The Bible is a weird book. There, I’ve got that on tape now! It is though. And I mean that as high praise! … Be patient, I tell preachers. Be patient with the Bible. Don’t run from it to your experience right away. But draw people patiently and slowly and reverently into this strange world.
~ Robert Barron
I can do nothing on My own. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the will of Him Who sent Me. If I alone bear witness about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about Me that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Who sent Me has Himself borne witness about Me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen, and you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe the One Whom He has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in My Father’s Name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, & Author and Finisher of our Faith, in John 5
Oh beloved, it is true.
Those of us who believe, have come to understand something. The Bible, this collection of 66 books (the ‘Common Canon’ or Measure or Standard) form a multidimensional and trans-eternal fabric, laying out the storyboard of One Man.
Jesus.
And this is where the ability for even language to describe begins to falter. For Jesus, Who is both Root and Offspring and Consummater of the story is the very warp and woof of the whole thing. Jesus:
Totally human – Totally G_d.
All-powerful – so powerful that He won by giving His Life.
All-knowing – and humble enough to listen to children and the weakest
All-present, across time, eternity, space, and every dimension – but locally present in Person with a heart that seeks His company.
Immutable – and yet able to meet us in every situation.
Love Himself – and able to enter into our pain.
However, to read the Bible is to run into a thicket. It is a multi-cultural, multi-age, multi-author, multi-language composition. It seems impossible at a first reading to see where it is going with its words and themes.
And, there is only One Way through the problem.
Can we see it?
Actually, we can’t unless we put on the right lens. And this is where the weirdness and mystery goes even deeper. We need to put on the very Person the Bible is talking about, to begin to fully understand what is going on in the story.
Jesus again is the answer.
This fool of a writer began reading the Bible in earnest nearly 45 years ago. And, in those years, I have begun (only begun) to plumb some of the depths of the riches of His lavish Love. I have become utterly convinced that His Word is true and authoritative.
But…
I have also come to understand that 45 years of trying to fully understand is but to have glanced sidelong at the depths. It is, as “Augustine tells of a vision of seeing a little boy at a beach scooping up the ocean thimbleful by thimbleful and emptying it out on the sand. Then he sees an angel who tells him that this boy will have emptied out the entire ocean long before Augustine has exhausted what can be said about God.”
So, yes. The Bible is weird book. But, it is the most delicious kind of different. It is, a feast upon which we may feed as we journey to the center of the heart of its Author.
Are you tired? Are you hungry and worn out? Feed on Christ. Feed on His Word. Find Him in this weird book!
In the Scriptures it is written that falsehood is from the evil one, and that He is the “Father of Lies” (John 8:44), while God is truth, for He Himself says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6). Thus you see from whom we estranged ourselves and to whom we are united by a lie. So then, if we really want to be saved, we must love truth with our whole hearts and guard ourselves from all falsehood.
~ St. Isaac the Syrian
Love all your posts. They give a lot of light to the knowledge of His word and encourages me as a christian to have a closer walk with Him.
Be blessed.