I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, and separated themselves to that shame. They became an abomination like the thing they loved….My God will cast them away, because they did not obey Him. And they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Many people have the impression that the Bible is just a collection of fanciful stories. Like Aesop’s fables, there are many good, moral lessons that can be learned from them, but noone should suppose the stories actually happened.
Such an impression of the Bible, of course, is false. Honestly read and properly understood, the stories are anything but fanciful. The whole of Scripture deals with the nitty-gritty of life. The good, bad and the ugly. Sin and death. A crucifixion. What subjects could be less fanciful?
And yet, the Scripture is not only (or even in the main) a lament about mankind’s failures. It is really the story of God’s success, and our hope of a new life—now and forever—free from sin, death and utter meaninglessness.
The empty tomb is not a fanciful story either, but a divine reality. In fact, like the whole of Scripture itself, it has to be one or the other. It’s either true or “truth” doesn’t matter. Either the tomb is empty—or all of life is.
