These stories from the Bible are very old. Hundreds of years before they were written down at all they were told over and over again to the children of Israel by their parents. You may be sure that the things about their forefathers which were remembered for so long were the things that made the people of long ago most real to the children of Israel. And they are real to us too, for we see that these men of the old world were not unlike ourselves: the good people then loved obedience and patience, kindness and truth; and the evil things they had to fight against were disobedience, bad temper, and deceit.

So their struggles were like ours, and this draws us near to them; but what draws us nearer still, is that over and over again we see that God helped them when they asked Him, just as He helps us now.

From the book