I feel a little like Iñigo Montoya in The Princess Bride after he’d finally killed the six finger man. He’d been in the revenge business for so long, he didn’t know what to do with the rest of his life. It’s been eight years and a month or so since I started this very slow excursion into God’s inexhaustible word. As I’ve told many people over that time, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. One impression that grew over time is the truly infinite nature of the Divine word, that it is as infinite as he is. I feel like I could multiply these 8 years by 800 and still just be scratching the surface. On Sunday I experienced this yet again during a sermon on the beginning of Acts 20 by one of our elders. Luke writes that there are seven men, as he put it, “battle-tested Christian warriors,” who traveled with Paul to Macedonia:
- Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea,
- Aristarchus and
- Secundus from Thessalonica,
- Gaius from Derbe,
- Timothy also, and
- Tychicus and
- Trophimus
We know who they were from Paul’s letters and Acts, but why did Luke think it was important to add this little tidbit to his narrative, other than it actually happened? I’m pretty sure I’ve passed this by as I’ve read it over the years thinking nothing about it, that it’s just a part of the historical facticity of Luke’s narrative, but I learned Sunday yet again that nothing is in Scripture by happenstance, not a single word. Even Luke as he was thinking and writing about these events, might have solely intended to convey the historical accuracy of his account; he was a stickler for details. But, Peter tells us, and as the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture does as well, the Bible is man’s word and God’s word:
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
I won’t get into the what our elder thought of the significance of these names (and there are likely many significances), but it was for what seems the zillionth time that I was reminded of the unfathomable depth of God’s word. As I was talking to him after the service, I mentioned how Augustine was initially almost embarrassed by the Bible, especially the Old Testament. After his conversion, however, he discovered the more he studied God’s word, the more he realized there was no bottom in this ocean of Truth. and this was one of the most brilliant men in the history of the world, Christian or not,
I find it almost comical, although sad, when some people are so spiritually blind as to think that the Bible is merely a human book, most of which is made-up, so much fiction made out of human imagination. As I argue in Uninvented, my latest book, that is impossible. Most Christians don’t know that it would be impossible for human beings, especially Jewish human beings, on their own to make up the stories, events, and history we read in the Bible. It is true, and the Truth, all of it. Evidence of that Truth, it’s divine nature, God’s fingerprints if you will, are in every jot and tittle of special revelation, just as are his fingerprints all over general revelation, i.e., creation.
Think about it, the Bible is the most read, scrutinized, and criticized book (actually 66 “books” by 40 or so different authors written over 1,500 years) in the history of the world. For the last 300 plus years, “critical” scholars have been trying to discredit it, making every argument imaginable, but they have not been successful, not even close. The Bible goes from strength to strength, continuing to transform lives wherever someone is prompted by the Holy Spirit to read it. I started listening to Christian testimonies a few years back, and in every single one, literally, the person is for a variety of God-ordained reasons prompted to read the Bible, and it transforms them. Not the words alone, mind you, or the ideas contained in those words. Rather, it is the living Word of God, the Logos, the God-man, who gave his life for them. Just last week I listened to an interview with one-time French Atheist, Guillaume Bignon, who was driven to finally pick up a Bible. He read the gospels and the person of Jesus completely blew his mind. It reminded me Hebrews 4:12, which perfectly captures the divine nature of these words:
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
And prior to this, God through the prophet Isaiah
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
The Bible, because it is the word of God, and words of God through the words of men, is by the power of the Holy Spirit as transforming as he is.
I’m eager, now, to get back to the beginning, and do a brisk read through it from cover to cover. I’ve been in the weeds for so long that I need a bird’s eye view of the vast, incredible scope of redemptive history. Puzzle pieces need the bigger picture to give each piece context; if all we have are pieces, we will always be puzzled by those pieces. We call this hermeneutics, or the science of interpreting a text, any text. Rule number one is context because it is impossible to find the meaning of any one text in isolation from the surrounding words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and the entire book. Many Christians over the millennia have gotten into trouble taking isolated texts out of context, which is why knowing the entire scope of redemptive history is so important.
The ultimate context of biblical/redemptive history is found Luke 24 when Jesus says that the entire Bible is about him. It starts in Genesis 3 when God promised that the woman’s seed (Jesus) would crush the serpent’s head. From there its slow and often torturous path goes through Noah to Abraham to Moses and the Exodus, to Israel in the promised land, to David and Solomon, the prophets and Israel’s breakup and exile, their return to the land, the prophets ceasing to speak, and then 400 years to John the Baptist. It all leads to Christ, and the gospel of God’s glorious grace, and his kingdom breaking into this fallen world. We, his people, get to be part of this grand, cosmic drama that makes every moment of life pregnant with meaning and abounding in hope unto eternal life.
My Walk Through The Bible 
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