Suppose, for the sake of argument, that something wonderful has happened to you.
You have gotten 100 per cent in an algebra test you were sure you were going to flunk. Or, you have gotten a good job for the summer. Or, you have fallen in love.
What do you do?
You have to share the news with someone else. This doesn't mean necessarily that you are being boastful. You just have to let your joy "spill over" to someone else.
Now suppose, for the sake of argument, that something even more wonderful has happened.
You have had a lot of puzzling perplexities about the meaning of your life, and an experience has clarified them.
Or, you have fitfully tried to pray and one day found out that you were not praying to a Blank, but were in communion with the living God.
Or, you have experienced a bitter tragedy and discovered that you were not alone but that God was there with you.
What do you do?
Although at first you may be very shy about it, sooner or later you find that once again you have to share the news with someone else. That life makes sense, that God is real, that you are not alone -- these are things of such monumental importance that you simply cannot keep quiet about them once you know their truth.
Now suppose, once more for the sake of argument, that this loving God whom you now know makes it plain to you that he wants to use you to make him and his will more real to those about you.
What do you do this time?
Even though you may at first be timid and afraid, you finally must speak. You must share the news with all who will listen. You find yourself in the same situation as the prophet Amos: "The Lord God has spoken," he said, "who can but prophesy?" ( Amos 3: 8).
If you can imaginatively put yourself in these situations, then perhaps you can begin to understand why and how the Bible came to be written. If people have good news, they share it. If they have bad news, they share that too. And if they are conscious that God is real, and if they see life in terms of his demands, and his promises, then they have to share that viewpoint, and all that it implies, with others.
It is this sort of thing that we find taking place in the Bible. Some of the Biblical writers find that God has forced them to speak out in his name. These men we usually call "prophets." And the things they say are so important that they are written down for others to read. Or a great event takes place in Jewish history (a victory over the enemy, let us say) and a song is composed for the occasion. The song interprets the event as a vindication of the power and glory of God, so it becomes an important part of the people's understanding of how God relates himself to their lives. Or a tragic event takes place (a nation forced into exile, let us say) and someone has the Godgiven insight to see that this is the way God's love has to express itself toward those who rebel against him. The message is saved and the people begin to see that all history must be viewed as the theater where God is the chief actor. Or the songs which are written for their public worship of God come to be a means by which God's presence is realized even when they are not in the Temple -- so the songs are preserved and written down, along with the other sacred writings.
The point is that all these writings are a response to God's activity and concern with his people -- and over the centuries a sizable body of literature is built up. This literature takes on significance precisely because it has developed in this gradual way, for it makes plain that God deals with people right where they are, right in the struggles and agonies of their real fleshand-blood history.
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