Bible Stories From The Old Testament: Stories that uplift, educate, and inspire (Judeo-Christian Ethics Series) (Judeo-Christian Ethics Series)

1999·2.16 MB·English

by  Katherine L. Whaley

Katherine L. Whaley
BIBLE STORIES
FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT
Stories that uplift, educate, and inspire
PREP PUBLISHING
F A Y E T T E V I L L E, N C
PREP Publishing
1110 ˚ Hay Street
Fayetteville, NC 28305
[phone]
Copyright © 1999 by Katherine Whaley
Cover design by David W. Turner
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
No part of this book may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means—
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, or information
storage and retrieval systems—without written permission from the publisher, ex-
cept by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in the United
States by PREP Publishing.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Whaley, Katherine L.
Bible stories from the Old Testament : stories that uplift, educate, and
inspire / Katherine L. Whaley. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Bible stories from long ago.
ISBN 1-885288-12-3
1. Bible stories, English—O. T. I. Whaley, Katherine L. Bible stories
from long ago. II. Title.
BS550.2.W39 1999
221.9’505—DC21 98-48429
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
This book is lovingly
dedicated to Fr. Lincoln Taylor,
O.H.C., who, since this book’s
inception, has gone to join in
heaven the Christ he so clearly
reflected to us on earth.
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
CONTENTS
FOREWORD viii
PREFACE x
BEGINNINGS 1
THE CREATION 2
EVE’S TEMPTATION 4
THE FALL 7
CAINAND ABEL 9
ADAM’S DESCENDANTS 12
NOAHANDTHE ARK 15
ABRAHAM STORIES 19
GOD CALLS ABRAM 20
HAGARAND SARAI 23
ISAAC PROMISED 26
LOT ENTERTAINS ANGELS 29
ESCAPE FROM SODOM 31
ISAAC’S BIRTH 34
OFFERINGOF ISAAC 37
A WIFEFOR ISAAC 41
JACOB AND JOSEPH STORIES 45
ISAACAND REBEKAH’S SONS 46
THE BIRTHRIGHT 50
JACOB SEEKSA WIFE 53
JACOBAND LABAN 57
MEETINGAT MIZPAH 60
JACOBAND ESAU RECONCILED 63
THE RAPEOF DINAH 66
JACOB’S RETURN 68
JOSEPH SOLD 70
JOSEPHASA SLAVE 73
JOSEPH FREED 77
v
JOSEPH’S BROTHERS COME 80
RETURNTO EGYPT 83
JOSEPH UNMASKS 86
ISRAEL COMESTO EGYPT 90
MOSES, JOSHUA, AND THE EXODUS 95
MOSES’ EARLY LIFE 96
EXODUS 100
ISRAELANDTHE GOLDEN CALF 103
MIRACLESINTHE DESERT 105
LANDOF PROMISE 108
REBELLIONAND JEALOUSY 112
MOSES’ LAST DAYS 115
BALAAMANDTHE ASS 118
JOSHUAANDTHE WALLSOF JERICHO 122
THE BAN 125
JUDGES AND OTHER TRIBAL TALES 129
OTHNIEL, EHUD,AND DEBORAH 130
GIDEON 134
SAMSON’S EARLY LIFE 138
SAMSON’S BETRAYALAND DEATH 142
SAMUEL’S YOUTH 146
SAMUELAS LEADER 150
RUTH 153
ESTHER 158
JOB 162
JONAH 164
THE REIGN OF SAUL 167
DAVIDAND GOLIATH 168
DAVIDAT SAUL’S COURT 171
DAVIDAS FUGITIVE 175
DAVID SPARES SAUL 179
ABIGAILAND DAVID 181
vi
WILDERNESS EXPLOITS 184
DAVIDIN PHILISTIA 187
SAUL’S DEATH 190
REIGNS OF DAVID AND SOLOMON 193
DAVID’S RETURNTO HEBRON 194
THE KINGDOM UNITES 198
THE ARK BROUGHTTO JERUSALEM 202
MEPHIBOSHETHAND BATHSHEEBA 206
THE RAPEOF TAMAR 210
ABSALOM’S REVENGE 214
DAVIDAND ABSALOM 217
SOLOMON CROWNED 221
OLD SCORES SETTLED—DAVID’S DEATH 225
SOLOMON’S GLORY 229
DECLINEOFTHE HOUSEOF DAVID 233
INDEX 238
READER’S GUIDE 243
vii
FOREWORD
KATHERINE WHALEY is of the company of scripture lovers who, rather
than using the Bible simply as a rich treasury of proof texts, ponder
quietly, carefully, and deeply—all elements of prayer—the Old Testament
Holy Writings as an infinite source of delight and enrichment as
