The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.
This is the second of four weeks to show the centrality, or unity, of the Bible
There is one central character in the Bible.
Psalm 40:7 says: “Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll.’” (The KJV has “the volume of the book is written of me”)
The writer of Hebrews quotes this passage in Hebrews 10:5-7: “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “…Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll…”
The scroll or the Jewish Bible, what we know as the Old Testament, was written about the Messiah, and since Jesus is the Messiah, the Old Testament is all about Him.
He explains this to his disciples in Luke 24. He walked with two of the disciples going to Emmaus after he had risen from the dead. They did not recognize Him and Jesus didn’t tell them it was him. Instead, He listened to them and then corrected their false expectations.
Luke 24:27 says: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, doesn’t arrive until the New Testament, but a proper understanding of who He is and what His mission was about requires an understanding of the Old Testament. After all, it was written about Him.
