Where Do You Start the Story?

Last week I preached on Hosea 11, and I was struck by where God chooses to begin Israel’s story:

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Not with Abraham. Not with promise. God starts with slavery and rescue. Israel’s identity is framed not by ancestry but by deliverance.

Then, in my quiet time I read Psalm 78, and the same thing happens again. The psalmist retells Israel’s history and begins in Egypt — plagues, the sea, manna, wilderness. Once more, the story opens with rescue.

When I turn to Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, things shift. Stephen begins with:

“The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham…”

Promise first. Calling first. Covenant first. A different beginning to the same story.

So who is right? That’s not the best question.

What the Bible itself models is that there are multiple faithful ways to frame the one saving story, depending on the pastoral and theological purpose. When God confronts Israel’s forgetfulness and rebellion, He starts with Egypt. When a psalmist warns a new generation, he starts with rescue. When Stephen exposes a long history of resistance to God’s purposes, he starts with promise and traces Israel’s repeated pattern of rejecting God’s messengers.

Same story. Different entry points. Different emphasis.

You see this again with Jesus and Paul. Jesus retells Israel’s story through parables — vineyards, sons, seeds — each time framing the same reality to pierce different hearts. Paul can begin with Abraham (Romans 4), with Adam (Romans 5), or with the wilderness generation (1 Corinthians 10). The gospel truths do not change, but the way the story is told is shaped by context, audience, and purpose.

This teaches us something vital about how Scripture itself understands interpretation. The biblical narrative is not a script we simply parrot. It is a story we are invited to appropriate, inhabit, and faithfully re-tell so that its truth lands in fresh situations.

The story is fixed. The framing is flexible.

As biblical theologian Kevin Vanhoozer puts it, interpretation is not just about extracting meaning but about “participating in God’s communicative action.” We do not merely repeat the story; we perform it faithfully in our own time.

At times we ask, “Where does the story begin?” and at other times we ask, “Where does this story need to begin for this moment?”