well as of pathos, unfaithfulness, and dereliction. In her case, I
believe, this book became increasingly inevitable. Even with no
contrived promptings of others, its telling of its stories in a fresh
vocabulary of understanding bursts from her heart and lips in a
manner that reflects the unmistakable authenticity of the original
Author. She cannot do otherwise than share the treasure abounding
in her own heart and mind.
The stories are for adults; some of them are definitely rated
“PG,” but as Katherine says, “They are surely to be shared
with children, and really want reading aloud, and not in a ‘stained
glass voice.’”
Through the channels of her association with an Anglican
Monastic community, I have been privileged to observe the radiance
and inward rejoicing with which she spoke of these tales of fear and
wonder, of the disciplined care necessary to preserve the accuracy
of the Old Testament text, yet the inescapable manner in which they
reflect unchanged human virtues and vices as old as the Garden of
Eden, as new as tomorrow.
She once remarked that the emphasis of the stories is on the fact
that, for example, only the accident of time kept David and
Bathsheeba out of “Dear Abby.” (II Samuel 11)
There is nothing of heavy foreboding or measured compulsion
in these stories. The free-moving atmosphere is probably shaped by
the fact that many of them impetuously unfolded as the attention of
the narrator was lost in the creative beauty and intricacy of fashion-
ing the stitches of holy vestments. Much, I should say, as the rugged
viii
elements of St. Paul’s theology must have pressed upon him as he
was about his tentmaking.
There are unforgettable moments of soaring beauty. One of them
of characteristic delight is in her story of Creation. “Then in a moment
of pure merriment, like a child throwing handfuls of confetti, God
spangled his firmament with stars to finish his day’s work.”
Beneath these confections awaiting the reader there is
nevertheless an inescapably sober consideration. A suspicion has
grown in my mind through the years that as a consequence of the
propriety of the Episcopal church at the dawn of the nineteenth
century, insisting in the very First Article of Religion that: “There is
but one living and True God, everlasting, WITHOUT BODY, PARTS,
OR PASSIONS,” the popular mind would absentmindedly assume
that the people of the Bible, fashioned in the image of that God,
would also be, to a degree, deprived of the same lively essentials. The
result could only be the unhappy misfortune of having to labor to
catch the fire of truth, of scripture, spelled out with a cast of strange,
listless, and unemotional figures moved by some opaque compul-
sion, yet not quite daring to risk committing a full-blooded sin. The
God of the Old Testament himself was manifestly unlike such creatures
and would never be guilty of designing them.
No, the God whom Katherine came upon in her stories was of a
gloriously massive stature, but he is quite willing to sit down on a
hot day, and like a proper Jew, patiently bargain with Abraham over
the fate of Sodom.
The effect of this little book of Bible stories is that under the
hand of the lovely storyteller, the characters of the Old Testament,
in an almost startling fashion, come alive and to a rewarding degree
fulfill her stated intention: to make their characters as familiar and
accessible as a next-door neighbor.
LINCOLN A. TAYLOR ✝ O.H.C.
HOLY SAVIOUR PRIORY
PINEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA
ix