The End?

I finished reading the whole Bible two days ago, and now, for my final assignment, I should write the Bible story… and that is a heavy task, so, here we go…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, then He created everything in between, including man and then woman. Unfortunately, they get deceived by the serpent and sin enters paradise: the “fall of man”. The redemptive plan of God starts rolling…

Adam and Eve (man and woman) were given the order to “be fruitful and multiply”, so they did. We fast forward to the point when humanity had grown a lot (as well as their wickedness), so God decided to apply justice to the earth and in the process he saved the only just family in the planet, he asked Noah to build an ark, big enough for a pair of each of the animals of the whole world: the flood happened. We fast forward again a few years… and humans decided that they wanted to build a tower to reach heaven: the tower of Babel was started. God “confused their tongues” so that they could not finish the tower, languages were born!

Then God promises Abraham land, as many descendants as the stars in the sky and many blessings and redemption for his people. Abraham had faith in this promises though he was around a hundred years old (his wife was around 90 years old) and he had no children yet. Time later a young guy named Joseph gets sold into Egyptian slavery and then becomes the second in command under Pharaoh. God redeemed the bad act of his brother who sold him into slavery, so that he could safe them years later when a great famine desolated the lands. Later, the whole nation of Israel falls into slavery to Egypt. God called Moses to rescue them: the ten plagues occurred to Pharaoh and his kingdom. He finally let the Israelites go, but only to chase them later! Between a sea and an army, Moses had faith and with the help of God, he parted the red sea so his people could cross it to security, they walked on dry land. But the water came back to destroy the Egyptian army!

The exodus from Egypt to the promised land started. At Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the law and detailed instructions on how to live and walk with Him in purity and holiness. The Israelites failed to obey these commandments, as a consequence the exodus was extended for almost 40 years. However, God did not forsake them, He gave them Manna and birds to eat, every single day for all those years. Yet, they complained they had no water, so God provided water miraculously too.

The people of God arrived into the promised land! But it was occupied by other nations: Israel was ready for war, so God stopped the Jordan river so they could  cross it and defeat Jericho by shouting at its walls and making them crumble! The promised land was never completely cleared of the other people groups and God warned them not to intermarry because that would cause them to sin and follow pagan gods, but they did it anyway. They started desiring to have a King like all the nations around them, and they were warned about all the bad things that could happen to them if they had an earthly King instead of a heavenly King, yet, they insisted: God gave them a King! Saul was anointed as the first King of Israel! Saul was not a great King. Young David came into the picture, he killed a giant: Goliath, hero of the Philistines. Time later, David got anointed as the successor King of Israel, and Saul tried to kill him several times, but failed to do so. David became King and under his rule the Kingdom of Israel captured the city of Jerusalem. David received a promise from God, that the throne of Israel will always be of his descendants! David’s son Solomon got anointed as King and he was even more prosperous than King David himself. King Solomon built a majestic temple for God. He became the wisest man of all times! Soon after his death the kingdom got divided into two: 10 tribes of the North and 2 tribes of the South. And the promise of the “Eternal Throne” stayed with the clan of Judah in the South. At times it was hard to safe the bloodline of David, but God was faithful and always preserved at least one male alive! The Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians, who also attacked the South and took Jerusalem (it was recovered later on). The Northern Kingdom was then occupied by the Babylonians, who kept trying to conquer the South Kingdom as well, and then finally conquered the Northern Kingdom as well and completely destroyed Solomon’s Temple later on. Both Kingdoms of Israel were taken into exile by the Babylonians. Then Persia took over the known world ruling and decreed that all the captives could go back to their homelands! Some of the Israelites of the Southern Kingdom went back and rebuilt the Temple, then the walls of Jerusalem.

400 years of silence

(when God did not send any words through prophets or angels)
Here is where the division between Old and New Testament is...

John the Baptist was born. He was called to prepare the way for the Messiah, the savior of the Jews! Jesus was born! His family had to move to Egypt because the government wanted to kill all the babies! Later on they came back and Jesus visited the temple at age 12. The Teachers of the Law were impressed by His knowledge. Fast forward to right around His 30^th birthday: John baptized Jesus! Then Jesus was tempted by the devil himself, after fasting (not eating) for 40 days! Yet, He resisted the temptations! Jesus came back to the Temple and kicked the merchants out… it was supposed to be a house of prayer not a house of trade.

Jesus then chose the 12 disciples to teach them God’s ways and He walked with them teaching them how to do miracles and how to teach. Then He preached the famous “Sermon on the Mount” were He taught the people (and the disciples) about Him coming to fulfill the law, and not to abolish it. He also talked to them about all the different laws they should follow to be righteous and to inherit the Kingdom of God. He even warned them about false teachers and false disciples. And in between all of that, He took time to teach them how to pray to the Father.

Jesus performed many miracles and one of the most famous ones was when He raised His beloved friend Lazarus from the dead! As to show people (one more time) that He had power over life and death. Then John the Baptist gets beheaded. When Jesus learned this, in His sadness, He was moved to compassion of the big crowd and fed more than five thousand people with only a handful of loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Jesus went back to Jerusalem, knowing that the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law wanted Him dead. He rode a donkey into the town, to fulfill the prophecies of the coming King. After that, Jesus had His “last supper” with His disciples, and He told them that one of them would betray Him soon. And Judas was the one, He was paid 30 pieces of silver, just like the prophecies of the old testament foretold… Jesus got taken and judged for being “the King of the Jews”. No Roman ruler found Jesus guilty of anything, yet the was handed over to His accusers for Him to be crucified. Then He was crucified and died. However, He resurrected from the dead 3 days later! He appeared to His disciples and even ate with them a couple of times, He also appeared to many people in days after His resurrection. Finally, Jesus gave his disciples the “Great Commission”: to “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Then He ascended to heaven.

The apostles and disciples took the big task to go to the places near, and even to the ends of the world, and we have records of their missionary journeys and mishaps. Some of them died of old age, others died pretty young as martyrs but all of them followed Jesus’ steps and instructions as closely as they could. And I feel that is our mission too. The Great commission was not only given to the original disciples, but to all people who believe in Jesus as their savior. My bags are packed, so we better get going, it takes a while to get to the “…ends of the world.”