Episode Transcript
The Beginning and the End of the Bible
The writer of the Hebrew letter tells us that “the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit ...” (4:12). This has certainly been my experience. I was brought up to understand that the Bible was full of legends, myths, inaccuracies, and exaggerations. Over a lifetime of studying the Word of God, I have failed to find these legends and inaccuracies! Instead, I have discovered that the Bible is unique. No word of Shakespeare or Goethe or Dickens has ever brought a human being to a new birth, nor delivered an alcoholic or a drug addict from his or her addiction. Yet, this Word of God, anywhere between 4,000 and 2,000 years old, is as alive, as active and as creative as when it was first given. It still lays open the thoughts and intents of the heart. It does not matter in which way we approach the Bible,
it is remarkable. Sixty-six books with one theme, spanning thousands of years, written through men inspired by the Holy Spirit at different points in time, and coming from different backgrounds and culture: from Job to Paul, from Abraham to John. The basic theme is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus.
The apostle Paul used a phrase which has been already quoted in the first chapter: “according to the eternal purpose which [God] purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The KJV, ERV and ASV all translate it “purposed in Christ.” The RSV translates it “realized in Christ.” The NASB “carried out in Christ.” From this we clearly understand that God’s eternal purpose was secured only in Christ. God purposed and realized that purpose, securing it, in and through Him.
From this we learn our first vital and all-important lesson concerning God’s eternal purpose. It is wholly centered in the person of the Lord Jesus. The only way you and I can be introduced to this purpose of God, and involved in it, is through the Lord Jesus. Apart from Him, God has no eternal purpose. We should also note that this is not in the plural. It is not “purposes.” When it comes to the eternal, God has only one purpose; and that purpose is centered in the Lord Jesus.
We see a three-fold cord that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. It consists of the Redeemer, the Work of Redemption, and the Redeemed. This three-fold cord is indivisible. Wherever we turn in the Word of God, we are confronted by it. This redemption, which cost the Redeemer everything, brings the redeemed back into the eternal purpose of God (see chart ii, also compare chart iv).
We also need to recognize another fact about the Bible. We can divide the Bible into three parts: origins; processes; and issues or outcome. In the book of Genesis, we have origins, the source
of everything. In the book of Revelation, we have the issues or outcome: we see that origin determines destiny. From the book of Exodus to the letter of Jude, we have the processes (see chart iii). Thus, the Bible is not some jumble of sixty-six books, but is an amazing unity, which, once recognized, is stunning in its impact. It becomes clear that it is truly the Word of God.
An Amazing Correspondence
Even more remarkable is the correspondence between the first three chapters of Genesis and the last three chapters of Revelation (see chart iii). The minute and incredible correspondence between these chapters at the beginning and the end of the Bible cannot be coincidence. It reveals a design, and therefore a Designer! God, by His Spirit, is saying something! It is a striking fact that if we take the first two chapters of Genesis and the last two chapters of Revelation, we have the beginning and the end of a purpose: that divine purpose would have been fulfilled without Satan, without sin, and without the Fall. Only in the third chapter of Genesis do we have the record of the entrance of Satan and the fall of man, and only in the twentieth chapter of Revelation do we have the end of Satan and of sin. When this matter first dawned on me, in my late teens, it changed my life. I suddenly saw that something so detailed could only have been planned. It brought me into an understanding of God’s eternal purpose, and saved me, by His grace, from the shallow and the superficial.
The correspondence between the beginning and the end of the Bible is even more astonishing when one realizes that the Apocalypse, or the book of Revelation, did not originally occupy
the last place in the canon of the New Testament. For quite a number of years, it was attached either to the Gospel of John and his three letters, or to the four gospels, or to the book of Acts. Only in the beginning of the fourth century did it occupy the final position in the sixty-six books of the Bible. In the first three chapters of Genesis, we have the creation of heaven and earth; in the last three chapters of Revelation, there is a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. In the first three chapters, paradise is lost; in the last three chapters, paradise is regained. In the first three chapters, Satan enters; in the last three chapters, Satan is cast out forever. In the first three chapters, earth is cursed; in the last three chapters, “no curse anymore.” In the first three chapters, there are two human beings–Adam and Eve; in the last three chapters, they have become a redeemed people that no man can number. In the first three chapters, there is a garden; in the last three chapters, there is a city. Interestingly, the city is a garden city, but it is a city. So first there is a garden, and in the last three chapters, as it were, the garden has become a city. In the first three chapters, there is the tree of life in the midst of the garden; in the last three chapters, there is the tree of life in the midst of the city. In the first three chapters, there is a river whose source is in the garden, and which becomes four great rivers that water the earth; in the last three chapters, we have the river of life, which proceeds out of the throne of God, out of the midst of the city. In the first three chapters, God walks in the midst of the garden, visiting once a day apparently to fellowship with Adam and Eve; in the last three chapters, God is “at home.” He dwells forever in the midst of His city. In the first three chapters, there is an earthly marriage – Adam and Eve. In Genesis chapter two, we are told the whole story of marriage and its institution; in the last three chapters, there is a heavenly marriage between the Lamb and the wife of the Lamb.
