Have you ever had one of those earth-shattering
moments when you realize two people you’ve known in different capacities,
perhaps at college or at church, are actually related to each other? I can’t
count the number of times that has happened to me, with my reaction being
something along the lines of, “Wait--what? . . . What?? No way! How did I not
know that?!”
If you’ve ever been there, then you understand
how your world suddenly is realigned as you begin to see connections to which
you were heretofore completely oblivious. You start to recognize that, yeah,
they do have similar mannerisms/expressions, or actually they do kind of look
alike now that you stop to think about it.
Not only that, but also the framework in which
you view said acquaintances is totally shifted. You realize that each has a
history with the other person that is deeper than what you have with either of
them. The lens through which you view them is adjusted to include this new
information that they have a sibling or a cousin who is living and interacting
in the same environment that you all share. In other words, you see each person
in a new, fuller context.
A similar effect occurs when you have an
interaction with someone as a stranger or an acquaintance, only to become good
friends with him or her years later. It’s mind-blowing when you realize that
the encounter you had all those years ago was with the very same person that
you know so well now. Suddenly, you have to adjust your understanding of that
person to include all your interactions with him, or perhaps more accurately,
to recalibrate your understanding of that past encounter against the depth of
knowledge you have about that person now.
I’m guessing that many of you have experienced
at least one of these connect-the-dots moments, but I wonder if you’ve ever had
such a moment when it comes to God? Today, I’d like to invite you to consider
with me the joy of a dot-connecting quest with the Divine.
There are countless opportunities for us to
connect dots in Scripture, whether it be along lines of theme or chronology or
biography, but the dots I’m thinking of today are those that deal with God
Himself. I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to read the Bible as a
history book (which, in a sense, it is), detached from modern day. Not that
there aren’t manifold applications to our modern lives, because Scripture is
timeless and is the living Word of God, but it can become very easy to miss the
fact that the God who spoke to Moses and Daniel is the same Being we speak to
today.
Of course, we all know this intellectually, but
do we really stop to consider the practical significance of it? Just as we use
past conversations with friends to inform current ones, do we look to past
conversations God has had with our predecessors to inform our current
understanding of and conversations with Him?
First of all, just take a moment to ruminate on
the fact that the God who spoke with Noah, wrestled with Jacob, communicated
with Solomon, and answered Nehemiah’s prayers is the same God (see Genesis 6-9,
32:22-32; 1 Kings 3; Nehemiah 1). The main character of the thousands of years
covered in the Bible is one Being. We know He is eternal and unchanging, but do
we realize the implications of that truth?
It means that the God who spoke with Abraham
about Sodom is the same One who said, “Dress for action like a man; I will
question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and
can you thunder with a voice like his?” (Genesis 18:22-33; Job 40:7-9, ESV).
It means the Deity who delivered Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego from the furnace is the same One who said, “But you,
Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my
friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its
farthest corners, saying to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you
and not cast you off’; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am
your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my
righteous right hand” (Daniel 3; Isaiah 41:8-10, ESV).
It means the Lord, who is our Shepherd, is the
same One who said, “Let there be light” (Psalm 23; Genesis 1:3).
It means the Person who led the Israelites by
pillars of cloud and fire is the same One who said, “This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am well pleased” (Exodus 13:21; Matthew 3:17, ESV).
It means the One who said and did all of these
things is the One we speak with even now.
When we pray, we are communing with the exact
same person our ancestors in the faith did. And by His grace, He has given us a
Book full of context to draw upon. We will never be able to comprehend the
complete fullness of the mysteries of God or plumb the depths of His character,
but He has given us thousands of dots in the pages of His Word and has designed
our minds to have the capacity to connect them.
In Scripture, He has given us both explicitly
and implicitly revelations of His thoughts, His nature, His actions, and His
words over the course of time. And on top of that, to those who have repented
and believed in Christ, He has given His own Spirit to indwell us, so that now,
having a personal knowledge of God, we can look back at the accounts we had
previously read in Scripture and say, “Look! There He is! That’s Him! He’s the
One I know!”
And as we discover more and more about Him in
Scripture, we can use our newfound knowledge to inform our understanding of Him
today. We can have a fuller context from which to speak to Him, to marvel at
Him, and to worship Him. What greater joy than to seek after a deeper, fuller
knowledge of God? What more exciting than to have mind-blowing experiences when
we connect the dots of who God is?
I pray that today and in the days to come, you will take time to
go hunting for dots and that God will reveal the connections to you by His
Spirit through His Word.
