“There’s a scarlet thread that runs through the entire bible”
I think to myself as I admire the beautiful tapestry hanging on the museum wall.
As I am looking closer the tapestry, an incredible portrait of Jesus Christ
hanging lifeless on a wooden cross, I realize that the threads woven into it
are continuous, that is they run from one end to the other. Although they disappear
for a moment here and there they ultimately emerge to consummate the drops of
blood falling from the Savior’s broken body.
It was later that week, as I was preparing for the 7:00 pm Wednesday
night bible study at the Youth Center, when the Holy Spirit illuminated several
scriptures that constitute a message thread that runs through the entire length
of the bible. I like to think of it as the finger print of the One, True and
Living God who has woven a brilliant scarlet thread into the fabric of the
bible. The bible as a whole is a message from God that has been woven together
by the Holy Spirit through forty authors over a time span of thousands of
years.
The unraveling of this scarlet thread began for me as I was studying
the fifth book of Moses, Deuteronomy chapter ten, verses 12-18.
We see God’s grace and mercy as he
administers justice and defends the fatherless, widow and stranger. We also see
God instructing His people to “circumcise the foreskin of their hearts”, in
other words to soften their hearts by removing the calluses that cover their hearts,
encouraging them to treat others in need with love, grace and compassion. Circumcision no longer just an outward sign
but now becomes a change of heart.
Our scarlet thread disappears out
of sight for a thousand years until it resurfaces as the Lord speaks through
the prophet Jeremiah. "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a
husband to them, says the Lord. But this is
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says
the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach
his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all
shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord.
For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
So, here our scarlet thread reappears in our beautiful tapestry
as a clear picture of the promised Redeemer or Messiah where Jesus Christ begins
to come into focus. This prophecy was not only given but also recorded five
hundred years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Here, clearly, God
promises to make a New Covenant where He will not only take away our iniquity but
also remembers our sin no more.
Finally, our scarlet thread reaches
the end as Jesus Himself, Matthew 26:27-29, proclaims just what this New
Covenant is. "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed
and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take,
eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from
it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for
many for the remission of sins."
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