Before You Read a Book of The Bible

Recap

What is the goal of bible reading for future readers?

Nehemiah 8:1–3 NKJV

1 Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. 3 Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

The very end goal of bible study for us today is worship of God. It is to open my eyes to how to advance God’s cause in my present day and time, it is a book that enables me to join the first hearers in worship.

We saw this as we read on the book of Nehemiah

Nehemiah 8:13–14 NKJV

13 Now on the second day the heads of the fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law. 14 And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month,

They were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law. When we get to verse 14, they found where it was written in the Law… Meaning the writings were there so that future generations could join in with the first audience. They could do just as the first generation did.

Deuteronomy 31:9–13 NKJV

9 So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

You can see that Moses anticipated the future generation and the fact that it was written, enables the future generation to hear the law, and join those who first heard it, IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD THEIR GOD.

The bible exists, for us to join the first hearers, in worship in our day.

God’s big story

Last week we saw and concluded on God’s big story — which informs how we use scriptures to answer questions of our day.

When we look at the bible, it tells one unified story. We called it God’s big story;

This will help our understanding today;

What is God’s big story?

It is to have a earth filled with his glory. We see this in the opening pages of the bible itself;

Genesis 1:26–28 NKJV

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Image — צֶלֶם (ṣelem) : Refers generally to something that is a likeness or representation resembling something or someone.

Meaning that humankind are viewed as God’s representative, that reflect his own glory and not ours, here on earth, and you can see what he meant immediately;

They are to fill the earth (with similar representatives of God)

Subdue the earth i.e. the harness it’s potentials

Have dominion over all of God’s creation.

Hence, the identity God gave us, is that which we work alongside God for the furtherance of his cause on earth. We exist with a purpose and for his glory.

This is the goal of God for his world, it is that it is filled, with those who reflect his glory.

Fill the earth with what?

— Quick Bible study —

In the scriptures, when you see a block of words together, it is a pointer to pay attention and notice that the writers are carefully calling your attention to that thing;

You find same phrase in other writers of the bible;

Numbers 14:21 NKJV

21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord—

all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

Let us look at more;

Psalm 72:18–19 NKJV

18 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! 19 And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.

A earth filled with his glory.

God’s big story, is to have a world filled with his glory.

And also, when we turn to Revelation, we see a world, where his glory has filled the whole earth.

Revelation 21:10–11 NKJV

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

Revelation 21:22–27 LEB

22 And I did not see a temple in it, for the Lord God All-Powerful is its temple, and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon, that they shine on it, for the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 And the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 And its gates will never be shut by day (for there will be no night there), 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 And every unclean thing and one who practices detestable things and falsehood will never enter into it, except those who are written in the book of life of the Lamb.

Notice repeatedly, what will be the picture of the whole earth, is that it is filled with the glory of the Lord.

So, what is the bible’s unified Story? It is telling us a story of how God created with a function in mind, and an end goal, and it concludes that story with that plan coming to live, the plan fully accomplished.

It opens with a plan, It ends with the fulfilment of that plan.

We can say, it tells us WHY the world exists, why we exist, what we are hear to do, and the future of all things.

Interludes

Along the jouney of God’s big story are moments that seem not so great, as though they break God’s plan and purpose.

Let us go back to our block of words “fill the earth” or it’s similarity;

If you look at Genesis 6, you have same phrase appear again;

Genesis 6:11–12 NKJV

11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Notice, here, what the earth ought to be filled with, is not violence but God’s glory.

Now, if you know the story, the earth experienced a flood, but the question is, did God end his story here?

We have the priviledge of hingsight — understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened or developed.

Let us put ourselves in the shoes of Noah, you just experienced this great flood and you are left alone with your small family. What are you to do?

So, did God’s plan change, or did God’s purpose for man change? The answer is no.

Genesis 9:1–3 NKJV

1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.

Notice the phrase again “fill the earth”… It is thesame mission, now committed to Noah and his sons to carry out. To be image bearers filling the earth with the glory of God.

So, each phase of the journey, we find either of three things often;

The bible story can be broken down so far;

God has a plan for his world — To have it filled with his glory

The plan of God sometimes undergoes an interlude, a misdirection, something that interrupts it.

God would restart his plan again.

God finds men and women who yield to His will and advance His cause in their time. (Noah, Abraham etc).

God’s plan moves forward, showing that His purpose never fails.

So, between 1 & 5 (Genesis and Revelation), we have sometimes, an interlude, sometimes a restart, sometimes, God seeking faithful men, sometimes, men advancing God’s cause.

From Genesis to Revelation, this rhythm repeats: Plan → Interlude → Restart → Partnership → Fulfillment.

Therefore; Before opening any book of Scripture, ask:

“Where is this book in God’s big story?”

Is it a plan being revealed? Is it an interlude where humanity falters? Is it a restart after failure? Is it a story of faithful men and women advancing God’s cause? Or is it showing the fulfillment of what God promised?

This way, you don’t read each book as isolated stories, but as parts of one divine movement — God working through history to fill the earth with His glory.

Jesus & Scripture

Let us consider an example;

Matthew 19:1–6 NKJV

1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there. 3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Notice something going on here;

Matthew 19:3 NKJV

3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

They came, testing him and they asked regarding a text of the scriptures.

And the text was about “lawful” for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? It was a question regarding divorce.

Jesus gave a response to them;

Matthew 19:4–6 NKJV

4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Now, as we read Jesus’ response, what we see is that in Genesis, there is that which is the ideal state in God’s perfect plan, which is that a man leaves his father and mother and joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

God’s plan for marriage is to bear and endure with the frailties of your partner, for the two to become one flesh.

As we read on, in verse 7;

Matthew 19:7 NKJV

7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?

Notice, Jesus responded with Genesis and they rightly quoted a verse of the bible.

Deuteronomy 24:1 NKJV

1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house,

Notice, “finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her”.

Another translation puts it in an interesting way;

Deuteronomy 24:1 LEB

1 “When a man takes a wife and he marries her and then she does not please him, because he found something objectionable and writes her a letter of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her away from his house,

Now, the question is, who is correct, and who is right? Cos, if I am reading Deuteronomy, they (the pharisees) will seem “right”.

Going back to Jesus and his words;

Matthew 19:8 NKJV

8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Moses because of the hardness of your hearts…

but from the beginning, it was not so.

Meaning, there is within the law, some things that aren’t based on God’s design, but God’s accomodation of the kind of men he found to work with.

Meaning, within the interlude, we will find God’s accomodation of human frailties, and that becomes important in my approach to reading a book of the bible.

Therefore, I have to always ask, where is this book within God’s big story? It shapes my approach to the book of the bible and what to expect in approach it.

So, in the Old Testament, God working with men that are frail, he regulated the excesses within that culture.

In that culture, men could dismiss their wives carelessly — leaving women destitute and shamed. So God, through Moses, didn’t affirm divorce as His will, but regulated it — commanding that:

a certificate be given (Deut. 24:1–4),

divorce not be impulsive,

remarriage after divorce be restricted.

This law protected women from further abuse, even while tolerating a broken practice. In other words, it was mercy wrapped in regulation — not approval.

Hence, I will only see God’s perfect will is that our hearts are not harden, and I am not just given to divorce “just for any cause”, but that can only be seen, when I follow God’s big story from Genesis.