One Coherent Story. The Bible is one coherent story with the Christ of God as the hero. God’s hero does what all true heroes do–he endures immense sufferings, trials, betrayals, and evils. Here’s what I mean.

Today I was again reading the last 15 chapters of Genesis. The main character is Joseph in these chapters. Joseph was one of the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel. He was also Jacob’s/Israel’s favorite: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons . . .” (Gen 37:3, ESV).

But here’s what I mean about the Bible being one coherent story and what I mean about Joseph being a foreshadowing of Jesus, the Christ of God.

Here are several ways Joseph is a forerunner and foreshadowing of Jesus, the Christ of God:

1. He is the seeker of rebels: “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock” (Gen 37:16, ESV).
2. He was conspired against by those who should have loved him: “They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him” (Gen 37:18, ESV).
3. He was cast down into the pit: “Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits” (Gen 37:20, ESV).
4. He was publicly stripped of his clothing: “So when Joseph came to his brother, they stripped him of his robe . . .” (Gen 37:23, ESV).
5. He was sold for shekels: “And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver” (Gen 37:28, ESV).
6. A goat/lamb was slaughtered and blood applied to a robe as a picture of sacrifice: “Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood” (Gen 37:31, ESV).

Anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear and has read the New Testament, or at least the gospels, should grapple with these foreshadowings of the Christ of God, and marvel at the Bible’s coherence. It is one coherent story wherein every detail is significant because it is crucial to the whole.

Encouragement/takeaway: God is a God of details. He knows the fine print of every atom. Why? Because it’s his world. He made it. He knows our every thought, our every prayer, our every song, our every tear, our every everything. If you feel persecuted today by the machinations of schemers, be encouraged. Why? Just because of some silly psychological pep-talk? No. But because God knows all. Because God is good. Because God ordained Joseph’s sufferings as part of his education in what it means to be God’s man rather than a man who is in love with the applause of sinners. Seek to please the Lord, because it is to the Lord we will all answer. It is all part of God’s one coherent story of redeeming sinners for his glory and our good.

Bottom line up front: In a fallen world where sinful men betray one another, God still keeps his covenantal promises.

Historical context: Genesis 25 is a truly awesome chapter in redemptive history. Why? We see the outworking of the covenantal faithfulness of God to the patriarch Abraham.

How? God had promised Abraham that God would use Abraham to bless the world. In fact, the blessing would be comparable to the amounts of stars in the night sky and sand upon the shores of the world’s seas (Gen 22:17).

Through whom? The son of promise. God promised Abraham, “But I will establish my covenant with Isaac” (Gen 17:21). It is important to remember that Abraham had multiple sons. There were many: Ishmael, Simram, Joshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah (Gen 25:1). But Isaac was the son in the immediate through whom God’s covenant faithfulness would lead to the fulfillment: Christ.

And in Genesis 25:5 we read this amazing line: “Abraham gave all he had to Isaac.” See it? The gives all things to the son he loves. Sound familiar? It should. Why? Because it is the foreshadowing of God the Father giving all things to his beloved Son (Mt 28:18).

Paul makes it even more explicit:

¹⁵ To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. ¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. ¹⁷ This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. (Gal 3:15-18, ESV)

Encouragement/takeaway: All of Scripture coheres. Why? It reveals one inextricable story of God’s plan of redemption. When you read Scripture, you are given an insight into the greatest true story ever told because it reveals what God has done and is doing to redeem a people for himself. And this story is full of the covenant faithfulness of the unchanging and trustworthy God.

Bottom line up front: Our plans are never so wise as we fancy them; the Lord’s plans are best, and if we are wise, we will follow them.

Example: Tonight I was in one of my favorite passages of Scripture, Genesis 24. It’s the story of Isaac and Rebekah. But it is much more than a love story. It is the story of the providence and faithfulness of God to those who trust him. Here’s what I mean.

Abraham had been a man called out of Ur (present-day Iraq) to believe the only true and living God, and Abraham believed God, and God counted his faith in the word of God as righteousness: “And he [Abram] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6, ESV). In short, justification came to Abram as it does to all–by grace alone, through faith alone, in God alone.

