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Summary of the Whole Bible in 5 Minutes … for Kids!

Whenever a person takes seriously the study of God’s Word, that person will soon find themselves knee deep in a treasure trove of differing genres, genealogies, narratives, psalms, and head-scratching apocalyptic literature.  No wonder people prefer to segment and place emphasis on sections of Scripture instead of feeding on the whole of scripture.

There is a place for this, for instance, the practice of systematic theology places pertinent Scripture under theological categories. We must, however, be careful not to lose the overarching story of Scripture.  The following video was published by the Gospel Project to communicate the “big story” of the Bible to children. And let’s be honest, Christian adults could use this refresher as well.

You see, the Bible is not just a collection of stories, but it’s also one big story where everything points to Jesus. It begins with a perfect world in which God places a perfect couple in the middle of it. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin and death entered into that world. God decided to judge the world by sending a flood, but also instructed Noah and his family to build an ark so that they would be saved. One of Noah’s descendants was a man by the name of Abraham who received a promise of God that he and his family would be used to bless the whole world. God would also give the Israelites a special land to live in and his descendants would be as countless as the stars in the sky. When a famine spread throughout the land, God used Joseph to bring the Israelites to Egypt but in time the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. So God raised up another leader by the name of Moses to rescue His people and to lead them to the Promised Land. God did many miracles along the way and taught the Israelites through Moses how to live and to worship. Sadly, even after they came into the Promise Land they continued to rebel.

The stubborn Israelites continued to worship idols and demanded a human king instead of enjoying the kingship of God. In His patience, God allowed them to have a king and one of those kings was a man by the name of David who had defeated one of the Israelite’s archenemies, Goliath. David’s son, Solomon, eventually ascended to the throne and built a magnificent temple to replace the tabernacle. But Solomon’s sin caused the kingdom to be split into two. During this time God sent prophets to tell the people about the Messiah who would make things right with God again. As foreign kingdoms would invade and conquer the Israelite nation, many held out hope for a Messiah who would come and rescue them. In time the Israelites returned to their land and even rebuilt the walls of the kingdom as well as the temple.

Then… silence… for 400 years God remained quiet. The silence would then be broken by the cry of a tiny baby born in a manger and His name was Jesus. Jesus was the Messiah and lived a sinless life, performed miracles, and showed people how to return to God again. Some believed Jesus, but most did not and eventually, Jesus was arrested and crucified on a cross. Then something amazing happened. Three days after His death, Jesus came back to life again and conquered sin and death once and for all.

Remember how I stated at the beginning that all of Scripture points to Jesus? You make think this is strange in light of Jesus appearing so late in the story. Or does He? Remember Noah and the ark? Just like God using the ark to rescue His people, God sent His Son for the same purpose. God promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to many people, which He did through Jesus. The sacrificial system in the ancient tabernacle points to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus for our sin. The Bible is filled with stories that point to the person and work of Jesus, but the story does not end there. The friends of Jesus carried His message to the ends of the earth. They shared about Jesus wherever they went and now we have that same calling. We are to share about Him wherever we go until one day Jesus returns and makes everything right again. The Bible is simply all about this Jesus!