Seeing the Big Picture

The Bible is truly the world’s most amazing book. Most of it can be understood by a young child. And some of it stretches the scholarship, learned study and imagination of the world’s greatest experts. After more than thirty years of studying it, I am always amazed to find myself learning something new every time I meditate upon it. It is a voyage of discovery for every Christian. It is difficult to imagine a more ignorant Christian than I was when on January 21st 1968 when I put on the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism. This was a very honest act of obedience to the gospel call. I had been searching for God after all for several months before I finally acceded to the call to put the Lord on. But surely you could write the sum total of my knowledge of the Scriptures on the back of a postage stamp. I knew certain things without any shadow of doubt: • I knew that God loves me. I don’t know why, but He did and He does. • I knew that Christ died for me. That was even more baffling, but He did. • I knew that on the basis of His sacrifice I was being redeemed from the consequences and guilt of my sin and set before God in a righteousness not my own. • I did not know what God wanted of me, but I knew this; whatever that was, I was going to do it. And thus my pilgrimage began. I learned very early that if I wanted to understand more and grow in my faith I needed to learn more about the Bible. The Bible was God’s communication with me and I needed to listen more. When you are extremely ignorant as I was, then it is good to open your ears and close your mouth and listen. So I attended every Bible class I could find, every ad hoc Bible discussion group going on in our church, and I devoted several evenings a week into studying and learning what God was saying in His word. I learned that the Bible is a very big book, and it is not always easy to navigate your way around it if you don’t know anything. I also learned pretty quickly that other more mature Christians round about me had devoted a lifetime to studying the Word and they were still learning. In fact, when you are fortunate enough to sit at the feet of a spiritual giant, you learn that even the giants are also still studying and still learning. So congratulations in having the interest to pick up this volume. You have entered into a lifetime study of the Word of God. It will help you to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more that you feed on the Word, the closer you will be drawn to Christ and the Heavenly Father. There are rich dividends to be gained by your study. It will change you. It will strengthen you. It will make you more spiritual. It will draw you closer to the Father in heaven. But when you start out on the journey, the Bible seems daunting, containing many things that are difficult to understand. You do not start out with a proper understanding of how the Bible is made up, or how each part relates to the rest. This places you at a disadvantage. In fact the Bible is not one book, but a library of 66 different books. Each writer is inspired by the Holy Spirit to record the unfolding drama of our redemption. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:16-17. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 2 Pet 1:20-21. Hence, when we are reading the Bible, we are reading no ordinary book. We are reading a record of God’s dealings with man and God’s holy purpose in redeeming man whom He had created. This book will not solve all the difficult passages of the Bible, but it will seek to introduce you to each book of the Old Testament and help you to understand more about it. Who wrote it? When? What is it about? What are the main themes? What did God want me to get out of reading this book? For many Christians this is a quite pressing need for there is a tendency to regard the Old Testament as only history and the New Testament as the main focus of our attention for today. Whereas there is an element of truth in that statement, we must realize that a proper appreciation for the message of the Old Testament deepens and enriches our understanding of the New beyond comparison. You should not read this book instead of the Bible! The Bible is the source book of the wisdom and majesty of God. Use this humble volume to stimulate you into reading the Word of God, and perhaps help you to put each book into some kind of context as you read through. My suggestion is that you should attempt to read the Bible one book a week and use the appropriate chapter in this volume to help you in your reading. Some of you may use this book as a guide to a group Bible study. At the end of the chapter there are questions which come out of reading the book of the Bible to which the chapter refers. That being the case, it may be more useful to have the questions at the beginning of the next session so that each member has a chance to read the text of the Bible first. In attempting to read one book of the Bible per week, this will be challenging especially when a longer book is in view. To some that may seem like a tall order. But I know that is not the case with you. Because you have been thrilled to respond to the gospel call of Jesus, you have a great motivation to study and learn the Book of books, inspired by the Lord of lords, to lead the life of lives. One of the things that caused me greatest confusion in those early days was that I had no overview of the Old Testament. There was no mind map of how the whole thing fitted together. It took me years to gather this perspective on the Old Testament and it became clear to me that I would never have had any real appreciation for or understanding of the Old Testament until I saw the big picture, how it all fitted together. Perhaps the following modern parable may assist us to see the point more clearly. A certain man went into a junk shop one day and found a bag which contained every piece of a 5000 piece jigsaw. A label on the bag assured him that every piece had been counted and verified and was guaranteed to be present. The whole assembly was priced at a dollar. This seemed like a very good buy so he made the purchase and took it home. Of course, the task was immediately found to be very difficult indeed because one thing was missing. He did not have the lid of the box. There was no big picture to follow to see how everything fitted together.