I just started watching a TV series of 10 episodes. It was one of those where the murder case investigation kept going for the full 10 episodes with the “who dunnit” only coming in episode 10. I was tempted to skip the first 9 episode and just watch the 10th episode to see who committed the murder. There would be a lot of twists and turns and suspense if I watched the first 9 episodes so I thought that if I knew how it ended, I could just relax and watch the 9 episodes without being stressed out over ever bad thing that happend to the star deetective of the showw during those 9 episodes.

Of course that made me think of doing a new blog article on this!

First of all, the whole Bible and Bible history is a long series of many episodes with a lot of twists and turns. The creation; God decides to destroy everyone but spares Noah; God chooses Abraham and then the patriarchs who end up in slavery in Egpypt; Moses delivers Israel from slavery and Joshua takes them into the Promised Land; after many years of judges Saul, David, and Solomon are the first 3 kings of Israel; the kingdom divides and both the northern and southern kingdoms are carried into captivity; the southern kingdom Judah is allowed to return to Palestine after 70 years of captivity to rebuild the temple that the Babylonians destroyed; 400 years of silence with no prophets after Malachi; John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus; Jesus dooes 3 years of teaching and miracles; Jesus is crucified and then raised from the dead and ascends to heaven; the apostles preach the gospel to the whole Roman Empire and establish many churches; all the 27 books of the New Testament are written before 70 AD.

But the final episode of the Bible is when Jesus is crucifed for our sins and raised. He would then return in 70 AD to judge the wicked Jews who rejected him as the Messiah and would destroy the temple, ushering in the consummation of the new covenant, removing the old covenant and the old Jewish system. The first 9 Bible story episodes would have one big question: how is God going to save or justify sinners and still be the Just judge of the world who must punish sin. There would be many predictions of a Messiah but even the prophets who made the predictions didn’t understand what they were predicting. There would be a lot of suspense as the Jews would continually disobey God and you would wonder if God would just wipe them out and forget the whole thing. But then we read the last episode and see how that Jesus provided immortality and eternal life to those who believe in him. But the final episode of the Bible is when Jesus is crucified for our sins and raised. He would then return in 70 AD to judge the wicked Jews who rejected him as the Messiah and would destroy the temple, ushering in the consummation of the new covenant, removing the old covenant and the old Jewish system. The first 9 Bible story episodes would have one big question: how is God going to save or justify sinners and still be the Just judge of the world who must punish sin. There would be many predictions of a Messiah but even the prophets who made the predictions didn’t understand what they were predicting. There would be a lot of suspense as the Jews would continually disobey God and you would wonder if God would just wipe them out and forget the whole thing. But then we read the last episode and see how that Jesus provided immortality and eternal life to those who believe in him. A lot of people just skip all those history episodes leading up the final epeisode and then they accept Jesus. That’s finae. I personally have enjoyed reading and studying all those episodes leading up to the final revelation of the mystery of how God would save us though the death of Jesus.

I guess I am just saying that we are so blessed to be able to know how the Bible story, the scheme of redemption, was brought to completion. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, everything that was lost in the Garden due to sin was restored in the tree of life and waters of eternal life available in the church, the New Jerusalem. Those living during the first 9 episodes of Bible history would not have ever known the ending, but we do.

So, for what it’s worth, that skipping those episodes to the final ending episode sounds good, but I think I’ll just watch them all b/c I’ve got a feeling it will all end well. Of course I said that about the last episode of season 4 of the series Unforgettable and just as Al is proposing to Carrie, he is shot in the chest and the final episode ends not knowing if he lives or dies. Season 5 was cancelled so I’ll never know. I’m glad the Bible doesn’t end like that!