Try reading these early stories as stories of human life, not unlike Soap Opera. Of their origins there is scant evidence. A widespread view among scholars is that in their present form they come from a much later time, memories of ancestral figures handed down for generations, edited and preserved by Israelites who saw their significance for their own situation possibly a thousand years later. This gives us a mandate to explore their value for our lives rather than agonising over their history, authenticity or morality.
Like Soap, they are rattling good stories deserving of a wide audience, if always with an air of unreality. They describe incidents that could 'never happen' in real life, though bear in mind that TV soap is based on real life incidents and often, after watching even one of the more outlandish episodes, you suddenly run across a similar story within weeks if not days. The language, especially the way they talk about God, may not be the language of your friends and contemporaries, but that is no reason either for rejecting the stories or (even worse) imitating the language in order to appreciate the experience.
Despite the differences and eccentricities, the world of soap reveals itself as a cross-section of the world we live in. There is love and care, selfishness and sacrifice, inequalities (some chosen, some not), suffering and hardship, friendship and loneliness, pleasure, frustration and satisfaction — but always with a forward-looking approach, the participants never knowing what will happen next but with a positive interest in finding out. It is not something to see, read or study so much as an invitation to join in.
When we do we often find it is a short step to ‘the Word made flesh’ (John 1:14) and the key to a better understanding of what God is doing where we are. There are also side effects: food for thought, things we take for granted, issues we might otherwise not be aware of, and a totally different (if somewhat exaggerated) view of life.
It is one of many ways to find God in the story of our life. What is he doing? What can we expect from him? What does he expect from us? How do we hear his voice and relate to him?