Abraham’s wife (Sarah) died later on, and Abraham (believing the covenantal promises of God) wanted the Lord to provide a wife for his son, Isaac. So Abraham sends his servant to discover the right woman for Isaac, back to Abraham’s home territory to find the right woman the Lord will provide. And the unfolding events are beautiful. Just let sink in the depth of the words of Abraham’s servant as he seeks to honor his master and the God of Abraham:

¹⁴ Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”

¹⁵ Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder. ¹⁶ The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. ¹⁷ Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jar.” ¹⁸ She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” ²⁰ So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels. (Gen 24:14-20, ESV)

Knowing that God was keeping his covenantal promise, verse 27 of Genesis 24 is absolutely beautiful: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.”

Encouragement/takeaway: We often have many plans in our heart/core, but it’s the Lord who is sovereign. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Pr 16:33, ESV). That should be the Christian’s great conviction and comfort. The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves.

Bottom Line Up Front: Confidence in command.

Over the recent past I have been teaching through Matthew’s gospel, and we are all currently in Matthew 14 where Christ is told of the beheading of John the Baptist. Then, Christ teaches Peter and others about the proper locus of the Christian’s trust. Christ fed the 5,000, plus women and children, after multiplying the five loaves and two fish. And he did it to such a degree that 12 baskets full were left over (Mt 14:20). The point of course was that God is the sovereign provider. Men will let us down. We have been disappointed by others, and we have likely disappointed others ourselves.

Then you come to one of the most dramatic episodes in the NT wherein Peter, often more impulsive than wise, sees Christ walking on the surface of the Sea of Galilee/Lake Gennesaret, and he pleads with Christ, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Mt 14:26). At first Peter, too, walked on the water, just so long as he kept his focus upon Christ. But you know the story, right? He began focusing on the wind and the whitecaps of waves, and found himself crying out to Christ, “Lord, save me” (Mt 14:30).

Christ did just that: he saved Peter from drowning, in several senses of that word. And the result of those others in the boats that witnessed all of it: “And those in the boats worshiped him [Christ], saying, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Mt 14:33).

Encouragement/takeaway: Peter learned to trust the One who was and is wholly in command, and who is not only in command but is also truly good. Peter had his confidence in command bolstered but through trials. Lord, increase our faith in You.

All eyes were on New Orleans. Many eyes, anyway. College football is one of America’s golden calves, and the 91st Sugar Bowl between UGA and Notre Dame had to be rescheduled due to the Islamic terrorist attack that has so far resulted in the murders of nearly 20 people and injuries of scores more. The investigations, as the saying goes, are ongoing.

Questions: How does any reasonable person believe that murdering people by driving a Ford truck, outfitted with ISIS flags, into crowds of civilians, is evangelism? How is this reasonable? Well, it isn’t, of course. It is evil. But what one cannot say, however, is that Islamists like this man don’t make their theology visible.

What the world will always have to grapple with is this: worldview is destiny. People’s theology is always evidenced by behavior. Belief is known by behavior. We reveal our theology; it invariably is made visible.

In Christianity alone, peace comes because God himself in the second person of the Trinity (Christ the Son) is our peace. Christ made peace by the cross:

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 ESV).

It’s the work of God in Christ, you see: “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20 ESV).

So long as men demand violence by sacrficing their sons on altars of human sin, rivers of blood will continue. When men repent and believe upon the Lord Christ and his cross, their hearts will be made new, and then they will begin to understand shalom/peace.

Terror in the Big Easy. Current reports claim at least 15 people have been murdered and dozens more are injured. We seldom hear and/or know how to grapple with the spiritual and emotional trauma that accompanies such events, but that trauma exists.

Who knows if we will ever know the truth about the perpetrator(s)? llegal(s) or U.S. citizen(s)? His and/or their (in case there’s a network at play) religion? The worldview undergirding the murders?

Connection: Today when I returned to my work location, I was reading in the Pentateuch. Moses penned this about man’s fallenness:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart (Gen 6:5-6 ESV).

