“And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:28, OAV)
It is very interesting that Mohammed, the father of Islam and the writer of the Koran, recognised that the Bible is inspired by God. He calls the Jews and the Christians “people of the Book”, which indicates that they have accepted the authority of the Bible on the grounds of their conviction that it is the revelation of God to man. This in spite of it being made up of 66 books from a range of genres, written by at least 44 authors, in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, over a period of 16 centuries! No book in history has come into being over that long a period of time. Thirty five centuries ago Moses penned the first five books of the Bible, and he wrote about things that occurred long before his birth, and even things that happened after his death, purely because God dictated it all to him! (For example, he wrote about his own death, period of mourning and funeral – see Deut. 34.) [It was revealed to Jude, the brother of Jesus and James, that Satan and God contended about the body of Moses – see Jude 1:9. Because of this New Testament insight we understand why God hid Moses’ body – Deut. 34:6!]
There is an undisputable unity in the Word of God, despite the diversity of all the writers. It was written by generals, kings, shepherds, prophets, fishermen, a medical doctor, a brilliant rabbi and a tax collector. But they all spoke with one voice – indeed: “my tongue is the pen of a ready writer” (Ps 45:1)! At first glance there are a few discrepancies, but it is not because the Bible contradicts itself; rather, it is the dialectical and paradoxical nature of the Word, the various sides of this double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12), which ultimately comes from the mouth of Christ (Rev 1:16; 2:12)! With dialectical and paradoxical I mean that, although it is simple, it is not unambiguous – it’s like clear water that you can see through but you can’t determine how deep it is. Throughout, it has the character of discussion, or comparison, with much symbolism, which, like mercury, cannot be contained, so that one should not try to read it as law – one must live it. Thus Jesus gives this clear admonishment in John 5:39-40: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
These words of Jesus are of the utmost importance because they are the essence of what the Word embodies: Christ. There will be more about this marvellous mystery in the next teaching.
- Sela: Try to determine the connection between the Word and Christ.
- Read: 1 Sam 5; Ps 120 & 121 ; Luke 2
- Memorise: The whole of Ps 121. Make a song of it!
- Going deeper: Read Grant R Jeffrey’s book: The signature of God.
