This week we were honored to have Dr. Daniel Schwabauer take us on a journey through the Bible, examining the elements of story we so often miss. Over the course of four days and fifteen hours of class, he showed us how the Bible is beautifully crafted with one central theme.
My mind was blown by the hidden meanings within the stories I thought I knew so well. Through his teaching, Dr. Schwabauer showed us how we often read the Bible with a close-minded perspective. In class we learned to consider the importance of every word God has written and to prayerfully search for layers of meaning within each passage. “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (Proverbs 25:2).
For example, In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham and promises to give him a son whose offspring would be as numerous as the stars (v. 5). During this time, forming a covenant with someone meant each party was willing to give their lives to preserve the descendants of the other. In light of this, Genesis 15 adopts an amazing new meaning! God was promising Abraham he would not only multiply his offspring, He would also provide a way for them to be preserved for all eternity. Jesus’ death and resurrection set the people of Israel, and the entire world, free from sin and death, ultimately fulfilling the covenant God had made with Abraham hundreds of years before.
Until Dr. Schwabauer’s class, I never quite realized how God has hidden things in His Word, but now I see that it’s all tied together—the Old and the New Testaments. There is one theme: Jesus.
-Jessica