Ol Old Testament narrative usually does not directly teach a doctrine.
2. An
Old Testament narrative usually illustrates a doctrine or doctrine taught
propositionally elsewhere.
3. Narratives
record what happened – not necessarily what should have happened or what ought
to happen every time. Therefore,
not every narrative has an individual identifiable moral of the story.
4. What
people do in narrative is not necessarily a good example for us. Frequently, it is just the opposite.
5. Most
of the characters in Old Testament narratives are far from perfect and their
actions are, too.
6. We
are not always told at the end of a narrative whether what happened was good or
bad. We are expected to be able to
judge that on the basis of what God has taught us directly and categorically
already in the Scripture.
7. All narratives are selective and
incomplete. Not all the
relevant details are always given (cf. John 21:25). What does appear in the narrative is everything that the
inspired author thought important for us to know.
8. Narratives
are not written to answer all our theological questions. They have particular, specific limited
purposes and deal with certain issues, leaving others to be dealt with
elsewhere, in other ways.
9. Narratives
may teach either explicitly (by clearly stating something) or implicitly (by
clearly implying something without actually stating it).
10. In the
final analysis, God is the hero of all biblical narrative.
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