Never Be Lost in the Bible Again

Preface The Bible is not a small book. In fact, it is a book of books. Depending on the version you are looking at, it has at least 66 books. All the books are not of equal length, and they are not arranged in chronological order. These books were written by at least 40 human authors (but one Divine one), written over a period of about 3,000 years, on three different continents, in at least three different languages. The books also are in different genres, including history, poetry, prophecy, letters, apocalyptic literature, and gospels. It takes the average reader 80 hours to read it from Genesis through Revelation. Most people don’t start reading it straight through, but read it in parts, and that is also how most people study it. As a result, it is fairly easy to begin to feel a bit lost when you’re reading and studying. So, what’s the solution? Understanding requires context. To learn and understand anything requires seeing how it fits within the context of the subject and then the context of what you already know. That’s where I am going to suggest using the context of Salvation History, and within that overall arc, what I call the Seven Major Biblical Covenants. Let me admit up front that this is a somewhat arbitrary construct. The covenants themselves are certainly Biblical, but identifying these particular seven and calling them “major” is my own “construct”. There is no verse that mentions these as “the seven major Biblical covenants”. However, this overview has been helpful to me for two reasons. First, these seven covenants help to focus the overall message of Salvation History on the main character of the story – the Messiah, who we now know is Jesus! The Bible is not the history of everything God has done in human history and it was never intended to be. The Bible is the story about God creating and then choosing to redeem all that is redeemable. Each of the covenants is given to tell us why, and how, God promised to send us a savior – and then did! This keeps us focused on the answer to the fundamental question, what is this life all about? That may sound too simplistic, but it reaffirms the critical message that God has always had plans for us that extend, not just beyond this life, but an everlasting destiny! That is a message that can sometimes get lost in the details of life, but when it does, all the details get out of perspective. Do the math. Forever is infinitely longer than any amount of time in the here and now! The second thing the covenants have helped me with is how to interpret the different parts of the Bible as I am studying them. Again, context is key, and when you are reading about the life of Abraham, or Moses, or David, or reading the prophecies of Ezekiel or Jeremiah or Malachi, you have to remember where they fit within the progressive revelation of the Scriptures. God has progressively revealed more and more about who the Messiah would be, and how he would come, and the ministry he would have. It is unfair (and poor interpretive practice) to judge Moses’ understanding of the Messiah against Samuel’s or later Paul’s understanding. Each had a different context and Paul had the advantage of knowing what God had actually done, through Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was, in fact, the resurrected Jesus appearing to him, that changed Saul into Paul. Saul knew the Hebrew Scriptures well, yet until he knew who the Messiah was (because Jesus appeared to him), it had been hard for Saul to see the clues about the Messiah. We must remember the context in order to hear the message accurately, and yes, being able to look back at how prophecy has been fulfilled makes it much easier to get the interpretation correct! So, if you’ve ever felt a little (or a lot) lost in the Bible, my hope is that this construct can help you, as it has me over the five decades I’ve been studying Scripture, to feel “oriented” in the flow of Salvation History. You don’t have to remember every detail, but the details of Salvation History are a lot easier to remember when you have a place to put them in relation to all the things you are learning. And I hope it also helps you get a feel for where you are in Salvation History, which is in what the Bible calls the “end times”. Don’t let that scare you, because we’ve been in the “end times” for about 2,000 years, because if you are six sevenths of the way through something, you’re “near” the end! There may be another 1,000 years to go for all we know, but as far as Salvation History is concerned, we’re very near the end. But remember, that is just the end of Salvation History, not the end of human history, for God has promised us the Kingdom that is to Come, and that Kingdom will last forever! That makes this life, barely the beginning of the beginning! That’s the ultimate message of the Bible – don’t lose sight of that Good News! I hope this helps!