It’s easy to rip verses out of context, so let us not do that. At its most fundamental level, what God is teaching here is that human depravity is real and universal. It is what’s known in theology as total depravity. A few of the scores of passages that teach it follow. Well, for the sake of brevity, just consider Romans 3:10-18 . . .

¹⁰ as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
¹³ “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
¹⁴     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶     in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom 3:10-18 ESV)

Questions: How might atheism answer this? Ah, it’s just matter in motion. Random molecules bumping into other molecules. Nothing to see here but matter in motion. Stop all your whining.

How might Critical Race Theory and the Wokesters answer this? The perpetrator(s) was/were ‘oppressed.’ Who’s to blame? Invariably, those answers will be whites, the patriarchy, America, the West, Christianity, and the privileged. This drivel is as predictable as cold in winter and heat in summer.

How does Christianity answer this? Man is a rebel against the holy. Unless and until he is regenerated by the sovereign power of God, it’s a world of Cains rather than Abels. But thanks be to God, whose message is to go to all,

Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. (Hb 3:15 ESV)

Over Christmas holidays, loved ones either gave me books or means of purchasing books, and I’m grateful.

Below are 12 volumes from my “To Read (or reread) in 2025” list (in no particular order):

1. Percival Everett’s James
2. Francis Bacon’s Essays of Francis Bacon
3. D.A. Carson’s & David Dockery’s What Does It Mean to Be a Thoughful Christian?
4. Sears’ Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam
5. Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio
6. Edward Abbey’s Good News: A Novel
7. Lethem’s Chronic City
8. Cowart’s Don DeLillo: The Physics of Language
9. McCarthy’s Suttree
10. Horton’s Recovering Our Sanity
11. O’Brien’s The Country Girls
12. Bellow’s Seize the Day

*There are other volumes, of course, but these made my, “Yep, this will happen!” list.

I was having a discussion recently about Cain, about his hard heart, about his murder of his brother (Abel), about his (Cain’s) punishment, and about his (Cain’s) mark. The passage is found in Genesis 4.

Two types: Shepherd/herdsman (Abel) & Farmer/worker of the soil

“Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground” (Gen 4:2, ESV).

Fratricide/murder of a brother:

³ In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴ and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵ but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶ The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸ Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. ¹¹ And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” ¹³ Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴ Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” ¹⁵ Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. ¹⁶ Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Gen 4:3-16 ESV)

Questions we could ask: 1) Why did God have regard for Abel’s offering? 2) Why did God not have regard for Cain’s offering? 3) Is the firstborn of Abel’s flock more valuable vis-a-vis devotion to God? 4) Why was Cain “very angry” (Gen 4:5b) when God asks him in verse 7, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”

It seems that Cain had a heart that was hostile to God’s rule. In modern parlance, we might term Cain the classic case of hardheartedness. He’s a rebel against God, and he’s a rebel against his brother. He is a case of moral defiance. He makes his theology visible by way of his sullenness towards God and his violence towards man.

Yet we see God still act with grace and mercy towards the murderer Cain. God marks him:

“If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” (Gen 4:15-16 ESV)

Encouragement/takeaway: I think it is quite easy to distance ourselves from Cain too quickly. We may be tempted to overestimate our goodness. We may be tempted to think we’d never be like Cain; we’d of course be “the good guy” (Abel). But is that true? How many of us have resented others? How many of us have hated our brother in our heart? How many of us have sulked before God, going, “Why, Lord?” I won’t speak for others, because I’m guilty of all of the aforementioned. And yet God was gracious and merciful to Cain. He preserved him for a season. We are debtors–great debtors–to God’s mercy.

