It never fails to impress me when I find the ways in which the Scripture "holds together." For over ten years, my regular Bible reading has been from one version or another of the "One Year Bible." These are daily portions of Scripture from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms and Proverbs, arranged so that one reads the entire Bible in a year. I admit that until I began using these Bibles, I had never read the Bible clear through in any organized way. With plans that take the reader straight through the Book, I always bogged down around Leviticus!
It is a special delight when I find the Old Testament thought is repeated in the New Testament or the Psalms on the very same day. It's then that I think, "It's the same message no matter what part of the Bible you read!" This morning I read prophecy, "For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness . . . I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. (Ezekiel 34:11-16) Then the fulfillment, "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20, 21)
When Jesus taught the two men walking to Emmaus, He began with Moses and the Prophets and expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things about Himself. Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch as they rode together in the chariot, using the passage from Isaiah which the official had been reading. (Luke 24:27; Acts 8:35) The message of love and salvation and hope is throughout the whole Book!
MaryMartha
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Art from http://www.sxc.hu/
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