Dan Harmon - 128 Greatest Stories from the Bible

2005 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Print ISBN 978-1-61626-964-7

eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62029-460-4
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Dialogue in the stories has either been adapted from the King James Version of the Bible or paraphrased in modern language.

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations are also taken from the H OLY B IBLE , N EW I NTERNATIONAL V ERSION NIV copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Cover image Gustave Dor

Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com

Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

Printed in the United States of America.

For five special children
Alexa, Gabrielle, Sophia, Cade, and Ella
from Colleen and Julie

* * *

As author of the guys portion of this work (one of the most wonderful, enlightening and instructive research projects Ive ever been given!),
I would like to dedicate my chapters to all struggling Christiansmen, women, and children.
Apart from Jesus, every man in the Bible was a sinful, flawed individual, but a creation of God with a purpose in Gods plan.
So it is today with you and me! Daniel

Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughtersthe men and women of the Bible each have a story to tell. And between the covers of this book, youll find the intriguing stories of more than one hundred individuals, in order of their appearance in the Bible. From Adam and Eve to Lydia, Mark, Peter, and Paul, these stories will inspire and encourage you as you live out your own story.

Adam was the first human, formed from dust and given Gods own breath of life. He was placed in a beautiful garden God had planted in Eden. The Lord made Adam the caretaker of His garden and surrounded him with many wonderful plants for beauty and for food. God brought to Adam all the animals He had created, and Adam named them. Adam was free to enjoy this lovely garden. Only one restriction was placed on him: Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God warned. This tree was at the center of the garden.

God did not want Adam to live alone, so He put the man into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, and created a woman from the rib. He made the woman Adams wife. Adam named her Eve.

Genesis 2:45:5

Coolness patterned the garden into a mosaic of sunlight and shade. Soft footfalls announced the presence of One walking amidst trees and flowers. A voice, low but indescribably sweet, called, Adam, where art thou?

Trembling, the man and woman, formed and breathed into life by the Lord God Almighty, crept out of hiding. Here, Lord, Adam whispered.

Eve shivered and clutched Adams arm, seeking strength yet knowing he had none to give the helpmeet God had created from one of his ribs. The look on her husbands face when confronted by his Creator seared Eves soul and burned like a hot coal that could not be extinguished. Fear. Shame. Regret. Brokenness. More than anything else, it showed her the magnitude of her folly. Why had she listened to the tempter? Worse, why had she caused her sinless husband to transgress Gods law by encouraging him to do likewise?

If only they could go back just a few hours! The garden had been beautiful. God said they might eat fruit from all the trees in the garden, save one. If they ate from that tree, they would surely die. Neither Eve nor Adam questioned God.

Then the serpent appeared. Ye shall not die. God knows that in the day ye eat your eyes shall be opened. Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

The tree before Eve glowed with beauty, offering food alluring above all othersand something more: wisdom, as the serpent promised. She reached out, took fruit, and ate. How wonderful! She plucked more and ran with it to her husband, who accepted it from her hands.

Innocence vanished. Aware of their nakedness for the first time, they hastily gathered fig leaves and formed aprons to cover themselves. When they heard God walking in the garden, they fled. What had seemed such a little thing at the time turned monstrous in their new knowledge of good and evil.

Eve shuddered, sickened by how easily she had turned away from right and chosen wrong. Half dazed, she heard Adam explaining to God that first Eve, then he, ate the forbidden fruit.

The Lord said to Eve, What is this that thou hast done?

Pierced to her innermost being by the sorrow in His voice, she said through dry lips, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Self-loathing filled her.

God cursed the serpent for what it had done. He condemned the tempter to crawl on its belly and said there would be enmity between him and womanhood forever. Then He turned back to Eve. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Filled with misery and longing only to escape the presence of the One who had made her, Eve suffered even more when the Lord spoke to Adam. Because he had listened to his wife rather than keeping the commandment of God, he would toil all the days of his life. Thorns and thistles would hinder his work, and only by the sweat of his brow would he be able to bring forth food from the ground now cursed.

God made coats of skins and clothed Adam and Eve. He drove them from the garden of Eden, lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever. Eve sobbed uncontrollably, but cherubim and a turning, flaming sword made it impossible for Adam and her to ever again walk with God in the garden.

Time passed. Gods promises remained sure. Adam worked hard, tilling the ground. Eve, the mother of all living, brought forth children in travail. Her heart tore with pain until she wondered if she would go mad when her eldest son, Cain, slew Abel, his younger brother, in a jealous rage.

With sorrow and joy, hard times and pleasant, the years rolled on. At times the lovely garden in which she and Adam once walked with God seemed remote, shrouded by the mist of many years. Yet as long as she lived, Eve never forgot her agony when she watched Adam face his Maker and recognized what havoc she had brought into the world by listening to the tempter rather than to God.