Children’s Bible

The Bible speaks of children from beginning to end, the history it tells is a history of children. To recite the story of children in Scripture would be to recite Scripture. In the beginning:

*Adam was born of earth and divine breath, naked as a newborn.

*The protoevangelium is a promise of “seed.”

*Sin spreads as a murderous conflicts among sons, and as violent Nephilim are born to sons of God married to daughters of men.

*God promises Abraham children like sand and stars, and Abraham’s life is a drama of childless parents. Isaac and Jacob continue the same drama.

*The hinge of the life of Jacob is fathering children with his wives and their concubines.

*The pathos of Jacob’s life is the loss, and surprising recovery, of a beloved son.

*Pharaoh preys on Israel’s infant boys, who are avenged by the angel of death.

*Yahweh sends Moses to demand the release of His “son” Israel (Exodus 4:23).

*Moses refuses to leave Egypt without little ones, and Passover protects firstborn sons.

*One of the Ten Commandments is addressed to children: “Honor your father and your mother.”

*Israel is to care for orphans and widows, and prohibited from boiling kids in mother’s milk.

*The children of the exodus generation inherit the land of promise.

*Yahweh’s initiatives in the time of the judges, as in the period of the patriarchs, begin with miracle sons of barren women (Samson, Samuel).

*David’s son, rather than David, dies after David’s adultery.

*Out of the mouths of babies, God ordains strength.

*Solomon delivers his proverbial wisdom to his “son.”

*During Athaliah’s reign in Judah, the Davidic dynasty is reduced to an infant boy, Joash.

*The prophets condemn Israel for not protecting vulnerable children.

*“Unto us a child is born . . . and the government shall rest on his shoulders.”

*Zechariah envisions shalom as boys and girls playing in the city square, watched by old men and women. Isaiah sees children playing by the cobra’s den.

*In Jesus, God Himself takes flesh as fetus, infant, children, boy.

*Jesus calls His disciples to imitate little children.

*Peter announces that the promised Spirit is for “you and your children.”

*The transition from old to new is from minority to majority, from quasi-slavery to full sonship (Galatians 3).

*A blessed life lasts long enough to see children’s children, as Jacob did.

A mere sampling. Continue at your leisure.