Out of Zion

Dr. Susan Michael: Hey there, and welcome to the 3D Bible series. This is our final session, which I have entitled the search begins. Today we're going to talk about what all this means for you, and where do we go from here? You know, we have really only begun our journey together. Uh your Bible is still coming alive. It may not yet be that 3D Bible to you, and so I want you to stay with us. We have much more in store for you, but today I want to stop and wrap up what we've learned so far in the 3D Bible series.

Now, I encourage you if you're just beginning us with us today, go back and listen to episodes 1 through 7 and cuz I'm not going to repeat what we learned there, but I'm going to draw some lessons from it. I have 10 lessons that we can learn from what we have gone through thus far about our Bibles. Lesson number one is that the God of the Bible is the God of history. You know, history is his story, and I have to say that when I was in junior high, high school, even college, I hated history.

I think it's because of the way it was taught. I didn't understand what I was learning about. I just was memorizing dates in order to try to pass a test. But the day that I realized my Bible was a history book was the day I began to get interested in history. And I have to say the more history I learn, the more I see the hand of God in history. It really and truly is his story. So our God is so great and so much bigger than any box we would try to put him in.

As the God of history and the God over history, that means he is sovereign over all. What an amazing God that we serve and that we learn about in the Bible. Second lesson is that the Bible is true. Now, we're going to talk about this a lot more in future episodes, but one proof that the Bible is true is in its honesty. You know, last week I told you about the story of Jonah, and I was laughing. It was such a an honest story of this prophet who was told to go to his enemies and to preach to them, and he didn't want to go because he knew how gracious and forgiving God was.

And at the end he's saying, God, I knew this was going to happen because you are so gracious and so forgiving. Now, who writes a story about a prophet and and tells you all of that? You the Bible is full of stories about real people with real struggles. They fail. They sin. They have bad attitudes. They some some of them do horrendous things, and some of them do really everyday things. But that's what makes you so uh comfortable that the Bible is telling you a true story cuz it's not whitewashed. It doesn't come across as all made up.

It's got real nitty-gritty stories about real people. And to me that just verifies that it is a true story. You know, I often think about about this because the Jewish people, the Bible is the story of their family. And you know, I mean all their dirty laundry has been aired out for the world and for generations of the world. Today they say there's 2.2 billion Christians in the world. So our holy book is the book that airs all their dirty laundry. Have you ever thought about that? And what if your family tree someone came and wrote a book about your family and went back a thousand years and told stories of of terrible incidences of of of sin, maybe murder, maybe drunkenness, maybe who knows what stories of your family.

And then it became a holy book that people for generations and generations told these stories over and over about your family and about how bad they were. So this is the story. It's so real and so honest about about the people that we read about in the Bible. But I want to say that one of the lessons that we learn is that God is a family man, and his plan from all eternity was to create a family. I started out this series quoting to you from Ephesians 1. It says that before the foundations of the earth were laid, that you and I were predestined to be adopted into the family by Christ Jesus.

That was the plan from eternity, God's building a family because he's a family man, and he wants fellowship with his children. In Revelation in both chapter 5 and chapter 7 it describes a multitude that it says no one can even number that comes from all nations, all tribes, all peoples, and all tongues. So God's plan from the beginning was to create this family. And in order to do that, he created a family from Abraham, the children of Israel. And let me tell you, he is a loving faithful father to his children Israel, just like we can be sure that he is a loving faithful father to us, the ones that are adopted into the family, grafted into the tree.

So God is a family man, and that's one reason we know that his promises to his children Israel will be fulfilled. Can you just imagine for a minute a father that tells his his child all kinds of of wonderful things that he's going to do as their father and do for them and do through them and and for him to then just drop the children to to just say, no, I'm not going to do it now. What kind of father is that? Our God is a family man, and he is faithful. Now, the Bible tells the story of how that family man started from scratch to build his family.

It tells us we've reviewed the story before how he created man and and uh he created a nation to work through to reach mankind and to bring about his plan of world redemption. And through this people that he created, the the children of Israel, he revealed himself to them so that then they would pass it on to the world. And he gave them covenants, and he gave them promises, and he he gave them the law, and he demonstrated um his righteousness and his holiness, and and he explained to them that I'm a holy and righteous God, and so you need to walk in righteousness with me.

And all these things that he gave them, he gave them so that then they would pass it on to the rest of us. He promised to them that they would always be a people before him. He promised them an eternal kingdom. He promised them that one day even the nations of the world are going to come up to Jerusalem and worship him, the one true God, their God. And that's where you and I come in. We're part of the nations. And so through the Messiah we are grafted in, and we are worshiping the God of Israel who is the creator of the universe.

And our job as the church is to take that good news to the ends of the earth and to reach as many people as possible with the good news of our salvation and our forgiveness through Christ. Now, that's the overall story, and you might think but it's taken like 6,000 years for the story to play out to this part. I mean that's a long time. But God lives outside of our restrictions of time and space. So for him from the beginning he sees the end and he sees the end from the beginning. He sees it all and at once.

