7 Bible Stories to Read Aloud with Your Grandkids

A very long time ago, there was a man named Noah. Noah was a very good man who was obedient and he was faithful to God. All of the people during this time were bad and mean and were doing bad things to each other, except Noah. God told Noah that because the people were doing bad things, He was going to clean up the earth.

God then told Noah to build a giant boat called an ark, and to make it out of cypress wood. God told Noah to make different rooms inside, and God gave Noah all of the details on how to make it, including openings in the roof and the doors. Noah obeyed God’s every detail.

God told Noah that He was going to bring heavy rains and flood the earth. God told Noah that he and his wife and their three sons and their wives would get on the boat, and they were to bring two of every kind of living creature, one boy and one girl of all of the different kinds of animals. Furry ones, feathery ones, slithery ones, and even the ones that roar! God also told Noah to collect and take with them food for himself and his family, and for all of the different kinds of animals.

It rained for forty days and forty nights. The earth was flooded for one hundred and fifty days. When the rain stopped, Noah sent a bird called a dove out of the boat, and it brought back a branch of an olive tree, which was a sign that there was dry land, and the entire earth wasn’t flooded anymore.

And then God blessed Noah and his family and us with a beautiful gift. He sent a rainbow as a beautiful promise that He would never flood the whole earth again. Every time we see a rainbow, we can remember that God keeps His promises.

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A very long time ago, there was a young boy named Joseph. Joseph’s father loved him very much, and his dad gave him a beautiful coat that had lots of colors all over it. But Joseph’s brothers were very jealous of Joseph and his new, colorful coat. Then one day, out of pure jealousy, Joseph’s brothers threw Joseph into a pit and sold him to some traders in Egypt, forcing him to be a slave.

Joseph had a pretty hard life during this time. He was a servant, doing very hard work, and then was thrown into prison, even though it wasn’t even his fault. But God blessed Joseph with a really cool gift to be able to understand what dreams mean. One day, while Joseph was in prison, Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, asked Joseph to come and explain what his strange dream meant. Joseph told Pharaoh that his dream meant that there would be seven years of plenty of food, followed by seven years of no food, called famine.

Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of saving food during the seven years of plenty, so that they would have food to eat during the seven years of no food. During that time of famine, Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to get food for their family. They didn’t know they were standing in front of their brother, whom they had betrayed and sold. But Joseph forgave them for what they had done, and he helped them by giving them food. This story reminds us to forgive those who hurt us and that even though we experience hard times, God can always turn them into something good.

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A long time ago, there was a very mean giant named Goliath who loved to torment God’s people every day. Every day, Goliath would stomp out onto the battlefield and shout, “Who will fight me?”  But nobody was brave enough to come forward and fight this angry giant.

However, on one special day, a boy named David was sent by his dad to bring lunch to his three brothers, who were a part of the army in front of Goliath and the army of the Philistines. When David heard Goliath’s challenge to fight, David wasn’t afraid at all, and because of that, he didn’t run or hide like the other soldiers. David spoke up and told King Saul, “I have killed a lion and a bear, and I will fight him! God will help me.” The king tried to give David his own armor for protection, but it was way too big and heavy for David. So, David put it aside and picked up his sling. He then went and collected five smooth stones in a stream and stepped out onto the battlefield to face Goliath.

When Goliath saw David, he laughed and said, “Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?” David stood tall and shouted, “You come at me with a sword, but I come at you in the name of the Lord!” David loaded a rock into his sling, and that stone flew through the air and hit Goliath right between the eyes. The giant fell with a thud. God’s people celebrated, knowing that the victory in front of them was from God!

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One day, God told a man named Jonah to go to a city called Nineveh and tell the people there to stop doing all of the bad things that they were doing. But Jonah knew just how bad the people were, which made him really not want to go. So, instead, Jonah decided to run in the opposite direction and got on a boat.

While Jonah was on the boat, a big, scary storm rolled in that caused extreme fear in all of the men on the boat. They threw all of the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship and cried out to their gods, but nothing helped. Jonah was sleeping, and the sailors woke him up to tell him to pray to his God. Finally, Jonah admitted to the sailors that the storm was his fault and told the men that in order for the storm to stop, they would have to throw him into the sea. The good sailors, of course, didn’t want to throw Jonah overboard, so they instead tried to row back to land. Unfortunately, the storm grew even wilder and scarier.

