When serving overseas I plan on telling Bible stories which are crafted in a way that can be easily remembered and re-told Right now I'm working on "crafting" my first story, The Tower of Babel, which is located in Genesis 11. I started backtracking and reading a little before to make sure I know what I'm talking about and to tell anything that may be important to the story. What do ya know, I hit a few lists of names from Noah's children and the descendants. Right away I was like, "Whoop, fast forward!" Then it hit me. While training in Dallas someone told a story about how they were teaching & quickly going through a list of names thinking that it it really wasn't important and was going to bore the people. Later, the listeners came by and all of their questions were revolved around the lists of names and the genealogy.
Those lists of people's names aren't just insignificant names, they are people who really lived and which boil down to Jesus' blood line as well as ours. Each person played an important part in certain key events in history which boil down to us and to Christ sacrificing His life for you and I so that we can spend eternity in God's presence. In our culture here in the states, sometimes blood-line family stuff isn't very important to us because, well, we're all mixed and for the most part only care about those folks in our families in which we have some personal contact. In other cultures, though, there is a greater importance and focus on the family and its history so these lists aren't just random names, but they lead up to Christ and to you and I. Not to mention, it's fulfilled prophesy that was told early on, which was fulfilled later in the Bible, making it not just some book.
So next time, maybe read and reflect on those boring lists of names. : )
