When I speak to people about God’s word, I often find them completely unfamiliar with the scriptures. Most admit that they don’t read the Bible to any great degree because they find it mysterious and hard to understand. Even Christians who attend church every Sunday don’t seem to have any real knowledge of the Bible or its teachings. So I want to share a brief overview, as a foundation on which greater truth can be built.
First and foremost, the Bible is the story of God’s purpose for mankind. It is His instruction book, if you will, so that we can learn who we are, why we were created, how we are to live and what our final destination will be. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” we are told in the very first verse, Gen 1:1. Then in verse 26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” We follow the story of the creation of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, and their offspring Cain and Abel. We see that, although created in the image of their Creator, they were not to be mindless robots. God clearly revealed His law to them, but they were given free moral agency or the mental capacity to make choices for good or evil.
Why was it necessary for them to be introduced to both good and evil? From the beginning God ordained that we must choose for ourselves whether or not we will be obedient to our Creator. See Deut. 30:19. Sadly the biblical account chronicles the early decline of mankind, with few exceptions. A single thread of humanity proved itself righteous before God, and became the family tree through which Christ was born. We begin with Seth, whom Eve says God appointed to her instead of Abel, whom Cain slew, Gen 4:25. The bloodline followed with Enosh, Kenan, Mahalelel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah. The bible doesn’t give any great detail of these men, other than to record in Gen 5:22 that Enoch walked with God, and in Gen 6:8 that Noah found grace in the sight of God. Hebrews 11:7 tells us, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
The bible records the story of Noah and the great flood and how all of mankind was destroyed due to wickedness, save Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives. The thread continued on after the flood as Noah’s family repopulated the earth. Eleven generations from Noah a man was born named Abram. He grew up in Ur of the Chaldees, in the land of Babylon. In time, God called him to leave his country and go unto a land that would be given him and his offspring as an everlasting inheritance.
The Old Testament chronicles the story of this man’s family and their destiny. Abraham (as he was later named by God) was given a son whom he named Isaac, who in turn begat Jacob. Jacob, whose name was also changed by God to Israel, was the father of twelve sons whom collectively became known as the twelve tribes of Israel.
As the biblical account continues, we follow the generations of this family as they escaped slavery in Egypt, wandered in the desert forty years receiving instruction by God through Moses, and entered the land of promise where they became a great kingdom. We read of their judges, their kings and their prophets, and we see the results of continued disobedience. We read of their triumphs and defeats. Most importantly, we see that in due process of time, a child was born from this family that was destined to be the Savior of the world.
This Savior was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The New Testament is a history of His earthly life and teachings, His death, burial and resurrection. His disciples continued the story with their testimony of all that they witnessed and their letters stand as immortal lights even today to show us the way to eternal life in Him.
A key to understanding the bible is the fact that God’s entire plan from beginning to end was established before the world even came into existence. Revelation 13:8 declares that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The sacrifice of Christ for sin was not an afterthought, a reaction to Satan's deception. It was God's purpose from the very beginning. The plan of God is played out in the pages of our bibles in great detail, if we are given the understanding to see what is before our very eyes.
You see, the bible gives us all the instruction we require to know God and his purpose for mankind, yet it is written in such a way that we must seek it out like buried treasure. Isaiah 28:9-10 declares, "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breast. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept: line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." This tells us that a cursory glance at the scriptures or an occasional reading will not yield much understanding. I liken the bible to a jigsaw puzzle. Until we fit all the pieces together, we cannot see the whole picture. God wants to know that we are serious about his word, so he doesn't put everything out there in plain sight. He rewards those who hunger and thirst for knowledge, those who search out every last morsel they can get. Proverbs 25:2 tells us, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." II Timothy 2:15 says, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I have been studying for many years and I find new insights all the time. I will never understand all truth in this life but it is always exciting when I am given another piece of the puzzle.
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