The sailors, out of fear for their lives, picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea. Instantly, the storm came to a complete stop. At the same time, God sent a huge fish that swallowed Jonah deep into its belly, where he would be for three days and three nights. While Jonah was in the fish’s belly, he prayed to God, and God commanded the fish to spit Jonah out on dry land.

God then told Jonah again to go to Nineveh, and of course, this time Jonah obeyed God. Jonah told the people of Nineveh to turn back to God, which they did, and God forgave each and every one of them!

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Daniel was a very trustworthy and good man, and he absolutely loved God with all of his heart. Every day, many times a day, he prayed to God. There were some men who were jealous of Daniel and tried to find something that Daniel had done wrong. Because Daniel was such a good and godly man, these men were not able to find anything that Daniel had done wrong, so they tricked King Darius into making a new law that nobody could pray to any gods except the king, and if anyone disobeyed this new law, they would be thrown into a lion’s den.

Daniel heard about the new law, but he kept praying to God. The jealous men told the king that Daniel was praying, and Daniel was then thrown into a den filled with hungry lions! But that night, the king was worrying about Daniel and couldn’t sleep. In the morning, King Darius hurried to the lion’s den and called out to Daniel, “Daniel, has your God been able to rescue you from the lions?” and Daniel answered, “My God sent his angel and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I have been found innocent in His sight.”

King Darius was so happy and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the lion’s den. And when he was lifted out, Daniel didn’t even have a scratch on him because his trust in God had protected him. After that, King Darius sent out a decree to all of the people in his kingdom that they must serve the God of Daniel.

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A long, long time ago, God promised to send us a Savior. One night in a small town called Bethlehem, God made that promise come true.

Cesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be done, so Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem for the census. When they arrived, there was no room in the inn for them to sleep, so they stayed in a stable, where the animals slept. And right there in that stable is where Jesus was born. He wasn’t born in a palace, but in the most humble of places, a barn! After the baby Jesus was born, Mary wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger to sleep.

Out in the fields nearby, there were shepherds living and shepherding their sheep, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, causing them to be startled and scared. The angel said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today, a Savior has been born; he is the Messiah, the Lord. The sign to you will be: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the sky filled with angels praising and singing, “Glory to God in the highest!” When the angels went back into heaven, the shepherds hurried to find Mary and Joseph with the baby lying in the manger. Far away, wise men saw a very bright star that they followed to bring gifts for the newborn baby Jesus; fit for a King, gold, frankincense, and myrrh!  That night, the world changed forever because God’s greatest gift had arrived.

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Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins. Jesus spent his life teaching everyone who knew him about God’s love. Jesus healed the sick and showed love and kindness to everyone. But not everyone believed him about who he said he was. Some people hated him and wanted him to go away.

Those who didn’t like Jesus and didn’t believe who he was, hurt him, spat on him, put a crown of thorns on his head, and nailed him to a cross between two criminals. Around noon, darkness came over all the land until about three in the afternoon.  His friends cried as they saw Jesus take his last breath. It seemed like all hope was lost. After Jesus died on the cross, a man named Joseph came for Jesus’s body. He wrapped Jesus in a linen cloth and buried him in a tomb cut in the rock, kind of like a cave. They then rolled a huge stone in front of the tomb opening to completely seal it off.

Three days later, everything changed. The women who knew Jesus had prepared spices and perfumes for Jesus’s body, and when they brought them to the tomb, they found that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. They did not find the body of Jesus in the tomb. The women then saw visions of angels that shone brightly like lightning. Knowing they were from God, they bowed down with their faces to the ground. The angels said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen!”

Peter heard this from the women but didn’t believe them, so he went to the tomb himself, and what he found as well was that the tomb was completely empty and the strips of linen were lying by themselves on the ground. Jesus had risen from the dead, just like he said he would. Jesus appeared to his friends, alive again, showing that nothing, not even death, is stronger than God’s love.

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God has filled the Bible with stories to teach us, encourage us, and remind us of His unchanging and never-ending love.

Jesus himself often told stories as a way to help teach special lessons of God’s truth to those who listened. What a beautiful blessing that we get to pass along these stories to our grandchildren. Each time we open the Bible, we get to share the love of God through the heroic people of the Bible and the lives that they lived. We are planting seeds of faith, hope and courage in their little hearts.

Let us be intentional about telling our grandchildren these stories, pointing to God’s love through the heroes of scripture and the lessons they lived. And help our grandchildren grow up knowing that the God of the Bible is the same God who loves them deeply today.

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