Beyond The Basics

What is the purpose of the Bible?

I think we could reasonably expect a wide range of answers to that question, and most of them would likely be correct. Sometimes those answers might be influenced by the type of church in which we grew up, or didn’t grow up. It might be influenced by preachers and teachers we listen to, study guides we use, or friends and family. When I was younger, I would definitely have described the Bible’s purpose as a book that teaches us how to live in a morally right and godly way.

All that started to change in 2011. I attended the Onething Conference in Kansas City, hosted by the International House of Prayer. I was listening to a message by Allen Hood about Revelation 4-5. During the message I remember having the very surreal realization come upon me that the Bible was so much more than an instruction booklet for my 21st century life; it is a story from beginning to end and I could actually see exactly where I fit in that story.

So what is that story?

There are two main characters in the Bible that show up from the first book all the way to the last book. The first, obviously and most importantly, is God. The second is the nation of Israel. Genesis traces the descendants of Adam all the way through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the forefathers of Israel. The nation of Israel is still there in the book of Revelation, as both a people and a place. So as I’ve spent more time digging deeper into Scripture it’s become more clear to me that the story of the Bible is about the relationship between God and Israel; more specifically, it details God’s redemptive plan for Israel for the purpose of Israel revealing God’s glory to the world.

I know. I know. Israel is a pretty controversial subject these days. Hey, waitaminnit. I thought you weren’t going to talk about politics here, Dan?

Let’s backtrack a bit. I have a lot of favorite books in the Bible. It’s honestly really hard for me to pick one. Usually it’s the last book I studied. But no matter how hard I try, I just cannot get into the book of Jeremiah. Whenever I do a Bible reading plan, whether it’s reading the Bible through in 70 days, 90 days, or a year, I always dread the day I get to Jeremiah. It’s just 52 long chapters depicting the impending destruction of Israel written by a lonely, desperate, miserable prophet and addressed to national leadership who are so abusive and oblivious to their situation that even when people are eating their own babies during the siege of Jerusalem because of the lack of food, they still think God is on their side. And then, when it turns out that Jeremiah was the only prophet who was correct and Babylon destroys Jerusalem and carries off the people just like Jeremiah said would happen, the few people who were left still didn’t listen to him and fled to Egypt against Jeremiah’s warning where they were killed by another invading force.

Absolutely torturous bedtime literature.

However, right in the middle of the book is a glimmer of hope. In chapter 33 we find Jeremiah in prison during the siege of Jerusalem when the Lord spoke to him and said this:

“If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also My covenant with David My servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and My covenant with the Levitical priests My ministers.” (Jeremiah 33:20-21)

I’m sure Jeremiah had completely lost hope at this time. Why else would God decide this was the time to remind him of His everlasting covenant with Israel? In fact, I think just about everyone had completely abandoned the idea that Israel was still God’s chosen people. They had been systematically ripped apart and torn down by the empires of Assyria and Babylon until there was virtually nothing left. They were on the verge of being completely and permanently destroyed. Which is why, in the next paragraph, God said this to Jeremiah:

“Have you not observed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two clans that He chose’?Thus they have despised My people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord: If I have not established My covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David My servant…” (Jeremiah 33:24-26)

No matter what people said about Israel, God wanted to remind not only His prophet but everyone who would hear that He had not rejected Israel. That the only way He would reject Israel is if the sun stops shining in the day and the moon stops shining at night.

Here’s why we should care. There are a lot of people out there today that are saying the same things as they were in Jeremiah’s day:

Hasn’t God rejected Israel?

The Church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people.

But as I recall, when I woke up this morning the sun still rose from the east and set in the west, and as I write this the moon is still shining. If God’s covenant with the day and the night is still in effect, so is His covenant with Israel!

You see, the Bible is a story from Genesis to Revelation. And we sit here in a specific point in that story with a specific role to play in God’s redemptive plan for Israel. I’m a Gentile follower of Jesus, and as Gentiles we’re called to provoke Israel to jealousy (Romans 11:11-15) by worshipping the Jews’ Messiah. We’re called to stand and pray for Israel day and night until Jerusalem becomes a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7) because one day all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).

What is the purpose of the Bible? Maybe my view on that is changing. Maybe its purpose is to get me out of my limited worldview of 21st century America and start caring about what matters to God: Israel.