whose story is it anyway? part 2

Part 2 from the book Promise and Deliverance:

"Consider the story of Joseph as an example. We could focus on the wicked brothers and on Joseph, who put his trust in God and was in turn saved by God. But when we do so, we are omitting an element that forms an actual part of the Scriptural record: it was God who sovereignly brought all these things to pass in order to preserve the life of a great people. Now let's tell the story again from the latter point of view. From the very beginning, God and His people become our main concern. In a certain sense, Joseph becomes secondary-a mere instrument.

Now you can see why I object to the idea that the children will not remember anything unless some particular Bible personality is made the midpoint of the story being told. Little children, accord¬ing to the usual line of argument, have to learn to identify with a particular person in the story. But that person, with his acts and his faith and his mistakes, then becomes the central figure. When we take this step, the story we tell is no longer the history of revelation.

I must admit that it is very difficult to tell the stories in the proper way. It is difficult enough to see things this way in our own minds. First we must subject ourselves to the Scriptures and their meaning. Learning to listen carefully to the Scripture passage we are studying will cost us a couple of hours of preparation (or perhaps more), but what else can we do? We have no choice, for we are dealing with Scripture! If we are not determined to tell of God first and last, of God as the Alpha and the Omega, we should not even bother telling the Bible story. But once we decide to pro¬ceed on the basis of the conviction that God must be first and last in our story, we should allow these guidelines to shape our telling of the story."