Threads

There was clearly a huge gap in between posts for this, and like I said in an update, it really was just because God had been doing so much around me, including a lot in my Scripture life. Specifically, I had started a reading plan for the first time, going through the entire Bible, front to back. And while I was doing that, it made it difficult to devote time to writing these posts, too – not just because of time, but also because of what felt like some kind of "spiritual burnout." I was very intentional about going through that reading plan – highlighting passages and reflecting on each day's reading, so that once I got to the end of it, I hadn't just marked up my Bible, but I "marked up" my heart and mind to an extent, too. By the time I got through my reading for the day, it was difficult to put the same kind of energy and thought into my writing.

It wasn't a sacrifice that I necessarily wanted to make, but when I tried to work on posts while I was actively doing the reading plan, it almost always felt like I didn't have the "spiritual stamina" to make a final product that I was proud of. The good thing about the whole experience though, was that I did grow that spiritual stamina a good bit. Reflecting on something as perfect and complex as the Gospel and trying to form practical commentaries on concepts you find in it can be pretty tough! But I knew that at the end of the plan, I'd be able to focus my daily Scripture time towards just that.

So, although I have probably 2 or 3 different ideas that are about 80% complete thoughts sitting in my drafts, I want to end that hiatus by talking about the impact that the general experience of reading the Bible in that way had on me.

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As I've said a lot before, this blog is kind of a time capsule for me. I don't really find any kind of "embarrassment" anymore in the fact that it's been the most active, the more that my heart and mind feel beat-up.

When I started this reading plan, it ended up taking a similar role. I definitely wouldn't say that my heart and mind were thriving when I started it. That much is obvious – go back to posts I made in October of last year, and you can probably tell from the subject matter of my posts alone. And that's totally okay, those seasons are just part of life, and I don't regret how I used this blog as a way to navigate them.

But still, I can not deny God's faithfulness during and through the time I spent reading His Word in full, front to back, "In the beginning" to "Amen." He not only used it to show me how perfectly cohesive It is, but He used threads concealed within Scripture to magnify hope that I can have in a Savior who alone deserves it.

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The biggest way that I think I had been failing myself was overlooking the Old Testament outside of the Psalms, Proverbs, and stories like Job and Jonah. This has no bearing on how perfect the New Testament is, but the misconception that the Old Testament isn't as applicable to our daily lives or that there's some kind of disconnect between how reliable it is compared to the NT is so untrue.

Prophecy can feel so tricky in Scripture, because it's tough to wrap our heads around events being described both through metaphors and literal descriptions, when they haven't happened yet. But because of that, I think we tend to sell Scripture short by not challenging the prophecies that are told to us in Scripture! There are so many prophetic events first described in the OT, some of which were fulfilled through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and some of which haven't yet been fulfilled yet (at least according to our understanding that's restricted by time). 

But to anyone who hasn't taken time to read through the Old Testament from start to finish – you would be surprised by just how completely cohesive the events are that were fulfilled by Christ, and how cohesive the prophecies that are to be fulfilled are when Christ prophesies them again Himself in the New Testament. Not just His own death and resurrection (which is miraculous enough on its own), but His own prophesying regarding the end times and His second coming.

One of my favorite things in any kind of modern media, like movies or TV shows, is when there are small details that are put into earlier parts that anyone would overlook unless they've already seen it in full, at which point you can go back and see the details under a new lens. Scripture is like that, but with extra details included that still haven't had their true meaning revealed to us in full yet.

Mark 13 is a perfect example. There weren't many times Jesus was documented to get specific with His prophecies. But shortly before His betrayal, He starts to reveal things that weren't prophesied for the first time, or for the last. The "abomination of desolation" is referenced for the second time since it was prophesied by Daniel at the end of chapter 9. Mind you, that's right after he prophesies the Anointed One being cut off, followed by the same destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus warns the apostles will happen following His time on Earth. That was fulfilled several decades later, when the city was routed by the Romans under Titus – but not everything that Jesus prophesied was meant to be completed by (or shortly after) His resurrection. 

That same abomination of desolation is end-times stuff, set to take place under the authority of the antichrist and false prophet. Although those times are obviously prophesied in detail through John in Revelation, he was far from the first man to see them. Daniel mentions them in several different passages (9:27, 11:31, 12:11), and the cosmic signs were seen by Isaiah (13:10, 34:4), Joel (2:10, 30-31), and Amos (8:9) before they were ever seen in more fullness by John. Yet still, each thread goes deeper:

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.”

Amos 8:9-10 (NIV)

Which is further emphasized by the prophecy given to Zechariah by the Lord, as if to mourn His only Son before He's even sent Him to die:

“They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

Zechariah 12:10 (NIV)

Tying the Old Testament to the life and death of a Messiah that hasn't even been born yet. We broke God's heart before we even crucified Him! And like the passage in Zechariah implies, it wasn't just His Son – it was Him. Jesus knew it, too. What's one of the first things the high priest asks Jesus, just after His capture, in order to try and "catch" Him in blasphemy? "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" And as if to answer the question they asked, as well as one that would be asked for the rest of human existence, this is how He responds:

“I AM, said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Mark 14:62 (NIV)

Not only declaring Himself as the Son of God, but as the great I AM Himself, in a way incomprehensible to man. Not to mention that His return on the clouds of Heaven is one that, once again, wasn't just foretold by Daniel (7:13), but is prophesied by John later in Revelation 14:14-16.

I could continue to go on and on about the gathering of Christ's elect, the natural disasters, the Great Tribulation, and how they all (among other details) were all clearly prophesied to us consistently throughout Scripture, but the one thread I described is a perfect example of how God has laid all these things out to us in a way we can read!

It's not just a book – it's like seeing all of human existence and purpose, all within a small leather binding. Doesn't that kinda change what it means to us that we've just been given access to it, no strings attached?

How much more could God possibly give us?

The major theme of human existence is damning ourselves by human choice and being saved by divine intervention. And God gave me (and everyone else) the insight of why my own direction really sucks, by giving me a look into the deep history of man vs God.