously until the waters receded. Then he released a dove. The dove, which he sent out three times, did not have any place to rest the first time it was released. It returned to the ark. Seven days later he sent the dove again, but this time it brought back an olive branch. Another week later Noah sent out that dove again, but it never returned. This told Noah that it was time to leave the ark since there was proof of vegetation and dry ground. Noah and his children released the animals from the ark. When they exited the ark they built an altar to the Lord (Gen. 8:20). Recently a story and a very convincing photo have surfaced that show the exact location and exact dimensions of the ark where it came to rest on the top of Mount of Ararat.

God promised to Noah that He would never destroy the earth again with a flood (Gen. 9:8–17). As a token of His promise He made the rainbow. Even though the rainbow is a natural phenomenon today, it must be remembered that it had never rained before this event. God watered the earth with water from beneath. There was never a chance before the flood for there to have ever been a rainbow. It is easy to see the comparison with Jesus Christ as the Redeemer. In Noah’s day, people were called to turn from their sins and return to God. When they refused to enter the ark (a sign of trusting God’s Word), they were destroyed in the flood. Today, we are called to repent of our sins and accept Christ as our Savior. Those who have not accepted the Lord will be lost to a Christ-less eternity.

Another question fits here: How would God bring salvation to a lost, scattered humanity? God could have rescued people from sin any way He wanted, but after using Noah, where it seems all have been destroyed by the flood, He chose to work with one man, Abram and his descendants. God decided to choose a people for Himself who would do His work of evangelism in the world. So our story of God’s plan for that one man begins in Genesis 12.

God’s story is one of divine provision for human need and people’s response to that provision. Our greatest need is to be restored to a vibrant relationship with God. This should help us decide whether we are fully willing to trust and obey God. Abram, later to be renamed Abraham, had the same choice. When God called him, Abram moved out in faith from UR to Haran and finally to Canaan. God then established a covenant with Abram, telling him that he would found a great nation. Not only would this nation be blessed, God said, but the other nations of the earth would be blessed through Abram’s descendants. Israel, the nation that would come from Abram, was to follow God and influence those with whom it came in contact. Through Abram’s family tree, Jesus Christ was born to save humanity. Through Christ, people can have a personal relationship with God and be blessed beyond measure.

The concept of covenant was not new. God made a covenant with Noah before the flood. If he would trust God and come into the ark, then God would preserve his family through the flood (6:18). God made another covenant after the flood: He would never again destroy the earth and life upon it by a flood (9:11). In the first instance, the covenant was conditional upon the people sharing in it. The second was an unconditional promise. God’s covenant with Abram had a new and distinctive dimension. God was seeking a faithful people through whom He could do redemptive work in the world. God promised to bless Abram, but God had one condition: Abram had to do what God wanted him to do. This meant leaving his home and friends and traveling to a new land where God promised to build a great nation from Abram’s family. This same condition was repeated by Jesus when He told the disciples and all others to leave their homes and follow Him. How would we respond to these conditions? (We would be very reluctant at best! It would certainly take a lot of faith.) Abram obeyed, walking away from his home for God’s promise of even greater blessings in the future.

God may be trying to lead us to a place of greater service and usefulness for Him. The challenge for anyone faced with that type of decision is to not let the comfort and security of one’s present position make one miss God’s plan for them. So God called Abram to enter into covenant with Him and to become the originator and ancestor of a nation of people who would live in covenant with God. Note that the word covenant does not appear in these verses that record the call of Abram. In Genesis 15:18, however, the relationship between God and Abram is described as a covenant relationship, and the concept of covenant became central in the Hebrew conviction about their relationship with God. The Hebrews became the covenant people, which was especially crucial for the Hebrews. It became a focus for their development as a people and for all their subsequent national history. Abraham was called the father of the Jewish religion several times. God’s gifts bless most richly not when we are possessed but when they are permitted to flow through life like a stream of living water.

In the verses that follow, Genesis 12:4–7, we see a response of obedience by Abraham.

"So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. We are told Abram was seventy-five when he obeyed God’s call, and he lived until he was 175 (25:7). Abram’s way of life in Canaan was the way of a seminomad, but it was not a mere migration. Abram was on a mission! God planned to develop a nation of people He would call His own. He called Abram from the godless, self-centered city of Ur to a fertile region of Canaan, where a God-centered, moral nation could be established. Though small in dimension, the land of Canaan was the focal point for most of the history of Israel as well as for the rise of Christianity. This small land given to one man, Abram, has had a tremendous impact on world history. Abram did not go alone or travel empty-handed when he left the community, security, and identity he had known in Haran. We are told Abram took Sarai, Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated with him. How are we confronted daily with the choice to trust God or ourselves to provide life’s necessities? (Choices of where we go, what we eat, what to spend money, whether to read the Bible, what to watch on TV, what book to read, etc. How we respond to these choices will determine our future.)