An Earthly Union–Adam and Eve: Earthly Marriage
Let us examine more fully this particular correspondence. In Genesis chapter one, we have the facts:
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27
The fact is simply stated: man is male and female, i.e. two kinds of man make up the whole! They cannot subsist without each other (see I Corinthians 11:11, 12). In Genesis 2:18–25, we have the full account of the creation of man and woman. The manner in which the Holy Spirit introduces this account is significant. It begins with the words:
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.
The word “help meet” is interesting. The Hebrew means there was no one who “answered” to him or “corresponded” to him. The Holy Spirit then records that the Lord brought all the animals and birds before Adam for him to name them. I had never read the Bible when I was twelve years of age, and when I first read it, I could not understand why the Lord did not Himself name the animals, since He had created them and therefore understood them. Now I understand: Adam did not realize that he was incomplete, and the Lord, in His own amazing way, was seeking to bring out that essential inner loneliness and incompleteness, which was in Adam. In other words, He was testing Adam as to whether Adam could settle down with one of these creatures. It was as if the Lord was saying, “Can you live with this?” And Adam said, “I will call this an elephant,” and it went on its way; and so with the hippopotamus, and the giraffe, and the lion, and all the others. Even when he named the orangutan, which in Bahasa Malay means “man of the forest,” and which we are told is the nearest of all creatures to the human being, Adam named it and sent it on its way. The fact that the story of the naming of the animals ends with the same statement with which it began, “but for man there was not found a help meet for him,” means that the Lord was underlining this matter of Adam’s incompleteness.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Genesis 2:21–23
When Adam first saw Eve, he saw himself. In the Hebrew, “man” is ish, and “woman” is ishah. The Word of God then records,
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Thousands of years later, by the Holy Spirit the apostle Paul states, “this mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church”. Ephesians 5:32
A Spiritual Union–Christ and His Bride: Eternal Marriage
When the Lord Jesus, as the Second Man, the New Man, and the Last Adam, was crucified, in the darkest part of those hours He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). At the end of those three terrible but glorious hours, with a strong voice He shouted but one word, whether he used Hebrew, or Aramaic, or as recorded in Greek: “Finished.” It means “accomplished, completed, or fulfilled”. In that moment, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, signifying the winning of an eternal salvation, and the making and the sealing by God of a new and eternal covenant with man. In those six hours, the Messiah Jesus had accomplished our salvation.
John, the most meditative and reflective of the twelve apostles, and probably the one with the deepest vision other than the apostle Paul, records that soldiers came to see if Jesus was dead: and one of them pierced His side with a spear, and out of it came blood and water. Then John said, as if this fact was of the utmost importance:
And he who has seen has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. John 19:35 NASB. It is natural for us to believe that this incident is to do with our salvation; but the fact of the matter is simple: Jesus had already won our salvation; and the veil in the temple had already been torn in two to signify that fact.
What then was so significant that John solemnly emphasizes it? It was the fact that the Second man, the New man, had been put to sleep; and, by the blood and water that came out of His side, a bride and a wife had been produced. It was as if the Lord Jesus was saying, “This is ishah, woman, for she was taken out of ish, man. This is bone of My bone and flesh of My flesh. This is Me!” That this is the truth to which John bore witness, is confirmed by what he writes in his first letter, when he states,
This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and the three agree in one. I John 5:6–8
John saw something that happened on the cross after Jesus had won our salvation. What he saw, he understood as going to the very heart of God’s purpose. Through the resurrection life of Christ, and His atoning blood, the Holy Spirit produces the Church as the body of the Lord Jesus. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out and turned one hundred and twenty units of a near perfect but static congregation into one hundred and twenty members of the living body of the Lord Jesus. Livingly joined to the Head, they were to turn Jerusalem upside down, and then Judea and Samaria, and, finally, the Roman Empire!"
