Superman had x-ray vision to see into the heart of the matter, or more accurately, through a wall. Too cool.

We may not have been given x-ray vision to see what I like to call The Red Thread in the Old Testament, but we weren’t left without help.

(“The Red Thread” is what I call any clues we find in the Bible of Jesus Christ and/or His finished work on the cross to pay for the sin of the world and restore man back to God.)

First and foremost, Believers have been given the Holy Spirit.

At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit indwells the Believer, not only giving him power, comfort, and encouragement, but also understanding of the Scriptures. (John 14:26)

Unfortunately, it’s not an instant download of knowledge.

God reveals truth through the Holy Spirit to those who are willing to seek for truth.

My mentor always told me, “Jean, God will take you as fast and as far as you want to go.”

God has taught me so much as I’ve studied the Bible, but He hasn’t just revealed it all to me in my heart. I’ve had tremendous help. I think it’s wise to seek wise help.

God reveals truth through gifted Bible scholars who’ve put together effective tools and rules to help us interpret Scripture properly.

I’m not one of them, although I did compile two helpful lists from their hours of research to help us understand the spiritual meaning of numbers, colors and materials in the Bible. (See links at the bottom of the post.)

Before we dive into our study of The Red Thread, though, I think it would be helpful to share some basic understanding of rules to use in interpreting the Bible that I’ve found particularly helpful.

One of the first and most important rules we need to understand is:

1. In the Bible the main things are the plain things,
and the plain things are the main things.

There are details in the Bible that scholars still don’t agree on, or fully understand, but we can — and should — agree on the main things, which are the plain things. This is what I believe they are:

There is a Triune God who created the world and man, but man disobeyed God and thus sin entered the world and is passed down to all mankind.

The penalty for sin is death.

We are all born with sin.

God sent His only Son Jesus Christ into the world to pay for our sin on the cross.

Christ came, lived a sinless life and died on the cross. He was buried and rose again on the third day.

He ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to indwell all who believe in His saving work on the cross.

Salvation comes only through the name of Jesus Christ. Not Jesus Christ plus something else–just Jesus Christ alone. It’s all grace! There is no other way to God.

And one day, Jesus is coming back to judge the world and bring in a new heaven and new earth.

Amen!

I believe those are the main things, the plain things!

Another rule of interpretation is like it, but different:

2. If the literal sense makes sense, seek no other sense,
lest you end up talking nonsense. 

Before we try to read symbolism into the Bible, we should first assume that the Holy Spirit inspired the authors to be literal in their writing.

Yes, I believe the world was created in six literal days–He rested on the 7th.

Anyone who has even a basic understanding of the power of God should not be surprised that He’s more than capable of creating the entire world in just six days.

In fact, I believe He may even have spread it out over six days and for a purpose. I can’t imagine He needed all that time, so it makes sense that He chose that number for a specific reason.

This is just my opinion. I’m not stating it as fact. When the Bible doesn’t state something as fact, we need to be very careful that we don’t.

I think it’s fine to draw conclusions based on truths clearly stated in the Bible, but we must draw these conclusions carefully, and make sure we don’t declare them as facts, but more as ponderings.

This brings me to another important rule:

3. Every Word that God inspired to be written, has a specific purpose—every word, number, color, material, action, event, object, etc. Nothing is random or unnecessary.

In other words, there’s no fluff.

If it’s in the Bible, it has an important purpose–every and, but, & or. Even the order of the words is not random. Knowing this helps shed light onto the truths God is teaching us.

(I’m talking about the original text, of course. And no, the King James Version is not the original. I always laugh when people say they only read the King James since it’s the original.)

PLEASE NOTE that this doesn’t mean that we should read meaning into a word, phrase, or passage that God didn’t place there, though.

AND it also means that we can’t throw anything out or add anything to it trying to make it fit what we want it to say.

Based of this last rule of interpreting the Bible — that every word has a specific purpose — I believe we can even consider the following a good rule of interpretation:

4. Jesus Christ is present in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. 

I believe we see, via prophecies, types, and symbols throughout the whole Bible, that God pointed to Christ from the beginning to the end, strategically weaving Red Thread Clues.  

These Red Thread Clues, as I call them, are one of my favorite features of the Bible because they reveal how perfectly sovereign God is over ALL.

God wove these clues throughout the lives and events of people and nations, continuously lining up everything and everyone perfectly to create pictures of Christ. If He can do ALL that over thousands of years, nothing is impossible for Him. That’s comforting!

Plus this removes any excuse that anyone may have for not recognizing Christ when He came or when He comes again.

In the next post I’ll go into some detail about what prophecies, types, and symbols are exactly, and then we’ll begin our journey into the Old Testament to find them.

Trust me, it’s fun!

Who doesn’t like a good treasure hunt–and one that doesn’t require x-ray vision to see what appears to be hidden.

  

(To print a PDF of the lists I mentioned above click these links and hit print:  Numbers in the Bible & Their Spiritual Meaning and Colors & Materials in the Bible & Their Spiritual Meaning.)

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy my recent post: Black Belts & The Bible Are Not For the Lazy!