A couple of months ago an old sceptic said to a colleague and me that the Bible "appears to be united" but when you examine it it falls apart. My experience is precisely the opposite. On a surface reading it appears there are stories disconnected from the overall story, random things thrown in, but when you examine them closely and carefully you see how they all link together in an amazing way that defies human ingenuity. All the stories tell one great story.
I want to give you one example of this, and I want you to ask if you honestly think if this is mere coincidence, deliberate conspiracy or could it be divine inspiration?
In Genesis
8 the world had just gone through a period of unparalleled upheaval and
tremendous unrest, and in this chapter we are entering into rest and new
creation.[1]
The chapter divides into three sections (vv. 1-5, 6-12, and 13-22), and the
commencement of the second and third sections is marked by the words, “And it
came to pass...” (vv. 6, 13). In each section we find rest: in the first section the ark rests on the mountains of Ararat
(v. 4); in the second section the dove initially finds no rest for the sole of
her foot (v. 9) then evidently does find rest (v. 12); then in the third
section the Lord smells a sweet savour from Noah’s offering (v. 21), or as it
literally reads, the Lord smelled “a savour of rest”.[2]
In the first section the ark rests, in the second the dove rests, in the third
the Lord rests, and it doesn’t require any stretch of the imagination or
twisting of the text to see the Trinity at rest here. The ark, as we have seen,
is a picture of the Lord Jesus, the dove is a picture of the Holy Spirit (see
e.g. Matt. 3:16), and the Lord would be God the Father.
The
ark came through the judgment and came to rest. Consider when the ark rested and where
the ark rested: the ark came to rest on the 17th day of the seventh
month. When we come to Exodus 12 we find that God resets the calendar so that
the seventh month becomes the first month. This means if we go by this reset
calendar that the ark came to rest on the 17th day of the first
month, which just so happens to be the day the Lord Jesus rose from the dead.[3]
The resurrection is the proof that the storm of God’s judgment is over, the
declaration that the work is done. Christ rests.
But
where did the ark come to rest? On the mountains of Ararat.
Brown-Driver-Briggs, in their Hebrew definitions, tell us that Ararat means the curse reversed.[4]
So, the ark, speaking of Christ, rests on the day of resurrection on a site
which means the curse reversed – can there be any doubt as to the inspiration
of Scripture here? It is through the work of Christ that the curse against us
can be reversed and we can be brought into blessing:
Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it
is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of
Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith. (Gal. 3:13-14, NKJV)
And
it is through the work of Christ that the curse on this creation will be
reversed:
For
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest
expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him
who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of
God. (Rom. 8:18-21, NKJV).
This
pictures the truth of the gospel in a way that could not have been artificially
manufactured; we can see the fingerprints of God on the page of Scripture.
In
the next section Noah first of all sent out a raven. The raven was happy to
land on the carrion that was floating about, it could feed on that which was
dead and corrupting, but the dove couldn’t do that; the dove could only rest on
that which belonged to the new creation and could only feed on that which spoke
of new life. This is illustrates the teaching of the New Testament regarding
the two natures the Christian has (see, for example, Gal. 5:17; John 3:6). When
someone is born again he still has what the Bible calls the flesh – that sinful nature that we got from Adam, which is
happy to feed on that which is corrupting; but he is also indwelt by God’s Holy
Spirit, which means that he can never again be comfortable in the corruption of
this world; he feels at rest in God’s presence.
The
third section tells us about the Lord smelling a savour of rest from Noah’s
offering, pointing to the fact that, in the offering of Christ at Calvary, God
can rest. Sin had outraged and robbed God, but, in the sacrifice of Christ, the
desires of His heart and the demands of His throne have been satisfied. God
rests.
The
picture of the rest of the Triune God is so strikingly beautiful, and yet so
obviously not something that Moses was aware of. Even if the Bible were the
work of one human author, to incorporate all these features so skilfully would
be a work of incomprehensible genius. It is clearly the work of one author, but
not a human author; as Peter said, holy
men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21, NKJV).
This has largely been taken from my book, Prove It, How you can know and show that the Bible is God's Word, Decapolis Press, 2017.
[1]
The wind moving in 8:1 draws the mind back to 1:2 telling us that chapter 8 is
a chapter of new creation.
[2]
The word “sweet” is from the same family as the words translated “rest” in vv.
4, 9.
[3]
By the Galilean way of reckoning the days, https://bible.org/article/chronology-synopsis-passion-week.
[4]
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions
on e-Sword.
