What are two sacred stories from the bible?

Answer 1

Well, there are plenty of sacred stories. I will give you one from each testament.

Old-

In the book of Genesis (first book of The Bible), there is a story. This is the story about a young man named Joseph. His father's name is Jacob, and they lived in Canaan from where his grandfather was from.

Joseph was seventeen (old enough to drive a car these days), and he had eleven brothers; and only had one brother younger than him. Can you imagine having eleven brothers to play with, or fight with?

Because Joseph was one of the youngest sons, his father spent more time with him, and he became very special to him. So Jacob had a special robe made for Joseph. (They didn't have jackets back then, so this was a very special jacket). It was very beautiful and had every color you could imagine in it.

All of Joseph's older brothers saw this and they got very jealous. The word jealous means that Joseph's brothers disliked him because they thought his father liked him more, and because he got the special coat. They got so jealous they couldn't even say a kind word to him.

One day Joseph had a dream, and he went to go tell his brothers. He said, "Guess what? Last night I had a strange dream. We were tying up bunches of grain out in the field when suddenly my bunch stood up, while all of yours gathered around and bowed to me." The brothers looked at each other in disgust, but Joseph continued. "Then I had another dream that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to me."

"Who do you think you are?" The brothers said. "Do you think that you are better than all of us? Do you think that we would ever bow down to you?" This made the brothers dislike Joseph even more.

When he told his father about his dreams he said, "Those are strange dreams." But he thought carefully about what Joseph had told him.

A few days later Joseph's father asked him to check on his brothers. They were in the fields quite a distance away. So Joseph went to find them.

When the brothers saw Joseph in the distance, they made a plan to kill him. But when Reuben, Joseph's oldest brother heard this he said, "Let's not kill him, just throw him in a well out here in the field." He said this because he was secretly planning to come back and rescue Joseph when the other brothers had left.

So when Joseph came to them, they took off his beautiful robe and they threw him in an empty well. A little while later a group of people came by that were wanting to sell some things in Egypt. One of the brothers spoke up, "Why don't we sell him to these people, this way we never have to see him again, and we don't have to kill him."

The other brothers liked this idea, so they sold him to the people who were going to Egypt.

Unfortunately Reuben had been working and hadn't seen what happened. When he returned to the well he noticed that Joseph was gone. He had been sold to an important man named Potiphar, an assistant to the Pharaoh of Egypt.

The rest of the brothers took Joseph's beautiful robe and dipped it in animal blood and took it back to their father. When the father saw this he cried, "Some animal has killed my son." And he cried for many days, so much that nobody could comfort him.

Now Joseph had started out as a slave, but the Lord was with Joseph and He helped him do everything right. So Potiphar made him his helper, and put him in charge of everything that he owned.

The problem came when Potiphar's wife lied about Joseph to her husband, so Potiphar had Joseph put into jail.

The Lord was still with Joseph in jail, and the warden put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. He never worried because the Lord was with Joseph and helped him do everything right.

After Joseph had been in jail for some time a cupbearer and baker to Pharaoh had been sent there. One night each of them had a dream. They told their dreams to Joseph and he told the cupbearer that he would soon be let out of jail. "Please tell Pharaoh about me, and ask him to get me out of here." Joseph said.

When the cupbearer was freed he forgot about what Joseph did. So Joseph stayed in jail for two more years. Until one day the Pharaoh had a dream, and nobody could explain it to him. The cupbearer then remembered what Joseph had done for him, and Joseph was brought to Pharaoh.

"Can you understand dreams?" Pharaoh asked. "I can't, but God helps me." Joseph replied. After Pharaoh had told him his dream Joseph explained, "God is warning you. There will be seven years when nothing will grow and there won't be any food for anyone."

"What can I do?" Pharaoh asked. "God has shown you what to do. There will be seven years before the bad years that will be very good. So good that there will be extra food for everyone. So you should save a little bit of each years harvest, that way you will have enough to get you through the bad years." Joseph said.

Pharaoh believed all that Joseph told him, and put him in charge of all the land of Egypt.

People came from all countries to buy grain from Joseph, because the whole world was in need of food. Some of those people were Joseph's brothers. When his brothers came, Joseph recognized them, but they did not know who he was. (It had been over 10 years since they had seen him).

The brothers all bowed to him because he was an important person. Just as he dreamed they would at the beginning.

After a few meetings with his brothers he could not keep it in any longer and Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father alive?" But his brothers couldn't answer him because they were afraid. Then Joseph said, "Come here. I am your brother, the one you sold! Do not worry, and do not be angry at yourselves for selling me, because God has put me here to save people from starving."

So his father, his brothers, and their families came to live in Egypt with Joseph, and they had all the food they needed.

New-

In order to get to Galilee he needed to pass through Samaria. Jesus and his disciples came to a city called Sychar, which was near a field that the Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired from the journey, and he rested by the well.

He sent his disciples into town to buy food. While Jesus was sitting alone, a Samaritan woman came to draw some water.

Jesus said to her: "Give me a drink."

The Samaritan women was surprised and asked him: "How is that you who are a Jew would ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? (The Jews did not associate with the Samaritans)

Jesus said to her: "If you only knew the gift of God and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

The woman said to Jesus: "Sir, you have nothing to use to draw water out of the well, and the well is deep. Where are we going to get living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his cattle?"

Jesus said: "Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again: but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become a well of water in him springing up to eternal life."

The woman said: "Sir, give me this water so that I will never be thirsty again or need to come all this way to draw water from the well."

Jesus said to her: "Go call your husband and both of you come back here."

The woman answered: "I do not have a husband."

Jesus said to her: "You have answered correctly that you do not have a husband, for you have had five husbands and the man your now living with is not your husband. You have told the truth."

The woman said to Jesus: "I perceive that your are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you Jews say that Jerusalem is the proper place to worship."

Jesus said to her: "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, when neither this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall be the place to worship the Father. You worship ignorantly: We worship intelligently, for salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and now is here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. These are the kind of worshipers that the Father is seeking to worship him. God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth."

The woman said: "I know the Messiah, the one called Christ, is coming; when he comes, he will declare all things to us."

Jesus said: "I, the one who is speaking to you, am he."

The disciples were coming back from town and they were amazed to see Jesus speaking to the woman. But no one said anything about it.

The woman left her water pot and went away to the city, and said to the townspeople: "Come see a man who told me all the things I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"

People began leaving the city to find Jesus.

In the meantime, the disciples asked Jesus to eat. But he said to them: "I have food to eat that you do not know about. The disciples began to ask one another, Did someone bring him something to eat?"

Jesus said to them: "My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do not say, Aren't there still four months before the harvest?

I tell you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, they are white and ready for harvest. He that reaps the harvest receives a wage, and gathers the fruit; the one that sows the seed and he that reaps the harvest will rejoice together. For here is a true saying: One sows and another reaps.

I send you to reap where other have sown the seed, and you have become a part of their labor."

Many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the Samaritan woman who testified that Jesus had told her everything she ever did.

When the Samaritans found Jesus, they asked him to stay with them. He did, for two days. Then many more believed because of his word.

They said to the woman:

Now we believe, not because of what you said. Now we believe because we have heard him for ourselves, and know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.