As I said in the last lesson, the purpose of this series is to help us discover how to read and study the Bible. Last time our lesson was the on the purpose of Bible study. And we came to the conclusion that the ultimate purpose of Bible study is personal change for the glory of God. And I hope you remembered that last week as you dug into the Word.
Today we are going to discover the plot of the Bible.
This is because knowing the plot of the Bible gives us a better understanding of the Bible’s context.
I cannot tell you how many times I have learned the power of context when understanding anything, not just the Bible.
For example, many of us know that coaching a sport can be a challenging task because often there are so many dimensions to understanding a particular sport. For example in baseball, there is a base stealing strategy, hitting strategy, pitching strategy, and a position strategy. And because it has so many complexities one approach to coaching is to coach using a philosophy some call whole-part-whole. This approach applied to a baseball team would mean to teach players the goal of a game against their opponent. Then breaking the team up into parts, and then having them walk through a game or maybe practice at game speed to understand how all the components, positions, and strategies fit together during the game. Often this helps players synthesize the parts, their position, and how to best win given a particular opponent.
Often when it comes to reading the Bible we think just jumping in at the beginning is the right thing to do. But like baseball, we have some things to learn. What is often helpful is gaining an overview of the plot so we can understand how the 66 individual books fit together which leads to a fuller understanding.
Our goal in today’s lesson is to discover the plot of the Bible with the outcome of better understanding the story, and thus experiencing greater personal change.
There are some amazing stories in the Bible. Each of the ones you recalled make some fantastic points and probably have had a profound impact on your life. One of my favorites is the story of the prodigal son, which tells the story of two disobedient sons. One disobedient in his self-centeredness and the other disobedient in his self-righteousness. And the reason why this story has so impacted me is that I have seen myself in both of these sons. At one point in my life very self-centered and at another time very self-righteous and I am still working this out in many ways as I journey with Christ.
But what if I suggested to you today that the Bible, while it is composed of many stories told one story that connected them all? What if the bible was about one story unfolding down through time?
In your handbook, you will notice a cycle and a timeline. I put this here because I think it helps you have at least a preliminary understanding of what is happening in the Bible.
But over your life, as you take the time to dig in, there is all kind of neat stuff in the Bible that helps a reader understand the context. Notice that in the quote from A.T. Pierson he has found 12 symbols that refer to the scripture in the bible. Imagery like bread, fire, gold, hammer, honey, etc. that shape the readers thinking about the Bible. But rather than look too closely at the parts let’s discover the plot.
So turn with me to the next page of your handbook.
On this page, you will see an outline of the plot of the Bible. While this page is going to leave out a lot of detail, it will give you a general understanding of the whole plot and how some of the parts come together.
Let quickly fly through what you see on the page:
CREATION = Creation of Man & Woman | Creation of Land, Seed, & Blessing | Moral Instruction | Sin
FOREFATHERS = Abraham & Sarah | Promise of Land, Seed, & Blessing | Isaac | Jacob | Joseph | Migration to Egypt
TRAVEL = 400 years | Israelites grow to 2-3 million | Moses whose life is broken down into 3 periods of 40 years each | Culminating in a confrontation with Pharoah - Passover | The Law at Sinai | Sacrificial System | Tabernacle | Moses’ Death
PROMISED LAND = Joshua | Conquering the Promised Land
JUDGES = 7 x Turning from God | Oppression | Call to God | Repentance | Restoration | Samuel Last Judge – Saul First King
THREE KINGS = Saul - People’s King | David - God’s King | Solomon - King That Builds the Temple
WAR IN THE KINGDOM
THE NORTHERN KINGDOM: ISRAEL10 of the 12 Tribes | All bad kings | Taken by Assyrians in 722 B.C. | Samaritans
THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM; JUDAH 2 of the 12 Tribes | 1:3 ratio of good to bad kings | Taken by Babylonians in 586 B.C.
REBUILDING = During the Babylonian exile, the best and brightest men like Daniel and Ezekiel were taken. After 70 years of captivity, men like Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild using resources of foreign nations and the book of Malachi is written.
SILENCE = 400 Years | The Rise of the Pharisees
JESUS THE FULFILLMENT = In Jesus Christ, all that could not be accomplished in the previous years are fulfilled. He becomes the new Adam | Prophet | Judge | King | Kingdom | Temple | Priest | Sacrifice | Atonement | Law | Creation
CHURCH = The Spirit | Paul | Church Expansion | Structure of the Church | The Future Church
I hope this gives you a rough outline of the Plot of the Bible. This is a viewpoint of the whole. That God has weaved together a story that all points to one central character. And of course, this is Jesus Christ.
Give this let’s now turn to a teaching on this subject and text as I share a little with you more on the topic.
John 1:14 reads, “14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (Slide)
So today I am sitting in front of a scroll provided by the organization God’s Ancient Library (Slide). What you are seeing is the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible. Scrolls exactly like this have been read publically by God’s people for thousands of years.
A Torah is produced by a Sefer, we often called them a scribe. The production of a Torah was a meticulous religious act done all by hand. A Torah takes about a year to produce, and was always done with care and to perfection. In fact, the root meaning of the word of Sefer is “to count” and what you see is a production of exactly 304,805 letters.
One interesting element of Torah production is all the “Kosher” components and activities that go into making a scroll. The word kosher simply means “acceptable to Jewish law.” And so, a trained Sefer would be educated in the Mosaic law and in doing so would give extreme care to each detail. This included using kosher skin from sacrificed animals, kosher thread from the innards of animals, kosher ink, kosher writing utensils, and the like. All this was a very long and involved process, through which God was trying to teach his people about him. God’s people revered not only the process, and elements, but also considered this to be God’s spoken Word to them.
We must remember that God has been speaking his Word since the beginning of time. Genesis 1:3 reads, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3 (Slide) And it was always through God’s spoken word that life took shape. Down through time God spoke directly and indirectly to us through prophets, priests, and kings. Hebrews 1:1 reads, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.” Hebrews 1:1 (Slide). And these prophets wrote down God’s Word which we see here. But in addition, in John 1 we learn that God planned to disclose his word in a more vivid way. Here is how John 1:1-5 reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5 (Slide)
And of course, we know this Word to be Jesus Christ. The sacrificed lamb of God on whom were written the words of life for all mankind. Which John clarifies in our key verse today. “14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (Slide)
You see, God had been building the plot the Bible for thousands of years. His Word, the Scripture was spoken, written down, but also living. And the best part His Spirit & His Word can live in you.
Today gentlemen, I hope you see that the central focus of the Bible is God’s Word – Jesus Christ. That this book the Bible points to Him. He is the central character and story and the whole-part-whole of the Bible.
So regardless of where you enter or where you read. All stories point to Jesus Christ.