The first stop Abram made in Canaan was at Shechem (means shoulder because it rests on the shoulders of two mountains where Joshua would later perform a covenant renewal ceremony—Joshua 24:1–25). Shechem was in the center of Canaan, where the oak of Moreh was located. Moreh means teaching, and apparently this was a Canaanite religious center. More importantly than the place is the act of worship there. Abram built an altar to the Lord who appeared to Abram and declared that this land would be given to Abram’s descendants. This promise had two significant meanings. First, it identified the land of Canaan as the land God had promised to the people of Abram for a national homeland. Second, it indicated that a new religious day was dawning. At the center of pagan religion God was declaring His sovereignty. Altars were used in many places for sacrifices, but for God’s people, altars symbolized communion with God and commemorated notable encounters with Him. Abram was reminded by altars that God was the center of his life. Regular worship helps us remember what God desires and motivates us to obey Him.

Moving on in Genesis 15:5–8, 13–17, Abraham defines a relationship of faith.

God called Abram and his descendants and had given them good land. The missing piece of the puzzle was God’s motivation which was a relationship. God sought (and still does) a relationship with His people, even though they (and us) had distanced themselves from Him by sinning. The relationship God established with Abram was a major key in God’s story. What God did, described in verse 5, claimed Abram’s fears about how Abram’s foreign-born house slave would become his heir because he had no son by Sarai (15:2–4). God said to look at the sky and count the stars, your offspring will be that numerous. Maybe we need reminders of our own journey of faith with God. Here is a question that we could consider as some of those reminders: What could we establish as physical reminders of our journey with God? (Maybe we could look to the sky, maybe we need to look at the beauty of nature, maybe we need to see our families grow, maybe we must be at church regularly!) Abram wasn’t promised wealth or fame; he already had that. Instead, God promised descendants like the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore (22:17—too numerous to count). When God said, if you are able to count them, God was indicating the enormous task He had given Abram and indicating that Abram needs to get away from distractions. There are times when that is true for us as well! What Abram did not yet fully understand was that God was planning all along to give him a son by Sarai. God’s blessings are beyond imagination!

Although Abram had been demonstrating his faith through his actions, it was his belief in the Lord, not his actions, that made Abram right with God (Romans 4:1–5). We, too, can have a right relationship with God by trusting Him. Our outward actions—church attendance, prayer, good deeds—will not by themselves make us right with God. A right relationship is based on faith—the heartfelt inner confidence that God is who He says He is and does what He says He will do. Right actions will follow naturally as by-products.

Then God gave Abram some insight to the future. Possession of the land by the Israelites would not take place for four hundred years. During this time Abram’s descendants would be enslaved and oppressed in a land that did not belong to them. God gave Abram yet another promise in this prophecy—God would judge the nations they served (meaning Babylon, Assyria, etc.) While verse 17 seems difficult to understand, it put the seal of God’s commitment upon the covenant. In the darkness at the end of the day, Abram saw a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between the divided part of the covenant sacrifice. God affirmed His covenant with Abram by giving Abram a sign. The fire and smoke suggest God’s holiness, His zeal for righteousness, and His judgment on all the nations. God took the initiative, gave the confirmation, and followed through on His promise. God’s passing through the pieces was a visible assurance to Abram that the covenant God had made was real. Unity would come again across the face of the earth. The tragic fragmenting effects of Babel would be overcome at last. God had a purpose for Abram descendants greater than their most expanded imaginations could conceive. God’s thoughts are indeed higher than our thoughts (Isa. 55:9). He would finally make the world one again, and He is always ahead of mankind in His wise and gracious purpose. As in the days of Abram, God continues to choose a people to be His witness in this world—to continue God’s story.

We next move the story to later in the book of Genesis and learn how and why Abraham got his name changed and his great obedience of God’s will.

God Delivers His People

As we continue to look at God’s story, we focus attention on that glorious time God delivered His people from involuntary enslavement in Egypt. Four hundred years before, God initiated a covenant relationship with Abram, who needed only to respond with faith and obedience. Abram’s descendants multiplied in Egypt. Those four centuries began with Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery (Gen. 37) only to see him in a place of keeping others alive (50:20). Famine forced Jacob and his remaining sons to journey into Egypt. Ironically, the brother sold as a slave became by God’s grace the deliverer of Jacob’s family. This movement from enslavement to deliverance is a major theme in God’s Story.

Exodus 3:7–10: God Cares

Eventually, Jacob and Joseph died, but their descendants multiplied (Exod. 1:1–14). Feeling threatened, the Egyptians enslaved the people and forced them to work in building programs. When the people cried out (verse 7), God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs of the Hebrews (2:24). God called Moses to be His deliverer, identifying Himself as the God of the patriarchs (3:6). Thus, God helped Moses see the connection between the covenant He made with Abraham four hundred years earlier and the deliverance He was about to bring to the Hebrews. The statement of God to Moses was directly related to the statement about God in 2:24–25. The earlier statement told what God knew and was experiencing in relation to the oppression of the Hebrews. This statement builds upon that and sets forth boldly what God has done and will do in their behalf. "I have come down to deliver