Preach Another Story: A Collection of Sermons in Story Form from the Old Testament

Copyright © 2017 by JOHN E. HUEGEL.

ISBN:                        Softcover                              978-1-5434-1604-6

                                   eBook                                    978-1-5434-1603-9

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Rev. date: 07/13/2017

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NIV

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

CEV

Scriptures marked as (CEV) are taken from the Contemporary English Version Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

MSG

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Website.

RSV

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

NRSV

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Website

Contents

Introduction

1-     Sarah Confronts Abraham

2-     Eliezer’s Most Difficult Task

3-     Jacob Meets His Match

4-     Evil Turned Into Good

5-     The Story of an Apprentice

6-     How Israel Got a King

7-     The Woman Who Defused Violence

8-     Bathsheba Tells Her Story

9-     The Contest on Mount Carmel

10-   The Still Small Voice of God

11-   Truth and Consequences

12-   Greed Has a Price

13-   God Delivers Jerusalem

14-   The Discovery That Led to Reform

15-   The King Who Burned a Scroll

16-   Jeremiah and the Fall of Jerusalem

17-   Zerubabel Rebuilds the Temple

18-   A Beauty Queen Saves Her People

19-   Nehemiah Rebuilds the Walls

20-   A Builder Interviews a Prophet

Dedicated to all those who love the stories from the Bible.

INTRODUCTION

In response to my collection of sermons in story form based on the New Testament and published under the title Preach a Story, I received the following comment from my dear friend and colleague Sara Dixon: "Preach a Story is a hit, a keeper for all time. Wonderful for children, young people, adults and folks like me, a refresher with new insights – one for enjoying the old stories we’ve heard all our life… This Christian educator recommends it for church libraries, preachers, new Christians, seekers and life-time Christians." These words and the response of people in the churches where I have presented the book have prompted me to attempt a similar collection of sermons in story form based on the Old Testament.

The author of Hebrews starts out his epistle with these words: In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways… The Old Testament is filled with interesting people, many of whom perceived God speaking to them in amazing ways, under various circumstances, and at different times. I wish to retell some of their stories.

The stories I have chosen fit chronologically into the narrative of Israel’s history, beginning with Abraham and concluding with the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, the exile, and the rebuilding of the temple and the city. The promise to Abraham in the first story is reaffirmed to the prophet Zechariah in the closing story:

I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you; and all peoples on earth…

will be blessed through you. (Ge 12:2,3)

And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem

to seek the Lord Almighty and entreat him… (Zec 8:22)

As in the first book, in many of the stories I impersonate the main characters and try to recreate the situations in which they lived, quote freely from various versions of the Biblical text in the narratives and dialogues, and supply appropriate, though imaginary, details. In some of the other stories, I attempt to see the main character through the eyes of a close associate.

Many expositors have found an inexhaustible mine of moral and ethical instruction in the stories of the Old Testament, but I have chosen to let the stories speak for themselves. Since I believe they have inherent power to move us, I have tried to avoid lessons drawn from the stories and invite my readers to let the stories speak to their particular situations and enrich the stories of their own lives.

St. Paul has written: For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope (Ro 15:4). At first glance, it would seem that Paul suggests using the Old Testament for moral teaching, and this is true. But upon closer observation, we notice that he says that the endurance and encouragement we get from the Old Testament provide us hope. I trust that this second collection of sermons in story form, Preach Another Story, may be a source of encouragement and hope to those who read them.

1

SARAH CONFRONTS ABRAHAM

Genesis 12, 16-19, 21, 22

My parents gave me the name Sarai, and my husband’s name was Abram. His story is well known, and he has received much recognition because of his faith and obedience. But I would like to tell you our story from my point of view.

We were both born in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans on the banks of the Euphrates River, in the region of Mesopotamia. Ur is a university town, a center of culture and learning. My husband had many possessions, and we were living comfortably, surrounded by our extended family, when my father-in-law, Terah, decided we should move to Canaan, a place I had never heard of. I had mixed feelings about this, not too happy about leaving my father and mother, but I felt excited over the adventure.

After months of traveling west over the desert, we finally got as far as Haran, a town on a small tributary of the Euphrates River, seven hundred miles from Ur. Since it is located on the main trade route between Babylon and the Mediterranean, Terah decided we should settle there.

My husband built up a prospering business in camels and sheep, but after his father died, he grew restless. One time, when he came back from the fields, I could tell from the look on his face something had happened to him.

That evening he took me aside and said, "The Lord spoke to me this morning and told me that we should leave this place and go to a land he will show us. Then he said to me:

‘I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing….

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.’"

(Ge 12:2, 3b)

My husband squeezed my hand and said firmly, I believe we should follow the Lord’s instructions.

Oh no, I thought, not another long trip… Then I wondered how in the world we could become a great nation, since I didn’t even have any children. I could tell that Abram was convinced this is what we should do. I had been raised to be submissive and obedient to my husband’s wishes so I didn’t even try to dissuade him.

We gathered the servants, all our possessions and animals, Lot, Abram’s nephew with his family, and set off traveling south. Months later we arrived at Shechem where we set up camp under an enormous tree. There the Lord appeared to my husband and told him that this was the land he had promised to give him. My husband built an altar to the Lord there.

During the time we spent wandering around the area trying to find an appropriate place to settle permanently, the rains ceased, the wadis, or watercourses, dried up, many of the animals died, and Abram decided we had to go down to Egypt to find food for our household and the few animals that were left. The situation was desperate, and another long trip was necessary.

When we finally got back to Canaan, we settled in the hill country in a place called Hebron and pitched our tents in the shade of some large oaks. While we had been in Egypt, Abam and Lot had acquired some animals. These animals began to multiply so that the grazing land around Hebron could no longer support both of our flocks and herds. Lot and his family moved and settled in the floodplain of the Jordan River, near the city of Sodom.

One night sometime later, while we were sleeping, my husband suddenly awoke. He told me he had just had a vision in which the Lord had promised to be his shield and great reward. However, in the vision he, Abram, reminded the Lord that since he had no children, his servant Eliezer would inherit all his wealth, and that the greatest reward he could receive would be to have his own son. My husband could not go back to sleep so he got up and went outside.

A little later he came back in and said, I was out there looking up at the countless stars, amazed and awestruck, when I heard the Lord promising me that my offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. I responded by assuring him that I believed this would be true.

Abram crawled back into bed, hugged me and said confidently, We are going to have a child.

In the culture in which we live, barrenness is considered a disgrace. My servants and our Canaanite neighbors often ask me what kind of a God we worship who would promise a man a son and then keep his wife from having one. I desperately wanted a son. But as the years went by, I could not conceive. Since my husband firmly believed that the Lord was going to give him a son, I wondered if I should help God along in this matter and decided he should sleep with my Egyptian servant Hagar. Perhaps she could conceive and give him a son. When I suggested this to him, he thought it was a good idea.

Hagar did conceive, and she bore a son Ishmael. Then the problems began. I realized what a serious mistake I had made. She despised me, wanted to be the mistress of the house, and have her son become the rightful heir. I told my husband we had to get rid of Hagar and her son, otherwise they would cause us much trouble.

Sometime later, when