Thursday, June 6, 2013

Connecting the Dots Via the Scarlet Thread

How many petals do you see?
When I was in kindergarten, I remember the teacher giving us activity sheets whereby there was an incomplete drawing, such as the one shown on the right.  We had to connect the dots by using a coloured pencil to draw a line from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3, and so on, and upon connecting the last pair of dots, the picture would be revealed.

By just glancing at the drawing, we can figure out that it is that of a flower because of the stem and leaves below, and the smiley face representing the centre of the flower.  But we cannot really make out how many petals there are exactly, until we connect the dots sequentially from 1 to 16.

The Bible appears to many of us like that incomplete drawing.  We are able to figure out the big picture, such as that God loves us, that Jesus came to die for our sins, that we will go to heaven after we depart from this earth.

But we struggle to make out certain passages in the Bible.  For example, why did God punish some yet let others get away?  Or why did God choose women of disrepute to be Jesus' genealogy?  These are like the unseen petals in that drawing.

So how do we "connect the dots" for such passages?  For that kindergarten activity, we used a coloured pencil.  For the Bible, we have to use a "scarlet thread".

Bloggers for Christ.  Thanks Terence for the lunch, and Ps Kenny for the photo.
I was having lunch with a couple of good friends I met in blogosphere at Folks Collective just a couple of days ago.  The place is packed during lunchtime and the food is served in 3 cute red containers.

In the course of conversation, we happened to talk about my re-blogging, and how I felt led to share the journey I have personally gone through. How I had many tough questions about passages in the Bible that I did not dare ask, and how everything sudden made sense when one sees it in the light of that first prophecy in the garden of Eden.

BlogPastor then came up with the term "scarlet thread"!

Now, imagine you are watching a game of chess, with God on one side, and the devil on the other.

All of God's moves are to fulfil...

The First Prophecy

Gen 3:15

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."

Earlier in that chapter, we read about how Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the devil (who took the form of a serpent). God prophesied that someday, an offspring of Eve would ultimately crush the devil's head and bring about his defeat.

God has revealed His intention and thrown down the gauntlet.  What would Satan's response be?


All of Satan's counter-moves are to...

Stop the Seed!

Satan was told that one of Eve's descendants would cause his downfall, but he did not know who exactly. Hence, he did everything he could to stop the seed, and prevent the champion from coming forth.

Some examples would be:
  • inspiring Cain to kill Abel (Gen 4:8)
    • Abel's sacifice was pleasing to God, so he thought Abel was the promised seed
  • getting his fallen angels to corrupt mankind by cohabiting with the daughters of Eve (Gen 6:2)
    • this practice was so widespread that it reached the stage whereby Noah and his family were the only ones on the face of the earth to be pure humans, the rest were giants and freaks
  • getting men to be attracted to other men in Sodom and Gomorrah
    • because no seed would be able to come forth from homosexual relationships
  • getting Onan to spill his seed (Gen 38:9)
    • Satan would rather this, than for mankind to populate
When we start to see things that happen in the context of the great spiritual battle through the centuries, we will then realise why in some cases, God spared and yet in others, God judged.

So why the term "scarlet thread"?  "Thread" in the sense that it is the one underlying theme that weaves through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation "connecting the dots", as it were, and "scarlet" because it involves availing the blood of Jesus, going back in time to redeem the patriarchs and going forward into the future so that no one should perish.

3 comments:

  1. The unveiling of the Gospel of the Grace of God has transformed my relationship with Jesus. I was a legalistic believer who believed in mixing the two covenants. I have always had a passion for Bible study but mixing law and grace made it very confusing. The common thread of Jesus in the bible has cleared up so much confusion. But there are a few verses that are still a bit fuzzy to me and I have not heard Pastor Prince discuss them( I watch on TV from the USA). Titus 2:4; 1 Timothy 2:9-15: and other verses that relate to the role of women in family life and ministry especially the two above verses **1Timothy 2:15 part about being saved through childbearing.

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  2. Hmmm, let me meditate on the passages in Titus and Timothy you have mentioned. I'm sure everything points back to Jesus and His finished work. It is just that some dots are a bit harder to connect :-)

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  3. That was very helpful!!

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