“Old Woman Reading the Bible” by Gerrit Dou
God’s Word is One Seamless Story
The Bible is an amazing book. However, it’s not really a book but sixty-six books written by 40 different authors across hundreds of years. Yet despite the different authors and extended time spans, it tells one story from beginning to end.
Of course, as Christians, we realize this is so because ultimately the Bible has one author – the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul tells us in II Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Despite this we often read the Bible piecemeal, a passage here, a verse there, and while there’s value in that, we can miss some important biblical truths that way.
For example, Malachi 3:6 tells us that the Lord never changes and Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” One of the best ways to learn that or at least have it reinforced for us is by experiencing that truth through the pages of the scriptures. When you read in the Old Testament about God choosing Abraham to be His and Abraham being justified by faith and then see that same pattern revealed throughout scripture as God deals with His people, God’s immutability is reinforced.
And what about things like God’s holiness or His justice? These attributes are illustrated over and over in the pages of the Bible. When you’re familiar with all parts of scripture they come into sharper focus. I believe the lack of a healthy fear of God we see in the church today is a direct result of a church that has no familiarity with large portions of God’s Word.
Unfortunately, a lot of us learned Bible stories, especially the ones in the Old Testament, as disjointed morality tales with the hero being Moses or Daniel or David. But these accounts are not morality tales they are links in the chain of the story of redemption, a story that began, not in Bethlehem, but in the Garden of Eden:
Sometimes called the proto evangel, Genesis 3:15 says:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
This is the first reference in scripture to God sending a savior. From that point forward, all the way to the cross, all of scripture is about God doing that – preparing people and circumstances so that “at the right time” (Romans 5:6) Jesus Christ would come into the world and bruise the serpent’s head.
All of scripture before the cross leads to the cross; all of scripture after the cross points either back to the cross or forward to Christ’s second coming.
If you doubt that, look at how Jesus viewed the scriptures. In the last chapter of Luke’s gospel, the risen Christ appears to some travelers on the road to the village of Emmaus. As they walk along they talk about recent events in Jerusalem, and express their disappointment. Jesus then helps them understand why these things happened by referencing the Old Testament. In Luke 24:27 we read:
“And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning himself.”
The Bible is one seamless story and it’s all about Jesus Christ – not just the red letters. Therefore if we want to know all the Lord has to tell us about Christ we must read the entirety of scripture.