"Three Materials out of Which the City is Built
In the first three chapters of the Bible, we have the mysterious but significant mention of three materials: gold, bdellium, and onyx. The only way you can discover these materials is by following the course of the river. They are not immediately apparent, but have to be found, to be mined, or to be discovered. In the last three chapters, there are only three materials out of which the New Jerusalem, the city of God, the bride, the wife of the Lamb, is produced. They are gold, precious stone, and pearl: gold, out of which the whole is created, transparent as crystal; precious stone, which constitutes the wall of the city and its twelve foundations; and twelve huge single pearls, out of which each of the twelve gates is built.
Gold
In the Word of God, gold signifies divine life and nature. Gold in its raw state is found normally in river beds. Generally, it is not apparent to the naked eye: it has to be sifted out of the soil or sand. Only then can the process begin of refining it. The Lord Jesus, speaking to the church in Laodicea about spiritual character, said: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich” (Revelation 3:18). A person with spiritual character is spiritually and eternally rich! The gold, out of which the city of God is produced, is refined beyond any gold that we have ever seen: it is transparent as crystal or glass! This represents something totally of God, given by His grace alone, through the finished work of the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, it is worked in us through deep and often costly experience. The fact that it is refined to a degree which makes it as transparent as crystal, denotes this. We should also note the amount of gold that was used in both the tabernacle and the temple. This gold was a type, or a picture, of the indwelling of Christ in the Church and in the believer.
Once we begin to see this, a whole number of Scriptures take on a deeper meaning for us. For example:
we have this treasure in earthen vessels ... II Corinthians 4:7
for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full ... Colossians 2:9–10
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21
to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory ... Colossians 1:27
Pearl
What is bdellium? The Hebrew is bedolach. It is normally translated as bdellium. This is an aromatic plant which, when broken, exudes a resinous gum that hardens into a yellowish-white color and looks something like a pearl. We are told in the book of Exodus that manna was like frost on the ground, like coriander seed, white in color (see Exodus 16:14, 31). The book of Numbers records: Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. 11:7 NASB
There has been much discussion, both amongst the rabbis and amongst Christian Bible scholars, as to whether this bedolach is a plant or a river pearl. Let me quote one of the great authorities of the past, Gesenius. He states,
Now the modern authorities call it resinous gum from a tree, but I am not at all sure. On the other hand, bdellium is not such a precious natural production as to be mentioned between gold and precious stones and that the land of Havilah should be celebrated for producing it. On this account the opinion of the Jews is not to be rejected which has been learnedly supported by Bogart. The pearls are to be understood, of which a very large quantity are fished up in the Persian Gulf and in India, and with these it would not be unthinkable to compare the grains of manna. Bogart also gives the etymology as from the bedal, an excellent or selected pearl.
Whatever the truth is, we have a mysterious substance that looks very much like pearl, if it is not pearl. My own conviction is that we have here fresh water pearls. In the same manner in which gold and precious stone is not apparent to the naked eye, so we have pearls! One has to follow the course of the river to discover them: the pearls are within clams on the river bed. Furthermore, pearls are produced by a little worthless piece of grit falling into the softest part of the clam. The whole clam is then energized to rid itself of the intruder. It does so by coating the grit many times with a substance which finally forms a precious and costly pearl.
Of what does this speak? It surely signifies the kind of affliction which is given to certain believers and produces, in the end, something of incredible beauty and value. The apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” comes into this category.
These pearls, with their hidden history, are the gates of the city of God. The Word of God states that “each one of the gates was a single pearl” (Revelation 21:21b NASB). Those gates were not produced out of clusters of small pearls, or a few pearls together: they were each one an unbelievably large pearl. That gives us the clue to the hidden history in their creation. Some piece of worthless debris has been coated thousands of times to produce such pearls!
In many ways, gates were the most important part of a city, especially in the ancient world, where the elders sat in the gate for judgment. It was the place for the administration of government and law, and therefore extremely important to the whole life of the city.
Precious stones
If we follow the river, we are told, we shall find onyx stone. The Hebrew is shoham. We have a problem because the Hebrew is translated by the names of a number of different gem stones: for example, chrysophase, beryl, onyx, and, more recently, carnelian. Until recently, onyx has been the favored term. We can state with certainty that, whatever gem stone it was, it was precious or semi-precious stone. In Exodus 28:9–12, it is recorded, And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the six that remain on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones, according to the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be inclosed in settings of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulder pieces of the ephod, to be stones of memorial for the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial.
