Narrative

How to read a story

From Genesis to Esther, and again in the Gospels and Acts, story fills more of the Bible than any other kind of writing. A story does not explain its teaching; it shows what happened and draws the reader in. So we read with the eyes of observation and look for three things: the plot, from the opening situation through conflict and crisis to its resolution; the characters, shown by what they say and do; and the setting, when and where it happens.

The Bible's narrators seldom pass judgement, which makes their few comments precious. The last chapters of Judges report one dreadful thing after another and then end with a line heard before (17:6):

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 21:25

That one line tells us how to hear the stories before it. They are not examples to follow; they show how far God's people fall when everyone does what is right in his own eyes.

Here is a rule for every story: what the Bible reports, it does not always commend. Jacob deceived his father and took his brother's blessing (Genesis 27:35), and the story does not praise him. A few chapters later he is deceived in his turn: "Why have you deceived me?" he asks Laban (Genesis 29:25). Scripture does not hide how David took Uriah's wife and had Uriah killed (2 Samuel 11). A scene means what it means within the larger story.

Above all, the main actor in the Bible's stories is God, even where his name is not spoken. The Heidelberg Catechism of the Reformed churches of the European continent confesses that all things ‘come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand’ Heidelberg Catechism, Q27. So in every story ask not only what people did, but what God is doing.

David and Goliath

First Samuel 17 is often read only as a call to be brave like David and beat your giants. Courage is good, but follow the story as it tells itself and you will see something greater. The book as a whole is introduced in the 1 Samuel lesson.

The setting is two armies facing each other in the Valley of Elah. The Philistine champion Goliath comes out and proposes that one man fight him: whoever wins, his people will rule the other (vv. 8-9). It is a battle in which one man stands for his people. "On hearing the words of the Philistine, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and greatly afraid" (v. 11).

Watch Saul. When the people asked for a king, they said what they wanted him for: "Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles" (1 Samuel 8:20). And Saul stood "a head taller than any of the people" (1 Samuel 9:2). If anyone in Israel was a match for Goliath, he was. Yet the king the people asked for does not go out to fight.

There is something more to see. From verse 1 to verse 25, God is never mentioned. Everyone is looking at Goliath's height, his armour and his shouting. The first to speak of God is the boy David, sent to see how his brothers were: "Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (v. 26). David is the one anointed in the chapter before (1 Samuel 16:13). He takes off Saul's armour, goes out with his staff, five stones and a sling, and at the centre of the story he says:

You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. … And all those assembled here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give all of you into our hands.

1 Samuel 17:45-47

Matthew Henry, an English minister, notes that David "gloried in his mean appearance and arms, that the victory might be ascribed to the Lord alone" Matthew Henry. And here the narrator, who comments so seldom, adds a line: "Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him" (v. 50). He confirms David's word: the LORD does not save by sword or spear.

Israel did not fight Goliath that day. Only after David's victory did the men of Israel and Judah charge forward with a shout and pursue the Philistines (v. 52). Our place in this story is nearer to frightened Israel than to David. The one God had anointed fought the battle his people could not, and they shared in his victory.

And this story belongs to a larger one. Jesus, the Son of David, fought alone against the enemy we could not overcome. Hebrews says why he shared our flesh and blood: "so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14-15). David is a type of Christ, a figure who points ahead to him; reading all Scripture toward Christ is the subject of a later lesson.

Try it

Open 2 Samuel 11 on the map. In the map under the Jesus tab, open 2 Samuel and tap chapter 11: it has a ‘One-line summary’ and ‘Notes’. ‘Read 2 Samuel 11’ opens the text.

Follow the plot and the characters. Write down in order what David sees, what he does and what he tries to hide. How is Uriah drawn? For example: ‘v. 1: David stays in Jerusalem while the army goes to war’. Then find where the narrator passes judgement, and where God is first mentioned.

Read on to 12:1 and write a one-line summary. The chapter does not report these things so that we will copy David. Ask what it reports them to show, and put that in one line.

Practice