It is a trope, really, that as we age, time seems to pass more quickly. That has certainly been my experience. As I have taken a few days off from work, I have some time to reflect upon this past year and other matters. A few musings follow:

1. We are thrilled at our daughter’s wedding coming soon. I think CJ and I are at least as excited–probably more–than our daughter. We already view her soon-to-be hubs as our son, and so … let’s do this.
2. Bring on the grandbabies! We long to be wonderful grandparents. My bride and I had stellar grandparents. Their imprints upon our lives remain upon us, and we talk of our grandparents still. I know of few people who influenced us both as powerfully as our wonderful grandparents. And we long to pay that track record of godly loving wise care on to our own grandchildren.
3. I was able to serve another year in military ministry and serve on a mission field that I love. The military is formidably secular, and so I am ever grateful that the Lord has sustained me on a field where I can try to break through the empty walls of secularism and try to reach fellow soldiers with the truth of redemption that is found in Christ alone and the saving gospel.
4. I was able to watch our son continue to pursue his passion for music and continue to develop. Our family is steeped in music, and I think our boy may make his mark in the musical world.
5. My family and I continue to be blessed by way of our Sunday school class and what the Lord has done in and through them. I have been in ministry a great many years now, and there is nothing quite like the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ, and being able to be a small part of God’s work upon a flock of God that you love.
6. I was able to baptize another soldier after he graduated from Ranger school. I have a special affection for him because he is among the most remarkable young men I have ever had the opportunity to serve in military ministry. He is physically strong, intellectually strong, but most of all, he is a man who is spiritually strong, and I think he will continue to make his mark upon soldiers and civilians because of the plans God has for him.
7. I was able to baptize a couple from our Sunday school class, too, at our church. I continue to see God grip people and call them to obedience to his revealed will. Friendships are formed; roots grow deeper; and the truth spreads, just as God says it will.
8. I was able to read and/or re-read scores of books this year while on my travels. Among my favorites were Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (again), several biographies of Spurgeon, lots of church history volumes by Robert Godfrey, John Frame, and Tom Nettles, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Franzen’s books, more Dickens (I never tire of Dickens’ works); Shakespeare’s plays, The Master and Margarita, Gettysburg, and more.
9. We lost our old German shepherd Brewster after his many years with us. He lived a long, long life. I have had dogs my entire life. I do not remember ever not having dogs. And I have loved every one of them, but Brewster, old buddy, you had a piece of my heart that I cannot put into words. We hiked many a mile together, and you chased many deer, and you were as loyal and faithful as one could ever long for, and I love and miss you at a visceral level. Thank you for your love.
10. I would be remiss were I not to pay homage to the one who allows me to do what I love, and somehow keeps us all on the straight path–my Carrie Jane. For any successes I may have, I do not think they would happen unless she were right there with me. She prays for me; she loves me despite all my sins and shortfalls; she endures much separation from me due to my career in the military; and yet she pulls it all off like a champ.

I could go on with the list, of course, but 10 seems like a good place to stop for now. Bring on 2025. Merry Christmas.

This morning when I came downstairs, CJ was in her chair and was finishing her read-through this year of the Scriptures again. She uses the chronological plan, too, and loves it. Why? Because it is the sequential revelation of what God is doing through redemptive history. Anyway, here is the story:

“May I read this aloud to you? It’s Revelation 19 till the end,” she asked.

“Of course,” I said. I love few things as much as reading, and I love it when my wife reads aloud to me. We invariably have deep discussions after the readings.

She began reading. I listened and followed along in one of my own Bibles. In Revelation 19, I listened as she read of the rejoicing in heaven and of the marriage supper of the Lamb. (The apostle John’s education at the feet of Christ is literary pathos and majesty unlike anything else in Scripture.)

Then she got to Revelation 20 and the apocalyptic language of the 1,000 years, and the judgments at the great white throne. Then she read Revelation 21 about the new heaven and new earth, and finally Revelation 22, and of Christ’s final words to John, about how the consummate story concludes and of how we are to press on, looking to God’s revealed Word, knowing that Christ knows all, and the scrolls will be opened ultimately, and how all hinges upon what we do when confronted with the truth.

After she finished reading, we talked about weighty concepts and views of the millennium, of Babylon, of the New Jerusalem, of how many read but do not understand, of biblical shepherds versus hirelings, of the trustworthiness of Scripture, and on and on.

CJ and I have been a team for decades. But there are few things I love about her as much as when I am able to come home from my career in the military, find her in her chair when I come downstairs in the morning after a night’s sleep, her worn Bible on her lap, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (Lady) beside her, her black marble eyes shining as I approach them both, and we can read Scripture together and dialogue about ultimate things.