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Scripture is the special revelation of our triune God wherein He has provided us with numerous accounts of how His sovereign plan has unfolded throughout history. It is secondary whether we refer to these accounts as narratives, stories, or historical accounts, since the words narrative and story can both refer to an account of events. While it is certainly true that some stories (and narratives) are accounts of fictional or nonfictional events, we understand that other stories, from our own lives, from world history, or from Scripture, are accounts of historical events. When it comes to stories from our lives or world history, the accounts of events can be sometimes more or less accurate, whereas the stories of Scripture are the unchanging, authoritative, and inspired stories of God, written by human authors and superintended by the Holy Spirit. Thus, the stories of Scripture are accurate and sufficient for the purposes that God and His inspired human authors intended, and there is often a greater depth to their intentions than we can discern in our first reading.
Something I have often pondered is whether we will someday gather and hear all the historical biblical figures give more exacting details for the stories of the Bible than they committed to writing. Imagine sitting for hours listening to Noah give us more specifics about what it was like, what he experienced, and how he felt when the Lord commanded him to construct the ark. Imagine Moses explaining in more detail what he witnessed as Israel passed through the Red Sea on dry ground. Imagine listening to Jesus as He recounts His life before He was thirty, retells His every sign and wonder, and explains the intricately woven sovereign plan of God’s redemption. We don’t know what we will know in heaven, and we don’t know what or how we will learn it, but we do know that we will see Jesus face-to-face, and when we do, we may in fact not have any questions.
Until that day, we read, we study, and we learn what we can about what God has revealed to us, and we do so to understand not only the stories of biblical figures but our story as well. For the stories of God’s people are part of our story as the sons and daughters of Adam and the children of Abraham (Rom. 9:7–8; Gal. 3:7). As we learn more deeply God’s stories of old, we grow deeper and deeper in our understanding of our triune God. This enables us more and more to rightly know God as He has revealed Himself and not as we imagine Him, so that we might worship Him and glorify Him coram Deo, before His face, now and each and every day throughout eternity.