Previously I shared a summary of the Bible told in the form of a fairy tale. If you haven’t yet read “Once upon a Time,” I encourage you to do so now. Today, in this annotated version, I disclose the connections between the characters and events in the fairy tale and those in the Bible.
Once upon a time, there lived a very wise king (God the Father). He ruled the many realms of his kingdom (the heavens and the earth) in very wise ways. Because he very much loved one particular couple (Adam and Eve), he made them prince and princess (rulers, but under his authority) and allowed them to reign over one realm (earth) in his kingdom.
At first everything went well. While the prince and princess were not as wise as the king, they did live with a certain charming innocence (in the Garden of Eden). Everyone (God, Adam and Eve, plants and animals) got along well with one another.
Then disaster struck (the Fall). The couple decided that the very wise king wasn’t so very wise after all (so they ate the forbidden fruit). They decided that they knew best how to reign and that his ways would no longer be their ways (the consequence of the Fall). They even started leaning on the advice of a certain slippery character (the serpent). In the end, it was the slippery character (really the devil) who really ran things, all the while leaving the prince and princess with the impression that they were still in charge (one of the ambiguities of human existence after the Fall).
When the very wise king learned how rotten things had become, he went into action. He contacted a certain man (Abraham) who agreed to work with him. The very wise king provided this man and his family (Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc.) with all the support they needed to live according to the very wise king’s ways. They, in turn, followed his ways and, in doing so, were a help to other people in the realm (God promised he would bless other nations through them).
Not surprisingly, the slippery character (the devil) and his minions (other powers of evil, demons) hated this man and his family. If the prince and princess were too slow to see what was going on, they certainly discerned the meddling presence of the very wise king! They stirred up the prince and princess (now symbolizing Pharaoh of Egypt), who had the whole lot thrown into jail (slavery). Not to be outdone, the very wise king orchestrated a daring jail break (the Exodus) and brought his allies to a safer place (the Promised Land).
Sadly, as time went by, even the very wise king’s allies (the people of Israel) got tired of the struggle for freedom. The pressure against them was just too relentless. When they weren’t being threatened to abandon the very wise king’s ways (by nations like Assyria), they were being rewarded for accepting the wayward ways of the slippery character (through idolatry, etc.). Soon only a handful of the old family clung to the hope that the very wise king would help them anymore.
At long last, the very wise king’s own son (Jesus Christ) came of age. In a short but brilliant campaign (his ministry, death, and resurrection), he decisively defeated the slippery character and his minions.
Knowing that his days (including our own times) were numbered, the slippery character grew desperate. In a complete frenzy, he pressed hard upon all the people of the realm in a vain attempt to keep the very wise king’s son from destroying him for good. For awhile the slippery character appeared to be successful. He managed to block the news of the very wise king’s victory (ignorance of the gospel), got the prince and princess (here symbolizing rulers of the world in general) to work feverishly for him, and tightened his control over everyone and everything in the realm (through wars, exploitation, etc.). The slippery character was going down, but was going to take as many people as possible down with him.
Fortunately, the very wise king’s son knew exactly what his wily opponent was up to. With perfect ease, he enabled his few but faithful followers (tufluvian witnesses) to overcome the slippery character’s silliness (a word of hope for us all). They laughed with joy as the very wise king’s son entered the citadel (the Second Coming) and destroyed the slippery character and his minions, chastened the poor prince and princess, and pardoned all the people.
And they lived happily ever after (in the age to come).
