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His Story in History
In 1932, the George Washington Bicentennial Commission published a compilation all of Washington’s writings—his journal entries, personal letters, professional correspondence, speeches—even notes to his lieutenant generals on the battlefield. These heavy volumes take up a lot of space in major libraries around the world.
We can glean quite a bit about Washington from these records of his words, but they offer a very incomplete picture of the man. After all, Washington did much more than speak and write words. If we want to know what kind of man he was, we also need to learn about his other accomplishments. His actions—as the saying goes—speak louder than his words.
Focus on both actions and words
Biblical theology stresses the same is true about God. In our last installment, we saw that biblical theology focuses on the record of history that appears in the Bible. Everyone familiar with biblical history knows that it often focuses on words God spoke directly and through his inspired spokesmen like Moses, David, and other prophets. But the Scriptures do not stop there. They also record God’s actions, things God accomplished in history. His actions, as well as his words, give us insights into his nature, character, and purposes. So biblical theology focuses on both the acts and words of God and how they interconnect.
God’s acts and words in biblical history interact with each other in many ways, but a good place to begin is with a simple question. What is an act of God? Or to put it another way, how did God act in the Bible?
How God acts in Scripture
Christians have answered these questions in many different ways and some outlooks are better than others. I have found it helpful to follow one traditional stream of thought that focuses on how acts of God relate to “means”—how they involve or don’t involve his creation. Throughout Scripture, God acts in some combination of four main ways:
- through created means
- without created means
- above created means
- against created means
“Natural” causes are from God
Quite often we see God ordinarily accomplishes many of his purposes through his creation. He warms the earth through the sun; he satisfies our hunger with food. We may be tempted to think of these kinds of events as resulting from natural causes apart from God, but the Bible frequently reminds us they come from his hand. As Jesus put it, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Nothing happens in God’s creation without his sustaining providence.
Biblical theology stresses how God revealed himself in history.
Even so, Scripture has countless examples of extraordinary events: the parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, the signs that Elijah and Elisha performed, the miracles of Jesus and his apostles. In these kinds of situations, God not only works through created means but also acts without them and takes them far beyond themselves and even works against the normal patterns of creation, especially the actions of angels and human beings.
Emphasizing how God reveals himself in history
When biblical theologians focus on the acts of God in Scripture, they acknowledge this entire spectrum of divine activity, but their emphasis is weighted in the direction of the more extraordinary acts of God. Much like the authors of Scripture, biblical theologians are prone to give most of their attention to more spectacular or dramatic events. Events like the first week of creation; the Exodus from Egypt; the conquest of the Promised Land; David’s kingship over Israel; the exile and restoration of Israel; and the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Christ are among the premiere examples of God’s dramatic interventions into the normal course of history. Biblical theology stresses how God revealed himself in history, especially in these kinds of extraordinary acts.
God is there, even in the mundane
Focusing on the ways God revealed himself in his actions helps us keep in mind that our God is the living God. To be sure, what happens in our lives today barely compares with the mighty acts of God in biblical history. Yet, the Scriptures assure us God is not far off; he is not inactive; he is not restrained nor frustrated by forces greater than he. If God has become something less than this in your life, you haven’t learned one of the most important lessons of biblical theology.
But all of this talk about acts of God raises a crucial question. How do we learn the significance of what God has done? How do we know what difference his actions make in our lives? In our next installment, we’ll take a look at the ways biblical theology offers theological reflection on God’s acts in history.
Dr. Pratt will be teaching Biblical Theology and the Old Testament at Re:train next year.