“全部圣经都是神所默示的，在教训、责备、矫正和公义的训练各方面，都是有益的，”
提摩太后书 3:16
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,”
2 Timothy 3:16
When Colin opened the box of stained-glass pieces he’d purchased, instead of finding the fragments he’d ordered for a project, he discovered intact, whole windows. He sleuthed out the windows’ origin and learned they’d been removed from a church to protect them from World War II bombings. Colin marveled at the quality of work and how the “fragments” formed a beautiful picture.
If we are honest, there are times when we open particular passages of the Bible—such as chapters containing lists of genealogies—and we don’t immediately see how they fit within the bigger picture of Scripture.
Such is the case with Genesis 11—a chapter that contains a repetitive cadence of unfamiliar names and their families, such as Shem, Shelah, Eber, Nahor, and Terah (vv. 10–32). We often tempted to gloss over these sections and skip to a part that contains something that feels familiar and fits more easily into our “window” of understanding of the Bible’s narrative.
Since “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful” (2 Timothy 3:16), the Holy Spirit can help us better understand how a fragment fits into the whole, opening our eyes to see, for example, how Shelah is related to Abram (Genesis 11:12–26), the ancestor of David and—more importantly—Jesus (Matthew 1:2, 6, 16).
He delights in surprising us with the treasure of a perfectly intact window where even the smaller parts reveal the story of God’s mission throughout the Bible.
No comments:
Post a Comment