Have you ever been away from home for a period of time and looked forward to “mail call” time? How did you feel when a family member sent you a letter telling you something about your family history, or present and future plans for the family? Did you read one paragraph and put it aside and come back next week and read another paragraph? Or did you pour over it immediately and then put it aside to re-read later?

For those who are in God’s family, the Bible is a letter from home. Paul spoke of those who are spiritually related to God as “the whole family in heaven and earth” (Eph. 3:15). The World Book Encyclopedia says, “Family is the oldest human institution. In many ways it is the most important. It is society’s most basic unit. Entire civilizations have survived or disappeared, depending on whether family life was strong or weak.” The study of family history is important—if you are proud of your family. Just as those who are away from their physical families delight in reading maimail from home, those in the spiritual family of God delight in reading God’s letters from home! 

During the next three months we will be studying some important family history in our adult Bible class. We will be studying the lives of such    heroes as Elijah,   Elisha, Jonah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and some of the Minor Prophets. This is a section of “family history” that many who are in God’s family have never studied. In fact, some do not see why it is important to study family history (the Old Testament). That is because they do not know their family like they should. It is hard to be interested in people whom you do not know. For those who truly love God, getting better acquainted with His children of the past is a thrilling experience.

Those in God’s family also enjoy hearing future plans of the family. In the letter that God sent to us, He told about men and women who were were obedient because of their strong faith in a better home in the future. The writer of Hebrews said: “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (Heb. 11:37-40).

These were things that happened to our spiritual relatives of the past. Jewish tradition says that Jeremiah was stoned to death by his own people and that Isaiah “was sawed asunder with a wooden saw” (ISBE). We do not know for sure that these things happened, but a study of the lives of many of God’s faithful will show that their faith in a future eternal reward motivated them to endure whatever trials were necessary in being faithful to their God.

So, how do you look at God’s word? Is it a letter from your spiritual Father about your spiritual family—whom you love and want to know more about?