Bible Study 101: The Big Storyline of Scripture: Hearing Jesus, Bible Study, Daily Affirmations Hey friend, welcome to part four of Bible Study 101. Today Rachael zooms out to the big picture, the meta-narrative, or overall storyline of Scripture, and shows why knowing where you are in that story changes everything. She uses Jeremiah 29:11, maybe the most quoted verse on graduation cards and coffee mugs, to show what it actually meant to a devastated, exiled people and why the real version is so much sturdier than the one on the mug. Join the email list at rachaelgroll.com/newsletter to be entered in the Bible Study 101 giveaway. ☆Sign up for Rachael's newsletter here: RachaelGroll.com/Newsletter ☆Send Rachael a voicemail with any questions at her SpeakPipe here: SpeakPipe Voicemail ☆Go on a trip with Rachael: Bible Study Live ☆Get Ad-Free Episodes, Bonus Content, and more here: patreon.com/HearingJesus ☆Pick up a copy of my latest book: Bible Study and Devotional ☆If you would like to give to Hearing Jesus and financially support the podcast, you can do so here! ➤ Give Here ☆Facebook ➤ https://www.facebook.com/SheHears.org/ ☆Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/rachael.d.groll/ ☆Website ➤ Hearing Jesus What's the "meta-narrative" of Scripture, and why does it matter? The meta-narrative is the big storyline running underneath all 66 books, the story of God's rescue plan for His people through Jesus. Knowing roughly where a passage sits in that story, before the rescue or after, before the kings or after the kingdom fell, before Jesus or after, clears up a huge amount of confusion when you open to a random page. Why do so many people quit their Bible reading plan by March? Because reading straight through without a sense of the timeline feels like reading a letter from 1750 and a text message from this morning back to back and being confused they don't sound alike. Genesis and Exodus read like a story, but Leviticus suddenly shifts into instructions about skin diseases, and it's easy to lose the thread if you don't know why. What's the short version of the whole story of Scripture? God creates everything good, humanity chooses independence and breaks it (the fall), God calls one man, Abraham, and promises him a family and land, that family becomes enslaved in Egypt and is rescued through Moses, they receive the law and eventually a king, King David and then Solomon, who builds the temple at the high point of the story. The kingdom later splits and drifts into idolatry, prophets warn them for generations, and eventually Assyria and then Babylon conquer the nation and its people are marched into exile. After decades, a remnant returns, four centuries of silence follow, and then Jesus arrives, lives, dies, and rises, followed by the church and the promise that God will finish what He started. Where does Jeremiah 29:11 actually sit in that story? Right in the middle of the exile, the lowest point of the whole timeline. Jerusalem hadn't been fully destroyed yet, but Babylon had already carried off a group of people, including the king, leaving behind the elderly and the marginalized. Jeremiah, still in Jerusalem, wrote a letter to those already exiled in Babylon. What did Jeremiah's letter to the exiles actually say? It told them to build houses, plant gardens, marry, and have children in Babylon, in other words, to settle in for the long haul, not to expect a quick rescue. It also warned them about false prophets promising an early return within two years. The actual number, revealed a few verses before "the plans I have for you," was seventy years. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11, NASB) comes directly after that correction, not as a quick comfort, but as a promise for people who had just learned most of them would die in exile. Why does God tell them to seek the welfare of Babylon, the empire that destroyed them? Because the instruction wasn't rescue, it was presence. God wasn't promising to pull them out immediately. He was telling them He would be with them exactly where they were, in the place they didn't want to be, as a consequence of choices that had played out over generations. What's the honest version of "plans to give you hope and a future"? It's a promise made to a devastated people in the middle of a disaster God had just told them would outlast most of their lifetimes. It's not a promise that circumstances would quickly improve. It's a promise that God had not abandoned them and that His plan, however slow, was still good, which is a very different, and far sturdier, message than the graduation card version. How do I find this kind of context myself? Start with your Bible's introduction page for each book (it will usually tell you the author, timeframe, and situation in under two minutes), pay attention to chapter headings and dates your Bible includes, and get a little suspicious of any verse you've seen printed everywhere, since that's usually a sign nobody has read the context around it lately. FAQ What's this week's homework? Find a verse you already have somewhere in your home, on a mug, sign, or card, and go read the entire chapter it's from. No note-taking required, just notice what you feel. Where can I learn more about the "silent years" between the Old and New Testaments? Rachael has covered this in earlier episodes of the podcast; search the back catalog for "silent years" to find them. How do I enter the Bible Study 101 giveaway? Join the email list at rachaelgroll.com/newsletter. Entry is automatic, no extra steps, and there are three separate giveaways over three weeks. Chapters 0:01 Continuing Bible Study 101: understanding the storyline of Scripture 0:40 What the "meta-narrative" means and why it matters 2:41 Why so many people quit their Bible reading plan by March 4:49 The whole story of Scripture in under six minutes 10:31 Where Jeremiah 29:11 actually sits in that timeline 11:29 What Jeremiah's letter to the exiles really said 14:10 Why God tells them to seek Babylon's welfare 15:27 The hard truth: it was seventy years, not two 16:31 The honest version of "plans to give you hope and a future" 19:53 Three practical ways to find this context yourself 21:15 Closing prayer 22:32 This week's homework 22:56 The Bible Study 101 giveaway Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
