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A World Penetrated by God
Scripture: Acts 17:28
The twelve biblical books stretching from Joshua to Esther are conventionally designated “the history books.” But the word “history” doesn’t tell the whole story, for this is history attentive to the conditions in which people have experienced God. The Hebrew people were intent on observing and participating in what happened in and around them because they believed that God was personally alive and active in the world, in their community, and in them.
Life could not be accounted for by something less than the life of God, no matter how impressive and mysterious an experience was—whether an eclipse of the sun, spots on the liver of a goat, or the hiss of steam from a fissure in the earth. God could not be reduced to astronomical, physiological, geological, or psychological phenomena; God was alive, always and everywhere working his will, challenging people with his call, evoking faith and obedience, shaping a worshiping community, showing his love and compassion, and working out judgments on sin.
For biblical people, God is not an idea for philosophers to discuss or a force for priests to manipulate. God is not a part of creation that can be studied and observed and managed. God is a person—a person to be worshiped or defied, believed or rejected, loved or hated, in time and place. That is why these books immerse us in dates and events, in persons and circumstances—in history.
The Hebrew people did not, as was the fashion in the ancient world, make up and embellish fanciful stories. Their writings did not entertain or explain; they revealed the ways of God with men and women and the world. They gave narrative shape to actual people and circumstances in their dealings with God, and in God’s dealings with them.
For the Hebrews, there simply was no secular history. None. Everything that happened was happening in a world penetrated by God. God is never absent from these narratives and never peripheral to them. As far as these writers were concerned, the only reason for paying attention to people and events was to stay alert to God. They remind us that, both then and today, God meets us in the ordinary and extraordinary occurrences that make up the stuff of our daily lives.
What does it look like to “stay alert to God” in the details of your life today?
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About this Plan
The reflections in The Message Devotional Bible let the wisdom of the Scriptures settle more fully into your spirit. In this devotional, we'll get a taste of Eugene Peterson's insights on Scriptures from Genesis through Jesus's parables and the epistles of John. As Peterson writes, "It's my privilege to walk with you through the Scriptures. I come as a guide and fellow traveler. Traveling mercies for us both."
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