Now we make a discovery. Whatever the gemstone was, whether onyx, chrysophase, beryl, or carnelian, in one sense, it does not really matter. On each one of the twelve gemstones of the breastplate, one of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel was engraved. The high priest bore the whole people of God on his heart before the Lord. All the meaning of these twelve precious stones was then summed up in the two onyx stones, which were borne one on each shoulder of the high priest. He bore the whole people of God on his shoulders as well as on his heart! Thus the onyx stones represent all precious stones. If we follow the river of life, we find not only gold and pearl, but precious stone.
Precious stone is normally produced by enormous heat and intense pressure in the dark places of the earth. This speaks of the beauties and glories of the Lord Jesus, which He works in those
whom He saves. Isaiah promises: O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set thy stones in fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy pinnacles of rubies ... and all thy border of precious stones. Isaiah 54:11–12
Wood, Hay, and Stubble: A Contrast
The only materials out of which the New Jerusalem, the wife of the Lamb, is created, are gold, precious stone, and pearl. There is no wood, or hay, or stubble.
Many years ago, I was taken by dear friends in the Philippines to see the VIP guesthouse of the Philippines’ government, built by Imelda Marcos and popularly called “The Coconut Palace.” Everything within that beautiful building was made from the coconut palm tree: from the floor to the staircases, from the carpets to the lampshades, from chairs to tables, etc. It was all created from the coconut palm. It was very tasteful, elegant, and beautiful. It was, however, all “wood, hay, and stubble,” like many a church and many a Christian life. There are many “coconut palaces” produced by the flesh, and not the Spirit.
There is no wood, hay, or stubble in the city of God. It is produced, as I have already written, out of only three materials: gold, precious stone, and pearl. They are in an altogether different dimension from that of wood, hay, and stubble! The three former materials all speak of the character, the nature, and the life of the Lord Jesus. They speak of what the Holy Spirit, the Builder of the city of God, the New Jerusalem, has to produce in us. The latter three materials speak of the work of the flesh: sometimes brilliant, creative, energetic, and striking, but corruptible. There is, however, one serious problem; there is a divine veto on wood, hay, and stubble!
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come”
In the first three chapters of the Bible, there is pain, sorrow, and death; in the last three chapters, there are those wonderful words:
and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away. Revelation 21:4
In the first three chapters, time is ushered in; and in the last three chapters, eternity is ushered in.
Then there is one last and marvelous correspondence between the beginning and the end of the Bible. In the first three chapters, we have an extraordinary picture of the Spirit of God. It is recorded: “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). The Hebrew translated in English as “moved” is rachaf. It speaks of a bird of prey hovering, looking for a roosting place, a nest! It even has the idea of “brooding.” When we speak of a “broody” hen, we mean a hen that wants to have chicks. In another place, the same Hebrew word is used:
As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, that fluttereth over her young, He spread abroad his wings, he took them, He bare them on his pinions. Deuteronomy 32:11 “Fluttereth over her young” is the word rachaf, translated in Genesis 1:2 as “hovereth” or “broodeth.” As I have said, this is an extraordinary picture. It has the idea of affection, of love, of bringing new life, and cherishing that new life; of finding and building a dwelling place, a home!
At the beginning of the divine record of creation, it is stated: “the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep ...” (Genesis 1:2). Then we have this picture of the Holy Spirit looking for a resting place, a home. The Holy Spirit, whilst always at work throughout the whole of the Old Testament time, never found that home on earth. In one sense, at least in figure, He found it when, at the dedication of the tabernacle, and later of the temple, the glory of the Lord filled both of them. It was only when the Lord Jesus was born that the Holy Spirit found his home on this earth and that fact was confirmed at His baptism, and the beginning of His Messianic ministry. John the Baptist declared: “I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon him” (John 1:32).
When the Holy Spirit was poured out by the glorified and risen Messiah at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came home to a redeemed people, saved and joined to the Messiah. He came not merely to visit them, or to use them, or even merely to empower them, but to dwell in them permanently! When we come to the last three chapters of the Bible, in the very last chapter, almost the last verses, there are these wonderful words: “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come” (Revelation 22:17a). It is almost as if the Holy Spirit has finally produced what, from the very beginning, God had intended in His heart. It is so simply and beautifully put: “the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” Behind those words are thousands of years of the seeking and the working of the Holy Spirit. Now, there is no more “hovering” and no more “brooding”: the work is done, and the bride is there beside Him to prove that His work is finally accomplished.
