God's Story: A Narrative Adaptation of the Bible

After the death of Moses, Joshua was filled with the Spirit of God and Israel now turned to him as their new leader. Yahweh said to Joshua. “Moses, my beloved servant, is dead. The time has come for all the people to cross the Jordan River into the land that I have promised. No one will be able to overtake you all the days of your life, as it was with Moses, because I will be with you, and will not fail you, nor abandon you. Be strong and courageous. Obey all of the law that Moses taught you so that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law should never depart from your thoughts, words, or actions.” So Joshua gave the order for the people to ready themselves to cross the Jordan River in three days. Joshua also sent word to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh to muster their soldiers to fulfill the promise they had made to Moses. As they were preparing, Joshua sent two spies to Jericho, the first city they would encounter upon crossing into Canaan. There they happ...

More than a year of waiting had passed for the Israelites in the desert near Mount Sinai before the cloud of Yahweh’s presence lifted from the camp and the Israelites knew it was time to set out again. Yahweh instructed Moses to appoint scouts to explore the land of Canaan, one from each tribe. Moses selected Joshua, Caleb, and 10 others, and told them, “go into the land and see what it’s like. Give a report on the people there. How many are there? Are they strong or weak? How well defended are their towns? Is the land good for farming and raising animals? What kind of trees do they have? Also, try and bring back some of the fruits that grow there.” For forty days the scouts explored a wide area, bringing back with them a large cluster of grapes as well as pomegranates and figs. With their return, they brought this report, saying, “We explored the land as instructed. It would be excellent for our people, but the inhabitants there are powerful and live in fortified cities.” But C...

The direct route from Goshen, in Egypt, to Canaan went through the land of the Philistines. They were fierce warriors descended from Casluhim, son of Egypt’s founder, Mizraim. Yahweh foresaw that if the Israelites faced them in battle so soon after escaping Egypt, they might desire to return to the relative safety of their captors. So God sent the Israelites angels to guide them on a safer, but less direct path. One took the form of a pillar of smoke and guided them by day while the other appeared as a pillar of fire to lead them at night. As they camped on the western bank of the Red Sea, Yahweh said to Moses, “Our wandering route will cause the pharaoh to think you are lost in the desert, and in his bitterness over your leaving, he will pursue you, but he will not overtake you, for I will protect you.” As Yahweh foresaw, the pharaoh and his advisors seethed over the loss of their slave labor and the devastation to their land. When the report came that the Israelites had stopped ...

For the Hebrews, the day that God had warned Abraham about was nigh. The pharaoh, looking upon their great numbers, declared, “There are too many Hebrews. If war were to break out with the Canaanites they would join our enemies and kill us because of their connection to that land. We will take them as our slaves and bend their backs with hard labor.” All the people of Egypt saw how they stood to benefit from this, and so it was that through the labor of the Hebrew slaves, the cities of Rameses and Pithom were built. But God continued to bless his people, causing them to flourish in the midst of their suffering. And though they were slaves, the Hebrews were feared all the more by the Egyptians who cruelly intensified their labor. The pharaoh then called Shiphrah and Puah, two Hebrew midwives, and ordered them to kill all Hebrew boys as they were being born. But they were loyal to God and so they secretly refused the order. When the pharaoh learned of this, he asked, “Why have you...