He is not restricted to time and space. So what's feels to us like a long time is completely different reality for him. You know, it doesn't matter because God is a faithful God, and we know that his promises are true, and he is going to fulfill those promises to his family. What may look to us like it's taking a long time is not in heaven's time. Another lesson that we've learned from our time together is that the Bible is a road map for us. If we will take the Bible and follow it as it's a road map through God's revelation of himself and his ways to his people.

And so we can walk this walk with his people, and we can learn about him. You know, some theologians have used the term it's a progressive revelation. And what it means is that as we go through the story with them we learn line upon line and layer upon layer about God, about his ways, about his intention, about his relationship with his children, about who he is and his character and his attributes. It's such an exciting walk, and the map the Bible is our road map through that that we can understand God and that we can understand the times in which we live and therefore what we are called to do at this time.

You know, the Bible, will it answer all your questions? The answer is simple. No. I have lots of questions myself. And you know, I I often joke about it that God's probably going to keep me on earth for as long as he can cuz he knows the list that I have that I want to sit with him and discuss. But joking aside, the truth of the matter is the more you know God, the less important those questions really are. And I believe that once we enter heaven, once we enter eternity, they're going to evaporate. You know, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that now we see through a glass that like a dark glass or through a a dim mirror.

It says we we look through glass darkly. But then we're going to see him face to face. And now Paul said, I know in part, but then I will know fully as I am known fully. So when we get to heaven, we're not going to be restricted by our human minds. I think we're going to understand so much more immediately, and all those questions are going to fade away. But even now in the light of all that we can learn from the Bible, the questions will fade more and more. Now, I just want to be clear that you and I are not going to read through the Bible once and get it all.

You know, even if you have a photographic memory, and I've known people with photographic memories and they could quote scripture in such amazing ways, but the point is it's not about head knowledge. So even if you are able to memorize the whole Bible, you still would need to spend time studying it in in its pages because there's just layer upon layer of revelation and of understanding. And as I said in the very beginning, it's about relationship. It's about spending time with him, meditating on his word, meditating on his promises, meditating on his ways and the stories there, and finding how the Lord speaks to our heart through that time.

You know, I had a very very dear godly father type in my life. Um he had a photographic memory, and he had been in ministry for 70 years. When he passed away he was in his late 90s. And he had a photographic memory, and his children said that when they were small they used to test him and they used to try to call out a verse and a number, and he could quote it. But yet that man every morning started his day in his Bible reading and praying and highlighting and researching. Why? Because of the revelation, because of the time spent with the Holy Spirit and how God spoke to his heart during those morning times.

So it's not about head knowledge. Although I will say that the more head knowledge you have about the Bible, the more it will make sense and the better it will be and the easier. But it's not about head knowledge at the end of the day. It is about relationship with that family loving God who wants you in his family and wants to know you. You know, I often say that if I wrote the Bible Now, of course, you can be glad that I didn't write the Bible, but if I wrote the Bible it would be so organized and so clear and so line upon line and easy to understand.

And it's like instead here we have this book that you have to spend so much time and effort to read it, to to let it uh soak into your heart and and um it's like cuz God knows that we need to take it a little at a time. We can't just read a book and have it all and then go on in life. There's something to be said about God wants you to make that effort to dig to see how much you care, how interested are you? Cuz he's waiting. He's waiting to spend time with you.

He is waiting to reveal himself to you. But he is going to wait. I recently read a book, and the author called it The Divine Tease. He makes it hard sometimes. It's just a test. How much do you care? How much are you interested? So I want to uh say that I think for me all of this what we have discussed and and the importance of the Bible, the number one lesson is this. Once we understand how true the Bible is and we understand the story of the Bible and the the people of the Bible, we understand this how faithful God is.

This God of the universe that is so sovereign, the God of history is so faithful. You can trust him. You can rely on him. You know, Psalm 89 says this is God speaking. He says, my covenant I will not break nor alter the word that has gone out of my mouth. Once God has said it or promised it, it's done. He does not break his promises, and he doesn't change what he said. And let me assure you, you can bring him your questions. It doesn't matter to him. He loves your questions because your questions show him that you are interested, that you want to understand something, and he will show you.

Just come to him. I want to close with two scriptures. One is out of Proverbs 2, it's verses 3 through 5. And it says this. Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. So if you cry out for it, if you search for it, you will find it. And that's why Jesus said in Matthew 7 verses 6 through 8, a famous verse you've I'm sure you've heard.

Ask and it will be given unto you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks it will be opened. This is God promise to you. If you seek him and if you seek to understand his truth, you will find it.

Guest (Male): We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, pray.com, Salem OnePlace, Salem Life Audio. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA. All rights reserved.