Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Many people like to read a good book. One that has multiple plots, continually develops the characters, contains multiple unsolved mysteries along the way. A well written book holds your interest, and involves you in the story emotionally or in other ways.

The Bible puts all man-made books to shame in each of these areas. Consider a small sampling of the story threads in the Bible:

Creation: Spoken into existence in Genesis; The proof that evolution is a lie; Justification for not questioning God or his motives in Job; The basis for explaining who the true God is in Acts; The proof of God’s nature in Romans; The proof of God’s hand in sustaining all things in Colossians; and many, many more layers of the creation story.

Sin and Redemption: From the first sin in Genesis to the punishment for sin, to the entire narrative leading up to our Redeemer in the New Testament, to His death and resurrection, and ultimately to the destruction of death itself in Revelation, this is recognized as the primary story line of the Bible. But it is certainly not the only story line impacting human history.

The Unseen Realm: The Bible never says God was alone before He created the universe. The first words of the Bible say “In the beginning, God…”  But that is not speaking of God’s beginning. It is speaking of the beginning of the material universe. There is an entire thread of references throughout the Bible to the unseen realm of divine beings. Psalm 82 is one of the key passages opening the curtain to that which is unseen. Psalm 82:1 “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:” The divine council and their activities appear all throughout the Bible and human history, a fascinating thread explaining where other gods came from. Yes, they are real beings. Yes, they are supernatural beings. No, they are not god, although men worshipped them and most still do. Yes, some of them mated with women and produced half-human, half-god beings. They are the reason God flooded the world in Noah’s day. They are the ones Jesus visited between his death and resurrection to declare his victory over them. Some will be released for a short time for the final battle. The interaction of the divine host with humans is one of the least recognized threads in the Bible.

Prophesy: From Genesis chapter 3 through the end of Revelation, prophesy is perhaps the most complex and intriguing thread in the Bible. God wrote prophesy as a complex unassembled mosaic – with many multiple pieces sprinkled all throughout the books of the Bible. Almost everything in the Bible is related to, or directly part of this prophetic mosaic. The individual pieces are mirrors reflecting events of each generation of man. But the true picture that the final mosaic depicts can only be seen in the generation when all the events line up with the mosaic. The Jews of Jesus’ time missed who he was because they were focused on the wrong picture of who he would be (not looking at all the puzzle pieces). Prophesy is like that. Every generation of man forms an idea of what the mosaic looks like based on the events of their time. But as the angel told Daniel, the visions and words of the prophesy were sealed until the time of the end. That is when the events being reflected in the Biblical mosaic will all form the entire image. We are living in that generation!

The Jubilee Cycle: In Leviticus 25, God establishes a cycle of 50 years: “¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you.” This cycle spoke of forgiveness of debts and restoration to the original state of things. As another intriguing thread in the Bible, the Jubilee Cycle also measures the major events of mankind (ultimately ending in forgiveness and the restoration of all things). There were 41 Jubilees from Creation to Abraham; 41 Jubilees from Abraham to Jesus (Matthew Chapter 1); and there will be 41 Jubilees from Jesus to the Day of the Lord. That day is nearly upon us!

The more I read my Bible, the more humbled I become at the awesome intelligence, power, righteousness, and wisdom of God. I get a glimpse of how utterly foolish we mortals are; and I long for the day He puts an end to sin and death. Oh, what an incredible creation he has in store for us. Our only response can be worship!