Plotlines

Sometime, once I have finished teaching through Genesis on Sundays at White Fields I would like to do a sermon series on the plot lines that run throughout the entirety of the Bible.

For example, I taught a sermon a few weeks ago titled "A Tale of Three Trees", about how really the Bible, the Gospel, is a story of three trees: the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of Calvary. We started in a garden with 2 trees, but we were separated from the tree of life when we sinned at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but because of what God did for us through Jesus on the tree of Calvary we can get back to the tree of life in the New Jerusalem, as seem in the final chapter of Revelation, where it says hat no longer will anything be accursed and the leaves of that tree will be for the healing of the nations. So there it is: the Gospel - we were created for perfection, created to live forever, cursed to death and corruption because of sin, but the message of the cross is the hope of redemption and restoration available exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ.

I didn't even get to talk about a few other important trees in the Bible, such as the tree that was thrown into the bitter water of Meribah (Numbers 20) which made it sweet - another foreshadowing of the Cross! Not to mention the tree planted by the water in Psalm 1 - which ties into another amazing plot line: The River!

There was a river that flowed through the garden of Eden, there will be a river that flows from the throne of God in the New Jerusalem, where the tree of life will be. Ezekiel prophesied about a temple that would be in Jerusalem, which is yet to be built... Zechariah said that when the Messiah comes he will put his feet down on Jerusalem and it will split in half and a river will flow out of it. This river, according to Ezekiel will give life wherever it flows, and it will split and part of it will flow into the Dead Sea, and the Dead Sea will come to life with fish and other living creatures, i.e. the Dead Sea will resurrect from the dead! And actually, this was probably what Jesus was alluding to in John 7, when on the last day of the festival as they poured the pitcher of water out on the dry ground, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" He said this standing in Jerusalem, in the place where Ezekiel had prophesied that a river would flow giving life to everything it touched! How amazing is that?

There are other plot lines of the Bible: the story of the Lamb that runs throughout the Bible, the picture of the Rock which is both a foundation, a refuge and even is struck and water flows out giving life to the people. Aother is the picture of bread found over and over in the Bible, and there are more.

Are there any plot lines of the Bible that your personal favorites? Any I didn't mention here?

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